TWO students at a Shirebrook school have made it their pledge to create more of a life/work balance for their peers after they were voted in as their school’s head boy and head girl.

Ben Madeley and Angel Robinson say they want to rework Shirebrook Academy’s lunchtime and after-school clubs because groups for older students have become more focussed on studying than on fun, while they believe younger students would benefit from help with doing their homework from people their own age.

The 15-year-olds were voted into the top jobs by students at the school, in Common Lane, earlier this month, along with a 21-strong team of student ambassadors.

They all have a duty to represent the school at functions during the year and act as role models, but they want to do their bit to encourage more students to play sport and also strive to do their best in their studies as well.

Both Ben and Angel enjoy sport – Ben is a talented sprinter while Angel plays for Mansfield Town Ladies – and have taken part in the Academy’s successful sports leadership courses down the years.

They now want to put that experience to good use by getting younger students involved in running the extra-curricular classes, believing that everyone has a role to play in helping everyone to get good results and create a feel-good atmosphere.

Angel said: “We think that students are the best influencers in school because we’ve got more recent experience of the pressures that young people face, so we want to use the leadership skills we’ve learned to get everyone involved.

“I’m really proud to have been voted a head girl and I’m determined to use my time to promote sport, because it’s important to me because it’s a release and it’s good for my health.

“Unfortunately, lots of girls drop out of sport at my age, so I want to help to encourage Year 11s to stay involved, while setting up revision sessions for Year Sevens to show them how important study is.”

Ben said: “I’ve always wanted to be the head boy and I’m very grateful to be voted into the role, and I want to use the next year to work with Angel and our ambassadors to put on more school clubs.

“Each school year has its own clubs and the further up the school you go, the more they focus on studying, That’s fine, but we want to find other activities that students get involved in because that will help them to learn something new, socialise and grow in confidence.”

Teacher Connor Tyrell, who is Head of Key Stage 4, at Shirebrook Academy, said: “All of the students who put their names forward were extremely strong candidates but Ben and Angel will make excellent head boy and head girl, especially since they’re determined to put their previous leadership experience to good use.

“They identified that there is an imbalance within our schools clubs, with the older students having fewer opportunities to let off steam in amongst their extra studies and the opposite being true for Year Sevens, so we’re looking forward to helping them to put their ideas into practice.”