The Up and Coming Voices of Democracy at the BSB

BSB’s young adults have constantly expressed enthusiasm in improving the way we learn. By establishing a student-led and elected council, our peers can strive to ensure a better atmosphere for our voices to grow. For an insight into the strong dedication and pursuit of enacting change, ‘The Monthly’ interviewed several middle and upper school prefects in the Senior School: the rising stars of the next generation. Ali Al Haddad, a middle school prefect explained his reason for joining the student council with utmost care for his classmates, revealing that he wanted to “make everyone feel comfortable”. He elaborated on his wishes to provide all students with the opportunity to improve their learning environment through engagement, even if they prefer to take a quieter approach. Yasmeen Ahmed, our head of school prefect chimed in with her interests of learning experiences of younger students that she coached, and wanting to project their ideas into existence. But perhaps Hafeth Al Aswadi, an upper school prefect, perfectly captured the essence behind the importance of participation in the Student Council by confessing his main motivation: “to serve our community”. Sounds like the makings of future leaders to us.

Aside from compassion, a lot of hard work is also being poured into developing BSB into the model example of education. Leenah Asim, head prefect, revealed her intention to maximise student interaction through inclusive activities and student-run clubs. Middle School prefect Danish Khan proposed combined PE classes, with remote and online students collaborating together. Ali Haddad detailed his plan of introducing ‘sample days’, where Year 9’s may experience full days of GCSE lessons to aid their difficult choices. The Year 13’s conveyed the importance of the newly introduced Feedback Forms, created to allow students from sending in all queries and valuable advice. Marvelous ideas are consistently flowing from the great minds at BSB. Whether you’ve spent 10 months or 10 years walking along this campus, the door is eternally open and inviting. The teams behind each poster on the bulletin board perform to guarantee that your great ideas see fruition. As Loobdhak Argho, head prefect, graciously put it: “I don't think, as head prefects we can pause and say that we are done, and we have done enough. We will always keep working..”

From Greta Thunberg’s advocacy on climate change to Ema González’s espousal of preventing gun violence, some of the most influential movements come from the young people of the world. It’s evident that here at BSB we’ve got quite the group of young individuals showing the promise of tomorrow. When asked what their main goal as a head prefect would be, and what specific actions they would take to ensure this change, Alexandria Baillie expressed with much dignity that “ My main goal is to be approachable to the year 7s, 8s and 9s; if they need any help, I want to be able to help them and try to turn their ideas into reality.” It’s these compassionate and supportive individuals that make it easier on each and every student that they help. In addition, Natasha Rashid, a middle school prefect, discussed how she wants to address any potential technical difficulties that come as an inevitable result of blended learning. Natasha mentioned that “The cross communication between the two [online and in school] isn’t very good, so I want to help improve the system so that students online and in school can feel that they can work comfortably.” It is once again both inspiring and comforting to know that the Middle School has such capable student representation.

Whilst our student leadership is always going above and beyond, their roles and responsibilities do not come without an element of challenge. One of the most prominent features that defines a good democratic leader is not whether they can prevent hardships completely - this is arguably impossible - but how they deal with the challenges that come their way. Leenah Asim commented on what it’s like taking on ultimate responsibility as a year 13 prefect saying that “ I think I'm speaking for everyone when I say, it’s not like how we expected especially with COVID, we had all these ideas and motivation, but with such limited opportunities, it became very hard.” It has become apparent that the student leadership have had to make personal adjustments when it comes to this unprecedented situation that we’re in, but have done remarkably well taking on all of the uncertainty in their stead. In the wise words of John F. Kennedy “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”

Charlotte Rodney, 12E

Manaal Khan, 11B

Aditya Arun, 13E

Shamayel Qureshi, 12F