Student Leadership and Student Council

Vision:

For all students to be able to contribute towards the continuous improvement of the school community.

The Student Council and Leadership Team are a body of students elected by staff and their peers.

These students will represent the views of all the students and consider ways to improve the school. The school council is made up of 2 representatives from each year group who discuss matters about their education and school life and raise any concerns with the Student Leadership Team, the Senior Leadership Team and with the Governors of the school.

Our young people have unique perspectives on learning, teaching, and education in general and we will encourage students to think about how to enact their understanding of human rights and responsibilities in practical ways. It gives them direct experience of debating and negotiating issues and to see the 'bigger picture' of how the whole school is run.

Aims:

To involve students in helping to create and implement school policies and procedures that will benefit everyone in the school community.

This will address the following areas:

• To make positive changes in our school and community;
• To give students the opportunity to let adults know their feelings and opinions about things that affect them;
• Students should also be able to have a say in decisions and to play an active role in making their school a better place for all students of The Marvell College.

Structure:

Role of the School Council and Leadership Team:

Our school council functions in a consultancy role to the Senior Leadership Team and perform such other duties and responsibilities which SLT may from time to time designate.

The school council and Student Leadership Team will undertake the following:

• Work with SLT and give their opinions which should be consistent with the school's rules and policies
• Develop creative ways to involve parents in the school
• Develop ways of encouraging outside groups and agencies to be involved in the school
• Serve as the voice for the students within the school and within the community

The role of the council representatives and Student Leadership Team is to:

• Listen to the views of their year group
• Represent the ideas and views of their year group during school council meetings
• Feedback key issues from these meetings to their year group

Meetings:

Student Council meetings are held at once per half term and will be chaired by those on the Student Leadership team on rotation.

These take place in the library, and it is compulsory that all representatives attend.

These meetings are agreed by the Senior Leadership Team and take place during a school period.

The meetings have an agenda set by the Senior Leadership Team, which will be a mixture of pre-determined agenda items from SLT, items that respond to the needs of the school and items that have been raised in each year group.

Minutes will be taken by a school administrator, and these will be fed back to the Senior Leadership Team who will discuss them at a Senior Leadership meeting. This will then be fed back and disseminated during tutor time and at the next Student Council meeting.

The timeline in the lead up to each meeting will be as follows:

• Week 3 – A range of discussion provoking questions regarding school will be circulated by the Senior Leadership Team and these will be shared with each tutor to encourage discussion. Each tutor group representative will take notes from the discussion.
• Week 4 – Tutor representatives will meet (including the year team representatives) to discuss and share points raised in their tutor groups. The year team representatives will collate these points ready for the Student Council meeting.
• Week 5 – Year group representatives and the Student Leadership Team will meet to discuss the pre-determined agenda items and those points raised in their year teams.
• Week 6 – The Senior Leadership Team will discuss the minutes at an SLT meeting. Feedback will then be disseminated back at the next Student Council meeting and through a tutor PPT.