This year, St James’ Church of England PrimarySchool in Ashton-Under-Lyne took part in the Key Stage 2 Young Leaders Award(YLA) with 31 year five pupils. The YLA helps pupils learn key leadershipskills, grow in character and have practical opportunities to volunteer andhelp others in their community.
The young leaders from St James’ took part in bothpersonal and community projects to empower them to ‘be the change they want tosee’ in their communities. Their personal projects included buying homelesspeople lunch, putting their neighbours’ bins out, collecting items to bedonated to charity, helping parents to cook and clearing rubbish from thestreets in their community.
“It’s been good to help other people who aren’t aslucky as we are.”
KeyStage 2 Young Leader, St James’ Church of England Primary School
As part of the YLA, the young leaders also joinedtogether to take part in a community action project. With permission from thecouncil, they took over some local planters that the council could no longerafford to maintain. They dug out the weeds, replaced the soil, planted bulbsand waited for spring when the flowers bloomed. Now, many of the young leaderswalk past the planters in full blossom on their way to school every day,clearing any rubbish to keep them looking tidy.
Along with the accumulated total of 250 hours ofvolunteering, the young leaders raised nearly £1,000 for two local charities.One of the charities the young leaders chose to support, was a hospice that hadsadly looked after the parents of two young leaders in the last year.
“We are so proud of what the children haveachieved. As well as improving the community by taking control of someuncared-for planters near school, they have also spent time organising 2charity events and raised almost £1,000 in doing so. The support and interestthat our children have generated in organising these events has been great andwe are so excited to see where they can go next with 'being the change theywant to see'.”
ClaireStott, Teacher, St James’ Church of England Primary School
“I can see how I can help to make changes in apositive way. I’m so proud of how much we have achieved.”
KeyStage 2 Young Leader, St James’ Church of England Primary School
Aboutthe Archbishop of York Youth Trust
The Youth Trust seeks to develop opportunities foryoung people to grow in leadership, faith and character, in partnership withschools, churches and communities.
To date, the Youth Trust has enrolled over 675 Primary and Secondaryschools to the YLA, empowering over 80,000 young people to learn and practiceleadership skills and in turn, make a difference in other people’s lives,through acts of service and community volunteering.
For more information, please visit abyyt.comor contact the Youth Trust on 01904 231010 or info@abyyt.com
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.
.jpg)
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.
