This is no different for the leaders of our school, both staff and student leaders.

At Loreto, as we approach the end of the school year, and more importantly the end of school life for year 12 students, year 11 students are being asked to look within and help decide who the next leaders of our school will be.

Usually, this entails Leadership Day, when we as a cohort spend the day listening to fellow leaders discuss with us both the joyous and difficult times involved with being a leader before making a decision on who we believe would best be suited for the school senate positions from our year level.

It is a much anticipated day in year 11 and one that unfortunately we will not get to experience in the same way as it is usually experienced, however, just as many typical events have been adapted and changed throughout the year, so too has Leadership Day.

Instead of one day, the year 11 cohort began exploring the ideas of leadership in our mentor group sessions, which seemed like a wonderful plan, until home learning 2.0 happened.

At this point, we were required to adapt even more.

Luckily, our wonderful year 11 coordinators decided to keep pushing ahead with exploring the idea of leadership, though putting leadership decisions on hold for the time being.

At the beginning of home learning, year 11's were asked to put forward a question we may have for the senate about leadership, which was then answered by our amazing Loreto Senate, and the St Patrick's College leaders. This video was shown to us during an online mentor group session, where we then had the opportunity to further discuss with our mentor teachers and peers what leadership typically looks like in year 12.

Loreto Senate in year 12 is made up of two college co-captains, four house captains (one from each house), and another four general senate members; all of these senators are as important as each other, despite what their title is.

Throughout year 12 the senate assists in organising and running school assemblies, whole school events such as our annual walkathon, and generally fun activities such as the epic Valentine's Day shenanigans.

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As we approach the transition back to face-to-face learning early in term four, the year 11s will have the opportunity to nominate 10 members of our cohort. From this, a top 20 will be put forward where we will then have to vote for six of the top 20. These six students will then have the opportunity to put themselves forward for college co-Captains.

Four students from this top six will make up the general senate members, with the two captains.

The senate will shortly be completed via selection of house captains, with the house captain from each of the four houses making up the remaining four places.

With all the changes that have happened this year due to COVID-19, our 2020 senate has looked a little different, with a lot of what would typically be face to face events having to be held online. Such events include our Walkathon at the beginning of this year.

The Senate have also taken it upon themselves to provide videos of support or run Netflix parties to keep everyone connected.

This sort of flexibility and resilience demonstrated by the 2020 senate is an excellent example of what a leader should be like, and hopefully, the 2021 senate can take inspiration from these wonderful senators as we approach our year of leadership.

Chloe Simpson writes for SHOUT, The Courier's online youth platform.

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