Fronted by the Head Boy and Girl and their team of senior student leaders, the student body – with significant help from their families – has undertaken a number of different campaigns this year to help others and put community at the heart of what they do.

“It started with a campaign in September to support our local primary school” says Head Boy Jesh “We knew that they were struggling for books in their library, so worked with our newly reinstated PTFA to launch a campaign to collect as many books as possible, suitable for children in years 4, 5 and 6”. The campaign lasted for a month, with students and parents bringing books into school! In total, the school community managed to collect over 500 good quality books for the library, which were sorted and labelled by the wider student body and then taken down to the primary school by some staff and students where they were very warmly received. Mrs Madden, headteacher at Stokesley Primary Academy, said that they were overwhelmed by the generosity of the school, and that their library now looked fabulous!

This campaign was shortly followed by Children In Need, where student leaders decided that they wanted to try to beat their fundraising target for the previous year by asking for donations but also putting on cake sales. “Now we know that teenagers like to eat, but the challenge was going to be encouraging students to bake so that we had things to sell!” Said Head Girl Rowan. But they needn’t have worried – over 50 students and their families baked for the cake sale, and – as a result – the school raised over £1200 for the charity on the day. Also keen to develop the skills of their student leaders, the school also asked the sixth form student leaders to deliver an assembly to their year 7s on the day about this year’s Children in Need Campaign, which was focused around mental health in young people. Alfie, Ambassador for Mental Health and Wellbeing said ‘It was daunting, yes, but we wanted the year 7 students to know that we are there for them, and that we have been where they are. The assembly was fun to deliver, and we think the students appreciated hearing the message from other young people”.

The school has recently joined up with the local Rotary club, too, and worked alongside them to collect coats for Wrap Up Teesside, an initiative to get winter coats to those that need them over the winter. The school collected over 100 coats for the campaign in the space of a week, with families really getting behind the campaign and making generous donations that will make a huge difference to local people in the cold. Harry, a year 7 student leader, said “We take things like being able to get warm in winter for granted, and things like this just make you think a bit harder about how tough life can be for others”.

Perhaps the biggest campaign that the students have undertaken, however, is the one that they’re currently working on, which is to provide – as a school – 45 hampers for families in need over the festive period. Each tutor group in the school through from year 7 to year 13 has been allocated a family through The Cause Foundation, and have been collecting a range items (household goods, food, toys, presents and Christmas treats) to put in their hamper. Over the past week, these donations have been brought down for the House Captains and Senior Student Leader team to sort out, ready for collection at the beginning of December. A year 8 tutor at the school, said “some of or families have been so incredibly generous, and it’s been brilliant to see everyone pulling together to make this happen”

Speaking on behalf of the student leadership team, ambassador for community and enrichment Evie said “It's really important for us that the school is part of the local community, and that we are doing what we can for people in need. We want to give the students here opportunities to be altruistic in a world that’s increasingly selfish and individualistic. That’s not what Stokesley school is about. We want, where possible, these campaigns to be student led so that the good will comes directly from young people. It’s not quite the same if your teachers have told you to do it”.

So, there you have it: young people – with the right direction and encouragement – really can be a force for good, and this is how just one North Yorkshire school is making their voice count in the community, and teaching values that will hopefully stay with their students for life.