The Young Leaders Award helped Year 5 pupils at Christ Church CE Primary School in north London to find out more about their local area. They learnt about the needs of the residents, as well as the community groups and charities working in the area to support those who might be vulnerable.
For their personal volunteering challenges, pupils helped out around the house, doing the washing up, cleaning and reading to siblings as well as washing cars for their neighbours and family members. Many pupils also donated clothes and food to local charities.
“The children gained so much from taking part in the award. They looked forward to the sessions and I was impressed with their motivation and enthusiasm about completing the personal challenges” Class Teacher
To ‘be the change’ they wanted to see in their school, Year 5 spent time picking up litter and identifying areas for improvement and decided to transform the vegetable patches in the school garden. They also created bird feeders from recycled materials. Every child in the class was also allocated a leadership role in the school such as library monitor, lunch monitor, playground friend or ICT monitor. Now in Year 6, the children continue to demonstrate their fantastic leadership skills and have taken on more responsibility around the school.
"I found the Young Leaders Award intriguing as it was interesting to see all of the leadership qualities that I didn't realise I had! I am now the ICT monitor and am in charge of technology in assembly. The Young Leaders Award helped me to achieve this because it taught me organizational skills and teamwork." Year 5 Pupil
For their wider community social action project, the whole class took part in fundraising events to support Barnet Mencap, a local charity which supports children with autism and other disabilities. Children took part in a sponsored ‘London to Rome’ walk where they each added their steps to a running total over a period of 6 weeks to cover the distance between the two cities. To complete the final 2km, the children took part in a fun run as a class.
Year 5 Young Leaders at Witton Church Walk Church of England Nursery and Primary School decided they wanted to raise awareness of asylum seekers and homeless people in their local area.
Courageous advocacy and enabling pupils to be active ‘agents of change’ is at the heart of St Thomas Cantilupe Church of England Primary’s vision for their students.
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Year 4 pupils at St Thomas' CofE Primary School spent a week learning about the North Kensington Community Kitchen for their Archbishops’ Young Leaders Award.
