Student Leadership

Student Leadership at St Peter’s School

At St Peter’s School, there are many different leadership opportunities that we offer to our students across departments, year groups and the whole school. Leadership is learnable and I believe our students are a powerful resource in developing school and community partnerships. The leadership opportunities help to provide our students with invaluable life skills, allow for open communication across all years, and promote the development of student skill sets.

At the end of last term, we had the pleasure of interviewing Year 12 students for the roles of Head and Deputy Head Students. It was a busy two days and students had to present their ideas to staff, be interviewed by Miss Butler, Miss Furbank and Mrs Matthew, and face questions from the Student Council. Six students were chosen to make up the Head Student Team and their first job was to interview and appoint the new Year 10 Student Leaders. We look forward to sharing with you the work that both complete in the future.

Spring Term Update:

In January, our 6^th formers were given the opportunity to apply for a Student Leader role. We appointed 20 new leaders who have been given the responsibility to monitor different areas around the school site at lunchtime. The areas include the astro, field, library, canteen and general patrol. The student leaders have been having positive interactions with younger students across all areas of the school, monitoring football games on the astro, assisting with the lunch queue in the canteen and helping clear the field at the end of lunch. We have had valuable feedback from both staff and students about the presence of our 6th-form leaders and the positive impact they are having in their new roles.

Our new Head Student Team decided to restructure the way the Student Council will be run. It has been divided into year groups, with each Head Student taking responsibility for a year, running meetings to discuss upcoming events, proposed changes, talking with representatives in all year groups and learning valuable leadership skills. Students in every year group had the opportunity to put their names forward to be representatives for their respective tutor groups, writing a letter of application, with the Head Students selecting one representative from each year group. The Head Student Team have run their first student council meeting, introducing the new members, and outlining each member’s roles and responsibilities.

Proposed Plans:

Our plan is to develop Student Leadership across the whole school. We currently have a healthy group of Lunch Leaders, Y10 Student Leaders and Head Students. We have also formulated our Student Council and Y12 Peer Mentoring Programme. We want to develop leadership lower down the school, introducing LAE Leaders in every year group. These leaders will be responsible for charity events, student voice activities, student panels and anything else. They will be line managed by 5 post-16 Senior LAE leaders, who will be responsible for 3 students from each year group.

Following on from the appointment of our new Y11 Student Leadership team, they will be heavily involved in the Year 6 Transition days. Each Year 11 student will be given a Year 7 tutor group to assist with throughout the day, and they will be attached to that tutor group come the new academic year. Having Year 11 student leaders work with Year 7 tutor groups has previously proven popular and they have enjoyed having a role model with them – promoting positive contributions to activities and developing skills that students are already working on. Giving the Year 11 leaders the freedom to deliver a tutor time activity encourages responsibility and increases confidence, creating a successful student leadership programme.

Year 12s have been working with younger students in Nurture as part of Eddie’s Peer Mentorship Project, supporting young people with autism and learning disabilities to develop their skills, increase opportunities and look at preparing them for moving into adulthood. Miss Furbank has completed ASDAN training to deliver a certified qualification for students interested in peer mentoring and leadership courses. This will provide recognition for those who are learning, developing, and passing on their skills for mentoring younger students.   

In September, we are introducing a new role – Prep Leaders. Students from Post-16 will go into Year 8 and Year 9 Prep groups and will be responsible for leading activities, talking to students about lateness and behaviour, and being a positive role model and influence during this time. This is something we hope to develop across the year, supporting younger students during their daily lives at school.

Subject Student Leadership:

Sports Leaders Programme: selected Year 9 students are engaging in a programme of training and upskilling to become Sports Leaders. They take part in several workshops, both theoretical and practical, to provide them with knowledge and skills to be able to lead, officiate and manage sporting events. We hope the programme will produce successful leaders who can help to develop and provide more sporting opportunities across the school and the wider community.

In Music extra-curricular activities, the older, more experienced musicians lead & help the younger ones. In Music KS3 curriculum lessons, we have one or two Music Leaders in each class who assist with aspects of music technology so that new technological techniques are learnt by all members of the class as quickly and as confidently as possible. In Drama, during Matilda rehearsals, sixth-form students came to support and mentor the younger students. This involved them supporting with rehearsals in which they helped choreograph key scenes, giving students tips on acting and supporting staff members with all the dramas that Drama brings!

In English, we have quite a close working relationship with the library where students are library leaders. This involves them manning the desks during break/lunchtime – they check books in and out, reshelve books that have been returned and support Oksana with different things. We also have sixth-form students who were doing paired reading work.

In Geography this year we have set up a Year 12 mentoring scheme with 2 of our A-level students mentoring a group of Year 11s girls during tutorial. With direction from Mrs Savill they prepare and deliver a revision session to a small group of year 11 girls. The focus of these sessions is to build confidence and share their knowledge of what worked for them when they studied GCSE. They are also in the process of setting up an eco-committee as part of the eco-schools initiative https://www.eco-schools.org.uk/seven-steps/ which will offer student leadership opportunities across the year groups. Year 12 students also volunteer to support with History Club which takes place on a Tuesday in the department. They help the KS3 to complete tasks and support staff with organising the activities.