Overview
At Ark Charter Academy, we believe that students have a wide range of opportunities to develop and practise leadership skills in preparation for life beyond school. Students and staff work together to identify and develop leadership potential, bringing benefits both to the student and the whole school environment.
Student leadership activities focus on improving the quality of learning and teaching in the classroom, supporting the school’s aim to be a place where everyone enjoys learning and is creative, trying new things, finding solutions and embracing the ethos of Courage, Justice and Respect.
The Student Council
The Student Council provides leadership opportunities for students across the whole school. Student Council operates within a relational framework where students at every level have an opportunity to make a direct contribution to the school through student representation at the form, year and executive level.
The Student Council Executive (SCE)
The SCE will provide leadership and direction to the Student Council as well as liaise with Student Leadership Coordinator and the Principal. Attendance at SCE meetings are compulsory, with executive positions (President, Chairperson) being rotated through the 4 School Captains and meets every second week (5 meetings per term).
Captains
School Captains (Head Boy/Head Girl)
At Charter Academy, the student leadership model operates under the four School Captains, two with a KS3 Secondary focus and two with a KS4 focus.
The school captains will provide leadership to the Student Council Executive. All four successful applicants will share duties depending on individual strengths and meet regularly with the Student Council Executive, Student Leadership Coordinator and the Principal.
House Captains
House Captains are drawn from all cohort group. There are 2 KS4 House Captains and 3 KS3 House Captains. House Captains operate within the house spirit framework. Their role is to develop house spirit across the school by identifying and promoting opportunities for house competition in conjunction with the HOHs.
Academic and Sport Captains
Academic and Sport Captains come from each cohort group. The Academic Captains lead activities and projects within the departments/faculties and liaise with the HODs and the Student Leadership Coordinator and HOHs. The Sports Captains lead activities and projects within the Sports faculty and liaise with the Sports HOD and HOH. In addition, the Sports Captains liaise with House Captains around Sporting events.
Prefects
Prefects have the opportunity to lead activities/projects related to their specific area of interest that promotes the school’s ethos, Christian ethos and sustainability and outreach. Prefects work hard to promote their area of interest within the school and broader community. Prefects are mandated to make a difference (e.g. attitudes, a place, awareness etc) as an essential outcome of their captaincy. Prefects will have year levels allocated to them to assist them to undertake projects. These projects will also provide leadership opportunities within year level cohorts.
Learning Ambassadors
The Learning Ambassadors are a group of students from years 8-11 who meet once per half term to develop new ideas and events that make our school stand out. The Learning Ambassadors help with a wide range of tasks around school in a Teaching and Learning context, helping to shape education imparted. They can often work as literacy leaders, numeracy leaders, librarians, Super Learning Day leads; social clubs for pupils – coping with transition to high school, mentoring programmes- organisation and homework club leads, friendship groups/antibullying and training of new recruits. Some may choose to work at admissions, representing the academy to prospective students and their families throughout the admissions process or represent subject areas at Open Evenings.