Were you a school prefect?

Not a prefect, but a monitor. But not for long! My duty was to be around in one of the entrances to lower school and monitor the comings and going’s of children coming in to use the facilities. My younger sister and her “gang “ used to come in and refuse to leave. This was noticed and I was demoted. I was so happy to get back to spending my lunch time in the library!

I was an insubordinate child.

They never made me a prefect until I got a university place.

I was prefect, head girl and sports captain (voted for) despite the fact I didn't particularly like sport but I was good at organising people and we won the majority of track and field events!

Never held “ an office” at school, although I was always near the top of the class At my grammar school the prefects were always chosen from those good at sport - I hated sports and tried to hide in the changing room to avoid going out on the playing field. It wasnt until I was in my thirties that I discovered sports I liked - squash, badminton, jogging and aerobics. I learned to swim at the age of 60 and now in my 70’s I still love swimming and walking. I have no regrets about my lack of sporting ability when young or the fact I didn’t get a prefects badge

l moved a lot as a child but ended up at a lovely girls grammar school for A levels having been at some rough schools. As the school had expanded it bought up houses and these ended up as studies for sixth formers. l was so lucky to be in a room with 5 others and were really friendly and welcoming. We had such fun and l loved the sport. l was average academically. l remember the English teacher enquiring if l had been educated in America because my spelling was so odd. Anyway come upper sixth l was chosen as one of the three head girls. We three were given silver badges depicting a phoenix rising from the flames ( school badge ). It really was a piece of jewellery which l still have. All went well and three of us kept in touched after we went our separate ways. When l was about 40 l decided to attend a reunion. It was great to see people and how they had changed. It was only marred by a girl who was in my year but another house and was quite sarcastic so l avoided her. She came up to me and immediately launched into how l had been chosen as a head girl when l had only been at the school for the sixth form. l was shocked that someone could harbour such hate after all those years. My sister went to the same school ( 8 years younger than me ) and for the record hated it

I had no interest in sport but by fluke played well in the first netball and hockey lessons in the first year at grammar school, based on that I was made games captain. I somehow got out of tennis, athletics and gym, to busy being games captain I think.

As I had no interest the deputy games captain did all the work and the teams did well ,I remained captain until I left and chose the same deputy, she did not want to be captain but I still feel bad about being such a fraud.

Lots of interesting comments.
Yes I was a prefect and later head girl. I was academic and always did well with examinations, but definitely not Sporty -- couldn't stand it in fact; out in the cold/all weathers in knickers and vests with dirty old men learing over the fences - YUK.
I was reared by grandparents [not posh or well off] but I did speak well and was always polite to elders [no matter what]
Maybe that was the difference!

WendyBT

Hah prefects!! A girl at my girl's school was inclined to be a handful but was very popular with her peers and was voted to be Head Girl. It didn't happen, thanks to intervention by staff.

Roll on a few years and said girl - now a head teacher at a primary school laughed her head off at her wayward youth and said as a poacher turned gamekeeper that she knows all the tricks and no-one gets past her.

Head girl at my school was hardly every to be seen, she was receiving extra “tuition” with the science master!.
Fast forward 10 yrs, my kids went to the same primary school I got an invite to her swapping party - no thanks.

I was a prefect at primary school but at secondary school my behaviour took a downturn! In my third year I held the record for detentions, though being at a girl's grammar school it wasn't actually many. I wasn't a goody goody even at primary school, being described in one school report as a 'Likeable rogue'! I was naughty but not nasty!

Some of my detentions were very unfairly given as my form tutor was a neighbour, to whom my mother, a teacher at another school, said "If she misbehaves don't hold back. We won't be round to complain if she is punished!" As a result I was given detentions for trivial things and often took the blame for things others were also involved in but got away with! My mother would never accept that I was not the only one at fault when I was the only one punished. Sadly the teacher in question could not control his classes even in the environment that existed in the 1960s. He certainly wouldn't have survived in todays schools, or even a more challenging one back then!

To be honest I feel sorry for the guy. He can't have been very happy in his work. By the time I was a sixth former the school had stopped selecting prefects, and all sixth formers had prefect priviledges, being able to give discipline to younger pupils in the form of order marks, 3 of these resulted in a detention. None of the schools I've worked in had a prefect system, though most had 'Head girls and Head boys'. At my children's school there was a system of awarding a 'Senior Pupil Tie' to the well behaved among year 11s. My DD got one but DS didn't. I think his behaviour genes came from me while DD got more from her dad who was a school swot!

