LEADERSHIP THROUGH LIVING VALUES AND SHARED VISION
Shannon Gayle, Rumbidzai Mushavi, Alexandra Maseko
Arundel School, Harare, Zimbabwe
Where it all began…
One of the most influential leadership groups experienced at Arundel School in Harare,
Zimbabwe, in a while had its humble beginnings in a nervous group of little form ones in the year
2002. We were an energetic and ambitious group of juniors who learned valuable lessons of
leadership from memorable role models at Arundel over the years. By the time our year group
reached the penultimate year of our high school careers, we had experienced both styles of
leadership that we admired and respected as well as styles we disliked and criticized. Thus the
leadership camp we attended at the end of the year that was used to select the student
leadership for 2008, was the ideal platform for students to air their views and experiences
regarding leadership and the task that was about to be bestowed upon us as a year group.
Leadership Camp
We were fortunate enough to have wonderful guidance and an in-depth leadership program that
touched on various relevant issues especially those pertaining to Arundel School. It was at this
camp that we discussed and agreed on the various characters and mentalities at Arundel. This
would better help us agree on the ideal leadership style for this girls’ only high school. Here the
group already began working as a cohesive unit as we all had a shared vision.
It was also at this leadership camp that we were introduced to the first concepts of ServantLeadership. We unanimously agreed after many heated debates that we did not want to be
feared as leaders of the school regardless of the specific leadership role we would all eventually
have. We had discussed leadership traits of various high schools especially boy only high schools
and had deduced that a somewhat repressive leadership framework often existed there. Not only
was the leadership strategy flawed in these schools such that they consistently had problems and
students stepping out of line, it also was a strategy designed to reoccur cyclically. We highlighted
and understood why certain values were disregarded as soon as new leadership entered a
system. This was because as juniors, students predecessors disregarded whether certain actions
or disciplinary actions were necessary or beneficial to the students and merely enforced them
because they had personally experienced them as juniors. Thus when the juniors become
seniors, they too want the incoming juniors to experience specific unpleasant practices.
Fenella Cottage
Just before the beginning of the new school year, the new school student leadership went for
another brief camp at a cottage in the serene location of the Nyanga mountains. This camp is
different from the leadership camp in that the girls have already been selected to be prefects,
deputies and head girls. The headmistress attends this camp as well as a senior member of the
school staff. This camp is a time for the girls to bond with one another as well as establish a solid
relationship with the school staff as they are expected to work together a great deal over the
coming year.
At Fenella, our year group bonded significantly. The headmistress did more than inspire us to be
a leadership group with a difference. She explained to us the values that the Arundel staff tries to
instill in the girls as well as the lessons for life. Here we understood that our roles as leaders was
not just to keep the Arundel machine smoothly running, but be exemplary role models to the girls.
We had to be the type of girls we expected them to be. It was made abundantly clear that we had
to become the change we expected to see and we were more than prepared to do so. This meant
personal sacrifice for many of us. It was at this camp that we knew the coming year would be like
something never seen before by previous age groups.
Leadership Format
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Headgirl
2 Deputy Headgirls
11 Prefects
Duties
General Administration of the school, examples:
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Gate duty (interacted with parents)
Break duty
Lunch duty
How it worked
11 prefects is one of the smallest numbers of prefects that Arundel has allocated in years. This
meant that extensive sharing of workloads was essential. In fact we were all so ready to assist
one another in duties and work often no-one did anything alone. Our head girl especially made
sure that she participated in prefect duties which in the past was seen as highly unusual. But
because we had adopted the policy of Servant Leadership, the head girl had to be seen as a
servant in the school on all fronts.
A large part of the success of our prefect body leadership and guidance as a year group was that
we each understood and accepted the circumstances of our time. That is, we were all upper sixth
students and that meant it was by far the most difficult academic year for us all regardless of a
leadership position or not. This acceptance continued into understanding that we each were
individuals and had different personal responsibilities and obligations. That is many of us had
various activities and obligations outside of the school threshold. This meant that occasionally
some of us would be unable to do our normal duties because of these obligations and we very
fortunate to have people fill in for us when the need arose.
Living Values
Servant Leadership
 Setting an example - being role models
 No double standards at all - integrity
 Stick together with enforcing things - united front at all times
Goal - maintaining standards, ensuring that Arundel kept producing astounding women of
substance
Operations:
1) Name badge
2) Silence in corridors
3) Punctuality
4) Detention Database
Communication
Interaction with Headmistress and Deputy and Senior mistress
The head girl met extremely regularly with the headmistress, sometimes several times within a
week. This was very important as it was a time when they touched base concerning current
issues within the school and the best ways of dealing with them. This ensured that the prefect
body was always in sync with the goals of school leadership concerning values for example
ensuring that we were grooming honest, punctual and well-rounded ladies of substance. In this
way the prefect body never strayed from the ideal of the shared vision we agreed upon at Fenella
Cottage.
Every Monday without fail we had a prefects meeting with the headmistress. We met as an entire
prefect body in a slightly less formal manner and discussed issues directly with the Head that
were of particular concern to us and that could not necessarily have been addressed by the head
girl. Here we deliberated about matters regarding specific girls. We were also informed of special
circumstances such as if a girls parent had passed away. In these meetings the prefect body was
also acknowledged and commended for things they had done or handled well especially in the
cases of a marked improvement of the student body at Arundel regarding issues such as silence
in the corridors. We also discussed issues that were not optimally handled and things we could
possibly improve on.
