New Games Captains are ‘Handed Over’ their Role by Sindy Elezkurtaj, Woodford County High School

The school will continue to benefit from having bright and reputable students such as Rachael, Zainab, Katelynn, Anjola, Mia and Safura as Games Captains, as it has done so in the past with previous cohorts. Their organisation and leadership skills will not only be practised throughout the year, but also improved as they face challenges and obstacles.  

The Year 12 students will be in charge of traditional school events, such as interform and interhouse events. They have outlined an interhouse event to be their first as Games Captains in the April 2022 Edition of the WCHS Newsletter. The houses at the grammar school are exceptionally dear to the school, being one of its multitude of traditions and crucial to the school’s history. The houses at Woodford County are the following: Highams, Newton, Repton and Warner. The students across the school (from Year 7 up to 13) are divided into these four houses. The tradition is known to instigate an environment of friendly competition within the school, especially during periods where the interhouse events are nearing. At Woodford, the traditional events are remarkably popular. Therefore, there is evidently a degree of pressure on the Games Captains to execute these events to meet student expectations. Nevertheless, the six leaders’ enthusiasm for sports will guide them through challenges as such.  

Working as a team to split their responsibilities efficiently, the group of Games Captains have decided what each Captain will be overseeing. Anjola will be leading dance and basketball; Zainab will be taking football and table tennis; netball, trampolining and rounders are assigned to Katelynn; Mia will focus on badminton and rounders; Rachael is in charge of cross country and athletics and Safura will be responsible for basketball and badminton.  

Mia Hart, 17, said “our job as Games Captains varies quite a bit. All of us have sport specialties that we focus on a bit more, and for me that’s rounders and badminton. I run badminton club after school on a Wednesday for Year 7 and 8, and for the most part I’m just here to help the younger years and teachers with anything sports related. We also organise things like Sports Day and charity events centered around school. I can’t tell you much on Sports Day as we haven’t begun to plan that yet though. So far I’ve found it pretty fulfilling, and I love working with the Games Captains team.”  

As the new Games Captains transition into their role, the previous generation of Games Captains reminisce over their wonderful achievements since this time last year. Although the ‘handing over’ of the roles can be bittersweet, both the Year 12’s and 13’s are ecstatic to embark on new journeys and experiences in the upcoming year. As the Year 12’s being to learn from their positions of responsibility, the Year 13’s will be taking their experience with them post-sixth form and utilise their skills in ways which will impact the world greatly. The entire Woodford Community wishes its new Games Captains the best of luck on their journey, where they will grow even further as unstoppable women!