Student Leadership 2014
Ipsley Academy
Student Leadership at Ipsley Academy
Ipsley Academy aims to build the understandings and skills of leadership through the total
curriculum and the many varied activities of school life.
Our Student Leadership programme provides;
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Formal and informal learning opportunities to develop individuals as leaders.
Processes and structures for student representation and the incorporation of
students’ views into decision making into the life of the school.
Ipsley Academy will;
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Provide a wide range of participation and leadership opportunities which cater for all
students in the school.
Maximise the number and range of students undertaking leadership roles.
Provide recognition of all student leadership roles
Encourage the development of student participation and leadership skills through
classroom across all Key Stages
Encourage students to differentiate between student participation and student
leadership.
Develop student participation and leadership skills in all students through specific
programmes, for example:
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Student Council
Head Boy ,Head Girl
Student Leaders
Junior Sports Leaders
buddy systems – Year 4-5 transition programme
sport, captaincy in sports teams
visual, creative and performing arts
curriculum involvement/activities in the learning environment
Ipsley Leadership Diploma
Peer Mentoring Programme
Supporting whole school initiatives
i. Open Evening
ii. Charity Events
iii. Parents Evening
iv. Staff recruitment
v. Representing Ipsley Academy in the immediate and wider
community
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Develop ways to ensure gender equity. These could include:
– leadership roles with both boys and girls as co-representatives
– sports captaincy evenly representing boys and girls
– practices that challenge gender stereotypes
– using gender inclusive language.
Celebrate the achievements of all students in written and oral forms:
– newsletter, written or oral
– school assemblies
– certificates
– service awards
– Achievement Awards
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Ipsley Leadership Diploma
Ipsley Leadership Diploma will be available to all Year 7/8 students on a voluntary basis. This
will be introduced by a member of SLT during assembly.
They have to demonstrate leadership qualities in 6 key areas:
 6 areas
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Core Values
Community
Mentoring
Student Voice
Planning
Learning
Community
Mentoring
Core
Values
Leader
Student
Voice
Planning
Learning
The students keep a simple log for all staff to sign when they have completed an activity in a
key leadership area. (See Appendix A)
It is tutors responsibility to monitor students’ logs during registration time and inform Year
Head of student progress. Diploma certificates will be awarded during assembly and
successful students’ names will be displayed.
3 areas completed = Bronze Award
4 areas completed =Silver Award
6 areas completed = Gold Award and a recommendation to apply for Student Leader role in
Year 7/8
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Student Leaders
This opportunity will be open to all Year 8 students and those students in Year 7 who have
shown good leadership qualities during year 7, by completing the Ipsley Leadership Diploma
to a Gold standard, or in some circumstances to Silver standard. Alternatively they may have
been involved in other school initiatives and have displayed outstanding Leadership
qualities, eg on School Council
Application Forms for Student Leader will be made available in the Summer Term for Year 7
after a pupil-led assembly promoting Student Leadership. Application forms will be available
from Head of Year or the main office.
All applicants must have demonstrated positive role model attributes within the school, and
have demonstrated a good community spirit by being actively involved in school events. Eg
Open evening, Sporting events, performing arts ventures
From the applications, successful students will be invited for interview with a member of
SLT, the Head of Year, and/or Head Boy/Girl.
Successful candidates will form the Student Leader body, the number of Student Leaders
will vary from year to year depending on the interest and number of successful candidates.
The Principal reserves the right to veto any School Leader application.
Students will then be involved in a training programme to involve:
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Peer mentoring
Peer Mediation
Interviewing skills
Public speaking
Circle time training
Hall tech
Managing sporting events
Training may be prior to taking office or during the time of office.
School will provide distinctive Student Leader ties and badges so that pupils can be easily
identified around school site by all members of the community.
The Student Leaders will be rewarded for their services, by Certificates, recognition in
Assemblies, and any other methods that the Principal deems fit.
A Head Boy and Head Girl will represent the student leader body. These lead student
leaders will be chosen by SLT and the Principal. The Head Student Leaders will report to the
School Council every half term.
