At The Oaks Academy we believe that students should be given a wide range of opportunities to develop and practise leadership skills in preparation for life beyond school.

Student Leadership is an important part of our vision and commitment to students. We have high aspirations for our students and believe that developing them as leaders plays a key role in community transformation and improving their life chances.  

We aim to give students the confidence and oracy skills needed to navigate themselves in elite spaces later in life as well as the skills needed to lead and promote positive change in their own communities.  

Many Student Leadership activities will support our school aims to inspire, believe, achieve.

We Inspire to aim high  

We have high expectations of our leaders who are expected to be role models to our whole school community. We aim for them to inspire the wider community demonstrating exceptional conduct in relation to attitude to learning, uniform, attendance and punctuality.  

We believe in ourselves  

Students are supported to believe in themselves and contribute meaningfully to our community.  

We achieve academic excellence  

Aspirations are reinforced so that students have an awareness of how student leadership is providing them with transferrable skills for life.  

Aims of our Student Leadership programme

  • To empower students to work in partnership with staff and other students towards shared goals
  • To enable creativity to flourish as the school community benefits from the wealth of experiences, ideas, skills and sense of fun that students bring
  • To provide opportunities for students to develop leadership skills through a variety of projects which impact positively on well-being for both students and staff at The Oaks.
  • To prepare students for Higher Education and for achieving personal and professional excellence in life after formal education

Our Student Leadership programme provides:

  • Formal and informal learning opportunities to develop individuals as leaders
  • Processes and structures for student representation and the incorporation of students’ views into decision-making in the life of the school

The Oaks Academy School will

  • Provide a Student Leadership a pin badge and KS4 Student Leaders a purple tie so they can be easily identified around school site by all members of the community
  • Provide all of our Student Leaders with an accredited Student Leadership qualification through SSAT
  • Provide a wide range of participation and leadership opportunities which cater for all students in the school.
  • Provide recognition of all Student Leadership roles
  • Encourage the development of student participation and leadership skills through classroom practice by using the skills developed within the CHARACTER curriculum
  • Encourage students to differentiate between student participation and Student Leadership
  • Provide students with access to key staff for support and guidance

In addition to our Student Leadership team, we recognise and encourage leadership through our Extended Leadership groups. Each sub group is led by one of the school Senior Leadership team  and comprises of students from across all key stages.   

These sub groups aim to give safe spaces for students to discuss issues of relevance to them and promote marginalised voices within the Academy. They contribute to the school assembly programme and work alongside the school raising awareness and contributing meaningfully to school progress. Our 4 sub groups are:

  • Equality & Diversity Group
  • Behaviour & Culture Group
  • Community Group
  • Quality of Education Group

SSAT Student Leadership Accreditation Award

The SSAT is the Schools, Students and Teachers network. Their aim is to help “improve outcomes for all young people.” This means to provide opportunities which educate and inspire students and also recognising the level of commitment shown. 

SSAT Student Leadership Award consists of 3 levels Bronze, Silver and Gold and allows learners to compile evidence of leadership skills and activities from both inside and outside school. Each student leader subgroup works with their staff member completing a school based project which is designed to assess the below categories:

  • Developing myself
  • Contributing to my community
  • Working with others

Student Leader expectations

Student Leaders are the school’s role models. You need to be a student who works hard to reach our schools expectation of good behaviour, no unauthorised absence, constant punctuality; you also need to be always in full and correct school uniform. As a Student Leader you will be required to wear your Student Leadership identification and fully participate in the wider life of the school

What Personal Qualities do I need?

You should:

  • Like working with and talking to younger students
  • Be able to build good working relationships with staff
  • Want to make a lasting impact at school and be involved in decision-making
  • Be able to work well in a team
  • Have good time management skills e.g. balancing commitments
  • Be polite, mature, respectful, responsible, and kind at all times

For more information on Student Leadership please contact Mrs Abberley.