St George’s Academy Council is the forum for our Student Voice on both the Sleaford and Ruskington campus Year 7-13. The main body, the Academy Council holds meetings on a fortnightly basis in the Chairman of the Governor’s meeting room at the Sleaford & Ruskington campus. The Council invites three representatives from Years 7 through to the sixth Form. Meetings are jointly chaired by Darcy Jones & Charlie Price (Year 13), Emily Gaskin (Year 12) at Sleaford and Oliver Wilson (Year 11 Senior Student ) at our Ruskington campus.  The 6th form team also provide representatives to sit on the council and support Year Council as pastoral ambassadors, they support discussions where required with reference to own experiences at the Academy. They collectively guide its work with co-ordination by Senior Vice Principal Mrs J. Steward at Sleaford and Mrs S. Jerman Vice Principal at Ruskington.

Each Year Council consists of twenty democratically elected representatives, of which three then take the topics discussed to the next Academy Council meeting. Any news or decisions are then conveyed back to their next Year Council meeting. Requests that require Senior Management approval are taken by the Chairperson to the Principal in a meeting once every term.

The Academy Council contributes to the consultation process of all major decisions on the future of the Academy, which has included changes to uniform and making critical decisions on mentoring schemes within the Sixth Form.

We have contributed to a new rewards system at the Academy and have suggested additional topics we wish to learn more about in Life Skills lessons such as hate crime and links to on-line safety as well as continuing to develop a toolkit to support Positive Mental Health.  Our concerns regarding toxic masculinity has been addressed in themed weeks which has led to a more respectful ethos. Our understanding of the concerns for county lines has been addressed through a CODE, a theatre company who completed a 2-day project with Year 7 & 8 students. We have all enjoyed contributing to our established Kindness Campaign and have supported acts of kindness within the community and within the school and at home. We  maintain a prominent feature within the community with our charity work and Youth Council links; encouraging our students to voice their opinions through surveys for us to review and feedback on proactive changes with the Senior Leadership Team; and looking towards what additional mentoring and intervention can be provided for KS4 students. We aim to maintain the existing successful aspects, including student involvement in new staff interviews and creating a positive, happy ethos at the Academy. Work has been done after our views were expressed linked to improvements on our code of conduct and facilities including the toilets.

Oliver Wilson (Ruskington)
Darcy Jones & Charlie Price, Emily Gaskin (Sleaford)
Co-Chair, Academy Council of St George's Academy