Student Leadership Woodgrove Primary School
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STUDENT LEADERSHIP WOODGROVE PRIMARY SCHOOL March 2017 In Woodgrove Primary School, we believe that every pupil can be a leader. To develop their potential, our school places a strong emphasis on student leadership, Kouzes and Posner’s 5 with the Student Leadership Development (SLD) committee providing a range of Practices for leaders: leadership positions, responsibilities and opportunities for the pupils to learn and exercise their leadership skills and values. Model the Way At the class level, the class committee structure was introduced in 2016 as an Inspire a Shared Vision avenue for student leadership. In their various leadership positions, the pupils organise and lead the class in the class activities and school functions. At school Challenge the Process level, CCA leaders and student councillors actively contribute to improving pupil welfare and engaging the student body in meaningful activities. Working closely Enable Others to Act with teachers and pupils, our student leaders gain confidence and communication skills. Encourage the Heart Our SLD programme, ‘I AM A LEADER,’ is based on Kouzes and Posner’s five practices for exemplary leaders. It guides the SLD committee in designing leadership content and experiences. APPOINTMENT CEREMONY OF P5 EXCO, STUDENT COUNCIL 2016 EXCO Members of the Student Council were appointed by SLD Committee via the selection process shown below: Proposal for Teacher’s Day P5 councillors were assessed Interview of Exco Members based on their leadership skills and teamwork when they were The selected councillors were Rally Speech and Voting tasked to come up with the interviewed by the Vice-Principal, proposal for the Teacher’s Day. Year Head and the Teacher-in The President and Vice-President charge of Student Leadership of Student Council were selected Committee. through McOnline voting by teachers and the pupil population The appointment ceremony was held. The councillors received their after the rally speeches by the badges from our Principal, Ms Ng; this was followed by the recitation candidates. of the Student Councillors’ Oath. Reflections by the President and Vice-Presidents of the Student Council Board. Cadence: Thank you for voting for me to be the president of the Student Council. I feel happy that I can now assist the school to improve our student welfare. I hope that the councillors can work on identifying problems faced by our schoolmates and help them solve the problems. I believe that leaders should work together with their teammates and care for them while ensuring that everyone is included. We will all work in unity to fulfill our duties as the Newly Appointed President leaders of the student body. of Student Council presenting her speech Xing Yuan: I hope to get the chance to interact with different pupils and understand their needs better. I believe that the student councillors should be role models in showing respect to our teachers and classmates. We should also be resilient when we face problems and persevere as we take on challenges. I believe through training and the opportunities given by the teachers, I will develop stronger leadership skills to help me carry out my responsibilities. Zi Xuan: My main role is to guide the rest of the student councillors in serving the student body. I believe that student councillors should lead by example and show the self-discipline needed to get through challenges and achieve goals. I will try my utmost to juggle my studies and duties and I will finish my homework and Exco members posing for a photo shoot revision promptly so that I have time to complete my councillor duties. Selection Process The process of selecting students as student councillors is shown below. Interviews by the Nomination by Teacher-in-charge Form teachers and Confirmation of the Pupil Leadership subject teachers Committee P4 STUDENT INVESTITURE 2016 The Student Council Investiture is an annual event where we officially recognise our Primary 4 councillors. At the beginning of the investiture, our student councillors walked into the hall, led by the President and Vice- president. Our peers who attended the investiture cheered our councillors on. The councillors recited the Student Councillors’ Oath after receiving their badges from our Vice- Principal, Mrs Edison. Presentation of Badges to newly appointed P4 Student Councillors by Mrs Edison Elina Sim : When I received my badge, I felt very proud because the school had trusted me to lead the others. I have learnt to be a role model to my fellow friends and juniors. I have also learnt to manage my time better and prioritise the things The P4 newly appointed student councillors 2016 that I have to do. 2 Woodgrove Primary School Shresthi: When I was taking the oath in front of my classmates, I knew I had to be what I had pledged. I had noticed that I had been a little better in taking responsibility which helps me in my academics too. Ellyse Wong: Respect, responsibility and effective communication are what I have learnt from my current