Student Leadership

Student Leadership is an important part of our ASPIRE culture at the academy and has been "reborn" post COVID. At SRWA Student leadership is divided into two strands: Student Leadership and Student Voice.

"Hello I’m Oliver, one of the Head Students at SRWA. I feel very privileged to be able to work with all of you and I’d love to see everyone get involved in student leadership in some way!"

"Hello! My name is Bethan Newell and I am one of the Head Students at SRWA. I am very happy to be in this role and I’m so excited to work with all student leaders this year. This is our chance to change the school for the better so I would encourage all students to get involved- there’s something for everyone!"

The Student Leadership strand allows students to volunteer to be part of programmes and projects that aim to raise the profile of the academy (or specific elements within it) and "give back" to the academy. All students involved in student leadership are volunteers who apply for the various roles on offer. 

The Student Voice strand allows students to be active in decision making at the academy and be an integral part of positive change. All students involved in student leadership are democratically elected to the posts on offer.   

Both strands of student leadership are linked and the diagram below may help to demonstrate this. 

Student Leadership

There are various student leadership roles that students can volunteer for in all year groups and students are encouraged to participate in as many of these programmes as they can. Some programmes give one-off experiences and others require more long term, sustained commitment. All of them aim to develop leadership skills and confidence and promote our six ASPIRE attributes: Ambitious, Self Regulating, Present, Independent, Resilient, Excellent. 

Some detail on the various programmes are detailed below.  

Head Students and Deputy Head Students
Every year, at least one head student is selected from the W6 cohort to represent the academy and the entire student leadership programme. The head student is the most prestigious student leadership position at SRWA and the role is a very important one. The Head student is not only the primary representative of the academy but is responsible for ensuring the whole student leadership programme functions. 

Year 11 Prefects 
Our Year 11 prefects (pictured above) are our top students. They wear gold ties and are responsible for leading and co-ordinating the wider student leadership programme. Year 11 prefects represent the school at public events, support visits and events within the school and also support our pastoral teams and students lower down the school. Year 11 prefects will need to demonstrate excellent commitment to learning and excellent potential for leadership. 

Year 10 Face2Face
Peer councillors, attached to year 7 tutor groups provide help and support to younger students that may be finding life tough. Face2Face students have three years of experience at secondary school and are trained in listening and supporting with peer related issues and work closely with the school chaplain to provide a support mechanism to students that may not wish to speak to a fellow student before they speak to adults. 

Year 7 Helpers
Every year 7 pupil will be offered the chance to be a student helper.  For one day a year students will be asked to support the school's admin team with a range of responsibilities. 

Chapter Captains 
All SRWA students are divided into chapters (houses) which allow for challenge and competition in sporting, cultural and academic events. Every chapter has a captain in each year group and every chapter has two Chapter Captains in year 11. These captains are responsible for organising inter-chapter events and ensuring every chapter is represented well.  

Year 8 Transition Leaders
Every year we ask a group of year 8 students to act as mentors to the upcoming year 7s. Their job is to support Year 6 primary school students to prepare for the transition to secondary school and support them once they have started.    

Environmental Champions
At SRWA we are committed to conservation and our "Un-Muck the World" eco-club leads the way on this. Anyone can join provided they are committed to improving everyone's commitment to saving the planet.  

Sports Leaders 
Sports Leaders are organised through our PE department as part of the GCSE and BTEC courses. Sports Leaders plan and run sports events for younger students to help engage them in sport, promote healthy lifestyles and have fun.

Charity Leaders 
Our Charity leaders plan and organise various charity events throughout the year on behalf of the academy. 

*Please note that not all programmes are fully up and running at present and we are continually looking to develop the range of programmes available to our young people. 

Student Voice

Student Voice is a very important part of our student leadership programme and forms the elected strand of the programme. All members of student voice programmes are elected by their peers. 

Year Group Councils
At the beginning of each academic year, every tutor group elects a representative to sit on the year group council.  The year group council meet with the Head of Year once per term and their role is to provide feedback to pastoral leaders about various aspects of school life, come up with and drive ideas for year group projects and whole school initiatives and seek to resolve issues that face students on a daily basis. Matters that arise that are "whole school" in nature are typically taken by the Year Group Councils to the SRWA student council.    

SRWA Student Council 
The SRWA student council is made up of two students from each year group that are elected from the Year Group Councils to represent the year group at the whole school level.  The student council will meet fortnightly to discuss issues relating to school life and will make recommendations to the school's senior leadership team and Academy Council (Governing Body) . 

The SRWA student council will deal with all matters relating to student's experience of school.  From the more simple and straightforward such as feeding back on the food in the canteen and submitting ideas for charity events to the more complex such as helping to inform and shape school policies.  Recently for example, the SRWA Student Council has been involved in advising the school leadership team in developing the anti-bullying policy and procedures.

The SRWA student council is led by the Head Student and the Deputy Head students.