Academic+Rational

Aim High Co-curricular (academic) Rational Our students’ ‘self determination’ is an important part of our school’s core values and an integral element of our co-curricular orgasisation. · We recognise the plurality of life experience and accept that everyone has the right to be heard. · We appreciate diversity and encourage debate. · We respect the rights of every individual. · We encourage our school community to be responsible.  To allow students to have ownership of their own activities allows them to give themselves permission to invest in their surroundings. By creating an environment that puts the onus on the students to build their own opportunities parallel to their academic education we allow for intrinsic motivation; this enables any achievement to be its own reward. A prescribed co-curricular program would make for more consistency but with no emotional investment in the creation of the activity there the motivation becomes increasingly extrinsic, that is participation for positive feedback from the organiser rather than participation as its own reward (Ryan & Deci, 2000). In a situation where there are no founding members of a successful club studying at Aim High, due to graduation or as a result of moving on, the fact that the history of the club was began as a student focused group will give it a tangible history for those still involved. Students controlled where the organisation came from and can thus feel empowered to control where the organisation is going, fostering healthy intrinsic motivation. In more difficult stages of development for students having ownership of some part of their education will give them the positive experience that may be necessary to engage in other aspects of the educational environment in which they find themselves. The leadership program that runs in conjunction with the clubs and societies provides students with internal role models. The different selection criteria and electoral method directly reflect the individual role in question. For the representatives of each home group that make up the SRC the quota based preferential election selects the candidate/s who are trusted the most by the most people in the class; this maximises the utility of the selection. The role of House Captain is essentially social as the peer support students receive through their houses come from the pressure cooker of interhouse competition. The first past the post electoral system produces a captain with the most votes. The house captains need to have their finger on the pulse of as many of the student population as is possible to be able to effectively gauge what house activities will get the most support. The role of the school captain is to be a figure head for the school; a representative in the community and a role model for younger students. For this reason captain must be selected against the criteria of Aim High’s core values. <span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif";">The different layers of student representation and the student centered nature of Aim High’s co-curricular organisations allow for students to achieve self-actualisation (Marslow, 1943) allowing them to set their own goals and reach them in their own context. <span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif";"> <span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif";"> <span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif";">References: <span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif";">Marslow, A. H., (1943). A theory of human motivation. <span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif";">Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions and new directions. <span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif";"> <span style="font-family: "Century Gothic","sans-serif";">