duty-pledge taking. I have also learnt to work as a team with my friends, and effective communication plays an important part in it. Speech by Miss Caris Lin to the newly appointed student councillors TRAINING FOR STUDENT COUNCILLORS The school provides various leadership training for the student councillors so that they grow in confidence, work together creatively to solve problems, learn social responsibility and make a difference in their class, school and the community. Innovative, Creativity and Enterprise (ICE) challenge 2016 The ICE challenge offers our student councillors opportunities to showcase their ideas via projects – they work with entrepreneurs and professionals who mentor them on their projects and provide the crucial link between education and industry. To equip the students with the required skills and knowledge for their product/ideas, develop prototypes for their product ideas and plan a business pitch, the training include Learning Journey to National Design Centre workshops, comprising 3 stages, over 4 months: • To equip student councillors with creative-thinking and problem Programme solving skills for Innovation & Creativity • Enterprise-related topics will be covered such as finance, Programme marketing, prototyping,mentoring for Enterprise and presentation of products Element • Student councillors walked through the displays in National Design Centre to review their Learning product ideas. Journey On 6 January 2017, the student councillors held an internal showcase to exhibit their products to the pupils. Selected student councillors then took part in the external competition in January 2017. Woodgrove Primary School 3 Student Leadership Camp for Student Councillors and CCA Leaders The annual leadership camp was held during 30 and 31 May 2016. The SLD committee collaborated with external vendors to create a platform for student leaders (student councillors and CCA leaders) to understand the specific Presentation of Project Proposal behaviours and actions of exemplary leadership aligned to Kouzes’s SLD model. Respective projects were presented by the student leaders during the last session of the leadership camp. Experiential Learning 1 for Leadership Camp Lau Kit Onn: After attending the leadership camp, Student leaders were provided with experiential learning to I realised that a leader should be the understand the five practices. head of the group and always help his group members. One of the Kouzes’ five practices - “Enable Others to Act” – left a deep impression on me. I have learnt that I should give credit to others and encourage them to do more. Su Yue: “Challenge the process” is the part which I think was fun as my team and I had to Final Presentation to their peers figure out what to do and how to improve our ideas. I think that teamwork is very With the understanding of the different practices covered, important because an idea can be optimised the students were assigned projects such as planning the if every team member brainstorms together CCA Open House and Welfare events for teachers and and exchanges opinions. pupils. PLATFORMS FOR STUDENT COUNCILLORS To apply the leadership skills that they have learnt, student councillors were given platforms to organise and lead events such as Teacher’s Day concert, National Day, Parent-Teacher Meeting and P1 Orientation. These platforms provided opportunities to participate in external competitions. The Student Councillors’ Performance Wishes to celebrate on Teacher’s Day Singapore’s 51st Birthday Fill-in-the blanks for the NDP Lyrics 4 Woodgrove Primary School Destination Imagination Tournament (Service Learning Challenge) 2015-2016 For the 3rd year running, selected P5 student councillors took part in the Destination Imagination Tournament- Service Learning Challenge (2nd of April 2016) , which is designed to engage students in service to address real-life community issues. In this Challenge, student councillors were given the opportunity to understand the community needs in Singapore and collaborate with external organisations to promote school-wide awareness in Woodgrove Primary School. Team Orphan Joyers gained 2nd position in Destination Imagination-Project Outreach Crystal Chong: This competition is very challenging as we were expected to produce and present a skit, complete with props. We spent a lot of time and effort to make the props and went through multiple rehearsals before getting the skit right. I think what led us to success was determination. We did not give up, and we met Assembly talk of Orphan frequently to discuss our skit. This is a skill that I can also apply To achieve their project goal, the groups organised assembly in my own work. The next time I talks, creative skits, recess activities –they even prepared encounter difficult questions that I props and the scripts. They took part in Instant Challenge cannot solve, I will persevere until I which required the team to engage in quick, creative and can solve them. critical-thinking. Jazreel: I enjoyed the Instant Challenge segment the most as it required us to work as a team and think on the spot.