Over the past month students have been registering their interest to take part in Woodham Academy’s Student Leader Programme. The programme offers students the opportunity to take a lead in key parts of the school’s operation.

This exists in a wide variety of areas, including representing the school at parents’ evenings, sitting on the Year, School and Town Council or supporting other students as a student listener, Bud Club representative or peer mentor.

Once registered, and in some cases elected, students stand as a student leader for the remainder of the academic year.

This programme offers all students the chance to practise various soft skills such as communication, team work and organisation as well as hard skills such as digital literacy. This year over 200 students have volunteered their time to take part in the programme.

‘Being part of the school council helped me build my communication skills and I now feel confident when talking to large groups of people,” said John James Keller in Year 11.