I was a prefect in my Junior School. My teacher told me I was chosen because I was tall and had a loud voice, neither of which benefitted me during my term of office.

But, sadly, I was hated. I had transferred from another district when we moved house four years previously, but had never been truly accepted. Those that tried to make friends with me were ridiculed by others so evaporated away. A lonely time.

Hah prefects!! A girl at my girl's school was inclined to be a handful but was very popular with her peers and was voted to be Head Girl. It didn't happen, thanks to intervention by staff.

Roll on a few years and said girl - now a head teacher at a primary school laughed her head off at her wayward youth and said as a poacher turned gamekeeper that she knows all the tricks and no-one gets past her.

Well done you! I was expelled at 15 from grammar school- one of the best day of my life. Went on to university late 20’s

Yes, I was a prefect in my final year of what was a very old fashioned Grammar School. I was always exceptionally average at most academic subjects, not at all religious in a Cathedral school and perhaps only slightly more than average at some sports. I think that the only reason I was selected for the role was that I used to go to and from school on the school bus, and as I was the only one who lived right at the end of the route, I was on it from start to finish, and a prefect was needed for the whole journey, so I guess I gained the role by default. As far as I can see, the only benefit I gained was that I got to keep any cigarettes that I confiscated, as the culprit could hardly report my keeping them to a teacher.... :-)

At school we used to call them 'perfects'😂

No, but my ex-husband was.🤣

This made me smile - I was never a prefect, couldn't have thought of anything worse at the time as I really disliked secondary school and wasn't in the least bit interested in 'conforming'. To this day, if I meet a 'certain type' of adult, ie a goody-two-shoes, I always say to myself "bet he/she was a prefect at school"!

(No offence to those on here who were prefects, I'm sure you're all lovely!)

No, I was the wrong sort of pupil and my face didn't fit & I loathed sport! Plus I'd have been far too bossy! DD was a senior prefect & a head of house - right temperament, sunny personality, a gentle "get things done" person & sporty to boot. I did wonder if she was really my child!! But I was very proud.

I was a 'council house' girl, who wore hand knitted school jumpers and home made skirts (though both were beautifully made by my clever mum) Certainly no extra money in our household, dad was a painter and decorator and mum a school cleaner.
I was a school prefect, Head of House and Games captain.
I also took the lead role in our school play in the upper sixth.

I think everything was a matter of attitude, certainly not monied background or exceptional academic ability---I failed my A levels, though had already been accepted at the best PE college in the country.

Nope! Never a prefect but I wasn't bothered and perhaps that was one reason. I was sporty but never bothered about being on teams representing the school. In upper sixth our head girl was chosen simply because she was doing A level Latin and Greek, the only person ever to choose those subjects, I reckon! She certainly had no particular personality. She wasn't outgoing, she was short and dumpy, not startlingly beautiful or of an assertive nature. I think she applied to Oxford/Cambridge and that would've clinched it.

Looking at the students who were made prefects in our school they were all sporty, nicely turned out and very polite and conformist in their behaviour and attitudes. Apart from one, none were particularly academic or put themselves forward to represent the house. They were probably the kind of all-rounder non controversial role models that the school wanted.

The odd thing is that years later one of my bosses met my old headmaster and passed on my good wishes. Apparently he (the headmaster) remembered me at once and was very moved that I had told the big boss that the headmaster had "been ahead of his time and made a difference" in my life".

Do you mean elocution?

I went to a convent school where, unless you were RC and I wasn’t, you were never made a House captain, prefect, head girl or anything else of note!
It was discrimination from day one to the day you left. You were considered a lesser individual ripe for conversion….

My form teacher made me a prefect but the teacher who handed out prefect duties didn't like me. Therefore I didn't exist! After a while I decided that standing at the gate catching latecomers wasn't for me anyway. I stopped wearing my badge.

No, I wasn’t allowed as “ too much attitude “

Yes I was a prefect. My form teacher chose me because she thought it would give me confidence. I was very quiet at school.
Neither of my two children were chosen to be Ambassadors, as prefects were known at their school. My daughter was very disappointed. I thought there needed to be a fairer system of choosing them, such as pulling names, of all those who wanted to be one, out of a hat.