B. Leadership Guide - Student Agency and Service to the Community

"Leadership is about empathy. It is about having the ability to relate and connect with people for the purpose of inspiring and empowering their lives” - Daniel Pink, A Whole Mind

The CIS Mission and Definition of Learning place value on ethical action and student agency This integrated document is designed as a leadership guide for students: where and how can they leverage their capacity for empathy, connection and initiative.

As a school we believe that all students have individual strengths and leadership potential and are called to become leaders by being active participants in the life and work of the school; in so doing, they contribute to the greater good.

Aims of this Guide:

• To outline the various domains of school within which students may exercise their initiative and agency

• To outline the procedures for establishing Service Projects, CCAs and Clubs

At CIS there are five formal categories of responsible leadership:

1. Student Government 

2. CCAs

3. Service and Action Groups 

4. Student-led CCAs

5. Subject Councils

1. Student Government

These representative groups are formed at the beginning of the year and managed by the Student Affairs Office/House Coordinator. The groups include the Student Council, the Senior Student Committee, House/Advisory Reps, House Captains. Students can self-nominate and are elected by their peers, or selected by a panel of advisors as in the case of the House Captains.

1. Student Council Executive (SCE)

The Student Council is a representative body of all Secondary students in Chinese International School and members are elected by the Student Body. The Student Council consists of four elected members and two more members voted on to the council by the four elected members.

The Mission of the Student Council is to:

• promote unity and spirit amongst the student body by organising appropriate social activities for all students to enjoy 

• act as role models 

• solicit student voice through interaction with Student Council Representatives from all year groups and act as a bridge between the student body and school administration

Student Council Constitution 

Election Process for the Student Council Executive. 

Each electoral team (team running for the position of Student Council)  shall consist of four members, and they will present to the secondary school during the Student Council Hustings. Following the election, two more members may be co-opted onto the Student Council Executive. Once the Executive has been established, a secretary and a treasurer must be chosen from the group of 6 students. Other roles within the Executive can be decided by the group.

• Each electoral team is required to register by submitting a letter addressed to the entire student body (12 pt font) describing its campaign proposals. The campaign proposals need to be sent to the Head of Year 12  by a set date at the start of each year. These dates are updated in the student handbook each year. The proposals will be reviewed and subject to final approval by the Head of Year 12 and the Secondary Leadership Team. 

  • Proposals must be articulate and concise.  DO NOT EMAIL YOUR PROPOSALS TO THE STUDENT BODY DIRECTLY AT ANY TIME. Examples of proposal letters from previous years can be shared upon request. 

• Important Dates and Timeline (2024-25)

  • Thursday, August 14, 2025 - Submit a letter outlining campaign proposals to the Head of Year 12 and Director of Student Affairs by 3:00 PM on this date. 

  • Monday, August 18, 2025 @ 3 pm - Campaigning starts after school on this day.. Please read the campaign guidelines carefully. In the following week there will be a Town Hall meeting moderated by the outgoing Student Council Executive and the Head Boy and  Head Girl. 

  • Monday, August 25 , 2025 - Campaign presentations are presented live in the Lower School Gym during Flexi Time. Voting will follow immediately afterwards. 

• Campaigning

  • Campaigning starts on Monday, August 18, at 3:00 pm

  • All teams will be assigned a noticeboard in the 無限空間 (L5). Your campaigning will be limited to the L5 無限空間; you will not be able to put posters around the school. Each team is expected to have members present at lunchtime in the week(s) prior to the hustings and election. This will allow the student body to ask questions and clarify their understanding of each team’s campaign. There will also be a lunchtime Town Hall meeting during the week of campaigning. 

• Additional Campaign Guidelines:

  • Campaigning must be ethical and conducted fairly.

  • The campaign must be run in accordance with the school’s sustainability goals.

  • Each team is limited to a budget of HK$500. Please provide receipts and other relevant financial documentation to ensure that you have abided by campaign guidelines.

  • Your team name must not infringe existing trademarks; for example, you cannot call yourself Team IKEA or Team Twitter or Team Coca-Cola. Come up with something original and fun!

  • No posters may be put up over the summer break.

  • No flyers may be handed out.

  • No incentives e.g. candy, discounts, vouchers etc. may be offered.

  • Campaign literature must be prepared and presented in good taste. You may request to visit advisories or assemblies. 

  • Posters and materials may not mention opponents by name, image, or caricature. 

  • Candidates will be responsible for taking down and properly disposing of posters from the L5 noticeboards.

  • Please take the time to meet as a group and come up with ideas on how you can generate school spirit, as well as innovations and initiatives that you think will be successful for the CIS student body. Work on the content of your campaigns and make sure this content is realistic! Also, please make sure that the content of your campaign is not just superficial and crowd-pleasing. You should be thinking of initiatives that will truly benefit the lives of CIS students.

