DEMOCRACY was at the heart of an 'exciting' project, getting students thinking about politics by voting for the Head of School position.

Pupils voted for the positions of Head Boy, Head Girl and Head of Boarding, along with choosing the prefects for LVS Ascot, which is something that has traditionally been chosen by the senior management team and Principal of the school.

The successful candidates were formally announced on Friday, April 5.

Christine Cunniffe, headteacher at LVS Ascot, said: "“Our aim is to inspire independence in students, and allowing them to stand for elections and vote on who will lead amongst them was an important step towards that.

For the very first time, students had to run a campaign to win the votes of their fellow classmates.

The winners of these positions were then entitled to stand for the position of Head Boy, Head Girl and Head Boarder.

Twelve students were in the running for the top positions and after a couple of weeks, a 'Question Time' style panel debate allowed students to ask questions and hold their peers into account before deciding on who their favourite candidate was.

Voting closed on March 28, with students attended a polling station in school to submit their votes.

The final assembly of the year saw Zaki Marsali elected as Head Boy with 41 per cent of the vote, and Jasmine Imsirovic elected as Head Girl with 54 per cent of the vote.

Henry Hamilton won the Head of Boarding role with 59 per cent of the votes.

Christine added: "It was very pleasing to see excellent and clean campaigns fought, and both victory met with humility and defeat met with dignity – something we do not always see when democratic voting is involved”