Student Leadership/Council
At CNCS, we firmly believe in the power of the student voice. We provide students with a number of different Leadership opportunities whilst they are at school, ranging from Head Boy and Head Girl to Student Council Tutor Representatives. We believe that it is imperative to give students a voice and to take their opinions and views on board, looking to change and improve things where we can.
Head Boy and Head Girl
Year 12 have the opportunity at the end of the academic year to apply for the role of Head Boy and Head Girl. This is the pinnacle of student leadership and the role comes with a detailed job description which both challenges and develops the leadership skills of those students selected. The schools current Senior Student Leadership for 2023-24 are:
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Prime Minister: |
Patrick Ruddy |
| Head Boy - | Sonny McGovern |
| Head Girl - |
Erin Kilworth |
| DHB - | Fergal Walsh |
| DHG - Camiah Bennet | Camiah Bennet |
Students in Year 13 also have the opportunity to apply to be part of our senior student leadership team. The following students take these roles for 2023-24:
School Prefects
The Prefect System is highly respected by our students and they wear their green ties with pride. They are easily identified by the school as they are distinguished by their green ties. Our Prefects are positive role models and help to promote the ethos of the school by supporting both staff and students in everyday tasks, events and initiatives. Our students are eligible to apply for these positions at the end of year 10, if they meet the criteria relating to attendance, punctuality and behaviour, and have the qualities needed to be successful in the role.
Student leadership opportunities
We understand the importance of student leadership at Cardinal Newman Catholic School. It helps to develop students' resilience, leadership, confidence and many more skills. Students have the opportunity to be involved in the following leadership opportunities.
Students in Year 7-11 have the opportunity to apply to become part of our junior student leadership team. Roles that they can apply for are:
- Form monitor (16 per tutor group)
- Student council representative (2 per tutor group)
- Junior student leaders (2 per year group)
- Subject ambassadors.
The junior student leaders are the main student leader in each year group, working alongside their head of year to shape and make change in their year group. Our junior student leaders for 2023-24 are:
Futher student leadership opportunities at Cardinal Newman School
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Description of opportunity |
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Year 7 |
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Year 8 |
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Year 9 |
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Year 10 |
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Year 11 |
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Year 12 |
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Year 13 |
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Student Council
The Student Council is an integral part of our school community, as developing the student voice is paramount to promoting change. The purpose of the Student council is to communicate their ideas and suggestions about a wide variety of issues. Pupils are encouraged to develop skills to help them communicate, think about important issues, express and justify opinions and contribute to discussions and debates. Minutes of the meetings are taken and shared with staff and students. A list of actions is drawn up and then students are informed of any decisions made via tutor discussions and E-Briefings.
As our Student Council is all about developing the student voice, students take part in an Election Campaign to democratically vote on their tutor’s representative. Students are encouraged to write speeches or make promotional videos and deliver their speeches to their tutors. Each individual student is then provided with a polling card, which they then take to the polling stations and cast their votes in ballot boxes.
Student Council representatives meet formally once a half term and discuss issues raised from their tutor groups, with the Headteacher and Governors. All information is fed back to tutor groups and actions are discussed. Not only do the representatives have formal meetings, with the Headteacher and Chair of Governors, but they lead on pastoral sessions across each half term. This is to encourage students to speak up and raise awareness of issues within school and make a real change to their time at Cardinal Newman. The minutes of each meeting can be found at the bottom of this page.
Our student council representatives for 2024-25 are:
Eco Committee
The Eco-Committee is run and lead by like-minded students from each year group who take the lead in introducing, running and developing the Eco-Schools programme. Currently, the school are completing the steps towards achieving the green flag award. This award embarks the school on a meaningful path towards improving the environment in both the school and the local community while at the same time having a life-long positive impact on the lives of young people and their families. The Eco-Schools Green Flag is an internationally recognised award for excellence in environmental action and learning and the Eco-Committee are working extremely hard within the school to ensure Cardinal Newman achieves the award.
Years 7 and 8 are invited to help keep our school environment clean and tidy as Eco Champions. This role involves litter picking sessions and promoting environmentally friendly techniques to their peers! Our Eco Champions are excellent role models for their peers and wear their badges with pride.
Student Leadership Video
//video2.e4education.co.uk/player/?v=/files/ov