Student Leadership

Student Voice, Agency and Leadership

Over the years I have been at HPSC, student voice has come a long way, and I feel proud to be a part of this. There are 3 crucial elements to empowering students to be partners in learning.

1. Student Voice
2. Student Leadership
3. Student Agency  

According to the Department of Education, Student Agency refers to the level of autonomy and power that a student experiences in the learning environment.

Student voice and agency are intrinsically linked. Agency gives students the power to direct and take responsibility for their learning, creating independent and self-regulating learners. Put simply, student agency relates to the level of freedom and trust between the students and staff.

These 3 key concepts; of voice, leadership and agency, can generate a constructive and effective cycle of learning by demonstrating the positive connections between students and staff and allow students to feel comfortable in their classrooms.

Once trust is established, students feel increased freedom to concentrate on their tasks, ask for help, and ultimately work harder.

The notion of building and demonstrating the trust between staff and student reflects the pledge we all carry of respecting one another and collaborating towards a common goal.

Overall, a teacher aims to invest time and knowledge to broaden the mind of a student.

A student's responsibility should be to absorb as much knowledge and wisdom as possible. Student Agency can help make this more possible than ever and maximise the willingness to learn as the students will recognise your efforts to recognise them as individuals who are responsible for themselves, their learning, their punctuality and their opportunities.

Jessica Hogan