Student Leadership

Student Voice

While back on site at the end of Term 2, the Leadership Team ran focus groups of students across all year levels to gain feedback from their time during Remote Learning. Several important changes were made when planning and implementing Remote Learning 2.0 as a result of listening to our students. Reducing the workload, implementing camera use and providing a variety of tasks were among changes that students felt they needed.  

The Year 7 Mathematics Team is also using student voice as part of the delivery of Learning Tasks. Teachers are working with students to set SMART goals, to assist students in developing and driving their learning. Students are choosing concepts and skills that they wish to develop further and are given the freedom to work through these goals at their own pace. SMART goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely, meaning these goals can be specifically linked to the work they are studying in class, can be reached within a timely fashion and are achievable for the student. SMART goals will empower our students to manage and take responsibility for their learning and encourage positive learning habits for life. 

Aaron Halstead

Student Voice Co-ordinator 

SRC

Due to Covid-19, the SRC has been unable to meet this month. As we adapt to the constantly changing circumstances, the SRC remains active in Teams. Students are able to post suggestions and ideas concerning upcoming issues in the chat. We are yet to have a Teams meeting this month as 7-10 students settle back into Remote Learning and adjust to life whilst learning from home.  

Leadership Development

Leadership Development is a Year 10 elective class which you can apply to be a part of. Applications were called for and 27 students were selected as our 2020 Year 10 Peer Support leaders. After being selected for the subject, a camp was run at the end of last year which aimed to prepare students like us for peer support lessons. The camp helped us work effectively with everyone in our class, to get to know them and to have fun!

Over the course of the two days we participated in several activities, games and discussions which helped build our confidence and communication skills. Three past Leadership Development students and this year’s School Captains also attended the camp, joining in activities, contributing to discussions and sharing their experiences. Name games and ice breakers were used to break up the two days, giving us ideas for our lessons and helping to reduce the divide between groups.We also took part in several camp activities such as capture the flag, crate climbing, low ropes course, riddles and marshmallows around the campfire, and most people’s favourite, Ed’s Alley. There were several discussions throughout the course of the camp around what to expect, how to manage different situations, how to be a strong leader/role model, etc. These discussions helped to settle any nerves and provided us with some of the information we needed in preparation to run lessons for the year 7s.Towards the end of the camp we created an extensive list of activities that we had done across the two days to help us in the planning process of our lessons. By the end of camp, we had all grown comfortable around each other and developed important leadership skills. Overall, everyone thoroughly enjoyed the camp and it was a great start to Leadership Development. 

Once we returned to the 2020 school year, the program involved working with the year 7s and helping them settle into high school. We got to work with two groups of Year 7 classes. As part of this class we had the opportunity to teach the Year 7 Peer Support classes with a focus on friendship, communication and bullying awareness. Teaching the Year 7s was so much fun as we created new friendships with the younger students, which we may not have had the chance to do without this class. While teaching the Year 7s we were able to create our own lesson plans which involved lots of fun games, activities and hands on tasks which related to the topics we were teaching. Leadership Development was one of our favourite classes and we would definitely recommend it to anyone considering taking this class.   

Jaz Hosie and Hayley Knight

Year 10 students

Year 7 feedback: 

• The best thing about Peer Support was that we got to talk to students whom we wouldn’t normally speak to. 
• I loved playing games and always left with a smile on my face. 
• I like that the Year 10 students were all very friendly. 
• The leaders were well prepared and broke up the lesson with some fun games. 

Michelle Collette

Peer Support Co-ordinator