What Role Can a Student Council Have in Your School? 

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Engagement has long been a buzzword in business. Gallup defines it as “the involvement and enthusiasm of employees in their work and workplace.”

But schools have been reaping the benefits of engagement for a much longer time. How? Through student councils.

By having a student council on campus, you can have a direct link to your students through the leadership team that represents them.

If your academic facility doesn’t have one already or if you’re looking to leverage your council more, this article will show you the benefits of having one and how you can make the most of your student leadership team.

What Can A Student Council Do?

Students who take on these leadership roles are assigned certain responsibilities such as:

  • Fostering academic success
  • Helping students achieve social success
  • Identifying issues faced by students and solving them after discussions and proper voting procedures, thereby positively affecting school culture
  • Encouraging the participation and involvement of young adults to help them build confidence while networking with peers
  • Creating more opportunities for students 
  • Running student elections annually to establish the next student council

By having a council, you’re helping create an enriching environment for young leaders while encouraging discourse between school administrators and the general student population.

Making the Most of Your Student Council

Any student council needs the support of the principal and other administrators so that it can successfully represent the students, address their needs, and provide them with more meaningful opportunities.

Here are a few ways in which you can rely on your student council to improve your academic experience:

Establish A Nurturing Academic Environment

A student council can help you achieve academic excellence. It can help you organize:

  • Curricular and extracurricular activities to help children explore their interests and potential
  • Your participation in inter-school competitions which are good for the reputation of your school and for giving students a sense of pride
  • School events like talent shows, science fairs, and plays
  • Mentorship and peer tutoring programs
  • Career and college events 

Promote Wellness 

Running a successful institution isn’t just about good grades and smart kids. It’s also about making them feel safe, nurtured, and motivated through a positive school culture. 

Since members of the student council are students themselves, they can help you identify and address issues like bullying, harassment, and other factors that contribute to a stressful learning environment.

They can also help you proactively promote wellness initiatives like fun runs and marathons, health check-ups, awareness campaigns, healthier cafeteria food, and mental wellness support.

Get the Parents Involved

As a school administrator, you have two large groups of stakeholders: students and their parents. The best schools enlist the support of the parents. By working together, you can be partners in raising children that are physically, mentally, and emotionally healthy.

It’s thus important to establish and maintain good relationships with parents. Your student council can help you plan and execute initiatives that are designed to get them involved.

With their assistance, you can:

  • Run a parent-teacher association and get parent volunteers to support school events
  • Host parent orientations, award nights, and meet-the-teacher events
  • Involve parents in children’s academic lives

If you take the time to establish a good rapport with parents, it will be much easier to get useful insights from them and enlist their help during teacher-parent meetings.

Cultivating a Good Relationship With Your Student Council

Cultivating a good relationship with your student council can help you achieve a good relationship with your student body. When you have events, your council can help plan them and ensure healthy participation from students.

They can also help publicize your school events by:

  • Designing and creating campaign posters and posting them along school halls
  • Producing event flyers and distributing them to students and other audiences
  • Writing an article about it in the school newspaper
  • Telling their friends about it and encouraging them to be part of it
  • Enlisting the help of different student organizations

Here’s a pro tip for you: An easy way to create collateral for events like student elections is to use PosterMyWall, an online graphic design program with thousands of templates. Their promotional materials can be easily customized with drag-and-drop controls. 

Let Your Student Council Help You With Engagement

From managing and running day-to-day affairs, your success as a school is all about engagement. Teachers and administrators need to foster engagement with parents and students so that children can be at their best.

To make this happen, you need to make them feel heard on a number of issues. Your student council can help alert you about relevant themes so that you can respond accordingly.

When it’s time to act, these student leaders can be your sounding board and help you execute various programs that effectively address different school concerns.

Sure, you can do all these things on your own but it’s more meaningful if you can have representation from students. After all, a school’s administrative decisions affect them the most.

When all is said and done, running a school is no easy task but if you have your student council on board, it can be a rewarding journey for young leaders and your administration. 

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