Student Voice is an initiative that allows an elected student president to facilitate positive change for all students within their academy.  Meeting every two weeks, Thorp Academy’s Student Voice committees for each year group discuss a range of different, topical issues and consider how they can continue conversations about current affairs across the academy in fun, interesting ways. 

At Thorp Academy, the Student Voice committee has raised awareness of a range of campaigns including Mental Health Awareness week, Online Safety and Deaf Awareness week. Through the creation of fantastic videos, art pieces, posters and more, the Student Voice committee has been able to raise the profile of important issues in a brilliant way that gets the whole academy involved. 

Student Voice makes sure students’ concerns are listened to and the positive outcomes of this are already visible within the academy. After students raised the issue of overusing plastic water bottles, Thorp Academy Principal, Karen Hailes, has now pledged to provide each student with an aluminium water bottle – which will be trialled with year 10 students in the coming weeks.  Not only will this have a positive impact on the environment but it demonstrates the instrumental change that can come by listening to student opinion.

The main aim of Student Voice is to create a culture of positivity and to bridge the gap between staff and students. Student Voice provides a platform to ensure staff are doing everything they can to support the students and make sure they feel heard. Students can submit issues, qualms or queries via concern boxes that are placed around the academy that can then be raised in committee meetings.

Overall, the Student Voice initiative has become a valuable aspect of Northern Education Trust academies. Through raising their profile, organising presidential meetings across all the academies and working collaboratively as a network, students are contributing to the culture of inclusivity and support, as well as gaining valuable knowledge and experience of how to work together to achieve positive outcomes for everyone.