Picture an officer in your mind.

Now picture a real officer from history.

How about a fictitious officer from popular culture?

Tricky one to finish – can you name a song with an officer in it?

How did you do?

For me: I started in Caversham Market where the local police officer often makes an appearance; then I got a burst of Lord Kitchener, telling me that my country needed me in a World War One History lesson; this was followed by the ever in-ept Officer Dibble from the cartoon series Top Cat; and finally I’m now humming Here Comes the Hotstepper by Kamoze, with the line ‘Excuse me mister officer (murderer), Still love you like that!’ stuck in my ear.

If anyone got the same four as me then I think that would be a bit creepy. However, I’d be willing to bet that there are a number of you whose choices bore a distinct similarity to mine: they were all men.

Surprising? Probably not. Apparently 35% of UK police officers are now women, alongside 19% of the officers in the UK armed forces (although a mere 10% of other ranks are female). Thankfully, this is a lot higher than the late twentieth century, where it would seem that I am culturally stuck, but there are clearly many more strides needed for there to be anything like equal representation in our security forces, or equal weighting in our collective consciousness.

The word officer itself of course has no leaning towards either sex. Taking its roots from the Latin ‘officium’ – essentially doing a service – it is only our own historical biases, dating back to the 14th century when the word first appeared in our French-laden language, that leads many of us towards picturing men, or at the very least people in uniform.

My own ingrained biases were challenged head-on when I first joined The Abbey. Somebody mentioned the student officers to me and I wrongly assumed we must have a cadet force in our midst (I did later float this idea with our School Council, but it didn’t gain much traction!). When I found out the truth, that this was the name for what I had previously labelled as the student prefect body, I wrote it off as an Abbey-idiosyncrasy.

But giving it more thought, the term ‘officer’ is so much better than ‘prefect’. Rather than the Latin ‘praefectus’ – which in essence translates as having authority over others – the role of our officers is not to become authoritative figures, but to serve: they serve the school, they serve other students and they serve each other, and in doing so develop far greater leadership, humility and kindness than any traditional prefect role would likely afford them.

The air in the Sixth Form Centre is currently full of talk of the officer roles, with the Lower Sixth deadline for applications fast approaching. Some students aspire to be Head Girl, or one of the Captain roles, with their names immortalised on one of the many celebration boards around the school; and with so many strong candidates there are always tough decisions to make. But many others have a more niche interest: they want to improve and serve the school, channelling student voices and leading initiatives to continue enhancing a particular aspect of school life that they have perhaps benefitted from in the past. Whether it be the Library, STEM, Eco or various other officer roles, they are keen to give something back, and we are keen to help them develop into fine officers and women who can lead.

So, let’s all try again. Picture an officer in your mind.

What can you see?

I see our fabulous Head Girls Aarini and Grace, and their superb team of Upper Sixth officers leading and making our school a better place; I see the Lower Sixth, being primed to take over these roles at the end of the term; I see all of the students in the Senior School, developing their interests and passions through their Abbey journey, preparing to serve and inspire younger students when they come of age; I see my own daughters when they reach the Secondary School, starting their journey towards officerhood. I see young leaders, everywhere I look.

George Morton, Deputy Head