St Mary’s Catholic School Foxton pupils become principals for a day

St Mary’s Catholic School Foxton pupils Billy Leadbetter, 11, Kyla Perez, 10 and Mikaylah Wright, 11, enjoy a cup of tea while on break from their principal duties.

It’s not every day the student becomes the master, but it was certainly the case for three St Mary’s Catholic School Foxton pupils on Friday.

Last week year six pupils Billy Leadbetter, 11, Kyla Perez, 10 and Mikaylah Wright, 11, spent the day as principals. The day started with them dressing up, said Billy.

“We wore our best principal-type clothes and then had a photoshoot. We worked with our real principal to put the photos on Facebook to show people what we were up to.”

Mikaylah said she enjoyed dressing up for the day.

“It was really fun.”

St Mary’s Catholic School Foxton pupils Kyla Perez, 10, and Billy Leadbetter, 11 jot down some notes while Mikaylah Wright, 11, reads up on principals.

It wasn’t just photo shoots on the day, with real work to be done as well, said Kyla.

“We hosted our school assembly. We wrote a script and then did the whole thing. We also helped the teachers present the value, sports and good work certificates. That was a lot of fun.”

Billy said while they had fun, the trio were also under no illusion as to what a school principal’s work load was really like.

“I know they do a lot more work than photoshoots and assemblies. What we did wasn’t a lot of work and we know principals do so much more.”

St Mary’s Catholic School Foxton pupils Billy Leadbetter, 11, Kyla Perez, 10, Mikaylah Wright, 11, and school principal Phil Gunn.

Principal Phil Gunn said it was great to have the pupils involved in principal duties.

“We’re a year zero to eight full primary school and these three pupils are our year six students. On Fridays, the year seven and eight pupils go to technology at the local college. These guys will be our official leaders in a couple of years so this was the opportunity to have that leadership in their way. They enjoyed it and it was suited to their talents.”

Billy Leadbetter, 11, Kyla Perez, 10 and Mikaylah Wright, 11, with the certificates they handed out at the school assembly.

He said the pupils put 100% effort into being principals.

“They worked so hard on the script for assembly. Usually, the assembly is done by me and a couple of other teachers but these three did the whole thing themselves.”

St Mary’s Catholic School Foxton pupils Mikaylah Wright, 11, Kyla Perez, 10, and Billy Leadbetter, 11 were principals for the day.

Gunn said it was great to have three extra principals at the school.

“It’s been a hit and a lot of the other students want to do it as well. It’s all in good fun and is a great way to teach our pupils valuable leadership skills.”