Our Year 6 students are taking wonderful initiative with the opportunity of student leadership at Good Samaritan – including engaging in successful leadership programs and implementing new structures for leaders at the school.

The students have taken the lead on work to evaluate and refine the student leadership structure for Good Samaritan. This is being done in order to ensure that student leadership remains relevant and purposeful for the school community.

As a school, Good Samaritan aims to work towards students being active partners in their education. Year 6 have been very responsive and consistently demonstrated a positive attitude during discussions. 

The process consisted of a number of meetings with Year 6 volunteers who gave input and then reported back to their peers. 

The first step was to come to an understanding of why a school needs student leaders.  The students came up with the following:

• having role models within the school
• bringing a student perspective to teachers, staff & parents
• to keep the school organised
• keeping our student behaviour and wellbeing informed by positive teacher/student relationships
• keeping school relevant in class and on the playground
• to guide the future of students beyond this Year 6 group (K-5 students 2021)
• to gain other students’ perspectives on the life of the school
• to represent our school within the community
• participation and engagement with the community
• having trustworthy peer for all the students
• maintaining effective communication between school and home

Students then looked at the various models of student leadership that are possible, deciding upon the need for Captains and Vice Captains. An application and election process – which included giving a speech – was conducted, and students and staff voted for 2 School Captains and 6 Vice Captains.

Meanwhile, Year 6 have also been participating in leadership program, 'Stepping Up to the Challenge' [pictured above], engaging in high-interest activities.

Connected to the PDHPE curriculum, the students are:

• Exploring the possibilities, discovering their potential and acting authentically
• Coming to understand that their daily thoughts, words and actions matter
• Recognising that our journey will involve both successes and challenges 
• Remembering that, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts” – Winston Churchill.
• Showing that they are all capable of making a difference in our own and others’ lives. 
• Know that they are all in this together!

The program is facilitated by Cameron Brown from Explore Discover Act with the supervision and assistance of  the Year 6 teachers... and the students are loving the experience!

Read more about Student Leadership at our school