Guernsey School replaces head boy and girl with 'inclusive' team

The school's headteacher said she expects there would be "mixed views" on the new team

A grammar school has replaced the role of head boy and girl to be "more inclusive".

Instead, Guernsey Grammar School and Sixth Form Centre will have a unisex leadership team.

The school's head teacher, Liz Coffey, said she wants students to see jobs as "not gender specific" and the new model would prepare children for adult life.

She said although tradition was important, the school was "in a different place in 2018".

More news from the Channel Islands.

Ms Coffey said she wanted positions to go to "the best people for them" and said the new "student voice leadership team" was designed to have no barriers to future students, regardless of what gender they identified as.

"That gives the students the experience of what it actually might be like when they enter the workplace," she said, adding: "Its our responsibility to ensure young people are educated and made ready for that world."

The new team took over from prefects at the school, led by a head boy and girl

Under the new system, Ms Coffey admitted one sex could end up dominating the team but said the school - which is funded by the States of Guernsey - would want to "guard against that" and make sure it represented "the broader student group".

Liberate, a charity which campaigns for equality in the Channel Islands, praised the move as "very forward thinking".

Vic Tanner Davy, the charity's chair, said it could be seen as "an acknowledgement that we do not live in a binary society, that there are more genders than just male and female".

The new team, led by a chairperson, started at the school on Thursday.