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Student Leader Duties
Duties will cover a number of areas, and students will be designated roles according to their
strengths:
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Student Voice through the School Council (either Head boy or Head Girl
Supporting the LRC
Supporting vulnerable students in Lunch and Break Club
Supporting tutor times
Supporting Extra Curricular PE
Break and Lunch time duty
Interviewing potential new staff
Supporting Parents’ Evenings
Supporting charity events
Peer Mentoring
Supporting assemblies
Supporting readers
Meeting and greeting
Tours of the school
Presenting to governors and/or SLT
Assisting in sporting events
During Terms of Office
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Once students have been successful in their application they will be required to
complete the Ipsley Academy School Contract of Leadership. (See Appendix B)
The Principal may offer a warning or terminate the contract of student leaders if they are
found to be in breach of this contract (depending on the level of misconduct) Parents will be
notified immediately if this is to occur.
The Principal reserves the right to veto any School Leader application.
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Two of our Student Leaders:
Student Leaders (New for 2014-15)
Aim: To provide leadership opportunities for younger students and to gain accreditation
from the RSA, working in collaboration with the family of academies within the RSA.
Students will complete an application form, which is common across the family of RSA
academies; they will also have a reference from a member of staff. 10 of the students will
be further selected after being interviewed by SLT and relevant staff.
All applicants must show a good attitude to learning, have a positive attitude that
contributes to the ethos of the school, be an excellent role model to other students, be
confident to the challenge of the task and be willing to engage in the extensive training
programme.
Training Programme
Date: September 2014
Venue : The RSA Academy
Introduction to Leadership
Purpose: What is Leadership? What skills do Leaders need? Students identify own
Strengths/weaknesses.
Date: October 17th 2014
Venue: Whitley Academy
Effective Communication
Purpose: to develop debating, presentation, public speaking skills
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Date November 2014
Venue: Ipsley Aacdemy
Leading Teams
Purpose : Learning to be an effective team player and how to deliver team building activities
December 2014 – Residential at Warwick University – Launch of the Student Leaders’
Community Action Plan. The students will plan an action that they feel will benefit their
immediate community.
January – April 2015 Students launch their community projects in school and they are to
keep blog/video diary/photographs of their action.
May
2015
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Presentation
of
assemblies/newsletter/SLT/staff/parents.
community
project
to
school,
in
June/July 2015
RSA Celebration event at the RSA in London, and presentation of certificates. Evaluation of
the year and planning to recruit for the next academic year.
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School Council
The School Council’s aim is to provide a conduit for news, ideas and opinions between pupils
and staff (or other bodies, such as Governors). The intention is that the School Council’s
profile should be raised to the extent that every pupil at Ipsley is aware of at least some of
the activities of the School Council and feels confident that their ideas and opinions would
be heard through that body.
The School Council will run as follows:
1 School Councillor elected per class by mid-September each year, following a
presentation and discussion about the function and activities of the School Council.
Candidates should prepare a short presentation for their class or tutor group prior
to the elections.
At least 1 adult will represent the staff at School Council meetings.
The School Councillor will appoint a Chair, Secretary and Treasurer. Adults will
provide support for these roles where needed.
Working parties will be formed according to need. Roles and responsibilities should
rotate, so that pupils of all ages develop opportunities for leadership and
responsibility.
School Councillors should attend regular meetings that are at least monthly
(according to need).
Each School Councillor is responsible for maintaining a School Council space in their
own classroom, with agreement from their Tutor, displaying the following
information: the name of their School Councillor, time and place of meetings and
the latest minutes. Where possible, School Councillors should be able to address
their class or tutor group if the need arises.
The School Council should maintain a display in school to raise the profile of the
Council and its activities.
Representatives from the School Council should be invited to SLT meetings (at least
termly) and present ideas and information about their activities to staff.
The School Council should participate in Matchborough Youth Forum activities and
other community activities as required.
The School Council will represent pupil voice in relevant activities, such as
interviewing candidates for jobs.
The School Council will develop an awareness of decision-making and democratic
processes among its members in various ways: the process of election of School
Councillors; procedure during meetings; links via the Matchborough Youth Forum
to Redditch Town Council (eg inviting local councillors into school to discuss issues);
visiting the Houses of Parliament.
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Peer Mentoring Programme
At Ipsley we have links with a charity called Mentor
Link. This organisation provides adult Mentors to
those students who require additional support in
school.
