At Chellaston Academy one of our main aims is to provide opportunities for our students to learn and develop as individuals. We believe that a main part of this is challenge our students to try new things and to encourage students to move out of their ‘comfort zone’. Consequently, we try to provide students with a number of different Leadership opportunities across their time at the school. In addition to this we believe that it is imperative to give students a voice within the academy and to take their opinions and views on board, looking to change and improve things where we can. Below is a list of the main leadership roles and opportunities that we offer here at Chellaston Academy;
Head Boy and Head Girl + Deputies
6th form students in Year 12 have the opportunity at the end of the academic year to apply and interview for the role of Head Boy and Head Girl for the next school year. This is the pinnacle of student leadership roles at the academy and the role comes with a detailed job description which both challenges and develops the leadership skills of those students selected.
School Prefects
Each year the academy offers students in Year 12 to apply for the role of school prefect. This role has two parts to it. Firstly, they are an important part of the 6th form leadership team, feeding back ideas and suggestions to the 6th form teachers. However, their role is also school wide in that they have a role to play at breaktimes in terms of policing behaviour but also rewarding students when they see fit. Once again this role challenges students to move out of their comfort zone and to develop leadership skills that they will need in the future.
Student Committees
We run 7 student committees here at the academy with 98 pupils across all 3 Key Stages being involved. The committees are as follows;
1, Student Council
2, Catering committee
3, Environment Committee
4, Teaching and Learning committee
5, Wellbeing committee
6, PSHE committee
7, House and Charities committee
The purpose of the committees is to support the aims of the school through inviting pupils to take part in communicating their ideas and suggestions about a wide variety of issues. Pupils are encouraged to develop skills to help them communicate, to think about important issues, to express and justify opinions and to contribute to discussions and debates. Minutes of the meetings are taken and shared with staff and students. A list of actions is drawn up and then students are informed of any decisions made via the screens around school, in form time and on the leadership boards in the main corridor.
Year group councils
Each year group has a council specific to their Year group and the needs of its students. Each form is represented and meets with the SPL (Student Progress Leader) for the Year group. Following on from these discussions the SPL can look to address or raise any issues that have been brought up.
Franklin Scholars
Each year 15 Year 10 students go through a selection process via the Franklin Scholar organisation to mentor a Year 7 student across their first year at the academy. They receive specialist training across the year and work with their mentee twice a week during form time. The feedback from both the Year 7s and the Year 10s is overwhelmingly positive and again provides students the ability to improve their leadership skills, as well as having to go through an actual interview process to get the role.
Duke of Edinburgh
The Duke of Edinburgh scheme is incredibly popular with our students. This year 94 students are taking bronze, 47 are taking silver and 10 students are going for their Gold award. The scheme is clearly renowned across the country and provides students the opportunity to learn new skill, develop resilience but have fun at the same time.
House Captains
This year 10 students in the 6th form have had the opportunity to lead their house in the pursuit of the House cup! They work closely with both staff and students to organise teams for the many different competitions that we run across the year. These students had to apply and interview for the positions, again giving them skills for the future.
This year we have extended this role to introduce Junior House captain roles for Key Stage 3 and 4. These students will then work alongside their 6th form house captains.