Student Leaders

Meet your 2026 School Captains

Preston High School is please to announce three new School Captains to lead our cohorts in 2026. Come meet them and find out their vision for the next school year

Otis Williamson for Excellence

Hello, my name is Otis Williamson and I am very excited to be Preston High School’s new Excellence School Captain. Over the past five years I have interpreted our school value of Excellence to be centered around being brave and hardworking. 

In my view, students at PHS achieve excellence when they push themselves to try the new, challenging, and scary things that are forever present in our lives. For me, that usually involves playing music and performing with new people, or in front of new crowds.

Some other interests I have are birdwatching, public speaking and swimming. 

Previous year’s School Captains have been tasked with raising money for a charity or organisation which the school cares about. Next year, my main goal will be to make this fundraising campaign even bigger and better, as well as creating more opportunities for students to show their bravery and dedication. 

Iris Thomson for Community

Hi everyone, for those who don't know me my name is Iris Thomson and I have been very fortunate to have been selected for Community School Captain 2026. 

Writing this now it feels surreal how little time remains before we are done with high school forever. It has flown unbelievably fast. I remember so clearly those first few days of Year 7 wearing a uniform two sizes too big and excited for the opportunities high school had for me. 

For as long as I can remember I have been passionate about the environment and had a strong passion for wildlife, which I am currently studying in my animal husbandry vet course at Bundoora Secondary College. 

I also love to travel. Last year I spent 12 months in Argentina on exchange, which taught me so much about the value of community and how vital it is to maintain a positive environment. I became reliant on the communities I had created overseas whether it was my exchange program, basketball team or classmates. I would say becoming part of so many communities and putting myself out there whilst overseas is what my made my exchange so great.

 I hope to apply my experience with being a part of communities from my exchange to being school captain at Preston high school. I hope for Preston students to be assured that they have a safe and positive community to rely on.

Jesse Fesili for Inclusion

Hi everyone! My name is Jesse Fesili, and I am thrilled to hold the role of Preston High’s Inclusion School Captain for 2026. Throughout my years at Preston High, I discovered that belonging and inclusion are vital aspects within the orientation process coming into high school, having this sense of belonging helps you settle in, build new relationships, and find your place in the school, and it is belonging which makes you want to keep coming back for those next 6 years. 

Being a part of the school productions, Mary Poppins, Exiles, and our upcoming 2026 musical Urinetown, my passion for performing has flourished, this is where I found my place at Preston High. 

I believe that Preston is a place where every student has a place, where students from any background, race, or sexuality are not just welcomed into our community, but encouraged to branch out and explore new interests, try new things, and be brave. I look forward to making 2026 the best one yet.

Literary leaders 

by Aadya Sood, Cohort 2030, Acacia House 

Preston’s Literary Leaders kicked off 2025 with a memorable Book Week, ultimately raising more than $3000 for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation. We worked tirelessly to arrange donations, costume contests and set up displays. People came dressed in all manner of costumes, with our winners receiving lollies and all participants awarded a Green Chronicle for their dedication. Beyond the success of Book Week, we’ve also been collecting submitted pieces of work; poetry, short stories, art and more, all to be featured in the Kingfisher Collections, a playful spin on the similarly named school yearbook Kingfisher Chronicles. The Kingfisher Collections will feature students’ work and is a chance to showcase Preston’s immense creative talent. It will be available to read in our beloved library. All in all, the Literary Leaders have worked together with dedication and innovation to create, for many of us, an unforgettable first year at Preston High. 

Debating leaders 

by Scarlett Harding, Cohort 2028, Tawny House & Samyak Subedi, Cohort 2028, Glider House 

This year has been phenomenal for debating here at Preston High School. As we bid farewell to an incredible group of debaters from the Cohort 2025, we also had the chance to celebrate the participation and talent shown by our newer cohorts. This season has brought us our best results yet in debating, along with a record number of teams representing our school. Junior Debating for Years 7 and 8 has also seen fantastic participation and growing interest, with next year looking exciting with further opportunities for everyone. 

Beyond the season itself, our students have also taken part in numerous public speaking competitions across all year levels. We concluded the year with a thrilling House Debating competition, which was won by Gecko. As we say goodbye to 2025, we couldn’t be prouder of what this community has achieved. We look forward with excitement to what’s ahead, confident that Preston High School Debating will continue to grow, thrive, and inspire. 

Thank you to everyone who attended a meetup, competed or supported our events throughout the year. And we hope to see you soon again! 

Sports leaders

by Gabe Prohasky, Cohort 2029, Tawny House 

Over the year Preston High students had the opportunity to play heaps of sports for our school; including cricket, AFL, table tennis, badminton and many more. Multiple teams have gone to regionals, and some have even got into the state championships, an AMAZING effort, congrats! 

All the students tried their hardest and represented the school to the fullest extent. Incredible work Preston, keep it up next year! 

Diversity Leaders  

by Andy Ye, Cohort 2027, Gecko House  

"Ingredients only become the finest cuisines once they're infused with the soul of culture." - 🌻 

Through student voice, the Diversity Team have recognised the importance food is to a country, and thus we created a recipe book - Diversity Cultural Cookbook - where students, parents and teachers of Preston High School can share their own family recipes. The cookbook has been ongoing since the start of 2025, and has received several heartfelt recipes all with their own dedicated background. These traditional cuisines range from Europe (moussaka, lasagna), Asia (siu mai, chicken Biriyani), to Oceania. The recipes allow students to try different cultural foods they've never eaten before, and it’s a way of sharing cultural diversity, with the addition of learning the origins of traditional foods around Preston High School. You can submit a recipe using this form. 

"No one puts their children in a boat unless the water is safer than the land." - Warsan Shiro 

The Diversity Team commemorated Refugee Week at Preston High School as an opportunity:

• to reflect on the resettling of refugees and others in humanitarian need in Australia. 
• to acknowledge the 50th anniversary of Vietnamese migration and settlement and recognise their contributions to society.
• to inform students of the national theme of the Refugee Council of Australia  - 'finding freedom: Diversity in Community.'  

“Not everything that can be faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” – James Baldwin 

The Diversity team has also recognised the lasting impact racism can have on students. Whether through insult, segregation or jokes, racism should never be excused nor tolerated. 

With the assistance of Jessica James (assistant principal) and Yusuke Akai (Antiracism Program Officer), Preston High School officially joined the Darebin Antiracism Arts-based Engagement for School Students. We enlisted the collaboration of other school teams, including Rainbow Alliance and Social Justice, to assist in this important engagement. Yusuke ran workshop sessions to promote student voice on the myths and misconceptions of racism, the unseen suffering of Harmony Day, and the musical, performative, and visual art components that can be used to reduce discrimination. 

The Diversity team, with the other inclusion teams, developed how Preston High School could become a Standing Up Against Racism School by collaborating with each other to create events that promote antiracism. An example of this was Anti-Racism week which utilised music and art to display the severity of racism, and the importance of standing up against it no matter the reason. 

To be continuous, the Diversity team have invited the passionate inclusion leaders to review the interpersonal, internalised and systematic racism themes across schools around Australia.