At Manchester Primary School, we believe that every student has the potential to be a great leader. In 2024, we introduced an extensive leadership program to promote leadership skills and student voice and agency in our school.
Year 6 leadership program
Every student in Year 6 has a leadership role and related responsibilities. These include:
| School and Vice School captains | Plan and lead the school assembly each week |
| House Captains – Grevillea, Wattle and Greenhood | Assist with all House events |
| Community Captains | Plan and lead the Student Representative council Provide feedback to the school leadership team |
| Communication Captains | Represent student voice through an article in the newsletter each week |
| Environmental Captains | Lead Environmental initiatives in the school |
| School Wide Positive Behaviour Captains | Monitor achievement of awards and present at assembly |
| AUSLAN Captains | Lead the school assembly when signing the National Anthem |
| Numeracy Captains | Monitor Numeracy resources and promote mathematics in the school |
| Literacy Captains | Library monitor and assist with literacy resources |
| STEAM Captains | Monitor STEAM resources and promote STEAM in the school, assist in the STEAM classroom |
| ICT Captains | Set up ICT for school assemblies and other events, audit resources |
| Performing Arts Captains | Assist with school concert, choir and other school performances |
| Buddy Captains | Assist the Foundation teachers with the Buddies program |
Student Representative Council
Our Student Representative Council (SRC) is led by our Community Captains and is made up of student representatives from each class. The SRC meets each fortnight with the principal and meetings consist of:
- A focus question or topic
- Making our world a better place
- Making our school a better place
- Questions for the principal
The SRC ensures that student voice is considered when making decisions at the school, particularly in regards to creating a safe, supportive, engaging and fun learning environment for our students. The minutes of the SRC meetings are also shared at our School Council meetings.
Some significant achievements by our student leaders this year include:
- Representing MPS at our local Mooroolbark ANZAC Day service at Hookey Park
- Fundraising for the RSL for ANZAC Day
- SRC designed a Foundation – Year 6 student survey and the results were presented to the School Improvement Team by the Community Captains
- SRC representatives gave speeches at our Grand Opening of our new facilities
- Set up of our new library supported by our Literacy Captain
- Our Environment Captains run Clean Up Club each week
- Our Environment Captains also started the Container Collection initiative in our school
Leadership in every classroom
Right from Foundation, all students are encouraged to be leaders and positive role models for others. At the beginning of each year, students establish roles and responsibilities for keeping the classroom organised and doing important jobs to contribute to a happy classroom environment. Leadership behaviours are further encouraged and explicitly taught though our School Wide Positive Behaviour Matrix, which includes:
- Have a go and do my best
- Use a positive mindset
- Allow others to share their opinions and views
- Take care of equipment and the environment
- Show kindness
- Seek and offer help when needed
- Be an Upstander (stand up for what is right!)