MACQUARIE College at Wallsend's appointment of four boys as next year's captains and vice captains is an "anomaly", says principal Rohan Deanshaw, which reflects the predominantly male cohort and the fact no girls applied for the roles.
Mr Deanshaw said of the 46 students in the 2021 year 12 cohort, just 13 are girls.
He said none of them applied to be captain or vice captain.
"I think part of it is the perception of the school captain," he said.
"Some of these people are leaders, but they're not people who imagine themselves getting up doing speeches all the time, or being that person who is the face of the school at a public event."
He said when no girls applied, staff "very much so" encouraged them to reconsider.
"We had a female student who we thought would be part of the process, but decided to exclude herself, and we were really confident that she would be someone who would make a significant contribution ... but we have to totally respect [her decision].
"If the girls are happy to be a prefect and not to be a captain and don't apply, or choose to take another leadership role within the school, we're going to be very supportive of that."
Mr Deanshaw said girls held eight of the 14 positions on the senior student leadership team, which comprises 10 prefects from years 10 to 12, as well as the captains and vice captains.
While it isn't a requirement for the role of captain or vice captain, three of the four boys were previously prefects.
"They're all coming there as equals," he said of the senior student leadership team.
"The fact someone is a captain or a vice captain doesn't mean that they get a louder voice or more to say than anybody else, that's a very clear understanding."
He said girls also accounted for the majority of positions on the student council, which has instigated a move towards building more single, unisex bathrooms and pushed for girls to be able to wear shorts and pants, as well as skirts.
He said girls held the two student positions on the school executive team. One is from the junior student council and the other is a year 10 prefect.
He said girls led the drama club, bonsai club, film society and newspaper.
Mr Deanshaw said the school was considering a new leadership model from 2022.
It will move away from captains and vice captains and establish a captaincy leadership group. It will not have a gender quota. Selection will be based on skills.
"Like a lot of private schools, there's a mindset that we have two captains, two vice captains, they're a boy and a girl and that's the way it will be until the world ends," he said.
"That's probably a vestige of past practices and maybe not reflective of best practice going forward."
He said he understood the move may concern families who wanted their child to be captain. "I'm happy to live with that criticism because I think we can do better than that."
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