To clarify, is it a question of what is "Currently" occuring in student leadership, or what "Should" be occuring? In my experience these are very different.
I see a lot of schools give token lip service currently to student leadership in the middle years. There is no real development, and minimal role descriptions and functions of student leaders.
I have been working with some schools in developing a 'Leadership Development Program', which involves:
- Clearly defined purpose for student leaders
- Clearly defined structures and roles.
- Personality testing, including identifying strengths, weaknesses and areas for development, for a wide range of students. This helps in identifying potential leaders, and raises the pool and skill level of students.
- Purposeful and structured leadership development program, which teaches skills to wider range of students in the pool.
- Coaching and mentoring of student leaders.
I am happy to go into more detail if required.