GCES provides the Student Council opportunity for fourth and fifth grade students. To become a student council member, students will have to run for the position of their choice. This entails creating a campaign with posters and fliers and giving speeches. Their classmates will vote to elect the Student Council representatives. 

The Student Council positions include:

• President

• Vice-President

• Secretary

• Treasurer

Beginning second semester of the 24-25 school year, GCES students can apply for the "Circle Keeper Ambassador Program". In this program, students will learn how to lead Restorative Circles with their classmates. Restorative Circles are a process where students meet in a circle to discuss a topic, with every member having an opportunity to participate. Each circle has a talking piece ensuring the member holding the talking piece is the only person allowed to speak at that time. Restorative Circles can occur when students are having a disagreement and need to work through the problem, experience a traumatic event and need to process as a group, or when a classroom wants to discuss something of interest with everyone having an opportunity to participate. The Circle Keeper Ambassadors lead all Restorative Circles. Their responsibility is to ensure everyone respects the circle shared agreements, keep the group on topic, and begin and end the circle. To become a Circle Keeper Ambassador, students will apply by writing a letter to their classroom teacher detailing their interest in the program and why they believe they would be a successful Circle Keeper Ambassador. Classroom teachers will each choose one ambassador per classroom. The ambassadors will then participate in an orientation with Mr. Linnehan teaching the students how to conduct a circle and then practice circles amongst each other. After their orientation, they will begin leading circles in their classroom and across the school!

Each month teachers nominate students for the opportunity to be selected as the Elementary Student of the Month. Through the nominating process, teachers write a description for why the student should be nominated and email the principal that description. All nominees are then entered into a Google Form for all staff to vote for the student of the month! Once selected, the student appears on the televisions around the elementary school with the write-up from the teacher, and the student is represented in person at the monthly school board meeting. This is a great way to promote student leadership and role model behavior and recognize our hardworking students!

Students in fifth grade as well as the Upper Montessori program have the opportunity to mentor younger students through conducting reading partnerships each week. During this time students work individually with students for read-alouds to hear students read and support their reading growth. Many younger students struggle with the self confidence to read aloud to their peers. This provides an opportunity for each student to read to an older student and read one-on-one. We have seen tremendous growth with this program in our younger students and it helps solidify the reading skills of our fifth graders!