“The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humour, but without folly.”

Be steadfast - walk humbly, love tenderly and act justly. Always.

The Jesuits

Pupil Leadership Team and Student Council

Our pupil leadership team provides an opportunity to develop our young people into responsible, respectful and active leaders and citizens who play their part in building up our school and wider community.

The ‘exec’ team, made up of six elected Y11 pupils, play an active role in contributing to whole school development, meeting with Mr. Hughes and Miss Coates regularly, feeding into SLT and governors and chairing the student council meetings, to gauge the ideas, thoughts and opinions of the elected council members. The student council is made up of 8 students from each year group (one from each form) who have been democratically elected to the roles by pupils and staff.

To support the development of our leadership team, they follow a Catholic Leadership programme, which will inspire them to lead with faith and dignity, ensuring that the example and teachings of Christ are at the forefront of the culture of leadership developed by the pupils. Alongside this, opportunities are provided for workshops/remote coaching from established leaders from the community and industry. Both above will be used to raise aspiration among our young people.

Sessions in the Future Catholic Leaders Programme include:

  • Session 1: “Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant” Matthew 20:26: What it means to be an effective Catholic leader.
  • Session 2: “The heart is commonly reached not through reason, but through imagination” John Henry Newman: How to effectively inspire others to a life of faith.
  • Session 3: “Let us learn from the Virgin Mary how to be bolder in obeying the word of God” Pope Francis- Mary as a model of honesty, humility and responsibility: How to effectively engage others to ‘act justly, love tenderly and walk humbly with God’.
  • Session 4: “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you” Acts 1:8- How, as young people, you grow in your faith with guidance from the Holy Spirit: How to effectively grow in your faith throughout your life, especially in times of challenge.
  • Session 5: “Christ is alive! He is our hope” Pope Francis: What does it mean to have an ‘active’ faith?

All the sessions are led by leaders from our school, our diocese, our parishes and further afield. Communication is key in driving this agenda. The ‘exec’ team feed into the ‘This is how we do it here’ newsletter to parents, plan and lead assemblies and give updates to leaders, pupils and governors in a timely manner.

Other leadership opportunities in school include our Faith Leaders, who lead on mini-mission, SVP and key liturgical events, our sports leaders, who lead sporting activities, peer coaching and key sporting events throughout the year and our elected member of the Trust Pupil Parliament.

Sports leaders undergo various types of training from Stockton Schools Partnership or school teachers. They will develop skills such as confidence, resilience and teamwork, which they will put into practice at various sporting events within school or the Stockton District Partnership. These events include Primary and Secondary events.

Events which leaders are used for:

  • Primary PE Transition day
  • Stockton Secondary schools Athletics Championships
  • Trust Championships
  • Primary Tag-Rugby
  • Stockton District Cross Country
  • Stockton Primary Athletics
  • SEN Competitions within Stockton District
  • Inter-form Competitions
  • School Football matches
  • School Netball Matches
  • School Rugby Matches