"The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humour, but without folly.”
Be steadfast - walk humbly, love tenderly and act justly. Always
The Jesuits
Our pupil leadership team provides an opportunity to develop our young people into responsible, respectful and active leaders and citizens who play their part in building up our school and wider community.
The ‘exec’ team, made up of elected Y11 pupils, play an active role in contributing to whole school development, meeting with Mrs. Wilkinson, Mr. Hughes and Mrs. Shields fortnightly and chairing the student council meetings half-termly, to gauge the ideas, thoughts and opinions of the elected council members. The student council will be made up of 8 students from each year group (one from each form).
To support the development of our leaders, they will follow a Catholic Leadership programme, which will inspire them to lead with faith and dignity, ensuring that the example and teachings of Christ are at the forefront of the culture of leadership developed by the pupils. Alongside this, opportunities will be provided for workshops/remote coaching from established leaders from the community and industry. Both above will be used to raise aspiration among our young people.
Sessions in the Future Catholic Leaders Programme include:
- Session 1: “Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant” Matthew 20:26: What it means to be an effective Catholic leader.
- Session 2: “The heart is commonly reached not through reason, but through imagination” John Henry Newman: How to effectively inspire others to a life of faith.
- Session 3: “Let us learn from the Virgin Mary how to be bolder in obeying the word of God” Pope Francis- Mary as a model of honesty, humility and responsibility: How to effectively engage others to ‘act justly, love tenderly and walk humbly with God’.
- Session 4: “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you” Acts 1:8- How, as young people, you grow in your faith with guidance from the Holy Spirit: How to effectively grow in your faith throughout your life, especially in times of challenge.
- Session 5: “Christ is alive! He is our hope” Pope Francis: What does it mean to have an ‘active’ faith?
All of the sessions are led by leaders from our school, our diocese, our parishes and further afield.
Communication is key in driving this agenda. The ‘exec’ team feed into the ‘Heads up from the Head’ communication to staff and parents, will present in staff briefings and will present to SLT half-termly.