rule the school

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

rule the school (third-person singular simple present rules the school, present participle ruling the school, simple past and past participle ruled the school)

1. To substantially control a school administratively, financially, or in terms of its curriculum.
   • 1884, George Augustus Sala with Edmund Hodgson Yates, “Westminster School”, in Temple bar, volume 71, page 504:

     After Page, Dr. E. Goodenough ruled the school from 1819 to 1828. On his retirement he obtained the deanery of Wells ...

2. (idiomatic) (of one or a group of students) To socially dominate a school's student population, or a major part of it (such as the girls or the boys).
   • 1847, William Edward Heygate, Godfrey Davenant, page 123:

     But as Shelley was by far the cleverest of the three head boys who were there, he ruled the school.

• The idiomatic use particularly applies to students in the highest grade at a school. Thus in a grade 9 to 12 school, the grade 12 students could be said to rule the school, but a particular group of influential students such as several grade 12 basketball or football players could also be said to rule the school.