iServi News | 6 September 2019 | Term 3, Week 7
Leadership
Student leadership is a very important element in building a community that celebrates the ‘voice of the child’. We work in collaboration with our student leaders to build an inclusive learning environment which upholds our core values and celebrates the gifts of all. We actively seek out the ideas and expertise of our students to support the ongoing growth and development of the school.
In building a leadership culture at Servite, we aim for our students to enter society with a strong sense of their place in our dynamic world, equipped with the skills to grow both their own capacity and the capacity of others.
At Servite we want to develop servant leaders who understand that their role as a leader is to put the needs of others before their own. Our student leaders nurture abilities in themselves and others to make an ethical and socially just impact on our campus and in the wider community. Leadership therefore is an important part of the fabric of our College.
In what has been an exciting time for our Year 11 students, we have recently completed the application and selection process for our Head Boy and Head Girl positions for 2020. It now gives me great pleasure to announce these senior student leadership roles. We congratulate:
2020 Head Boy: Marco Acciari
2020 Head Girl: Demi Mammoliti
We congratulate Demi and Marco and wish them both all of the very best in their leadership roles for next year. We are confident that these terrific student leaders will have a very positive impact on the life and culture of our school next year. We thank them for their ongoing support of Servite and know that they will represent the school, their families and themselves with great pride next year in their leadership positions.
I would also like to acknowledge the courage, conviction and enthusiasm of all of the students who stepped forward to be considered for these key leadership positions. We appreciate their support of our College and look forward to their ongoing input and contribution to our school. We know that disappointment builds resilience and prepares us well for future challenges that we will all face in our lives. We also know that the positive attitude of these students will enable them to continue to lead at Servite in many other ways. We look forward to finalising the remaining senior leadership positions in upcoming weeks.
As I have previously mentioned, we always encourage our students to consider involving themselves in the many different leadership opportunities that exist at Servite. Our leadership programs grow student capacity and also provide opportunity for students to genuinely impact the direction and positively shape the culture of the school.
Student Leaders’ Breakfast Forum
In keeping with the leadership theme, we are pleased to report the success of our Student Leaders’ Breakfast Forum which was held this week. We plan this event for each term to provide student leaders with genuine input opportunities into the life of the school. This week’s theme was on the topic of child safety.
As previously reported to parents, we strive to create an environment where students feel safe, are engaged and can thrive. To this end, we have implemented the CEWA Child Safe Framework across the College that focuses on the development of a Christ-centred environment which supports each child to develop to their God-given potential.
Pope Francis says that “every human being is bound to live agreeably with those around them”. Modelling healthy and respectful relationships “creates an engaging, safe and supportive environment” which “equips young people with the understanding of how they should be treated”.
The Framework strongly promotes that all members of our Catholic school communities “share the responsibility for this healthy culture”. Part of this process includes the development of a student Code of Conduct which was the key initiative at our recent Leaders’ Forum.
Led by Head Girl Tess Ryan and Head Boy Anthony Trimboli, students were directed through a series of brainstorm activities to develop the initial stages of our student Code of Conduct.
Students were challenged to collaboratively explore the following key topics which helped shape their thinking and the development of key behaviours that they wanted to uphold at the College:
- Identify different feelings
- Describe how we want to feel at school
- Determine what behaviours we need for these feelings
- Explore what we can do if people aren’t acting or behaving to create the identified feelings
Our student leaders are to be applauded for the positive way that they engaged in the process to arrive at the following key feelings that they wanted to see developed into our formal student Code of Conduct. These were feeling Accepted, Motivated, Safe, Empowered and Respected.
The senior student leaders will now collate all the ideas into a document for further input by all students through our pastoral care programme. This will then lead to the final development and integration of out Student Code of Conduct. We look forward to working through the remaining stages of the process to ensure the ongoing development of a community that holds itself accountable for the provision of a safe, caring and supportive school.
Mr Jeff Allen
Principal