By: Andrea Griego (Student Support Coordinator)
Year 5 student Jake McDaniels was able to experience what it is like to be a co-principal at YCIS Regency Park Campus on May 25th. This day was set up as a charity initiative for Heart to Heart and part of the live auction at the Spring Charity Brunch.
Jake started his day by meeting his fellow Co-Principals for a briefing in the school office to go over his duties for the day. There, he was given all the things that a Co-Principal needs to get through the day: a YCIS water bottle, pens, pencil case, journal, stationary set and bookmark. Now that he was equipped with all the necessary tools, Jake was off to start his day.
First thing in the morning, Jake went out for gate duty and not only did he greet students, parents and families, he also made sure that families were safe as they crossed the street. “I liked welcoming families and there are a lot of students that live nearby, walking distance,” stated Jake. Jake then did a classroom visit and it happened to be to his own class. He announced that his class was able to choose a free dress day and have extra Golden Time. As you can imagine, the students were thrilled. Miguel Garat, Jake’s classmate, said, “I felt special when Jake announced that our class had a free dress day. We usually have free dress day with the whole school and now our class gets it all by ourselves!”
Not too long after making his announcement to the class, Jake was called to the office. He was informed that there needed to be a practice Intruder Lockdown. After the alarms went off, Jake assisted the school’s Co-Principals, Vice Principal and Coordinators with checking that all the doors and windows were locked and covered. He even got to monitor the lockdown from the guard station where school cameras are monitored. Jake stated, “I didn’t realize there were so many security cameras. They cover a lot of area and when someone is walking, you can see where they leave one camera and then appear on another.”
Jake was also part of the morning recess, but not as an active student as usual. For this recess he was on duty making sure students were playing safely and giving out Helping Hand cards to those students who were following the playground rules. Then he was off to another meeting and this time he was able to invite some friends. They met with Co-Principals, Vice Principal Mr. Watson and some Coordinators including Melissa Shaw and Andrea Griego for tea and a short discussion. Students talked about the school history, lockdown drills and other school issues. One student even asked about the price of the school track and how long it had been there. Mr. Hehir explained, “There used to be natural grass there but then a track was put in. The track that is actually there now is a second track that was redone about three years ago.”
The morning was not over yet! Mr. McEnhill and Jake went to do a classroom observation in Year 4B. Jake assisted Mr. McEnhill while he observed students making sure they were engaged and knew the learning objective and success criteria for the lesson. “Mr. Kravalis did a really good job,” was Jake’s feedback after the observation. Finally it was lunchtime!
After lunch and another recess duty, Jake helped to lead the Whole Primary Assembly. This included introductions, presentation of the Global Child Award and Jake even received an award himself for his efforts. “I felt happy and proud giving the awards out and knowing who the students were,” said Jake.
Finally Jake’s Co-Principal job was over. He had a busy but fun day. “I think being a Co-Principal is hard. You have to run back and forth doing different jobs. I think its also a lot of fun, I had fun today.” Thank you Mr. McDaniels for the fine job you did being Co-Principal for the day.