At Rushden Academy, we want and value the input of all the students across the school when making decisions. We ensure we achieve this through our 6th Form Leadership Team, Year 11 Leadership Team, Student Forum and Student Council.

Head Boy / Girl & Sixth Form Leadership Team

Head Boy – Dike

Head Girl – Roxana

Deputy Head Boy – Rhys

Deputy Head Girl – Ella

KS4 Leaders - Maddy & Matilda

KS3 Leaders - Lucy & Charlotte

Charity Team Leader - Jamie

Charity Team - Ella, Isobel & Isabelle

It is a major part of the Leadership Team's role to represent Team Rushden both in school and in the local community at events such as our annual Rewards Evening, Open Evening and Remembrance Service. 

Another part of their role is to be active members of the Student Forum, Student Council and the 6th Form prefect team. As part of this they help provide the student voice and opinion to staff on key issues and raise awareness of any concerns that students may have. They will also be involved in projects around school and in the community such as improving the school environment and working with the elderly at the Tea Dance. 

Year 11 Leadership Team

The Year 11 Leadership Team is made up of volunteers that were all excellent candidates.

They are involved in similar roles to the Head Boy/Head Girl and 6th Form Leadership Team around school in terms of being strong role models, advocates for the school and supporting key events such as Open Evenings.

The team of 5 students, are also delegated to each year group during forum meetings to guide discussions and gain feedback. They then present their year groups ideas at the Student Council.

Student Forum / Student Council

The Student Forum and Student Council were established in July 2017 to get the students more involved in decision making around school and feeling like they have a say in the decisions being made about Rushden Academy.

Roles and responsibilities for the Student Forum and Student Council:

• To help gage what students would like to see change in school
• To provide staff with ideas on how these changes might take affect
• To inform staff of student opinion and give feedback on key issues

Student Forum

The student forum consists of 2 representatives from each form in the school. The students meet every half term and bring ideas from their forms and then discuss these with their fellow form reps in their year groups.

Currently, our student forum membership consists of:

Year 7 - 12 students

Year 8 - 12 students

Year 9 - 12 students

Year 10 - 12 students

Year 11 - 12 students, plus the Year 11 Leadership Team

Student Council

The Student Council consists of the Year11 Leadership Team and 6th Form Leadership Team who meet together with Mrs Owen. They discuss the ideas brought forward during the Student Forum meeting and then make key decisions on actions.

The Student Council feedback to staff via Mrs Owen, and to their peers in briefings and assemblies or via Form Tutors and Heads of Year.

All agendas and updates are displayed on Student Council boards for each meeting.

Topics we discussed last year included:

• Rewards – What rewards? Trips? Where to? What criteria?
• Bullying – What is bullying? How can we stop bullying? How do we report bullying? What is done about bullying?
• Behaviour – What does good/bad behaviour look like? What is done about it? Is this good enough?
• Environment – How can we improve the litter situation in school?
• Culture / community – How can we improve the sense of community? Run an event e.g. Carnival - each form has a stand to run
• Other topic ideas: Charity work, restorative justice, teaching and learning policy, Learning for Life Days, trips, uniform……