Callum Charteris was last year’s Head Boy of Clydeview Academy and is also the founder of Clydeview Connect. Recently I had the opportunity to meet with him and have a chat about his experiences during his last year of school and I was able to ask him a few questions about his time as Head Boy and with Clydeview Connect.
I remember when he started Clydeview Connect last year and I remember when he came to our school assemblies to tell everyone about his new project so I wondered what made him decide to create CV Connect?
“Well, I just felt that the pupils weren’t getting represented as well as they should be,” he told me. “So I thought let’s create a pupil blog where the news is actually coming from the pupils and not the teachers to let everyone know about life in Clydeview.”
But what did Callum enjoy most about Clydeview Connect?
“Just speaking to new people. I liked the creative aspect on the Instagram and Twitter and on the blogs,” he said. “I also liked leading from the pupils’ view and not really having a teacher telling you what to do, and being able to come up with your own ideas. It was just a great new idea and I really enjoyed being a part of it.”
Of course, Callum had a very busy year last year, not just with Clydeview Connect but with his role as Head Boy too. As I’m now getting the experiences of being Head Boy, I wondered what he liked most about his role.
“Everything, to be fair. I loved last year!” he said with a smile. “It kind of shaped me as an individual. Some highlights were probably the tannoys every morning, I really enjoyed that. But just, like, coming out of my shell, getting to speak with new people and loads and loads of opportunities like parents’ nights, speaking in assemblies, everything. Just being in that role was something that I’ll always remember and was just a great experience.”
It’s clear that Callum loved being involved with so much within the school but I was curious to know what was his single most memorable moment from his time as Head Boy?
“Probably an infamous moment, to be fair,” he laughed. “In the teachers versus students game, it was on penalties, I think it was three all in the normal match. We were drawing on penalties and it was the last penalty so we had to score to stay in it and I thought it would be a good idea if I hit it. Then I completely missed it in front of the whole school. The pupils lost the trophy and I was the one who missed the penalty, and I think that probably sticks with me the most.”
Perhaps this wasn’t one of his high points in his time as Head Boy, however, he did tell me about a more positive memory.
“Going away from negatives, my favourite moment was probably just the first time on the tannoy when I accidentally shouted ‘Come on the Clydeview’ and it became a catchphrase forever.”
Obviously, it isn’t always easy playing such a big part in the day to day life of the school so I asked him if there were any difficult parts of being Head Boy.
“Well, it was very challenging because there’s a lot to balance and I kinda found that I was getting overwhelmed at some points,” he told me. “But I just made sure to make sure that I was reaching out to people if I needed any support and making sure that I didn’t get completely overwhelmed. But yeah, it was difficult to balance your school work and your duties but I made sure that I wasn’t getting too stressed out and was talking to people if I ever needed any support or anything like that.”
My final question to Callum was what his advice to this year’s pupil leadership team would be.
“Just be yourself, like, if you have an idea, go for it,” he said. “Don’t sit back on anything you want to do because if you don’t do it and regret it at the end of the year, you might think ‘why did I not get that started?’ Just don’t let anyone change who you are and just go for everything you want and enjoy it because it’ll be prom before you know it and you’ll be ready to move on. So yeah, have a great year, that’s what I would say.”
Callum definitely made the most of his time as Head Boy and followed every new idea he had. I think his advice will be very helpful to myself and the rest of our pupil leadership team.
Since leaving Clydeview, Callum has just started a five-year course studying computing science at Strathclyde University. He tells me that he’s very excited about the new experiences that await him and that he remembers his time at Clydeview very fondly. Hopefully he comes back to visit us again some time.
Article by Jack Ramsay, Head Boy