Pupil Leadership at Wyvern
Every Child has a Voice
Every child at Wyvern Primary School has a chance to voice their opinions. Sometimes that is through taking part in discussions led by one of our groups, where all children can express their views about aspects of school life. In addition, we take part in Votes for Schools. Children discuss topical issues in class and in assembly and they have a chance to vote to show their opinions. Our votes are put together with the votes from other schools across the country and the children’s views are shared with politicians, charities and other groups. Sometimes the views even make it to the newspapers.
Pupil Governors
Our pupil governors are an important part of how we find out about children’s views at Wyvern Primary School. They are elected by the children to represent their class and they meet regularly with senior leaders in the school to talk about aspects of school life.
Pupil governors helped us develop our school vision and ethos, The Wyvern Way, and they led discussions about it in their own classes. They have also played a part in helping us improve our school premises and even got stuck in with paintbrushes to paint our garden furniture!
Our pupil governors are working on a project about manners. We want every single one of our children to have outstanding manners and the pupil governors will be leading the way to make this happen.
Rights Respecting Officers
At Wyvern we ensure that all children have the right to be listened to (Article 12). The Rights Respecting Officers have an important role in supporting others to be aware of their rights and how we can support others rights locally and globally.
The Rights Respecting Officers have regular meetings. The whole school input their ideas through class discussions, questionnaires and google forms. All classes have suggestion boxes and are involved in making decisions such as which charities they would like to support and how we can help others by raising money.
Last year we took part in the ‘Outright’ campaign and had a focus on making sure that the playground was fair for all. (Article 2, Non-discrimination).
At Wyvern we want all children to feel that they can join in with all activities and feel confident to be the best that they can be.
We were recently awarded the Silver Rights Aware Award and are going to continue to build upon this to work towards the Gold award.
Eco Warriors
As the world becomes more aware of the growing climate situation, at Wyvern we feel it is important that we are taking action to improve our carbon footprint. In school, we have 12 elected ECO-Warriors, that regularly come together to discuss ways that the school and community can help improve the climate situation. The warriors, feedback to their class, making sure that every child knows they have a responsibility to help and improve their world.
We are a Gold Green Flag school, which means we have met the criteria in improving aspects set out in an action plan created by the ECO-Warriors. As part of this award, the children have thought creatively about helping and over the past year have organised litter picks; Used Christmas jumper sale; 2nd hand uniform sale; and light-free hour in school.
Well-being Champions
At Wyvern, we strongly believe that adults and pupils, working together to develop awareness of mental health and wellbeing and reduce stigma will contribute towards a safe, supportive and mentally healthy school.
This year, children from Year 6 have been selected for the role of Wyvern Wellbeing Champs from their written applications. These individuals will advocate positive cultural change in relation to wellbeing and become ambassadors for promoting a whole school approach. Our aim is for the Champs to make noise about wellbeing, raise the profile of this important agenda and bring an additional layer of energy and engagement to Wyvern’s already existing, positive attitude to mental health and wellbeing.
The Wellbeing Champs have pledged to:
- be approachable, attentive and supportive listeners,
- encourage their fellow pupils to talk about their feelings and emotions,
- promote a healthy lifestyle, mental health and resilience,
- help build awareness of sources of support and
- to be positive role models of the Wyvern Way.
- The children will undertake ventures such as the ‘Healthy Lunchbox Project’ and will support other Pupil Voice groups with their ongoing tasks.
Sports Leaders
At Wyvern, Sports Leaders have an important role role to inspire and influence others to lead an active and healthy lifestyle. These children will meet regularly to discuss ways in which to introduce and promote sport in school. They will lead activities and games on the playground with younger children and are taught the important qualities that are needed when working with young people. This role develops important character muscles such as patience, friendship, compassion and kindness as well as building their confidence and communication skills throughout the year.
Sports Leaders help to organise and lead events such as Sports Day, Sport Relief and give opinions on what they would like our PE and sport provision at Wyvern to offer in the future. They will also have the opportunity to support the Wyvern team at sporting competitions and festivals, where they will develop their skills further by working with children from other local schools.