Ron Dearing UTC’s newly appointed student board says it’s committed to prioritising the wellbeing of all students during the next school year.
The new 2025/26 student board, which is made up of 13 students from Years 10, 11 and 12, met for their inaugural meeting after being appointed by fellow students and teachers.
The board’s leadership team was appointed by teaching staff following an interview process and includes Year 12 students, Victoria Sibova, Chair, Evelyn Williams, Vice Chair and Zack O’Dell Johnson, Secretary.
Representatives for Years 10 and 11 were elected by their peers with Alfie Sewell, Eli Smit, Jaden Anekwe, Bea Holmes, Oli Greatbatch, Humza Abbasi, Omori Wilson and Lilah Pate, elected as the Year 10 reps, and Claudia Kruz Laya and Kristian Ivanov chosen to represent Year 11.
The board’s Chair, Victoria Sibova joined Ron Dearing UTC in Year 10, and served on the board last year as a Year 11 representative. Victoria is studying A-Levels in Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Engineering, and has now stepped up to lead the board after impressing the interview panel.
She said: “I really enjoyed being part of the board last year and saw the positive changes we were able to make for the benefit of all students. I was really inspired by the students who lead the board last year so I knew I wanted to put myself forward to do even more this year.
“Our main priority is ensuring the wellbeing of all students and ensuring their voices are heard, but one of my personal goals this year is to push for more trips for subjects such as science and maths. Ron Dearing already offers lots of fantastic trips for the creative subjects so we’d love to see more in the STEM subjects too.”
Vice Chair Evelyn and Secretary Zack both joined Ron Dearing’s Sixth Form in September and decided to join the board to help support their fellow students.
Evelyn said: “I was a prefect at my secondary school and really enjoyed being able to help others and I especially enjoyed being there to support the younger students and answer any questions.
“When I joined Ron Dearing, I knew I wanted to get involved with something that would allow me to help other students in a similar way.”
Zack added: “I’ve never really been confident enough to do something like this before, but when I joined Ron Dearing, I decided I was going to push myself and put myself forward.
“The leadership team will take opinions and ideas from the year group representatives on the board, and we’ll also send out questionnaires to get feedback from other students and put forward suggestions to staff to make positive changes that students want to see.”
The board will host regular meetings to gather feedback on the topics that matter most to young people at the school and they will liaise with staff members to put forward ideas for changes and new initiatives.
The school’s Vice Principal Mark Ollerenshaw said: “We’ve got a brilliant group of young people on the student board and I have really high hopes for what they’re going to do this year.
“The fact they’ve put themselves forward to take on this role and are committed to making a positive difference for their peers is really commendable, and they’ve all had to go through a rigorous process to be appointed to the board, so they should all be proud of what they’ve already achieved.”