VIPs

That’s Very Important Pupils!

Naturally, all of our children are important, but some have particularly important roles around school. We try to encourage children to have their say, to be leaders and to take responsibility for helping us to run Parkdale. These roles include:

School Council: Key Stage 2 Children are elected by their peers to represent their own class at regular meetings. Younger classes are represented by a KS2 child who attends Council on their behalf. Any child can get anything taken to Council – and they do! Lots of things we have brought in or changed over recent years have come from School Council – it is very influential. Following a very rigorous application process, Chair this year is Willow Brealey. Vice-Chair is Safa Mohbat, both in 6 Beech

Class Ambassadors: Classes choose children to represent their class to any visitors – to greet them, tell them what the class are up to etc

Sports Leaders: Children in Years 5/6 support other children and staff with matters relating to PE and Sports, for example helping set up for events, coaching, gathering pupil voice etc

Digital Leaders: work closely with our staff Digital Team, led by Mrs Hinton, Mrs Carlisle and Mrs Miller-Orme. They support around school with all sorts of digital matters and are our ‘go to’ experts. Our Digital leaders played a big role in our gaining and maintaining Apple Distinguished accreditation. They often do face-to-face presentations to visiting schools who are considering 1-1 ipads or going for Apple Distinguiished. They even do lesson observations and quality assurance!

Transform Parliament: The Trust takes pupil voice very seriously. Two elected representatives from each school attend regular meetings at which Trust-wide developments are discussed. This tends to be ‘bigger picture’ matters. Recent examples include: Creation, from scratch, of the Transform Trust Children’s Charter, which outlines children’s expectations of Transform Schools – a very powerful thing, which Trustees and Execs use to hold schools to account! Parliament have also driven a lot of initiatives around sustainable development across the Trust. Volunteers apply by letter and there is then a very challenging selection process involving staff and other children. Our reps this year are Mujtaba Muhammad and Zunaira Ajmal, both from 6 Beech.

Wellbeing Warriors: This group of volunteer children work closely with our Pastoral Team and are trained in supporting the wellbeing of their peers.

Eco Committee: This group of pupils, led by Mrs Hutchins and Mrs Howe,  work tirelessly to encourage sustainable development. They are largely responsible for our Eco Schools Green Flag accreditation and the recent upgrade of that to the enhanced ‘With Distinction’ level..

Art Ambassadors: This group of children are working closely with Mrs Carter as we strive to gain the very challenging Artsmark accreditation.

More on Pupil Voice

Pupil voice is a practice in schools which involves listening to the views and experiences of children and involving them in decision making. It’s a way to ensure that children and young people are heard and have a say in the things that affect them.