I’m writing this on the eve of our trust’s inaugural ‘Pupil Leadership Summit’, where the pupil leadership teams across our primaries and secondaries will come together to develop their knowledge of what effective leadership looks like and start to plan projects that they lead across this year. Whilst the event is partly to support collaboration across our schools (we’ve done lots of work on facilitating teacher collaboration, but pupils have not have much opportunity to work with other schools), it’s also an important event in starting to give more of a structure to the development of these young leaders- both to develop them and to ensure that the work they do is meaningful, contributing to our trust’s core purpose.
The success of pupil leadership in the schools I’ve worked in so far has relied on the support and enthusiasm of the staff who run them and/or the extent to which the pupils themselves have a clear vision for the changes they wish to make and the legacy that they want to leave behind. One particular cohort of pupil leader springs to mind, as they were focused throughout on making changes that went beyond running one-off events and projects. They were led by two head pupils who were determined to leave a legacy and long-lasting impact, especially on the sixth form. This involved a range of projects, from redecorating their own social spaces to introducing extra-curricular cookery classes so that pupils would be able to look after themselves when they left home.
More and more, we’re recognising that leadership in schools requires a suite of professional development for those in leadership roles and – to future-proof our schools amidst a recruitment crisis – those who aspire to be leaders themselves. When it comes to pupil leadership teams, however, their development as leaders is too often left to chance. For the school, it means that the impact of such groups depends too much on specific staff or pupils; when they leave, the impact of any pupil leadership work then declines- as they take their ideas and drive with them. Moreover, not developing the leadership skills of pupils also means that it is those who have developed them outside of school (through engagement with DofE, scouts/guides and sporting clubs, for example) who are primed for the top pupil leadership roles and potentially roles in leadership/management after they leave school. This leaves the pupils who don’t/can’t access these extra-curricular opportunities (often disadvantaged pupils, due to the extra costs that such activities often involve) behind.
I’d argue then that a more strategic approach to developing young leaders is needed. Luckily there are lots of schemes (such as the Young Leaders Award) to help schools facilitate this across whole cohorts of pupils. Our trust is also lucky to have two pupil voice leads across our primary schools, who are looking at how we can use these resources in conjunction with cross-trust collaboration to develop the next cohort of young leaders.
I’m keen that the event I’m running tomorrow goes beyond a ‘nice day out’ and actively plays a part in developing the knowledge and skills that our pupils need to thrive as leaders in their own schools (through specific leadership workshops and working with external speaker Jo Brassington on their knowledge of how to celebrate diversity in schools). It also marks the start of more collaboration on shared projects across the year, before we bring the pupils back for a celebration event in the summer. At this point we hope to premiere a short film that showcases their efforts, something that will also be used in schools to further promote the work of our pupil leadership teams going forwards.
