Students in the Primary School have several opportunities to develop leadership skills. The Student Council and the House System offer multi-faceted roles and events for students to inculcate not just leadership qualities but also team work skills.
DePS operates a traditional British house system that fosters teamwork, resilience and sporting etiquette. There are four houses, which are named after character traits we aspire to cultivate in our students. These are Respect House (represented by the Elephant), Courage House (represented by the Lion), Wisdom House (represented by the Owl), and Spirit House (represented by the Horse).
Every student is assigned to a house for the duration of his or her time at the DePS. All school staff are also assigned to a house and remain in that house for their entire time at DePS.
Being a part of a house enhances each student’s sense of identity and belonging, and creates a spirit of friendly collaboration and cooperation. This friendly rivalry is given ample opportunity to manifest itself in a wide-range of inter-house competitions and events across year groups, Key Stages and the whole school. Houses provide a mutually supportive and positive vertical structure whereby older students support and interact with younger students. Fun and friendly competition, across both sporting and academic pursuits, brings out the very best in our children and serves to give every child the opportunity to contribute towards his or her house, to the school and to the wider community.
House points are awarded on a daily basis and any member of staff may award house points. Points are given for: high standards of work, visible progress, consistent improvement, or sustained effort.
There is strong link between the House system and our aims in promoting the DePS Values. The DePS Values define the key attributes of a DePS student and encapsulate our aspirations for the whole school community.
At DePS, we strongly believe that Student Leaders have a very important role to play in the day-to-day organisation of our school. The positions not only allow students the opportunity to model confident leadership, resilience and responsibility, they also encourage younger students to aspire and learn from peer examples.
The information below will help you understand the roles and what opportunities for Student Leadership are open to our students at DePS.
These students will be the pinnacle of student leadership in the school, and will lead tours, open and close formal events, meet and greet at formal events, make end of year speeches and represent the school to the KHDA. They will also be responsible for chairing the Whole School Student Council Meetings.
The purpose of the student council is to give students an opportunity to develop leadership by organizing and carrying out school activities and service projects. In addition to planning events that contribute to school spirit and community welfare, the student council is the voice of the student body.
House Captains play a vital role in their school by developing a sense of house community through the planning and leading a range of inter-house activities across the school. They are responsible for developing inter-house competitions and finding exciting ways of promoting their house identity.
The role of Learning Ambassadors in school is to promote learning by working with teachers to become better teachers, as well as helping our learners be the best learners they can be. They will also be excellent role models and have a great attitude towards learning.
In each Tutor group, students can be nominated into other Leadership roles by their teachers. At DePS, these roles include a Literacy Leader, a Numeracy Leader, a Digital Leader and Sports Captains. These roles have been created to give peer-to-peer support in these important areas of school life.