Student Voice

‘Nurturing a dynamic relationship between questions, wonder and curiosity frees the young to invent, produce,
contribute and adjust to a turbulent and changing world’.

(Jamie McKenzie ‘Learning to Question, to Wonder, to Learn, 2005)
 

There are many possible mechanisms for student voice. We’ve seen the voice of our students manifest most markedly this year through student leadership, at various levels. Within the House system, for example, students organised, lead and evaluated key events. Committed to environmental action, students demonstrated leadership in innumerable and ingenious ways as their values and passion educated us, their practical work benefitted us and their expertise on the distribution of resources and what our campus environment should ultimately look like guided us.

As new forms of assessment, recording, reporting and learning technologies were all a major emphases this year, it was critical that we listened to students. Wisdom and enhanced outcomes for everyone result when we collaborate in partnerships. One of our goals is to more frequently engage with students about their learning so we’re striving to
refine communication so it’s smarter, more efficient and more relevant to students.

A sea change this year, predicated for success on the participation of students, was the introduction by the Guidance and Achievement Team of one - to - one conversations between Tutors and students in Tutor Time. These have proven to be mutually beneficial. In addition, the diverse kinds of assemblies students now attend, and contribute to or conceive as a consequence of the one - to - ones, provided student voice with an even higher profile.

On occasion, we have the good fortune to showcase the ample talents of our students outside the school. Once such occasion, was the annual ESF Senior Leadership Conference on January 13. Nine Year 12 students shared their insights into possible barriers to communication and suggested ways to overcomes these in a 90-minute session attended by Principals and Vice Principals from across the Foundation. Students discussed their perceptions, and viewpoints on the connections between learning, leading and conveying messages using the Theory of Knowledge (TOK) as a platform. As this subject provokes students to question the nature of truth, belief and knowledge itself, they were demonstrating their critical thinking and the way they think about thinking. These Year 12s were outstanding.

Student Council

The wholly student elected Student Council which devised the mission statement: ‘embodied and epitomised student voice this year. They infiltrated almost every domain of College life. They told one assembly ‘the little things matter’ and described the litany of improvements such as hand dryers with warm air, warm water from taps and enhanced cafeteria lighting. More noteworthy, perhaps, they met with Mr Nixon to discuss augmenting our school environment. They established several ways, electronic and more traditional, for fellow students to contact them such as SMART, forums and via the traditional email. They formed a partnership with Chartwells to liaise with their constituents about something which is so dear to every student’s heart - food! Excited and fervent about offering Year 7 - 10 students a fun social event, the Council planned and led a Dance Party on March 25, donating the proceeds to the Japan Disaster fund. They established links with the Pupil Council at Sha Tin Junior School and partnered the EAG with Mr Chiu in the areas of recycling. This was a passionate, energetic, cohesive and extremely hard working team.
 
   

New Principal Appointment Process

As part of the new Principal recruitment process the recruitment agency, Veredus, invited some of our students
to share their views on the school and the role of Principal via a video conference link with their London offi ce.
This was a novel experience and they provided valuable advice and quite profound insight into the culture of the
school.

Kendra Cui of 10T reflected that: ‘We were asked questions such as "What do you value most in this school?"
and "What change do you want the new Principal to bring?" I felt that everyone in the group did an outstanding
job of communicating the atmosphere of the school to the two men on the television screen sitting in a room
halfway across the world! Everyone was extremely open and honest and the video conference ended with
Veredus promising they were going to fi nd that "AWESOME" Principal’ .

Teams of students were a l so intrinsically involved when three Principal candidates were in school on April 6 and 7. They took on roles as interviewees, guides, ambassadors and provided a great deal of information to the candidates about our values, practices and the daily life of a student. Speaking confidently and diplomatically, they provided a rich source of feedback about the suitability of the candidates to representatives from ESF Centre. Learning support students for new Principal candidate process April 7 2011. They took on roles as interviewees, guides, ambassadors and provided a great deal of information to the candidates about our values, practices and the daily life of a student. Speaking confidently and diplomatically, they provided a rich source of feedback about the suitability of the candidates to representatives from ESF Centre.

Visit by Dr. Indu Shahani

On Thursday, February 24 Dr. Indu Shahani and Aditya Malkani, one of her research students visited the
College. Dr. Shahani has an impressive resume having been the principal of H R College of Commerce and Economics in Mumbai, India since 2000. She is the current Sheriff of Mumbai, a member of the International Baccalaureate (IB) Education Committee and the IB Asia - Pacifi c Regional Advisory Committee. Two of our Student Council members and themselves IB students, Owen Chan and Amy Middleton, greeted her. They were excellent ambassadors, escorting Dr. Shahani around the College, visiting IB lessons and answering her questions.

Visit by the ESF CEO

Ms Heather Du Quesnay, the CEO of the ESF, visited us on April 1. Her purpose was to meet with an array of Year 13 students to hear them share thoughts on their previous two years of study and to listen. These articulate and poised students talked with her about the curriculum and school life in general. Given that Ms Du Quesnay was unaccompanied and did not require any teachers or members of the Senior Leadership Team present, the students had carte blanch e about how they used their ‘voices’.

These are just illustrations of the breadth, infl uence and capacity of our students this year.

Christine Rowlands
Vice Principal