School Council
Student Leadership & Student Voice combined
This is an area that Boston Grammar School supports as strongly as possible, with several senior leaders directly involved. Across the school, from Year 7 to Year 13, we have around 200 pupil and student leaders at any one time, regularly rotated to give as many as possible the chance to learn some valuable skills.
As we have developed and expanded our systems of Student Leadership and Student Voice, one of the overriding principles has been that they are not distinct concepts, but two halves of one whole. Consequently, the same structure offers pupils the chance to have their say on affairs affecting them, the school and the community, while also encouraging them to act on their points of view and instigate improvements or change.
This system also represents one of the ways in which we embed the British Values into school life, with our British Values Challenges and student-driven Equality Projects fully integrated. For example, our Peer Councils (one for each school year) recently helped to shortlist entries for our Individual Freedom competition to design a new logo for BGS Pride.
Our five distinct Leadership Teams (see the diagram below) are led by Sixth Form Captains, but also include Ambassadors from every lower school form. They set their own agenda, working with staff links to liaise with outside bodies where necessary. Over the past year, to give just two examples, the Environment Team have participated in the Lincolnshire County Council Clean Air Project and the Wellbeing Captains met with representatives from CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) to discuss ways of supporting pupils with emotional struggles.
