Student Leadership Programme
Overview
SST believes that every student has the potential to be a leader and that self-leadership is the foundation for leadership development. In this programme, every student will start their leadership journey from Secondary One through a basic self-leadership module integrated with the Character and Citizenship Education programme. The integrated basic leadership modules will continue in Secondary Two for all students, with further deepening of knowledge and skills for selected students taking up formal student leadership positions.
School Goal for Student Leadership
Dynamic Leaders in Service of Humanity
Mission
To develop students to be Dynamic Leaders in Service of Humanity.
Vision
A House of Leaders distinguished in their dedication to serve and advocate for the common good.
Motto
Leading Self, Serving Others
Student leadership plays an important role in helping to build the school culture and move towards achieving its goals. The student leaders model, promote and uphold the school values and ethos, build the strength of character and relationship, foster school spirit and sense of belonging, and enable fellow students to be a better self to strive in a safe and conducive learning environment.
Theoretical Frameworks
The school adopts theoretical frameworks to inform its practice for student leadership. The programme has incorporated the use of Levels of Service (LoS) to guide its differentiated development of student leaders’ competencies with provision made for students with the potential to be stretched further.
Another important theoretical framework adopted to align its student leadership practice is the well-researched Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership by (James Kouzes and Barry Posner).
Lastly, the student leadership leverages SST Experiential and Reflection Cycle to plan its programme and reflect their experiences to internalise their learning from the experience.
House of Leaders
The House of Leaders is a conceptual structure set up to bring cohesiveness and coherence to the overall student leadership development in SST. All the student leadership boards in the school come under the purview of the House of Leaders. It is overseen by the Student Leadership Committee.
For students who are keen to further develop their leadership competencies, they can take up formal student leadership positions in any of the five formal leadership boards approved by the school.
The formal leadership boards are:
- Active Citizenship Education Committee (ACE)
- Co-Curricular Activities (CCA)
- House Committee (HC)
- Peer Support Board (PSB)
- Student Council (SC)
Student Leadership Boards
The school also believes that everyone has the potential to exercise leadership, whether in formal positions or not, and the end-goal is to have students understand and develop their own abilities in ethical and effective leadership at their own pace. For students who want to develop their leadership aspirations and deemed to be ready for formal leadership, opportunities are there for them to join any of the student leadership boards. Although each board has its own specific areas of functions and specialities, they all share a common purpose and that is to serve SST and the wider community.
Active Citizenship Education Committee (ACE)
The SST ACE student leaders programme provides opportunities for passionate students to become positive role models and influencers in driving positive social change within the school community, the external community and even beyond Singapore borders.
ACE Leaders work with their peers to develop empathy and respect for others through the various ACE’s programmes such as Service Learning, Advocacy Outreach and Sec 1 Overseas Learning Experiences (OLE) whereby they select a cause to advocate and then touch base with the relevant community to seek and effect a positive impact.
The programme aims to develop the ACE leaders to be contributing global citizens, seeing the world as an interconnected set of systems and taking action to advocate positive social action and serve the community with purpose and enthusiasm.
Learn more about ACE via their Instagram @SSTACTvocates here: https://www.instagram.com/sstactvocates/
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Co-Curricular Activities (CCA)
CCA leaders are passionate about their CCAs and aspire to lead their CCAs to achieve success. Although most of them are selected for their expertise, they must also have good character. CCA is an integral part of the co-curriculum and plays a significant role in the holistic development of the student, it is even more critical that CCA student leaders model the values espoused by the school and the CCA for their members to aspire towards.
They have the best opportunity to guide and mentor their members because of the close contact and relationships built over many hours of training together, sharing common experiences of struggles and successes.
Hence the experience of being a CCA leader who can strengthen their peers and culture of the CCA will be a very rewarding and gratifying one. When a CCA leader strengthens others, he/she strengthens himself/herself in the process.
House Committee (HC)
In SST, each student is assigned a house colour when they first join the school. Once assigned, the house colours stay with them throughout their schooling years in SST. The HC is a body of student leaders whose niche lies in building the house and school spirits as well as pride and sense of belonging to the school through sports and outdoor education activities. There are five houses in SST and each has its own student leaders looking after them.
The HC works as a closely knitted team as all the house events are large scale and require substantial manpower resources. Hence they are supported by house representatives from the classes whom they lead when planning and running these events. Some of the key events they have to organise as part of their developmental tasks are SST Games Carnival (whole school), Inter-House Games (by level cohorts), Outdoor Education Expedition (OEE), among many others.
Due to the nature of their activities, the HC are specifically trained in sports and outdoor leadership with opportunities to certify themselves in some outdoor activities. These are on top of the school student leadership training programme. The experience of being a sports and outdoor leader will be an added boost to their leadership development journey and better prepare them for the future.
Below is a video from the 2019 House Challenge by HC:
Peer Support Board (PSB)
The PSB endeavours to promote a positive peer support spirit by creating a caring and supportive school community. It envisioned the school as like a second family for each SST student, whereby they can feel safe and secured.
PSB undertakes the role of enculturation in SST by serving and developing the school community through SST’s operative values of Respect, Responsibility, Relationship and Reflection (4Rs). One of the key contributions of PSB is the organisation of the Secondary One orientation camp, a significant milestone for all SST students to initiate and build a sense of belonging to the school. Additionally, to enrich the school experience for all SST students and staff, the PSB initiates, organises and manages projects such as PSBCares, Tea with PSB, Staff Appreciation Week, among many others.
Indeed, the PSB leadership experience is a unique and fulfilling one replete with opportunities to lead in countless capacities, to serve in a myriad of programmes.
Learn more about PSB via their Instagram @We.Are.PSB here: https://www.instagram.com/we.are.psb/
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Student Council (SC)
SC is the guardian of the school values and ethos. They leverage their strong self- leadership to encourage and enable their peers to align their values and actions with the school values and ethos. As student ambassadors of the school, they are also the bridge between the school and the students.
The SC student leaders help to organise various school-wide events like Badge Night, Student Congress through Appreciative Inquiry, and Graduation Night where they sharpen their leadership and executive skills. Often, the council also collaborates with other leadership boards to develop and implement initiatives to synergistically enhance the school experience of all students.
Through the various developmental tasks and experiences in the programme, it aims to allow the SC student leaders to grow from strength to strength, becoming exemplary role models who exhibit strong leadership, moral and performance character.
Learn more about PSB via their Instagram @SSTudents.life here: https://www.instagram.com/sstudents.life/
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