Student Representative Council

Indiana

Zara

School and Cultural Life

Nell

Natalie

Emerson

Sport and Co-Curricular

Blake

Samantha

Dempsey

Care4 and Community Life

James

Joshua

Aiden

Taylah

During the induction ceremony, students read the following Middle School Leadership Pledge:

“As a member of the Middle School Leadership Team, I commit to being a role model for all students at Snowy Mountains Grammar School,  openly demonstrating and upholding the school values of courage, authenticity, respect and empathy. I commit to working with all members of the School to provide a positive school environment where each and every person is challenged to be their best, in a culture of belonging and care.”

Lead by Head of Middle School, Mrs Thompson and the Assistant Head of Middle School, Ms Emma Smith, the Middle School leadership team initiative was piloted towards the end of 2021 with the aim of strengthening our mission further to work with families to develop well-rounded young people.

In his recent Aspects article, Dr Bell highlighted some of the key areas of focus for the newly appointed Middle School leadership team such as:

• Seeking to learn and understand the needs of others in the Middle School,
• To represent the perspectives of others,
• To explore how they might contribute to improving the experience of their peers,
• To discover and create new ideas to increase enjoyment at school and also to elevate the cohesiveness of the cohorts.

Dr Bell also noted that these key focus areas are also some of the challenging dimensions of leadership at any age and it is a great opportunity for these students to escalate their development during the middle years.

Dr Bell also joined the Middle School leaders, who were completing an intensive three-hour workshop on leadership with Mrs Thompson and Ms Smith. Of his address to the team, Dr Bell said, “Our actions determine the authenticity of a leader, not the position. Our job now as educators is to coach, mentor and role-model our appointed leaders for their specific areas of responsibility, and to all our students, every day.

I offered the team a simple but effective three-step process to consider when leading. That simple advice was, first revisit your values and your principles, and remind yourself of your own character – the one that you are proud you have developed over years, and to embed that into your leadership approach. In fact, use this as your foundation to lay down the roots to guide you as to what is right and wrong when in a difficult or conflicting situation. Next, develop your own leadership style. There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach for every situation, nor one for every personality or person. Know ‘yourself’ as a person and shape your leadership style to fit ‘you’, not someone else or an article you’ve read about leadership styles. Third, remember to apply abundance mentality to your leadership. That is, everyone should succeed and be considered in the discussions and decisions, so the whole cohort can all come on the journey together. Everyone should win, not just individuals or small groups or teams, but everyone together and to avoid exclusivity, leading to ‘us and them’, which is counterproductive to the bigger picture aims and objectives they are developing.”

During the course of 2022, we have further plans around this theme for other cohorts too, as well as within a myriad of pockets in the school, including the SRC and peer support programs.

Congratulations once again to the newly appointed Middle School leaders.