Pupil Leadership
We believe that the more children are actively invested in a school, the greater their contribution and feeling of belonging towards it will be. This has a great effect on learning, as invested children make good learners. Additionally, at our school we believe that involving children in decision making and giving them roles of responsibility will generate an ambitious and aspirational atmosphere in which children will want to succeed. This will enable them to develop key skills which will be invaluable to them in later life, both moving onto secondary school as well as later when entering the work place.
There are a range of Leadership Opportunities available for children to participate in. Some of these roles are elected by peers and some of these roles require pupils to apply for the role.
Head pupils & vat pupil parliament
Our school council is headed up by our Head Pupils, who were selected after a democratic process including a letter/video or presentation of application to their class and an interview with members of our Senior Leadership Team, where they were invited to talk about why they wanted the role; why they might be a good choice; what they would like to do if they were successful in their application and what they felt was the most important aspect of being a head pupil.
Our Head Pupils also sit on the Vale Academy Trust Pupil Parliament, alongside representatives from the other Vale Primary and Secondary schools. At meetings, wider community projects are discussed and representatives regularly meet with local MPs to talk about how they can work in partnership to support improvements and new projects in the local community.
School councillors
After surveying groups of children to better understand the barriers which often prevent them from applying to be part of the school council, we made changes to the application process based on the feedback from children.
As a result of the surveys, children were able to apply by selecting from these options:
· Present to their class; this could include the use of a powerpoint or it could simply be verbal;
· Prepare a short video, emailed to the school office which can then be shown to their class;
· Write a letter to the class, which could be read aloud by a classroom adult or by your child.
Children who wanted support from adults in school with their application were also invited to attend drop in sessions in the week prior to presenting.
Each class learnt about what it means to be part of a democracy and every child from Years 2-6 completed a ballot voting slip, placing these inside the ballot box in their classroom.
Our school councillors meet regularly to work with the Senior Leadership Team and subject leads from across the school to support ongoing work across the curriculum. For this academic year, there are two main priorities which we are working towards:
- Embedding the VAT character and citizenship award into school life
- Developing our enrichment and extra-curricular offer
The aims of our school council are aligned to our Unicef Rights Respecting Schools work and promote the following articles:
- Article 12: When important decisions are being made that affect you, you have the right to give your opinion and to be taken seriously.
- Article 29: your education should help you develop your personality, talents, and mental and physical abilities. It should encourage you to develop respect in your own culture, for other cultures and for the environment. It should help prepare you to live in and contribute to a free society
- Article 13: you have the right to find out information and to share your ideas through writing, speaking, drawing or any other way, unless it may harm you or anyone else.
Eco councillors
At Charlton, we want all pupils to recognise that they can positively influence their own lives and those of others around them. Our Eco Council, who comprise of children from each class, democratically elected by their peers to represent their views, are one such group who work to positively influence those around them.
Eco councillors work alongside Ms Kensit and promote care for our local environment, local community and the global community. They are responsible for leading eco initiatives in school such as promoting recycling; litter picking; seed/bulb planting, with the overall aim of helping others to become more eco aware and responsible.
This year, the Eco Council's priorities include the following:
· To create and launch a school Eco Code
· Continue to develop our school grounds
· Promote healthy living
· Consider how we can reduce the use of single-use plastics.
Rights champions
Being a Silver Rights Respecting School is very important to us.
Our Rights Champions work alongside Mrs Garbutt to raise awareness and promote children's rights, not just at school, but locally and across the world.
Every year, we take part in the UNICEF Outright campaign, and the Rights Champions are responsible for promoting this, and helping to empower children and young people to learn how climate change threatens children’s rights and how we can protect them!
Anti-bullying ambassadors
At Charlton, we are a Rights Respecting School, and as such we aim to ensure that every child has the right to express their views, feelings and wishes in all matters affecting them, and to have their views considered and taken seriously. We have a number of pupil voice groups, including anti-bullying ambassadors, who have been democratically elected by children to represent their class’s views.
Our anti-bullying ambassadors work alongside Mrs Campbell to promote our school approach to anti-bullying. This group have regular meetings together, feeding back to their respective classes and sharing thoughts from their classes too.
This year, their main priority area is to ensure that all stakeholders are aware of our approach, and know what to do if they or someone they know experiences bullying behaviours.