Sophie will be head prefect - at boys’ school

HISTORY is being made at Dover Grammar School for Boys with the appointment of a new head prefect - a 16-year-old girl.

Sophie Grayson, who only joined the school in September to study for her A-levels, was picked ahead of all the boys who applied for the post, and takes over the role when the pupils return after Easter.

Sophie said she was very surprised when she was told she had been appointed.

“Originally I didn’t even apply,” she said.

“But I was asked to fill out an application form, and then I had to go for two interviews, one with the current head prefect and sixth form coordinator, and the other with the head teacher, Dr Richard Moxham.

“I thought several of the boys were more likely to get it than me.”

A former pupil at Temple Ewell Primary School, Sophie went to Archers Court Maths and Computing College until last summer.

“I looked at the two grammar schools and decided that the best one for me was the boys’ school. I am studying for A-levels in maths, chemistry, biology and English.”

She will take on the role at the first assembly of the new term, taking over from head prefect Toby Fuller, and her first task will be to choose four executive prefects, one for each house.

Earlier this year Sophie was on a team from the boys’ school who won the Dover Rotary Club Youth Speaks competition.

She was the speaker, on the subject of the value of drama in education. She also played Rosaline in the school’s Love’s Labour’s Lost.

On Tuesday, she was in London for an audition for Lord Sugar’s Junior Apprentice programme.

Outside school, her life also revolves around amateur dramatics, being an enthusiastic member of Dover Operatic and Dramatic Society and Temple Ewell Players. She is also a volunteer with the Pegasus play-scheme in the summer.

Her parents, Steve and Alyson, run The Fox pub in Temple Ewell.