A Student Council is group of students who are elected to represent the views of all pupils and to improve their school. School Council means all kinds of school-based groups run by students, including student forums.

• 7 representatives per year group-maximum 35 student reps including 6^th form representation.
• Begin recruitment process in September in Years 7-10 so that selected reps can then be involved in planning the school council action plan.
• Reps to meet with staff working party fortnightly.
• Senior Leader Team to be part of working party- To raise profile within the school
• Student Council reps to be invited to present at timetabled meetings.
• Student Council reps to be part of interviewing new staff/ rolling reviews & school events
• School Council notice board/ display area in school to raise profile/ highlight current work and charities
• Council reps from different groups (SEN,etc)

We have considered some of the initiatives the Student Council Representatives might become involved in.

• Duke of Edinburgh (qualifications for their contributions)
• Local Citizenship action to link in with the curriculum
• Fundraising for a local/ national charities eg. Sport Relief, Breast Cancer Awareness
• To be involved with our international link school in America, Columbine
• Joint RSA School Council initiative
• Silent Knight Peer Mentoring which is a group that meets to discuss issues which will reduce anxiety and stress.
• Eco-Uknight- Carbon Footprint monitoring.
• RSA Enterprise Competition- “take over day”
• Raising money to build a school in Africa jointly across the RSA academies
• Local Community Action
• Taking our fundraising to primary schools.
• Student Voice
• Build Links with community leaders/Police/ neighbourhood watch
• Increase awareness of activities available with the local community outside school hours
• Peer Monitoring
• Stress Management

The School Council will be divided into 6 different working parties, each focused on a different area within school.

• Fundraising, Charities, School Links & Partnerships
• Building an Academy in Africa
• RSA Links
• Student Learning & Site Development
• Enrichment & Curriculum
• Local Communities

The students will decide for each of the working parties what the plan of action for the term, or school year will be. Each of the 6 working parties will have a Leader and a Deputy.

Every half term members of the School Council raise money for a variety of charities. This can include non-uniform days, cakes and biscuits sales, and competitions. The members of the School Council choose which charity they will be helping for that half term.

The RSA Family of Academies is a small and dynamic group of schools. There are currently seven schools in the Family who are all based in the West Midlands, all offering a variety of leadership opportunities for its students.

Community Objectives

• To ensure all students recognise and respect other cultures, languages and backgrounds and integrate fully into the life of the school.
• To ensure deprivation does not impact on attainment.
• To increase community involvement, local residents, businesses, potential stakeholders.
• To achieve engagement, equity and excellence through the curriculum and enrichment and extended services provision.

Community Engagement

• Parenting programmes (PPP) and counselling services are delivered by the school.
• Ongoing Design, Art, Leadership and most able projects with our family of RSA Academies
• ICT sessions and Enterprise learning have been delivered to feeder primary schools.
• The successful Whitley Festival is delivered annually for Whitley students, students from across the RSA family  and feeder primary students.
• The school’s Sports Co-ordinator works very successfully at increasing sporting opportunities for Whitley students and students from partner primary schools, including
• Primary football and athletics tournament
• Whitley students coaching athletics in feeder primary schools