Weekly one of the deputy head girls or representatives of the prefect body would meet with the
deputy headmistress to discuss disciplinary issues. Although there was a significant drop in girls
needing to be reprimanded in our year of leadership, it was an issue no less important to us.
Punishment needed to be cleared with the deputy head first as it needed to be a constructive one
for the benefit of the child and also one that the school could defend should parents choose to
confront the school about it. The prefect body had to clear everyone they wanted to put on
detention (the most severe form of punishment other than suspension or expulsion) with the
deputy head first with the reason for resorting to detention as punishment.
Interaction within the Prefect body
In order to have an efficiently functioning school led by an efficient prefect body, good
communication was essential. Despite there being relatively good relationships within the prefect
body, without efficient and open communication our effectiveness as a cohesive unit would have
been substandard. Especially considering all the different characters that we had within the
prefect body, threats of potential conflicts seemed eminent. I am proud to state that such friction
was non-existent or at least not to an extent that was caused a setback to our progress.
Our head girl created a communication tree that included all the prefects.
Communication Tree
Headgirl
Deputy
Headgirl
Deputy
Headgirl
Prefect
Prefect
Prefect
Prefect
Prefect
Prefect
Prefect
Prefect
Prefect
Prefect
Prefect
The communication tree meant that one of three prefects was responsible for two other prefects
and one of the deputy headgirls was responsible of three prefects. In this way if one prefect had
an issuee of concern they would approach the prefect or deputy head girl they were responsible
for. These four would then report to the headgirl if need be. Similarly, the head girl could pass
down information the same way if necessary.
The prefect body met once every two weeks on a Friday afternoon. We were fortunate enough to
always have a good turnout at these meetings which was really unexpected as usually all the girls
wanted to go home or would rather spend their Friday afrternoon in another way. This
commitment was consistent throughout the year, especially towards the end when most would
usually slacken.
We were all extremely committed to our goals especially due to the oaths we took at the
beginning of the year. We were kept motivated by the constant efforts of our headgirl Rumbi who
tried to make time to meet with all of us prefects on an individual level and remind us each of our
goals and our strengths. I believe that when many of us felt like slacking, thinking of all the work
that she put in and all the time she had to sacrifice to accomplish all she did on top of her studies
indeed motivated us to continue and maintain the standard at Arundel.
Interaction with the School
From the start of the term, we made an effort to communicate with the girls in the school on a
personal and meaningful level. We wanted to guide the girls and lead them to behave the way we
wanted by doing the same and hoping they would follow, and they did. We started by having a
really personal or intimate chapel session in which each of the prefects revealed something
personal that the school and even fellow prefects didn’t know about them. This emotional service
helped place the school girls on an even platform with the prefects as they realized we were
human too and we too had problems in our lives or had overcome huge hurdles to achieve what
we had achieved. We inspired so many girls that day and it made many of them respect us.
We maintained certain themes throughout the year in our chapel services which we tried to hold
frequently within each term. We sang a specific song every term, ‘Brother let me be your servant.’
This song really encompassed our vision and how we planned to implement our goals, through
serving the school in a humbled way, the essence of servant leadership.
Special effort was made to ensure that we communicated with the school in a way that was not
mundane and boring. This was not a difficult task for us as we had many animated characters
within the prefect body who were eloquent and entertaining public speakers. We had numerous
motivational speeches touching on a range of subjects from girls who misbehaved, to those who
hadn’t discovered their talents and didn’t participate in any extra-curricular activities. These talks
were especially important towards the end of the year and exam time when all were down and not
obeying rules. It was very important to us to uphold the school moral. Talks usually involved
physical gestures to symbolize a notion or a catch phrase or quote that could easily be
memorized yet signified a lot. Here are some of the years most repeated phrases:
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One band, one sound!
Women of substance.
Don’t mope. Cope!
If you are five minutes early, you are on time. If you are on time, you are late. If you are
late, you are left behind.
In fact, much like propaganda, the last phrase was repeated to the girls so often that when asked
some believed it to be the School Motto!
Besides lively speeches, there were times when a diagram or demonstration of sorts was
needed, for example pertaining to correct uniform. Demonstrations were not only entertaining and
insightful but many a times were used to also signify the united front the prefects had with the rest
of the upper sixth group. We valued their input greatly concerning anything that would benefit the
school and exercised their rights as seniors.
Meetings were held with the sixth form alone to revise their responsibilities as seniors. Being a
small prefect body, we needed the joint effort of all the seniors in spite of many not holding a
leadership position. This proved difficult at times as some seniors wanted nothing to do with
school responsibility. After much persuasion and numerous heart-felt talks from the head girl the
majority of the sixth form had sided with the prefects and agreed to assist in some duties and help
enforce school rules. This was definitely a milestone for our year as no other had been so unified.
They too made a commitment to abiding by school rules and maintaining a certain degree of
integrity. Without their assistance, it would have been difficult to monitor the entire school.
Arundel School, Harare, Zimbabwe