Section 5 Harris student commissioner recruitment
Academies within the Harris Student Commission each designed and delivered their own recruitment processes for commissioners. By the end of the first term each of the academies involved had identified approximately ten student commissioners, making around 70 in total across the whole commission. Most academies created an open recruitment process, asking students to complete application forms, obtain references and attend interviews. Recommendations were also taken from staff who felt that particular students would benefit from involvement. In some cases academies directly approached students considered to be role models or academically gifted with an offer of a position in the commission. Co-leaders reflected that they should have more carefully targeted popular and talented student leaders from the start. From the end of the first phase (summer 2009), academies began to recruit more commissioners. In some cases new students were initially called assistant or associate
commissioners but it was later agreed that creating two tiers of student commissioners was not a good approach. Existing, experienced student commissioners were able to take an active part in second stage recruitment. The vast majority of new commissioners went through a process of written application and interview, and were selected by both staff and peers. Like the recruitment of the original cohort, individual academies determined the exact nature of the process to suit their own context. Those who interviewed applicants found the process challenging but very useful, particularly in improving self-confidence and reflecting on their own role through evaluating others’ strengths and weaknesses.
Harris student commissioner development days
Harris student commissioners took part in cross-federation ‘development days’ once per term. These full-day sessions were hosted in different academies and were designed to: •• give commissioners from different academies opportunities to work and learn together, and share what they had been doing and learning in their own schools •• share information about upcoming commission activities with all student commissioners •• provide training and development on key issues, for example being a leader of learning, understanding enquiry and engaging staff and students •• celebrate what had been achieved and set expectations for future activity.
These sessions often featured: •• external, expert facilitation •• cross-academy working and learning •• presentations of commission work by students •• inputs from external experts, including students and teachers from other schools •• sharing of resources and learning materials to support commission activity •• focused time in academy groups to plan and design future activity.
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