‘Pupils and sixth-form students cannot praise the school highly enough.’ Ofsted 2021

Student Voice

Charities Committee Earthquake Appeal

By Romaisa Year 10

On Monday 6^th February, two enormous 7.8 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes struck the regions of South East Türkiye and North West Syria, which are estimated to have directly impacted 26 million people across the regions. As the Ashmole Charities Committee, we felt it was our duty to raise money to support those devastated by the catastrophic damage. We are very grateful to all students in every year group, and their parents and carers, for their swift and generous donations. I am delighted to announce that we raised £3700 for the British Red Cross Earthquake Appeal! This money will assist with humanitarian aid, ongoing rescue efforts and immediate relief, as well as longer term aid for those affected.

 

Student Voice

At Ashmole we respect our students as partners in their own education and we are committed to listening to their views, wishes and experiences, as called for in Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Student Voice is an integral part of how we provide opportunities for students to engage within our community. We believe the key part of this is by ensuring students are active participants in their cultural and academic life, with a main drive to influence the direction of the school.  We take our students’ views and opinions seriously and actively try to implement all points raised.

We have several committees, which provide a platform for students to have a say in the running of the school. The committees include Equalities, Catering, Site, Charities, Extra -Curricular, Green and Wellbeing. In addition, students have the opportunity to discuss all elements of school life by being elected a Form, Year Group or School Council Representative.

In the Sixth Form students can put themselves forward to be part of the Senior Team, which plays a pivotal role in the School Community alongside two elected Lead Students. Sixth Formers on the Senior Team attend School Council meetings, represent the school at key events and meet regularly with members of the school leadership team.

Being an active member of a committee or a student representative gives our students direct experience of democratic processes, creating new initiatives, solving problems and achieving their goals. It allows students to share and exchange ideas for school improvement within and across year groups and we have already made a number of key changes following recommendations from our committees.

• The Equalities Committee conducted an audit of our curriculum in terms of race and gender issues. As a result, a significant number of classroom resources have been created or adapted to be more reflective of the society we live in.
• The Charities Committee raised over £2500 for Children In Need and Jeans for Genes.
• The Wellbeing Committee ran Wellbeing Day, which was filled with activities to raise awareness and promote positive physical and mental health amongst the student body.
• The Green Committee reduced the sale of plastic water bottles to zero by bringing in more water dispensers. Also, all food packaging and disposable cutlery in the canteen now come in recyclable or biodegradable materials.
• The Extra-Curricular committee brought in more lunchtime and after school clubs, for example Dodgeball, Handwriting, Athletics, Chess and Rounders.
• The Catering Committee introduced Meat Free Mondays to promote vegetarian and vegan dishes, as well as ensuring all meat is sourced from UK suppliers.
• The Site Committee has provided more picnic tables and table tennis tables on the school grounds for everyone to make use of and enjoy our outdoor space.

Participation in school decision making fosters a sense of social responsibility in young people. The impact of this is wide reaching and is an area that we are continuing to grow and develop further.