At Trafalgar School we pride ourselves on giving our students the opportunities to voice their opinions, views and beliefs within a respectful environment. We offer many different routes within Student Leadership, in order for students to contribute to the wellbeing and development of the school at all stages of their career. Students are encouraged to contribute formally and informally in a number of ways and through a variety of democratic structures; from council meetings to student surveys. Mr P Dudley is the Student Council Coordinator and deals with the day to day running of this.

Aims:

• To offer a range of roles and responsibilities to a large number of the student population
• To promote active citizenship by establishing functioning democratic bodies and systems with real influence
• To develop staff: student dialogue, especially around teaching and learning
• To deepen student engagement
• To contribute to whole school improvement.

Roles within student leadership

The formal roles available to students are highly regarded and an excellent opportunity to contribute to the development of the school. All student leaders act as excellent role models for the student body:

Student Ambassador is a position held by Year 8 students only and is an opportunity to assist for a day with meeting and greeting visitors, conduct tours, be involved with interviews and represent the student body of Trafalgar School at the front of school.

Tutor Representatives attend council meetings and represent their tutor group’s views.

Student Heads of House are elected by the students and hold the most senior House Leadership positions available.

Prefect positions are open to upper school students only. Prefects hold key responsibilities and represent the school regularly at parents’ events.

Deputy Head Boy / Girl support the Head Boy and Head Girl in their day to day running of the school. This is the penultimate leadership position available to students in the school. Deputy Head Boy / Girl is depended upon to represent the school at numerous events and represent the Head Boy / Girl in their absence.

Head Boy / Head Girl are the most senior student leadership roles in the school. The Head Boy / Girl meet regularly with the Headteacher, represent the student body at parent events and attend Governing Body meetings.

Student Senior Leadership Team (SSLT)

Student Voice is an extremely important mechanism for the pupils at Trafalgar School to communicate their ideas, initiatives, thoughts and opinions to other pupils, members of staff and the wider school community. A number of different bodies feed into the SSLT:

• A representative from each tutor group sits on their relevant House Council. These councils are chaired by the Head of House.
• Two representatives from each House Council sit on the SSLT. The council meets at least once every half term and is chaired by Pete Dudley.
• The Head Boy chairs the SSLT and will attend and contribute to SLT meetings once each term and the LGB.

The SSLT represents the wider student body at Trafalgar School. Consequently, the students determine the focus of agendas for House council meetings and SSLT meetings.

In 2016-17, the SSLT defined the school values, created the Trafalgar School RRSA Charter, voted in the Head Boy / Girl process and sat on student panels for the recruitment of all new staff.