Mentor-Link also trains KS3 Student Leaders to
become Peer Mentors.
These young people have applied to
do this as they may feel they wish to help younger
students in school. During their training they are
taught the importance of confidentiality, safeguarding, and empathy. They will also look at
conflict resolution, to help students with friendship issues.
Year 8 Reading Leaders
At the end of year 7, 12 proficient readers volunteer to be trained as Reading Leaders. They
are then trained in how to support younger children with reading, in terms both of
‘decoding’ (being able to read a word aloud correctly) and to test comprehension of what
had been read.
From September , these volunteers spend each morning tutorial time working either with a
pair of similar ability year 5 readers, or with an individual, listening to them read aloud. The
purpose of this activity is to develop the confidence of the year 5 readers, some of whom
struggle to read fluently and to articulate their understanding of the texts read.
Over the course of the year (13-14), nearly 40 year 5 children have had this opportunity.
Whilst their scores and levels in reading tests may not have improved dramatically, for many
of these children, it has been a major success in terms of developing their confidence and
willingness to read.
For the year 8 children, there has also been benefit as they have worn a ‘Reading Leader’
badge, and have been a recognised part of the student leadership programme in school;
they have provided excellent service to their school community and should feel proud of
their input, and have so far been rewarded with a letter home and a book as a present from
the school book fair. Plans are in place to develop this scheme further for the forthcoming
year with the new year 8 Reading Leaders receiving training very soon.
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Junior Sports Leaders
The junior sports leaders course is a nationally recognised course that can be taught in
schools to help young people improve their confidence and skills in leadership.
At Ipsley CE RSA the 20 week (approx.) course is taught to students in year 8 and aims to
provide pupils the opportunity to work on a range of leadership skills through coaching
younger pupils in a wide range of activities and events.
The course attracts approximately 10 students per year who learn the key skills such as
communication, teamwork, delivering activities and games, leadership, organisation and
planning. The course also gives pupils an insight into what physical education teaching may
be like and also help prepare them for PE based courses in High School.
The course itself is very practically based and once the students have learnt the key skills
they spend time working with local primary schools helping to run tournaments, referee
competitions and take small groups of students for fun activities which are ran on Fridays in
conjunction with the Redditch Schools Games Partnership Trust.
The sports leaders course has been excellent for Ipsley CE RSA Academy and the
surrounding schools, as many events and tournaments have utilised the skills of the sports
leaders. Primary schools are now keen to use the sports leaders as often as possible due to
the massive success that they have brought in the past.
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Ipsley CREW
The Ipsley CREW is a group of children from all year groups that concentrates on the Christian
distinctiveness of the school and collective worship. The pupils were nominated and voted for by
their form and there is a representative from each form. Other pupils have been welcomed as they
showed a specific interest.
The CREW officially began in January 2014 and has met a few times a term to discuss religious
elements of the school. In the lead up to Easter, the CREW created interactive displays for the prayer
room which all pupils can use at lunch time if they feel they need to. They also led the Easter service
which was called ‘The Easter Factor’ where you most important Christian symbol was voted for.
In June, the CREW attended the Worcestershire worship forum at St. Margaret’s at Hasbury Primary
school, Halesowen. This was an excellent opportunity for the pupils to see what was done in other
schools in terms of collective worship and we collected lots of ideas that we can use next year.
From September, there will be a reflective area in each tutor room and the CREW representative will
lead the creation of it in and the use of reflective during SMSC/assembly time in the morning and
tutor time in the afternoon.
The CREW presenting at the worship forum in St. Margaret’s at Hasbury Primary school, Halesowen.
Pupil Receptionists
At Ipsley students in KS3 are given the opportunity to work in the Reception Area of the school.
The students are chosen because they display good attitude at school and they are making excellent
progress in their studies. The students are required to wear full school uniform and be good role
models for the school and other pupils.
The students are trained in how to meet and greet visitors in school, in a courteous and respectful
manner; and how to complete minor administrative tasks. They could be expected to give visitors a
tour of the school, and give feed back to SLT regarding the visitors.
They will be required to be on duty for an hour during the school day. When they are not busy, they
are required to complete school work.
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