Pupil Voice/ Leadership | Abbeymead Primary School

Pupil Voice and Leadership Roles at Abbeymead

Here at Abbeymead Primary School, we believe that our children are the most important people and we endeavour to give all children lots of opportunities to share their ideas and opinions and play an active role in the decisions that affect their learning and well-being.

We have lots of ways that the children can do this formally through the following leadership groups:

Rainbow Council
Road Safety Ambasadors
Inclusion Leaders
Play Leaders
PE Leaders/ Ambassadors
Language Ambassadors
Eco Ambassadors/ Rewilders
Digital leaders
Green Caps - anti bullying ambassadors
History Ambassadors

as well as regular pupil conferencing and taking part in pupil surveys. However, we also work hard to create an ethos that allows the children to regularly share their opinions in an informal way through conversations in class, assemblies and 1:1 conversations with all school staff.

We keep a 'Pupil Engagement Record' which records which leadership activities (and clubs) the children have been involved in and this allows us to target children who have not yet had the opportunity to be involved in school leadership roles.

Green Caps

Our Green Caps are our school's anti-bullying ambassadors, who work with adults to lead our anti-bullying campaign.

Each class from Year 1 to Year 6 nominate two Green Caps, who peers can approach if they are having some problems on the playground. The Green Caps will then report it to a lunchtime supervisor, Care Mentor or Pupil Welfare Lead for it to be dealt with, using the 'Hear it. See it. Speak out. Stop it' approach.

When on the playground, Green Caps have the option to wear their green baseball caps so they are easily identifiable.

Green Caps attend regular meetings to discuss what is happening on the playground and to raise any concerns. They are also responsible for monitoring the green card boxes in classrooms, by reporting to the teacher if a green card has been placed in the box.

Green Caps play an important role in organising activities through the year, particularly during Anti-Bullying Week.

Abbeymead PE Leaders

At Abbeymead we recognise the importance of developing not only the children’s physical capabilities but also their leadership skills.

Our P.E. leaders programme provides our children with the opportunity to work alongside coaches, teachers and peers to learn strong leadership skills.

The PE leaders are responsible for:

Organising, sorting and ensuring PE equipment is tidy in the PE cupboard.
Running/helping run activities at lunch/after school
Helping to organise events
Collecting/returning class PE equipment
Assisting the class teacher in PE
Taking part in leadership training to gain qualifications

Ambassador Programme

Each year, we look at the global sporting events taking place and identify Ambassadors to learn about the event, share with the wider community and raise the profile of PE across the school.

2023-24 Olympics Ambassadors

2022/23 - Football World Cup Ambassadors

2021-2022 Commonwealth Games Ambassadors

A group of our Year 5 children took on the role of 'Commonwealth Games Ambassadors'. Their role was to learn about The Commonwealth and the Commonwealth Games and to then share their knowledge with the rest of the school. They went on to organise a whole school Commonwealth Games in line with the actual event. Their hard work was recognised by the Rotary Club and as a result they were invited to join them for lunch and present their ideas to the club. The Rotary Club were so impressed they went on to win tickets to the actual Commonwealth Games.

A Digital Leader is a pupil who is part of a Digital Leaders Team within a school, whose role it is to support the use and to further the development of ICT in school.

Interested children will need to apply for the position and interviews will be held before appointing Digital Leaders from KS2 and Year 2. The team will then meet regularly at Computing Club.

Pupils are then given training and support to develop specific areas of ICT expertise. Once a pupil gains an area of expertise, staff may then request the use of the Digital Leader for a variety of different roles.

Typically, things that may be performed by a Digital Leader could be:

Test and review new ICT resources, which could be websites, software or hardware.
Share their skills and expertise with other pupils, classes and teachers.
Set up ICT equipment in classrooms for teachers.
Attend and lead Computing Clubs.
Support teachers in using ICT in the classroom.

Inclusion Leaders

Our 'Inclusion Leaders' are our pupil voice in terms of how our children work with the members of our support staff in school. They help us to make sure that the teaching and learning in school is accessible to all children, and tell us what works for them and what doesn't with regards to resources and strategies used in the classroom.

Play Leaders

Our school is extremely lucky to have some brilliant play leaders. At lunch time their role is to play with a group of pupils and to organise playground games.

Play Leaders are responsible for the following areas:

Introducing new games,
Supporting children to play safely
Reinforcing Abbeymead's core values,
Taking out and putting away play equipment,
Leading playtime activites