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Student leadership at The Arnewood School: learning together – shaping tomorrow
How much do we value student leadership? How much do we value the student voice? We say we listen to our young people, but how much are they really involved in some key decision-making areas in a genuine community of adults and children learning together? How is it that one of our former students won an Olympic Gold medal in the 2008 Olympics and another is the Great Britain Volleyball Captain?
At The Arnewood School, in New Milton, South West Hampshire, in England, the views of students are not only taken seriously, but inform curriculum planning, quality of teaching, assessment for improved learning, and developing leadership skills with a democratic international perspective that is part of good citizenship and community cohesion.
Students leading a personalised curriculum – meeting every student’s needs
Traditionally, many schools in England have organised their curriculum according to the specialist skills of staff, sometimes continuing with courses because the subject specialism is there, rather than because it is relevant to the students in the early 21st century.
It is also easy to stick to the same examination boards and syllabuses without necessarily questioning each year if they are still the best fit for the students’ needs. While a sense of continuity is undoubtedly important for maintaining momentum with successful courses and allow a familiarity that is comforting, the qualifications offered may not best match the particular learning styles of groups of learners, but rather gives a uniform approach that suggests ‘one size fits all’.
At The Arnewood School we have established a more considered approach to the particular needs of individuals and groups, listening carefully to their needs and wishes, then taking a judicious view of how they can be met. This process starts at age 12, on entry to the school, since a new cohort of learners will have a diverse range of needs – as every year group before them. Some may need extra literacy and numeracy support to give an equitable chance to access fully the new Secondary Curriculum schemes of work, nationally implemented from September 2007. Others, already identified as gifted in particular learning areas, will need extra pace and challenge, possibly taking public examinations well before others of similar age. This requires good dialogue with primary school and while many schools have effective cross-phase exchange of transition information, how many talk directly to the year 6 students about their desires and aspirations?
In discussions this September and October with children aged 11 or 12 (year 6 in England) who may transfer to The Arnewood School in 2009, we found the range of ideas, understanding, ambition and variety of needs a salutary reminder of the challenges we face in leading a curriculum with sustained enjoyment and engagement for every learner. They already knew a good deal about our facilities from previous visits to our science and technology fairs and were aware of our e-learning dimension, including a laptop scheme that encourages every child to take one home every day as a family learning resource. Yes, many of them were excited by the prospect of ‘the shock of the new’, but the diversity of need was apparent.
We already knew from many previous experiences how mature these young learners are in their student leadership within their own organisations: there is clearly scope for developing this capacity to inform curriculum planning as these learners move to the next stage of their education. Clearly, the choices have to be placed within some parameters – 200 different courses for a year group would be an unrealistic strain on our resources, with 1100 children aged between 12 and 18 years - but the general emphasis is to find the course and qualifications that best promote high quality, personalised learning and allow the qualities of student leadership to flourish.
As Blanchard suggests in an article, Creativity and personalisation (2007):
‘The personalised curriculum’s emphasis on developing aptitudes, interests and attitudes may lead to the negotiation of better focused courses, rather than the accumulation of qualifications for their own sake or the sake of appearance’.
In the same article, he stresses the importance of leadership in effecting change, primarily by adults but also from the student body.
Without outstanding leaders, change will not happen . . . As students gain their voice, they too can lead thinking and trialling’ (Curriculum Briefing Vol. 6, No1)
The importance of encouraging independent thinking and learning is highlighted in a nationally distributed document published in England, Pedagogy and Personalisation (2007, DfES), which, in detailing core principles of pedagogy, talks of the need (p. 2):
‘to develop learning skills, thinking skills and personal qualities across the curriculum, inside and outside the classroom’.
Not only is there an explicit cognitive dimension, but also a clear understanding that the strategies for promoting good learning behaviours, such as aspiration, motivation and improved self-esteem, are crucial to higher performance
In more general terms, this is emphasised in the new secondary National Curriculum for England, implemented from September 2008. The key aims (p.7) are to prepare:
- successful learners
- confident individuals
- responsible citizens
So what is the climate required in a 21st century school to encourage this?
Student leadership at The Arnewood School
At The Arnewood School the views of students are taken seriously. Like many schools, we have year group and school councils. The difference for us has been moving the agenda of these meetings away from the perennial student uniform, discos and toilet wish lists to matters that have a greater influence in terms of meeting our school ethos. One only has to consider the importance and impact of student voice in the Section 5 Ofsted inspection process if one needs a more compelling motivation to take seriously the views of those in front of us each day in the classroom. Our mission is to place students at the centre of decision-making which is transformational for all stakeholders– ‘Learning Together: Shaping Tomorrow’
Students are active supporters of teacher-based action research. Many enjoy working in partnership with teachers to explore and understand topics that impact on the way in which we learn together. For example, students designed questionnaires to survey year 11 students on the impact of SEAL - Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning. Others worked with a lead practitioner in technology to give feedback through online SharePoint surveys about the effectiveness of teaching. Yet more students participated in developing teachers’ understanding of preferred feedback and marking of exercise books.
Our school council is formed of elected student ‘ambassadors. As the title suggests, the role the students are expected to fulfil is as student leaders who see themselves not only as the voice of the student population, but also the ‘diplomatic’ interface between all aspects of our town and school community. They are the students who represent young people when meeting with the school’s governing body, attend town council meetings, or otherwise contribute to civic functions, such as Remembrance Sunday or mayoral events. The students are awarded a two-year term of office so that they have a longer period of influence and that momentum is not lost between academic years. They are also coached in leadership skills through attending democracy briefings and media production training (student voice need not only be written or verbal, it can be visual, too).
It is interesting to note the topics that stretch students’ minds. We had anticipated that green issues might feature. The student recycling project has a sense of zeitgeist about it and is to be applauded for the vigour of its implementation. More surprising is the student bodies’ persistence with the UN Convention on Right, Respect and Responsibility. This has generated significant discussion across the school and a new school charter is taking shape. It holds an interesting juxtaposition with teacher led ‘classroom rules’.
Of course, both have an equally valuable part to play in clarifying formal expectations and setting standards of common courtesy and behaviour in a community context. It illustrates how far we have come that the students are embarking on their own professional development programme to share their charters’ ambitions with teachers and non-teachers alike.
Arguably the greatest impact in terms of student voice comes from our shadow student leadership team. Here, a group of sixth form students each work on attachment with a coach from the school’s senior leadership team. Working with the headteacher, deputy or assistant heads in their strategic decision-making, student leaders are able to propose a student point-of-view on issues that have tangible impact. Students are frequently able to bring a youthful perspective and fresh pair of eyes to existing problems, if one takes the time to explain the context and rationale.
Even the initially more doubting members of the senior team now recognise the value that professionally naive contributions can make in altering the constraints that limit the solution of problems – in other words, sometimes simple solutions work best and a lack of previous experience is no inhibitor to thinking outside the box - arguably it is an advantage. As an operational example - if you want students to stop losing their ID cards, students suggest making it a student discount card, too.
Frequently it is heard say in educational circles that we listen to our young people, but how much are they really involved together in some of the key decision-making areas that inspire a genuine community of adults and children working together; shaping tomorrow? At The Arnewood School, we feel we are beginning to make inroads and the journey is one that is definitely worth taking.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
is Headteacher and is Deputy Headteacher at The Arnewood School, in New Milton, Hampshire, England, United Kingdom.
