Student Leadership

We are about to begin our exciting student leadership selection for 2019. Student leadership provides some of our students the opportunity to undertake formal roles across our school, as well as being part of our Year 6 body of student leaders, something which we expect of all of our senior school students.

Some of the feedback we have been given this year, from both staff, students and parents has been that the current structure and selection process is not truly reflective of leadership, and as such we have undertaken a review of our policy and practices for the selection of next years leaders. This draft policy was sent home to families a few weeks ago for consultation.

Shaun and I spoke to our current Year 5 students last week to outline the role and process and while there was some disappointment in the reduction of the number of roles, the general consensus amongst the group was that they agreed there needed to be a change.

In 2019 we will have two School Captains and 8 House Captains in our student leadership team. Below is outlined their main responsibilities:

School Captains

Act as a positive role model for all students by reflecting exemplary behaviour and effort at all times.
Be prepared to represent the school at various occasions such as thank yous or welcome to guests
Be involved in the promotion of the school image in the community
Participate in school activities such as Open Days or Information Nights
Confidently present at school assemblies
Convene and Chair meetings of the Junior School Council
Work with the Principal and Assistant Principal to promote the perspective of students
Attend School Council meetings in rotation with House Captains to report on student learning and issues

House Captains

Lead one of the four school Houses
Act as a positive role model for all students by reflecting exemplary behaviour and effort at all times.
Be involved in the promotion of the school image in the community
Participate in school activities such as Open Days or Information Nights
Present student awards at assembly
Take on the leadership of either the school Environmental, STEAM, or Positive Education/Student Wellbeing programs
Attend School Council meetings in rotation with School Captains to report on student learning and issues

The process to be selected as a student leader has been redeveloped to firstly allow students, teachers, and school leaders the opportunity for input into who should be selected, but is also a more rigorous process.

The process to be selected is now as follows:

1. A written application.

2. Present a speech to the current Year 4, 5 and 6 student group who will then award 3, 2 and 1 points in preference of who they believe would be a good student leader.

3. The teaching staff will look at the ranked candidates, and from this select a short list to be interviewed.

4. Mr McClare, Mrs Reiner and myself with then interview the shortlisted candidates and make a selection of school captain and house captains.

All students who were shortlisted for an interview will be notified in the second last week of school of the outcome of the student leadership selctions process, and the 2019 student leaders will be announced to the whole school in the last week of the year.

This has been a large piece of work for the school and I would like to thank our current student leaders and school council who held a special meeting with some of our current student leaders to discuss our policy, the roles and the selection process.

Marlborough Primary School

Issue 54 · 20 Nov 2018

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