We offer opportunities for student leadership within a variety of extra curricular activities and through our prefect teams, school councils and cross-school forums.
Leadership at KS3
In Years 7-9 students are encouraged to take responsibility in a variety of ways including Tutor Reps participating in House Councils, Library Helpers, Anti-bullying Ambassadors, Climate Action Group and Sports Captains.
All Year 7-8 students are asked to support our Open Evening and Open Morning as Tour Guides and all tutor groups at KS3 get the opportunity to organise and run an assembly for their year group each academic year.
All Year 9 students are encouraged to complete their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award during Year 9 and many do. This award develops many skills, including leadership, which is perhaps most obviously seen when planning for and undertaking the expedition.
A select group of students also completes our Young Leaders Award in Year 9 which helps them learn more about leadership skills and techniques and undertake a group project. A recent example of such a project was organising donations for the Bath Foodbank.
Leadership at KS4
In Year 10 and 11 the opportunity remains to be a Tutor Rep on the House Council or to lead sports teams. In addition students have the opportunity to develop leadership skills through acting as tour guides, supporting at open events and concerts and helping lead activities including at the cricket festival, sports day and activities week. Leadership skills are also developed by those taking part in the Silver Duke of Edinburgh Award and Ten Tors.
Year 11 Prefects
Students are encouraged to apply to become Year 11 Prefects towards the end of Year 10. This involves a letter of application, an interview and completion of duties during a trial period before prefect ties are awarded at the end of Year 10.
Year 11 Prefects have a number of responsibilities including duties, supporting with open events and completing two projects chosen by the students. One of these is internal and one is in conjunction with students from Hayesfield Girls School. Recent examples have included training as mentors and working with younger Beechen Cliff pupils and planning and leading joint assemblies in both schools on sexual harrassment, stereotypes and peer pressure.
In addition Year 11 prefects organise leavers hoodies.
Sixth Form Prefects (Senior Prefects)
In the Sixth Form all students are expected to take on leadership and/or volunteering opportunities as part of their personal development. Many also apply for our high regarded Senior Prefect positions to take on responsibility and contribute to the development of the school.
Students apply through a letter of application and an interview and, for the most senior positions, through student hustings.
Sixth Form Prefects are given specific areas of responsibility such as the Head Boy and Head Girl, Deputy Head Students and Prefects responsible for Equalities, Inclusion, Social Events, Mental Health, Arts and Sport. They are also encouraged to develop their own ideas too.
Each year Senior Prefects support our Open Events, write newsletter pieces, organise and run key events such as Beechen’s Got Talent, charity events, inter-House events and help develop our work on equalities and other key areas.
Inclusion, equalities and anti-bullying
Student leaders in this area have helped develop the school work on equalities and anti-bullying.
Each year Anti-Bullying Ambassadors train up new recruits from younger year groups, update posters around the school and either write pieces for the newsletter or contribute towards assemblies.
The team then meets with Senior Prefects (Equalities and Inclusion) to work on various initiatives or to promoting key events around equalities.
One recent example has been slides for our digital screens on Black History Month.
Also the team contributed significantly towards the initial development and subsequent updates of our Pledge of Respect and the promotion of equality across the school. (Information on the Pledge of Respect is available on our Equalities webpage.)
Climate action plan
The school has a climate action plan to look at how the school can become more sustainable for the future. This has led to the school registering with Energy Sparks and a more careful consideration of energy use along with many other initiatives. The climate action plan is available here.
As part of this a climate action group has been created with students working on initiatives and taking part in local events.
The student team in 2021/22 were passionate about improving the school’s use of renewable energy and asked the school to consider installing solar panels. We were delighted that in the summer of 2022, with support from the Trust (Midsomer Norton Schools Partnership) and through working with Bath & West Community Energy, over 600 solar panels were installed on the school roof enabling us to meet 25% of our electricity demands through solar power. More information is available here.
Cross-school Forums and Projects
We encourage students to take part in cross-school forums to interact with other students across the city and to discuss the topics that are important to them.
Examples have been the Youth Parliament, an Anti-misogyny Forums for Sixth Form students, the Climate Conference and the Year 11 joint projects