Student Leadership

The team comprises Prefects and Prefects’ Councillors

Student Leadership at Don Valley Academy

Our student leadership structure is outlined below:

Prior to starting Year 11, all students can apply to become Prefects. Following a rigorous application process, successful applicants are awarded a ‘Prefect’ badge which they proudly wear on their lapel.

The ethos of the Prefect team is to ‘create solutions’. They are encouraged to not only identify areas of need within the academy but also share any solutions to these challenges with senior and middle leaders.

All Year 11 Prefects are assigned to year groups and conduct student voice activities with students in their designated cohort. One of the most important prefect duties is to chair Prefects’ Councillor meetings. During these sessions, Year 11 Prefects meet with elected representatives from each year group to find out areas of praise and improvement which they then feedback to the academy’s leadership team.

In addition to conducting student voice activities, the Year 11 Prefect team have led whole school assemblies via teams on the following subjects:

One of our fantastic prefects prepared and delivered an outstanding whole school assembly to commemorate Armistice Day. This session was delivered to the entire academy via Teams following our Two Minutes Silence.

Prefects organised a fundraising event for Phoenix, a local domestic abuse charity. To promote this event, and raise further awareness of domestic violence, one of our prefects delivered a whole school assembly via teams.

All students can apply to become Prefects’ Councillors. Each term interested students write a letter of application to their form tutors explaining why they believe they would be an effective representative for their tutor group.

Following an election, in which students vote for the person they believe best represents their views, successful students are invited to attend Prefects’ Council meetings for their year group. There are also positions in each year group team for outstanding candidates who were not successfully elected by their peers.

During these meetings, Prefects’ Councillors meet with Year 11 Prefects to share the thoughts and opinions of their peers. In keeping with the ethos of ‘creating solutions’, they are encouraged to develop solutions to any areas of improvement which they identify.

The main objective of student leadership at Don Valley Academy is to develop the leadership competencies of our Year 11 Prefects and Prefects’ Councillors. We aim to not only provide student leaders with opportunities to collaborate with both staff and peers to improve our school community, but also develop the soft skills necessary to lead successful lives beyond Don Valley Academy.

All student leaders are proud to be part of #TeamDVA, and we as an academy are proud of the contribution they make towards improving our school and local community

Some of the ways we develop the leadership skills of our students are:

Diagnosis, Solution and Impact

Student leaders are encouraged to always seek solutions to any problems they identify. This is a critical skill to develop, as many adults often find it difficult to look beyond a problem to find potential solutions. Students use this sheet to plan out solutions to any problems they identify and determine how they might measure the impact of their actions.

This year, the Academy has been looking at ways to get students interested in current affairs. As part of this, we have been exploring Votes for Schools and all their resources. 

Each week the children are given a topic and question that is introduced via an assembly on Monday morning. In classes, during the week, the children then discuss the topic in more detail and vote on the question. Every child has the opportunity to vote and these votes are then counted nationally. The following week the children find out how everyone in the country voted. 

What is Votes for Schools? 

The Votes for Schools website states: Votes for Schools was created to give all young people a better knowledge of current affairs and get them voting! As teachers who wanted to educate their students about the news but never had the time to prepare polished lessons, the team here have dedicated themselves to producing materials that save schools time while inspiring young people. Every vote by a young person is shared with decision makers and makes a difference.