Talk:Head girl and head boy/Archive 1

Head Girl link
Head Girl should continue to link because the "Head Boy" link is obviously equigender. Also, in response to the business about popular culture, an Angel episode references Wesley Wyndham-Pryce's career as a head boy at his school, making a sexual innuendo out of it.

Is there any point to the link Head Girl? It is currently just a redirect to Head Boy. smurray  in   chester (User), (Talk) 20:38, 25 October 2005 (UTC)


 * I agree. I took the link away.Ptikobj 17:03, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

I think it should have the roles of each subject Wyatt Long (talk) 02:55, 25 August 2017 (UTC)

Upper Canada College, Toronto
I believe that including this single case in the article does not add to the article. I feel that it does not satisy notability because whilst the school itself is notable, its policy on 'Head Boys' (or the equivalent) do not apply to all readers of an article; only those who want to find out about the school. The information would, perhaps, be more useful on its talk page. If we were to include information about every school that has a senior student, this would make the article unecessarily long, and so the notability and relevancy of UCC to this article must be asserted if it is to remain in the article. I do, however, believe that information about the link with the 'valedictorian' role in American schools should be retained, and that if generalised information about senior students throughout Canada could be found, this would be notable. Thanks ck lostsword | queta! | Suggestions? 16:04, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
 * To the contrary, the UCC scenario presents a case where the title Head Boy is used in a context different to that in the UK - thus it serves this article in the sense that it shows readers interested in the term Head Boy that there is not a singular use of the title, and offers information on the, so far, only case where it is used differently. Should there be more schools that use the title in a similar fashion to UCC, then the section in question should be re-written to be non-school specific; but so far, UCC is the only example. --G2bambino 16:16, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
 * In effect, though, this definition of the term Head Boy is closely related to the definitions of "valedictorian" and "chair of the students' union" (or similar), and a single example of these definitions would appear to be irrelevant to the article. A link with the terms themselves may be useful, but the example seems to be non-notable. Nevertheless, WP:Notability states that the topic is notable if it is "subject of multiple, non-trivial published works from sources that are reliable and independent of the subject itself and each other". In this case, it seems that it is notable to include the single case if the term 'Head Boy' with regard to UCC has been written about independently. ck lostsword|queta!|Suggestions? 16:37, 4 January 2007 (UTC) - (Incidentally, thank you for removing the key non-notable sentence from the article. ck lostsword 16:44, 4 January 2007 (UTC))
 * Is the term Head Boy itself the subject of any non-trivial published works? WP:Notability is simply a guideline and not a rule, therefore we can't take its terms too strictly. Perhaps UCC should not stand as an example for all Canadian schools (I've found that Crescent School has a Head Boy, though used in the same form as typical in the UK) - hence, perhaps the sectioning, or titles of sections are currently misleading.  However, UCC still stands as the only place where Head Boy is used differently, and thus serves as an illustration of the different uses of the title. --G2bambino 16:57, 4 January 2007 (UTC)


 * I wonder if it would be better to re-title and re-write the Canada section as follows:
 * ==Other Commonwealth countries==
 * Public schools throughought the Commonwealth, outside of the United Kingdom, do not use the term Head Boy or Head Girl, instead electing a President of the student government. However, the title continues to be applied to the elected head of the student government at private schools.
 * Upper Canada College, a private school in Toronto, uses the title Head Boy differently, applying it to the student who has achieved the highest academic standing in their graduating class, similar in principal to the Valedictorian at an U.S. American high school. What would otherwise be known as a Head of School at an equivalent British institution is known at UCC as the Head Steward. --G2bambino 17:36, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Yep, that seems better. I'll include it now. ck lostsword|queta!|Suggestions? 21:01, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

Move?
This should be moved to head student or something along the likes of that. The current title blatantly violates the neutral point of view policy. Regards, FM [ talk to me  |  show contributions  ]  21:01, 26 July 2009 (UTC)

I think it should have the roles Wyatt Long (talk) 02:56, 25 August 2017 (UTC)

Election vs appointment
The page almost exclusively talks about head boys and girls being elected rather than appointed and specifically states that head boys and girls are elected in most schools without any source.

Traditionally they were always appointed by the headteacher and other senior staff and I believe that is still often the case, especially in private schools. Many of the examples given on the page of people who have been head boys and girls attended private schools and would have been appointed to the post rather than elected. Googling for head boy appointed shows many contemporary examples.

The page should say that they can be appointed or elected and someone with more knowledge than me can find a reference to which is more common in various types of schools and different countries. Liberaljon (talk) 01:18, 22 April 2020 (UTC)

I agree with the previous comment. As far as I’m aware, there is no reliable source dictating the proportion of elected v appointed. I myself was appointed based on group agreement of 3 sixth form staff. Only 1 plbeing the headteacher Maximus kaius (talk) 00:32, 13 August 2020 (UTC)

Need more clarity
I am having trouble understanding parts of this article, probably because we don't have head boys and head girls in most schools in the US. Here are some points that it would be good to clarify:

Lead

 * "Head boy and head girl are roles of prominent representative student responsibility." I don't understand what this means at all.
 * "Head boys and head girls represent them in front of students and teachers." What is the antecedent of "them" here? Whom are the HGHBs representing, and how can they represent those persons to both students and teachers? Reading further in the article, it appears that in some schools, HGHBs are the elected spokespeople for students when dealing with the school, while in other schools, HGHBs are the prefects appointed to run many things in schools.

UK and Ireland

 * "Head boys and head girls are usually responsible for representing the school at events..." What sort of events are we talking about here? Are these school events (e.g., welcoming new students to the school), outside events (receiving awards on behalf of the school), sporting events?
 * "..., and therefore must be able to make public speeches." Who ensures that they are able to make public speeches?
 * "They may also be expected to lead fellow prefects in their duties." It hasn't been mentioned yet that HGHBs are prefects, and what that implies. Is that true at all schools?
 * "At most, the student body of the school will have to vote for the heads. The votes would then inform the Heads of School's decisions." What does this mean? That the pupils vote for HGHBs, but that the Head of School actually selects them, possibly ignoring the voting?

General
Is there any relationship between school performance (grades) and the selection of the HGHB? That is, is it anything like a valedictorian? Or is it based strictly on popularity?

If I understand correctly, there is more than one kind of HGHB. In some schools, it is an elected position (similar to the American class president or head of the student council) which represents students to the school administration. In other schools, it is a position appointed by the school administration that performs various functions within the school on behalf of the administration. Is that right?

Of course, the article desperately needs some reliable sources as well.... --Macrakis (talk) 14:18, 26 October 2020 (UTC)

Merger discussion
Request received to merge articles: {School Captain} into {Head girl and head boy}; dated: {may/2021}. Proposer's Rationale: {other article is largely obsolete}. Discuss here. SerAntoniDeMiloni (talk) 22:50, 4 May 2021 (UTC)