For the past two years I have had the fantastic opportunity to facilitate the Kalianna Student Representative Council. This saw me assist students to have their voices heard about what they believe is important in their school life and in their wider community. Below is what the Kalianna SRC have worked on and achieved throughout 2016/17.
Video nomination for the 2016 VicSRC Recognition Awards
Please click on the link below to access the Kalianna SRC website to read more...
ElectionsThis year has seen the Kalianna SRC take action on many different issues and matters around our school that we have felt passionate about. At the beginning of the school year we ran an election campaign which saw 15 students make speeches to gain leadership positions within our SRC. We now have a leadership team consisting of four students who oversee our council which is made up of 32 students from both our senior and junior learning communities. We meet as a whole student council every fortnight with an agenda that the leadership team creates at their weekly meetings.
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A little about ourselves2016 has been the first year that Kalianna Special School has actively run a student representative council to its full capacity. We believe that that students have the right for their voices to be heard no matter their ability, background or circumstances. At the beginning of the year we decided as a student body that our aim was to build a school culture in which student voice had a place. We had the vision that if we could foster student voice in our school community that students would gain a sense of belonging and create supportive relationships with their peers and teachers. In doing this we hoped that this would encourage students to be more motivated and participate actively in the life of the classroom, school and even the wider school community. We have created a student representative council that inspires students to speak up for what they believe in and supported to take action.
ProjectsAs a new representative body at our school we are extremely proud of the impact we have made at our school in only a few months. Our first goal was to increase student engagement at recess and lunchtimes after it came to our attention after sending out student surveys about what could be improved in our school. We now run various lunchtime activities for students to participate in such as sports, games and music. We have peer mediators to support students outside at break times, we have organised sports equipment that can be borrowed and we also created a games room where students are able to go to during break times to participate in quiet activities.
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FundraisingThe Kalianna Student Representative Council have also organised fundraising days to raise money, for organisations that we feel passionate about and inspired by. Some of these events have included a My Hero day, which raised money for blood cancer research, supporting the variety 4WD bash and casual and dress up days. The last week of school for 2016 we organised a colour run for the whole school.
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Supporting Student VoiceTo support student voice in our school and raise awareness about the aims of our SRC we created our own email address, website, logo and also an SRC report which goes onto our school T.V. station each week. All of our council members have an input into these activities. We felt like this was especially important as we now have a way to communicate with students and teachers at our school as well as the wider community. We are also able to gain feedback and ideas that we can follow through with. |
WE WON AN AWARD!!
In term three our SRC was awarded a Commended and Highly Commend Award from the Victorian SRC Council. Peter Bush (our principal), Dehne Anstee (leading teacher) and myself took our school captains down to the NAB building in Melbourne to the offical awards ceremony to collect their awards for their efforts throughout the year.