 Important Note: Campaigning is here defined as the presentation of ideas on L5 and in the Phoenix Daily, as well as during advisories, assemblies and the Student Council Hustings. It DOES NOT include the use of the internet in the form of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter etc. ‘Cold calling’ CIS students is absolutely forbidden. Teams that do not abide by these guidelines run the risk of disqualification.

2. Senior Student Committee

The Senior Student Committee is the representative body of Year 12 and 13 students at Chinese International School. It is the role of the Senior Student Committee to facilitate the interaction and cohesion between school leadership, the faculty, and the students; express student opinion to the leadership and faculty; and work for the betterment of student life for senior students at Chinese International School. 

This Constitution serves as a basis for meaningful and effective student governance in the Chinese International School. This Constitution may be improved, changed or corrected by means of amendments by subsequent Senior Student Committees.

Senior Student Council Constitution

Election Process for the Senior Student Committee 

The Senior Student Committee consists of students in Years 12 and 13 with a maximum of 4 representatives from Year 12 and a maximum of 6 representatives from Year 13, elected by the students in each year group. This count includes the Head Boy and Head Girl, but they sit on this committee.

• An application form is sent by the Year 13 students on the Senior Student Committee to Year 12 students in August each year. 

• The Year 13 students on the Senior Student Committee, with the Head of Year 12 and 13 and the Director of Student Affairs shortlist candidates.

• The shortlisted candidates deliver a speech in a Year 12 and 13 assembly

• Year 12 and Year 13 students submit their votes to determine which four Year 12 members will join the team!

Representatives in the Senior Student Committee are elected for two-year terms, unless a member chooses to step-down in which re-election will be held.

3. House Captains

There are two House Captains per House, a total of 10 House Captains who hold the position for one year. These leaders develop leadership, organisational, and entrepreneurship skills while fostering house spirit in the school community.
  

House Captains are expected to:

• Cultivate a strong sense of house spirit and pride.

• Organise exciting monthly inter-house events.

• Assist in planning and executing all house events.

• Support the PHE department during school-wide carnivals, such as Sports Day and House Challenge.

• Strengthen the bond between students and staff by collaborating closely with the House Coordinator.

• Lead and collaborate with other student leadership groups and house representatives.

• Inspire the school community through assemblies.

• Collaborate with the House Coordinator to achieve our goals.

Application Process :

To apply for the House Captain role at the start of each school year students: 

• Complete a Google form that is emailed to the students at the start of each school year.

• Submit a video ( a maximum of two minutes) showcasing why they would be an effective House Captain.

• All applications are carefully reviewed by a panel consisting of the Head of Year 12, the Director of Student Life, the Director of  Sports and Activities and the Deputy Director of  Sports and Activities and House Coordinator.

  • This panel will also seek input from Year 12 Advisors and the previous year's House Captains.

4. Year 7 ,8, 9 and 11 Councils

Each Year Level elects three representatives to form the Student Level Council. This Year 7,8 and 9 councils sit on the Middle School Forum and the Year 11 Council sits on the Upper School Forum.

Year Level Representatives on the Council will:

• Collect and communicate the views and opinions of your respective year group to the Student Council.

• Disseminate decisions and reasonings from the Student Council to your year group. 

• Promote and participate actively in Student Council events.

• Regularly meet and actively participate with the Student Council. 

Application Process:

• In August students are asked to self-nominate and will send an application to their Heads of Year.

• Students then present their ideas and values to the year group and the year group vote.

5. Advisory/ House Representative

The Advisory/ House Representative is one elected representative by each advisory in Years 7 to 11 and is responsible for communicating with:

• house captains to keep the advisory up to date on House events and activities

• the Head of Year to help coordinate activities in advisory

• year level Student Council to act as an advocate and communicate ideas from their advisory.

Application Process:

• In August students are asked to self nominate and will send an application to their Advisor.

• Students then present their ideas and values to their advisory and the advisory votes.

Overview of Student Governance

2. Service and Action Groups: 

Be the change you want to see! Service is a core part of who we are at CIS, and exemplifies our motto "To Seek and to Serve." For students wishing to create a Service and Action group, they must follow the following steps:

• Make an appointment with the Whole School Director of Service Learning and submit a plan, including goals and a mission consistent with the school’s principles of ‘Service as Action’.

• Student(s) will meet with the Whole School Director of Service Learning and should be ready to answer the following questions:

  • Do we have a student group doing the same thing?

  • Do you know if we have a contact at this NGO?

  • Will this NGO be willing to come in and run training sessions with our students?

  • Do they offer volunteer opportunities?

  • How long have they been operating for?

  • Have you read through their Impact report?

