Student Leadership at The Wensleydale School and Sixth Form
The student leadership programme at our school is led by Head Boy, James Ashcroft and Head Girl, Emily Scott who are both in Year 13. This month we asked James and Emily to introduce themselves and to explain what they hope to achieve in the role.
James : As part of our responsibilities as head boy and head girl we have been attempting to form a representative and active school council within the school. We wanted our school council to include views from all years and therefore all aspects of the school. We wanted it to be a group that would actively change the Wensleydale school environment for the better. This presented quite a challenge to organise and set up alongside both of our busy study schedules within school. We set about doing this by sending out a survey to students to allow them to tell us what they would like from their new student council and how they wanted their views to to represented. The survey, as part Emily and I’s general idea that we are here to represent students and be their voice, allowed us to tailor a student council as best we could to suit all students. To allow us to get an active and keen student council we asked prospective students to formally apply as we know previously students have felt pressured into being in the council which creates friction and an unproductive student body. We are happy to say that this has been a successful process and we hope to gradually increase the profile and responsibility of the student council in the near future. The first of the tasks for the newly formed school council will be to organise a weekly day during which no mobile phones will be allowed in the school. We are hoping that this will promote more social interactions between students and create a better school environment!
Emily: I applied to be head girl of the Wensleydale school and Sixth Form as throughout my five years of study I have been passionate and personally committed to making a contribution to the future success of the school. I feel the school offers a fantastic community environment with many enriching opportunities for all of its students. I have many aims to fulfil during my next two years in Sixth Form and I look to support the voice of the students as they play an important role in the development of the school. As this is a smaller than average rural comprehensive school our relationship with the community is very important to us and this can continue to be a focus for us. I look to be a role model for the students and be someone they can come to with any questions, ideas or worries they might have. Not only will this benefit them but it will create stronger communications between students, staff and the senior leadership team. By setting up the student council alongside the head boy James Ashcroft, the school now has a base for student discussion and decision making as we aim to look into new and exciting ideas and events such as ‘Mobile Free Monday’ and Comic Relief 2019. I have always enjoyed public speaking and presentation opportunities outside of school hours and my role as head girl has given me the position to inspire students through these skills.
James Ashcroft and Emily Scott
