Student voices making an impact at Rosanna Primary School
Cowritten by the Junior School Council Student Executives, together with Junior School Council coordinators Sophie Cartelli and Caitlin Wheeler
In 2016, the Rosanna Primary School Junior School Council (JSC) decided that they no longer wanted to be just a fundraising body; rather they wanted to be a voice on behalf of all students and be proactive in taking action. They dedicated the year to a range of student-led initiatives, ranging from creating the ‘Voiceometer’ to use as a student voice measurement tool, to highlighting and celebrating student voice through the ‘Student Voice Awards’, and building a Chicken Coop which saw the development of our Garden Club.
In 2017, the amazing work of our JSC students was recognised at the Victorian Student Representative Council (VicSRC)’s Recognition Awards, an event that celebrates best practice in student voice, leadership, and student-led action in Victoria. Rosanna Primary School (RPS) won the primary school category of SRC of the Year; this award recognised a JSC that has created change identified by students through engaging with decision-making processes at school. We were so incredibly proud of this achievement and recognition of the students’ outstanding dedication to harnessing student voice.
Each and every year since then, a new group of students join the JSC and continue to be a voice for their peers. There are a number of ways that we have been involved in decision-making and leadership at our school. We regularly work with teachers, parents and each other to support student learning and empower all students to have a voice. Here are some examples of how student voice, agency and leadership happen at our school:
Student-Led P-2 Deep Learning Protocols
Our learning values that were created by students in 2018 were revised recently to be more accessible for our junior students. You can read all about this process in the first issue of ReConnectEd.
The impact of this process has been incredible. Having a say in the way we learn empowers us to be the best learners we can be. Being heard makes us feel valued and want to achieve our full potential.
It’s not just the JSC students who feel empowered. Through the reshaping of the P-2 Deep Learning Protocols, the junior students are seen as ‘experts’ with so much knowledge to offer. This helps them to understand the importance and impact of student voice. Having all teachers on board with this shows that our voices will continue to be heard as the years go on, regardless of who is part of the JSC group. This commitment to student voice-led action helps all students to feel confident to advocate for themselves and others.
The Prep students seeing Grade 1 peers delivering workshops on an initiative they have been driving, is hugely powerful.
A positive impact we have seen already is that the Prep teachers have already started using these student-created protocols during Inquiry and Development Play sessions, with Prep students setting their own learning goals based on these protocols.
The Rosanna Voice Student Newsletter
This started as a simple idea in a JSC meeting where we recognised the need to celebrate student voice and deep learning across the whole school. We thought it was important to find ways to reconnect with each other and our learning now that we were back in the classroom and finally face to face again. This idea built upon our previous ‘Student Voice Awards’ that celebrated individual students and student voice achievements. We felt that a monthly newsletter written by students, for students, was an empowering platform to inspire students and teachers to harness student voice and agency, and support them through leading by example.
The Rosanna Voice has had a positive impact in multiple ways. It has really put a spotlight on student voice in the context of learning and shows our whole school community the ways we have a say in what and how we learn. We have hard copies at the office, distribute copies to classrooms and post it online for families to read, which is a great conversation starter about the importance of student agency. It also helps connect families to what student agency looks like.
The Rosanna Voice is also an outlet for students like us to pursue our passion for writing, journalism, and reporting… but reporting on the things that are important to us!
Teachers have also been inspired by reading about what is happening in other classrooms and we’re now seeing a more consistent approach to student-led learning across the school.
Dedication and Commitment to Student Voice Over the Years
We organised and hosted an official ‘Ribbon Cutting Ceremony’ for the opening of our Bike Shelter, something that was five years in the making! It all started when we were in Grade 2.
Following our annual Hot Cross Bun Drive fundraiser, our then JSC peers surveyed each class asking what we wanted the money to be put towards to improve our school. The majority of students wanted a cover for our bike area.
They did some research and found that they needed some more money to make it happen, so the 2019 Hot Cross Bun Drive went bigger and better! We did letter box drops to our neighbours and encouraged members from the community to purchase, which they did. We finally had enough money to get the bike shed cover happening. We asked parents of students to come down to the school to see how they could help get this cover installed. Despite COVID delaying the process, we persevered and had two more Hot Cross Bun Drives, adding more money to our total. We surveyed grades again, and there was still a resounding ‘yes!’ to the bike shelter. Three years later, we are now part of the JSC who were able to officially ‘open’ our bike shelter and continue the RPS legacy of turning student voice into action.
The opening of the bike shelter has had a positive impact on the whole school community. Whilst seemingly insignificant to some, the bike shelter is symbolic of the hard work, commitment, and dedication to student voice of the Junior School Council members over the past five years. It is a tangible symbol of student agency and a reminder that a simple idea can be recognised, heard, taken seriously, and put into action. After we submitted the proposal for approval and presented it to School Council, they were so impressed with our continual fundraising efforts that they made a small donation to our bike shelter. Also, some members of School Council were a part of building the bike shelter, so it really felt like a community project.
Other ways we are making an impact
We created a Suggestion Box as a non-confronting and anonymous way to encourage other students to speak up. This is where all students can submit ideas they have that they’d like us to discuss at JSC meetings. Each fortnight we empty out the Suggestion Box and go over what our peers are saying, choosing initiatives to focus on where we can make positive change.
Classrooms have student-led and -run Class Meetings, where teachers sit back and listen. Students discuss their class goals, celebrate highlights and successes, and talk about things they’d like to improve or work on.
We host fundraisers that are either for our school initiatives or for local not-for-profit charities within our community that we know rely heavily on donations.
JSC students attend the Parent School Council meetings to provide a report about all the things we’re working on and to share in decision-making. It is a platform for students to talk to adults about things that are important to us, and always gives parents a chance to ask us any questions.
We have also had a part in the launch of our new School Values, firstly by hosting a design competition inviting students to design a mascot for our new values. We chose the top four finalists and went around to every grade getting them to vote for their favourite. As our school continues to develop what the expected behaviours are for each of the school values, we went into classes and ran an activity where students needed to list the types of major and minor incidents that occur at school, and whereabouts in the school these incidents occur. This data is being collected and used for the implementation of the Schoolwide Positive Behaviour Support Framework.
As teachers, we are beyond proud of the JSC representatives, both past and present. Our representatives really care about the students at RPS, and what is important to them, and are proud to be a voice on their behalf. It is always so rewarding to work with these exceptional group of students. We encourage all schools to have faith in their students that, given the opportunity to do so, they can create positive change.
Sophie Cartelli
Sophie began working at Rosanna Primary School in 2015 in Grades 5/6 with a keen interest and passion for student voice and agency, and student-led learning. In 2016, she undertook the leadership of our Junior School Council group with the goal of shifting it from solely a fundraising body to making real change within the school in the context of student voice and agency.
Caitlin Wheeler
Caitlin started out as a preservice teacher at Rosanna Primary School in 2018, with Sophie Cartelli as her mentor in a 5/6 class. Sophie’s passion for student voice and agency inspired her to join the Junior School Council and set up her first 5/6 classroom in 2019 as a student-centred environment with a strong culture of student voice and leadership. She is currently working with a team of budding journalists to release their student-led newsletter, the ‘Rosanna Voice’.
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