School Council
At Springhall British Secondary School, we understand the importance of our students’ views and opinions and provide an opportunity for discussion on important issues through student Council meetings. Council members are elected by their peers in elections conducted in October of each year.
Each class elects democratically two representatives to serve on the Year Council. The role of the class representatives is to consult with their peers over issues that arise at Year Council Meetings and report back to their class at the earliest opportunity.
At the first meeting of each Year Council, students elect a chairperson and secretary. Minutes of the meetings are taken and are available to all representatives in the following weeks meeting. The aim of this is to ensure that every student can be kept informed and to generate further interest in issues discussed.
Prefects, Head Boy and Head Girl
We provide our Year 11 students with the opportunity to take on more responsibility within the school. Prospective candidates must submit an application and undergo a formal interview with members of the Senior Leadership Team. Applications for Prefects and Head Boy/Head Girl are submitted in Year 10 during the Autum term.
The Head Boy or Head Girl are two very important students and are supported in their roles by a Deputy, also appointed by a member of the senior leadership team. The prefects represent Springhall British School students at various events, such as Open Evening, and they have specific duties within the school.
Mentoring at Spring Hall British Secondary School
Our mentors are teachers who work students to help them address barriers (and potential barriers) to learning through supportive one-to-one relationships and sometimes small group work.
What's involved
At Springhall British Secondary School, our mentors help students develop coping strategies, enhance their motivation, raise their aspirations and encourage them to re-engage in learning. To work effectively, mentors have to take into account the range of complex issues that usually lay behind problems with learning and achievement for example bereavement, lack of confidence, low aspirations, mental health issues, relationship difficulties, bullying and peer pressure.
Our mentors will often have to:
- offer a sympathetic ear to young people with a range of behavioural, emotional and learning difficulties
- relate to young people with a wide range of abilities and often from diverse social backgrounds
- jointly develop plans of action to help young people overcome barriers to achieving their full potential
- liaise with parents and carers
- work closely with other professionals, like social workers, educational psychologists and education welfare officers.
Peer Mentoring at Springhall British Secondary School
The Peer Mentoring Programme aims to provide support for our new Year 7 students – individually and as a group, to help them settle in, make progress and to achieve their full potential within Springhall British Secondary School.
Peer mentors are selected and given training to ensure that they have the skills necessary to support young people who might be daunted by some of the obstacles they face during their transition from Primary to Secondary school.
The Peer Mentoring Programme encourages our students to play a responsible role in the school community and ensures that new students are secure in the knowledge that there are always older students available and willing to help them.
Safeguarding
Safeguarding is building and holding an awareness that the life of many children is difficult; recognising signs and indicators of abuse and neglect and truly listening for these concerns; knowing what to do, and making sure child protection procedures are followed; and always keeping the child’s welfare at the center of everything they learn and everything they do, from breakfast clubs to preparing for exams.
Springhall British Secondary School is a community and all those directly connected (staff, governors, parents, families and children/learners) have an essential role to play in making it safe and secure. Springhall British Secondary school recognises our moral and statutory responsibility to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children with their best interests at the center of our work.
Springhall British Secondary school recognises the importance of providing an ethos and environment within school setting that will help learners to feel safe, secure and respected; encourage them to talk openly; and enable them to feel confident that they will be listened to. We are alert to the signs of abuse and neglect and follow our procedures to ensure that learners receive effective support, protection and justice.
We believe that to effectively safeguard children, we must ensure that parents are kept up to date and fully informed on safeguarding risks and provided with a range of strategies.
E-Safety and Cyber Bullying
At Springhall British Secondary school our students have the use of technology as part of their learning. Keeping children safe online involves training on how to keep themselves safe in the ever-involving digital world.
This includes tackling bullying (including cyberbullying), teaching them to have an awareness of online safety, and ensuring they don’t access inappropriate material, which can put them in danger of harm.
Cyberbullying is bullying with the use of digital technologies. It can take place on social media, messaging platforms, gaming platforms and mobile phones. It is repeated behaviour, aimed at scaring, angering or shaming those who are targeted.