• After the conversation with the Whole School Director of Service Learning you will be  asked to present your proposal to the SDG Council. The SDG Council is made up of all the service leaders in CIS. The Council meets every Thursday at lunchtime.  After hearing your proposal and presentation, they will provide feedback, suggestions on collaboration or approval for a new group being established.

  • Is this a new service? If Yes then they will make a decision on it starting

  • Is it a service that could join an existing service? If Yes then you will be asked to work with the existing service

Subject to final approval, the group is registered with the Whole School Director of Service Learning, who provides valuable direction and mentoring.

Details Information about Service and Action Groups at CIS can be found on the school website and MyCIS..

Leadership Handover for Service

If Year 11 students have a good track record of attendance and participation in a service, they are given the opportunity to shadow the leader of that service from April to June. If they would like to then apply to be a service leader, they will be asked to complete a Service Leader Application form that is sent out to students by the Whole School Director of Service Learning. Students are able to apply for up to 3 services that they would like a leadership position in. Students can only lead one service and are asked to select their First, Second and Third choices and provide past experiences in leadership that are relevant to the specific service  they are seeking a leadership position for.

Students will then be invited for an interview with the service leader, the Director of Whole School Service Learning and the supervisor for the service. This happens at the end of Year 11 and, in some cases, the beginning of Year 12. 

3. Co-Curricular Activities (CCAs)

CCAs provide rich experiences for students to demonstrate their agency and leadership skills. Sports teams, debate, MUN and many more activities provide a ready-made culture within which students can flourish and use their strengths as leaders and role models. Students sign up for CCAs at the beginning of each semester through Schoolsbuddy and information is sent to students by the Sports and Activities Office. Detailed information can be found about CCAs on the school website. The process is managed by the Sports and Activities Office located on Level 1 of the school.

4. 4. Student-led Co-Curricular Activities:

In some instances, the nature of the activity along with level of interest may justify an application by a student or group of students to register their activity as a student-led CCA.   Students must contact the Deputy Director of Sports and Activities before approaching a teacher or submitting an idea, to discuss its feasibility and check for any existing similar or duplicate extracurricular activities (CCAs). If such activities already exist, students are encouraged to collaborate with other student leaders or propose an alternative that would generate student interest. If the activity can be registered as a new Student Led CCA then students must:

• Find a supervising teacher who is prepared to support the Student Led CCA.

• The Supervising Teacher will complete a submission through the Google form sent out by the CCA office each semester.

• The form is semester-based but activities can also be run year long.

• The form asks that the following details are provided:

  • Name of the activity

  • Time of the activity

• Description of activity - Goals of the activity and what is hoped to be achieved

• Name of Supervising Teacher

• Once approved, by the Deputy Director of Sports and Activities, the activity is then added to SchoolsBuddy.

The participants of each Student Led CCA meet on a regular basis under the guidance, and supervision of a faculty supervisor. 

Leadership Handover for Student Led CCAs

Student Led CCAs review the membership of their CCA and any returning members who would like to take over the leadership provide their name to the Student Leader and the supervising teacher. The appointment of the new Student Leaders is approved by the retiring Student Leader, the supervisor and the Deputy Director of Sports and Activities. The returning Student Leader will share all necessary information with the new leader and the new leader will shadow sessions at the end of the school year prior to taking over at the start of the new school year.

5. Subject Councils

Subject Specific Councils create structures and opportunities for our students to engage in real-life learning and apply knowledge learned inside the classroom to outside contexts. They:

• enable students to develop character traits and skills crucial to success, such as organizational skills, resilience, communication, and empathy.

• provide spaces where students can commune with other students around their interests, help others in need, and add value to the school, local and international community.

• oversee clubs and activities connected to their subject area to collaborate and fulfill a broader vision. 

Subject Specific Councils aim to:

• preserve legacy in current student groups, mitigating clubs that overlap and therefore achieve greater impact

• connect students with similar interests

• align subject-specific clubs for greater collaboration and to promote subject related activities

• coordinate connections with relevant alumni and experts in the subject area.

Organization of Subject-Specific Societies:

• Society Members:

  • The optimal team would be 2 students from Year 12 and 2 students from Year 11 but it may be another combination

  • Additional 4-10 members from Years 8 to 12 

• The Society Members are selected through interviews: 

  • Leaders are selected by outgoing Year 12 Leaders and two members from the subject area department, and the Council Teacher Supervisor

  • Team members are selected by the outgoing Leaders and Council Teacher Supervisor

  • Leaders and team members are selected in the month of May for the next school year.

Informal Leadership Opportunities

Often students have an idea or suggestion to bring something new to the school in the form of an activity, fundraising, service, etc and want to know how to go about it. The chart below gives students guidance and direction about whom to approach to discuss their idea(s).