This year as a Primary staff at our Mt Ridley Campus, we have spent significant time looking at ways to maximise student agency through the curriculum.
This has included within the Wellbeing program. This week, we have further seen how this has also translated beyond the class curriculum into our student leadership programs.
At the beginning of the year we introduced the Primary School Senate encouraging student voice and action through regular meetings both with their class and then with the other student Senators. This enabled students to voice concerns, asks questions and help to make positive changes within the Primary School through listening to one another and working out solutions to problems. This just one of the ways throughout the year both in remote and face to face where we have seen the positive power of student agency.
During this past week, we have had the chance to see student agency at its best. This has been through the process we used to help select our 2021 Primary School Student Leaders. Applicants were required to complete an application form with key criteria answered as well as seeking out both a staff member and student to support their application. All students were then interviewed by a member of the Primary Leadership or Wellbeing Team as well as two of the current Primary Captains or Vice Captains. This year, the current Captains had an opportunity to read through the applications of the students they were interviewing and set their own interview questions based around the written application. This opportunity empowered our current Captains to take the lead within the interviews, which helped to create questions that were individualised towards each applicant as well as helping to put at ease the Year 5 students being interviewed. The student agency within the process enabled for more personal and stronger interview responses as well as providing opportunities for learning and growth from both sides of the interview desk.
A similar process is also being used for our 2021 Primary House Captains, and we can’t wait to see the outcome of this process.
Announcements regarding some of the positions will occur in the last week of term. We are all looking forward to continuing to encourage and promote even greater student agency through our Wellbeing programs in 2021.
Sarah Shatford - Head of Student Wellbeing (3 - 6)
