Carr Junior School in York have been taking part in the Key Stage 2 Young Leaders Award (YLA) for the last 6 years. This year, 72 Year 6 pupils took part in the YLA, developing their leadership skills and character virtues through Archie’s story and challenges.

The YLA not only teaches values like confidence, compassion and teamwork, it also gives the Young Leaders opportunities to put them into practice by thinking about how they can support their local communities individually, and as a group, through social action projects.

For their community social action project, the Young Leaders from Carr Junior decided to run an initiative called ‘Operation Christmas’ after noticing how much need there was in their community over the festive period. They made food packages and delivered them to elderly residents and those who rely on their local Foodbank. There was a great sense of pride from the Young Leaders as they were able to make people smile, even if they were finding life difficult.

The Carr Junior Young Leaders also excelled in their YLA personal projects. Many of the pupils set targets for individual fundraising for charities like Kidney UK and the Teenage Cancer Trust. One Young Leader raised £100 for the MS Society, who supports one of her family members. Another raised over £2,000 as he encouraged his school to take part in the Channel swim.

Other personal challenges included taking clothes to the local clothing bank for the first time, supporting the homeless by handing out coffee and blankets, and one Young Leader donated his entire Minecraft collection to a child in need.

These Young Leaders have done a fantastic job of actively being the change they want to see in their community and making a real difference to the lives of others, as well as developing their own leadership skills and character virtues.

Wendy Bradshaw, Teaching Assistant from Carr Junior said:

“The YLA has helped the development of pupil’s maturity and independence. During the Award, they have become increasingly aware of the needs of others both locally, nationally and globally. An increase in their confidence and self-belief is seen as they develop the courage to make even the smallest of changes to benefit others. To watch the children sense of pride as they work together to become young leaders is a privilege.”

Rozy Brain, Strategic Lead for Primary Schools at the Youth Trust said:

“Carr Junior School are one of our longest running YLA schools. It is a privilege to yet again see their wonderful pupils embracing the challenges of the YLA in so many personal ways and to see how their teamwork and care for others around them has grown.”

Find out more about how you can run the Young Leaders Award in your school setting by visiting – abyyt.com/young-leaders-award or by contacting Rozy Brian (Strategic Lead for Primary Awards) on rozy.brian@abyyt.com.

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