75 pupils from St Thomas’ Primary School in Heaton Chapel have recently completed the KS2 Young Leaders Award (YLA).
The Young Leaders from St Thomas’ have been taking part in personal and community projects to empower them to ‘be the change they want to see in their local communities.
Each Young Leader is challenged to complete at least 5 personal challenges to help others as part of the YLA. Pupils have the option to ‘invent their own’ challenges too, which gives them the opportunity to be creative and take initiative.
For their community project, the St Thomas’ Young Leaders decided to visit the residents of their local old people’s home. The pupils attended the home six times over the space of a term, running events like painting mornings, enjoying some homemade cakes and playing board games together. The Young Leaders loved these visits so much that they will continue to visit the home and their new friends next year.
“People may think that older people go to retirement homes and need help all the time. Furthermore, people think that the younger generation don’t exercise and play on games all the time. This project will change this perception because not all of the older generation need help. They can help us children by teaching us about the past, how we can show respect to local residents and develop a sense of community spirit between two different generations.”
Abrar, Young Leader, St Thomas’ School
Not only did the Young Leaders thoroughly benefit from the experience of visiting the home, the staff and residents of the home also gained a huge amount from their visits.
“Thank you for an amazing first visit, the staff, relatives and the residents are over the moon with the interaction. The children did you proud they were a credit to you and your school.”
Lynee, Newlands’ Care Home
These Young Leaders did a fantastic job of ‘being the change they want to see’ by supporting their local community. Not only have they developed their leadership skills and character virtues, but they’ve also had the opportunity to putt these into practice, seeing a tangible difference in their local community.
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.
