How do you save yourself time without dropping standards…
So once you've chosen the right subject prefects, how do you get the most out of them?
Start by announcing them to your A Level Classes... drum up lots of congratulations, and make the hierarchy clear to all. The sense of 'importance' is powerful for motivating them to do the job well. Being selected as a subject prefect is supposed to be an honour, but for too long it's been seen as work with little reward. It's a big thing - treat it as such.
Ensuring Commitment
Your chosen prefects have probably never worked a 'professional' job before and so will need some 'safety measures' in place to keep them on track.
Having clear purpose and routines will sustain motivation. Prefects need to feel like they are part of a team and that they are building something with you... and not just your 'dogsbody' so you can go and have a cup of tea.
Yes, they are there to help with admin and so on, but this is so the department will run more smoothly and this will have a positive impact on students' learning. They are working to improve your department, not to improve your socialising time (although this is a nice, little bonus!)
For added clout, we ask our subject prefects to sign a 'contract of employment' (similar to a watered down job contract). We have one saved as a template and so can ”rinse and repeat" each year.
This contract has their 'Job Description' and reasons for “termination”. It's important for prefects to understand that their role is 'conditional' on their attitude and competency, and they aren't entitled to it as part of their UCAS or future employment applications.
The Job
During the application process, applicants are given the 'Job Description' for the prefect positions and so, from the beginning, they have a good idea of what is expected of them. We expect A LOT from our prefects, but we feel we give them a lot in return.
Working Hours
Once the prefect team has been selected, we ask for an initial meeting. Here, we ask them to write into their calendars the dates of all important events, such as Open Evenings (where their attendance is expected), and to create a timetable where they are expected to donate 1-2 hours of their time per week.
They must agree on the same amount of donated time (to avoid squabbles later on) and they have to 'pepper' donated time across the school timetable. You don't want to end up with it all on a Friday afternoon. Jobs can come in 'thick and fast' so you need their donated time spread across the week. You also need a 'To Do List’.
The 'To Do List’
Prefects are self-motivated if they know what they need to do. We create a 'To Do List’ which all members of the department and subject prefects can access from their phones and laptops. Platforms such as Microsoft 365 or Google Classrooms can make the sharing and editing of documents from multiple people easy.
Staff members and the Head Subject Prefect can add jobs to the list (often admin tasks e.g. displays, cutting up resources, counting piles of booklets, tidying classrooms etc.) and this can save my team hours of admin work each week, but we still get the jobs done.
I like my 'To Do List’ to be an Excel spreadsheet because it's easy to filter and keep tabs on which prefects are ”pulling their weight“. Our columns are: task, required resources, set date, deadline, completed by, assigned by and so on. However, you can design it with your own requirements in mind.
The Head Subject Prefect assigns tasks to their prefect team and checks they are completing them each week. If it's a busy week and I need more prefect help, I contact the Head Subject Prefect who 'rallies the troops'... it saves me so much time!
Open Evenings
I used to hate Open Evenings, but I love them now. The Prefect team make the function so much better and take the stress away from my department. Like my school, you probably have a room for your subject in which different tables are laid out with resources to show prospective students and parents. The evening can go through phases of graveyard silence to overwhelmingly busy. During those silent moments, the prefects provide entertainment and they take the heat away from you when there are too many parents to chat with in one given moment.
We assign roles for our prefects. Some are 'welcomers' at the door and move parents and students to empty parts of the room to keep everyone flowing, whilst other prefects are 'explainers' and station themselves by a particular table or activity.
This works beautifully. For starters, everyone is greeted and secondly the prefects become 'experts' for their stationed areas and provide quality information for parents and students. Last year our prefects even become competitive and wanted to give the best 'pitch' to those who walked through the door. This was well received by visitors.
The best bit: you can stand back, smile and watch it all happen... and you can save yourself from having to say the same spiel over and over again!
Student as Teacher
As well as admin chores, subject prefects can be really helpful in the classroom. We ask ours to help out with classes in a Teaching Assistant capacity. They help with behaviour management, task facilitating, small group work and so on.
Equally, they can be helpful with certain types of marking e.g. KS3 'tick and flick' tests, or stamping books for presentation... just make sure you don't give them anything too close to their own Year group! You could even anonymise scripts and let them have a go at marking them - sensible parameters permitting!
Student feedback
Subject prefects are your conduit to your classes. I often 'touch base' with mine to see how their A Level class is feeling. Many times this has helped me to resolve problems before they become problems.
We make it clear to our classes that the prefects are their 'defacto' reps and sometimes they come to us when they feel there is a problem brewing that needs resolving. Again, this saves me time in not having to respond to parental emails where both student and parent have misconstrued a situation or decision.
On an end note, they also bring good ideas to the table and several times we have adapted our practice based on their suggestions. This has only made for a stronger relationship.
So what’s the conclusion?
I am blown away by how much better my team's working life is because of how we utilise our subject prefects. They are so efficient that I don't even think my team realise how much the subject prefects do for them behind the scenes. It does take some work to set them up and select the right ones, but once you have, they really will save you time and help you raise standards, too.
So there you have it, a strong methodology for getting the most out of your subject prefects. Check out the sister blog 'Classroom Leadership: how to effectively choose school prefects for your subject area' for tips on how to select the right candidates for the job.
For more useful ideas, check out our blogs on leadership and engagement.
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