Developing student leadership through student action groups

Synopsis

At Holy Family Catholic School, student action groups have superseded the traditional student representative council (SRC). Our school found that the SRC, although worthwhile in its intention, was not giving all students an opportunity to voice their opinions. This was because peers elected representatives and there was only one representative for each class.

Introduction

In a whole school survey, students indicated they were interested in and concerned about environment, learning, sports shed, school and community events and relationships with peers. Furthermore, almost all students said they would be willing to be involved and take action to improve the school. Student action groups were therefore formed around each of these key areas (with the exception of relationships with peers).

Organisation

The aim of the student action groups is to develop student leadership by giving all students an opportunity to have a say. They make decisions, initiate change and take action in areas of the school that are important to them.

The student action groups meet once a week at lunchtime and during class time when necessary. Student across all year levels are involved and at the first meeting students vote on a name for each group. A teacher is present and their role is to facilitate the meeting when needed, for example, to ask open-ended questions to prompt thinking and discussion.

In their action groups, students are totally responsible for doing all of the work. They develop ideas, share them with their group, decide on a course of action and organise, plan and implement change.

For action groups to be successful, it is crucial that the entire school community - leadership, teachers, parents and other students – listen, trust and support the action group’s decisions. At times, this presents the greatest challenge. However, as student voice has become more established in our school’s culture, this has become less of an issue.

Leadership, initiative, self-esteem

The student action groups have been an extremely successful student leadership and student voice initiative.

‘There are many things that are essential in life to learn, like leadership, group work and responsibility and I have learnt about this through the action groups.  It isn’t easy all the time but together the groups are making a difference and we are learning’ – Claudia, student action group.

Teachers also value the difference the action groups had made to their teaching, their classroom and the school.

‘Students are able to express their thoughts and ideas about the issues that are important in their lives. This allows educators to become aware of student needs and listen to what really matters most to them’ – Miss Nadia Scuteri

The initiative has reveled that student leadership doesn’t just give students the opportunity to make decisions. It also gives them the chance to feel good about themselves, to develop confidence, to build meaningful relationships and to believe they can shape the world around them.

What the students have achieved

Nature Heroes (environment)

• Established a cardboard and paper recycling system
• Built worm farms to recycle students’ food scraps
• Reduced the litter in the yard with initiatives like ‘No Bin Week’ and ‘Friday Clean Up’ days.
• Raised money for rainwater tanks for our school by recycling 5cent deposit containers
• Made a film about recycling

Sportz Kidz (sports shed)

• Audited, repaired and ordered sporting equipment
• Trained peers to be sports shed monitors
• Renovated the sports shed
• Implemented a new borrowing system
• Made a film about borrowing riles for the sports shed

Fun-Raisers (school and community events)

• Organised school events such as ‘Holy Family Has Got Talent’ competition
• Celebrated our cultural diversity by organising fin activities for Harmony Day

Mini-Ministers (learning)

• Surveyed students on what makes learning interesting and fun for them
• Provided teachers with recommendations on how to engage their students better using results from the survey

Further information

Holy Family Catholic School is located in Adelaide, South Australia, and teaches approximately 800 students from grades reception to year 7 (5 to 13 year olds). The cultural diversity of our school community is one of our greatest strengths and 48% of students speak a language other than English. Holy Family Catholic School is dedicated to providing its students with an education that meets the needs and challenges of their preferred futures. Developing student leadership through student voice initiatives is an important part of this commitment.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

After graduating with a Bachelor of Education (Junior Primary/Primary) with Honours from the University of South Australia, Ms Nicole Tropeano began her teaching career with a reception/year 1 class on Kangaroo Island, in South Australia, Australia. After a year, she returned to Adelaide and has been teaching at Holy Family Catholic School for the past four years. During her time at Holy Family, she taught year 2 and year 7 and also spent a year acting as coordinator for pedagogical transformation. Ms Tropeano believes that since schools exist for students then, schools should exist by students, too. Hence, student voice, developing students as leaders, personalisation of the curriculum and working with students to co-construct their learning experiences are all important and crucial elements of Ms Tropeano’s teaching practice and her students’ learning and development.

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