Dame Alice Owen's School

School Council and Student Voice at Dame Alice Owen's 2011/12

Active student involvement in learning, as well as involvement in decision making on wider issues relating to the school and the community, lies at the heart of our ethos at Dame Alice Owen’s School.

Students are consulted on Whole School issues and policies. Student feedback and input is highly valued. They present their views and demonstrate their impact in the life of the school regularly at Senior Management meetings and at the annual Governors meeting.

Structure of the Student Council and Scheduled meetings

Years 7-13

Year reps stand for two years. Year 7-12 have 4 year reps each year; 2 new members and 2 members who are in their second and final year serving on the council. Year 13 reps are the Head Girl and Head Boy. The student body elect their representatives through a voting system which takes place during form time.
The elected year reps from each year group bring their collective year group’s ideas forward to Whole School Council meetings which take place once a month. Two weeks after a Whole School Council meeting students are able to attend a ‘drop-in session’, advertised in year areas. These sessions provide students with the opportunity to speak about concerns they have, highlight issues or simply to have a chat and find out what has been happening in recent meetings.

Recent Successes 2011

• The girls changing rooms have been altered and re-decorated based on feedback provided by the student body.
• An accredited First Aid course is now available for students to undertake as an extra-curricular activity. This was a suggestion from Year 7.
• The School Council VLE page is now active and being developed based on student feedback.
• The Summer Sport’s Day BBQ was a popular event, raising money for charity.

Promoting Communication

This year the student council 2011/12 have decided to introduce a ‘video blog’ after each Whole School Council meeting as an entertaining way to find out what has been discussed and is happening. Access to these blogs will be on the School Council VLE page. The plasma screen notice board outside the Dining Hall, ‘School Council’ notice board and posters around the school are used to alert students to current topics of discussion and upcoming events.

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