It’s usually during this time of year when the to-do list requires its own filing cabinet, when I remember that I am also responsible for the student rep elections.

Elections for the class rep are often the students’ first experience of democracy. I do a session on democracy as one of our British Values (though I just call them values, seeing as we were pretty late to the party compared to, say, India and Sparta). I try to get as many as possible to register to vote - some of them will excitedly come in brandishing their polling cards when an election rolls around, delighted to be trusted with voting in a two-horse race for the police and crime commissioner.

I do address other systems of electing rulers - the geniocracy where the most intelligent rule, the dictatorship, the autocracy, the meritocracy. Last year, a student suggested we copy the system from Black Panther, where last year’s rep can be challenged in a fight to the death. I considered it, but the paperwork would have been horrendous. 

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A colleague asked me recently if I ever “influenced” the outcome of the class rep elections to ensure that the students were represented by a conscientious and diligent person, rather than someone who could get a laugh by fitting eight peanuts up their nose. I have never influenced an election. I believe it is a key learning moment when you realise that those in power are not necessarily the best of us. That the kid with the peanuts up his nose is now in charge. 

At our college, the class rep gets a different colour lanyard - it’s the colour of the seats in the House of Commons. They also get a free NUS card. For this, they have to undergo a two-hour training session. Transfer of power can often happen, so that when a student is elected but can’t be bothered to do the job, they just pass it to whoever sits next to them in class, or to the person who came in second, or to someone who gives them £2.50.

I have heard a number of interesting speeches given in hustings, from the earnest (“I just want to make life better for my fellow students”) to the glamorous (“I promise a pool table on every floor!”) to the downright threatening (“Vote for me because I know where you all live”). It has had a sobering effect on some students, who stood for election on a platform of “I am funny, vote for me”, but after winning feel quite humbled at the trust they have been given. They then comport themselves in a manner befitting the office of one of 15 elected reps in their school, and some have even gone on to be school rep and an executive officer.

Of course, some just like having a different colour lanyard and the opportunity to cheek the senior management. I remember a senior leader who visibly blanched at the sight of a certain student having the coveted dark green lanyard. He was stopped every single day for infractions such as not having his ID card on display, eating in the corridor, being late, swearing at high volume, and on one occasion, skateboarding into college like he was Marty McFly. His ID badge and dark green lanyard certainly were on display that day as he came eye to eye with her and announced: “The people have spoken”. 

I might go and rewatch Black Panther.

Kirsty Walker teaches at a college in the North West of England