This guy contacted us about training last week, and I though his role was really interesting, so I asked him to write a blog post for us. Here it is.
Vicky
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Stepping back four years ago at Hirst High School Technology College, it would certainly seem like a different school. With a planned student strike against the new senior leadership team which had just taken up their posts amid a range of rumours about various cancelations on student activities it was clear that implementing student voice needed to take place sooner rather than later.
I was determined to really hammer home the messages of my fellow peers in the school, so I became head boy in my senior year. I undertook my responsibility to represent the student body by chairing school council meetings, attending open senior leadership meetings and governor’s termly meetings. To ensure the students were properly represented I made sure that events and student activities are now organised by the students, and they are extremely well organised. The student motto of “doing it for the students by the students” was actually working for the first time in the schools history.
School leaders were keen to continue the positive impact that student voice had made on the whole school community by making my role as student leader a paid position in the school. I am currently working in this position whilst on a ‘gap’ year before university. A clear focus for student leadership has meant I am high profile in the school and students know exactly who I am and what I do. It is beneficial for students to have a central person in school that is close to them in age who they can relate to and available to contact and communicate with throughout the day. Having visited other schools to talk about my role the position has received wide acclaim with many schools wishing to adopt the idea.
Our school council has transformed from a team that “formed” for recruitment purposes to a large group of keen students across all year groups and with all abilities who meet fortnightly to discuss key issues in their school community.
The results have been outstanding: seeing an increase at all levels in students who are actively involved in student participation at all levels. Our most senior students form the voice of the whole school and lead their own leadership team which has a direct match to that of the staff model. By using all the resources available from the School Councils UK website I have made a pack for training everyone on the school council and I’m always referring back to it.
I created and implemented the role of student subject leaders who act as student Heads of Department (HODs) in all subjects. They discuss and record issues under a series of headings which include curriculum issues and coursework support. All students have been issued with a log book which they can use throughout the year and which I designed to aid and develop student roles throughout the school. The leaders are now being used to develop teaching and learning on a whole school level.
It is simply impossible to speak about everything Hirst High School Technology College has to offer in terms of its student voice in this one single article and I am constantly looking at improving the service for the students including a partnership with our link schools to form an overall school council. I also hope to be taking part in the School Councils UK Experts course in November. Five years back seems like a century ago when you see the major improvements we have made to ensure students know their views are being heard. One thing however is certain, our student voice is now far greater than the tokenistic school councils some schools seem to have.
James Leslie, Hirst High School Technology College