Principles:

We want our students to be at the forefront of all we do. Our students are confident exponents of their opinions; they see things with a unique perspective and have fantastic ideas about how to improve our College and the world around them.

We encourage all our young people to participate fully in the life of their College and to facilitate this we offer numerous opportunities to ensure that their voices are clearly heard. Through JCG Voice, which is overseen by the Head Girl Team and the Vice Principal, students will make significant contributions to the decision making, development and direction of the College in order to feel a real sense of belonging in our community.  

Below is a non-exhaustive list of student voice opportunities:

• Student Council
• Aspiring Women events
• Discussion groups
• Changing Perspectives assemblies
• Thought for the week
• Debating, including House Debate 
• Student surveys (subject, year group, topic specific, annual College survey)  
• Tours of the College for new and prospective parents  
• Musical and drama performances  
• Contributing to the recruitment of new staff  
• Contributing to JC Life    

Procedures

Students should be encouraged to take responsibility for:

• Exploiting opportunities to express their opinions and ideas in a positive and constructive way. 
• Contributing to the voice of students as part of assemblies, publications and events. 
• Being ambassadors for the College. 
• Offering tours for visitors, new students and staff. 
• Considering peers’ views to provide feedback in a positive and constructive way

Parents have responsibility for:

• Encouraging students to take an active part in the running of the College.
   

Head and Deputy Head Girls have responsibility for:

• Contributing to JCG Voice opportunities.  
• Coordinating meetings of the Prefect Team. 
• Leading Thought for the week in assembly. 
• Leading Student Council 
• Overseeing student contributions to College publications. 
• Participating in the recruitment process of new staff to the College.

Tutors have responsibility for:

• Encouraging students to exploit opportunities to convey their opinions and ideas in the most positive, fair and constructive way possible.  
• Informing their tutees of the opportunities to contribute to student voice.

Vice Principal has responsibility for:

• Ensuring that Student Voice remains a priority across the College. 
• Liaising with the Head and Deputy Head Girls to discuss Student Voice.  
• Monitoring the impact of Student Voice across the College.

Principal has responsibility for:

• Overseeing the application of this policy.

Student Council has been set up in order to develop ways for our students to understand and consider issues affecting them and express their views on them. The Student Council gives students a means by which they can discuss and share opinions, contribute ideas and be consulted on policy decisions, problem solving and other matters related to their learning, our school environment and the running of JCG. The Student Council comprises of a representative from each form group and is led by the Head Girl Team. The meetings are held separately for Lower School, Upper School and for Year 12. Year 13 contribute their views to the agenda through the weekly Prefect Meeting (for any Year 13 student who is not a member of the Prefect team they can communicate their views through the Prefects).

Aims

• To give students a forum in which they can convey their views in a positive and constructive way regarding their College experience. 
• To enable students to take an active part in decisions about learning and the running of the College. 
• To increase engagement of students in their learning experience at the College. 
• To enable good communication and consultation regarding decisions taken in the College and the rationale behind them. 
• To give students the opportunity to become aware of the workings of democracy, elections and running committees so that they can aspire to take such leadership roles as active citizens in adult life, fulfilling our vision for a student leaving the College. 

Procedures

Students should be encouraged to take responsibility for:

• Electing representatives for their forms. 
• Giving feedback and ideas to their form representatives prior to meetings. 
• Contributing to consultation groups as and when required. 
• Giving feedback as part of the self-evaluation process.

Head Girl Team have responsibility for:

• Coordinating meetings of Student Council. 
• Chairing Student Council and encouraging the contribution of all Form Representatives in discussions. 
• Keeping and sharing minutes taken at Student Council meetings. 
• Providing minutes to the Vice Principal in order to seek responses. 
• Liaising with the Vice Principal regarding agendas for meetings and feedback. 
• Forming consultation groups (using students with different profiles and interests) when needed.  

Student Council Representatives have responsibility for:

• Attending the appropriate Student Council Meetings. 
• Seeking the views of their tutor groups and contributing those at Student Council Meetings. 
• Feeding back to their Form group following the meetings.

Tutors have responsibility for:

• Ensuring that Student Council Representatives are elected in a democratic way following the Terms of Reference. 
• Providing the name of their Student Council representative to the Vice Principal. 
• Conveying messages regarding Student Council to their form.

Vice Principal has responsibility for:

• Liaising with the Head Girl Team to coordinate the Student Council Meetings. 
• Organising the response to minutes from Student Council Meetings. 
• Ensuring that tutors oversee election of representatives from their form and that tutors follow Terms of Reference for the Student Council. 
• Meeting with the Head Girl Team regularly to seek their feedback from meetings. 
• Monitoring the impact of Student Council across the College.