Student Leadership at St Mary’s in 2022 

In 2022 a new journey towards a Year 6 Student Leadership began with a call from Scripture - Isaiah “I have called you by name … you are mine.” Students were asked to respond to this Scripture by writing how they were going to answer the call to leadership this year. Taking on the roles of MC at School Assemblies and Tour Guides for prospective families has been a shared leadership responsibility for all students right from the beginning of the year.

As part of our Faith Based Inquiry, the call to Leadership continued with the students interviewing their parents to investigate their names - origin/meaning, how and why they were named and famous people with the same name that they might aspire to. They then presented their information to the class in the form of a speech. 

Guest speakers were invited to come and talk to the class about their experiences as leaders in the workplace. Two parents, Rose Tour and Ana Ristevski, offered to come and speak with the class. Both Rose and Ana were amazing as they both shared their stories of how they lead their teams by listening, collaborating and showing empathy. Father Jerome was also invited and he used Scripture to highlight Jesus’ message of leadership which is to put others before yourself - that listening is putting others first.

Running alongside all of this was the integral  ‘Speak With Power’ program facilitated by Ron Thomas. The Year 6 students participated in 6 sessions learning how to give powerful speeches to an audience. At the final session the students had to present a 3 minute speech about a topic of their choice. This was done in a competitive setting where they were awarded points by Ron Thomas for each of the success criteria. Parents were invited to attend this session and it was great to see the many parents that came. The trophy was awarded to Leo G for his speech about ‘Being An Actor’. All the students were amazing with their speeches and the improvement in all their abilities and level of confidence was apparent.

All this work on ‘Leadership’ has led into the final stages of applying for and selecting our School Leaders at St Mary’s. All Year 6 students had an opportunity to use their perspectives in listing and generating the character traits and role descriptions for each of the Leadership Positions which are as follows:

• School Leaders (formerly School Captains and Vice Captains)
• Sports Leaders (formerly Sports Captains and Vice Captains)
• Faith/Social Justice Leaders
• Wellbeing Leaders/SRC
• Technology Leaders
• Sustainability Leaders
• Curriculum Leaders - Italian, Arts, Literacy, Mathematics

Firstly, all students select 5 positions in order of preference. They then write a one minute Leadership speech which they will present to their peers in Years 5 and 6 and the School Leadership Team in Week 11. Students and teachers will then be asked to vote for the School Leaders (formerly School Captains and Vice Captains). 

Once the School Leaders are selected, the other leadership positions are filled in accordance with the preferences which have already been submitted. All Leaders will be presented to the school community at the final School Assembly of Term 1.

There has been a lot of thought and preparation working towards our student leadership structure and selection process, to ensure each student has the opportunity to learn about leadership and apply themselves to leadership. Term 1 has offered a variety of opportunities for student voice in outlining role descriptions and building the skills and confidence to be able to carry out these roles throughout the year.

Further work will be done on leadership across the school with SRCs being selected and announced on Friday 8th April at assembly. As is the current process, all students who have not been an SRC and wish to do so, have their name pulled out of a hat. 

Moving forward we aim to offer more leadership roles from Prep to Year 5 and this will be explored with the students, staff and a parent focus group in preparation for 2023.

One of the many benefits of being a small community school is that all of our students have the authentic opportunity to lead. In this way we are growing each of our students to be active and informed global citizens.

  Mrs Paula Incretolli, Mrs Cathy Ferrari, Mr Anthony Speranza