In line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, we believe that children and young people should have opportunities to express their opinion in matters that affect their lives.
At The Glebe Primary School, we seek different ways to listen to the views of our children and involve them in decision making.
Change Makers
At The Glebe Primary School we have our very own School Council made up from one child in each class, Years 1 to 6, as well as our Head Boy and Girl. Changemakers are chosen through a class ballot. Children meet at lunchtime where they all have the opportunity to provide suggestions for changes and improvements that could be made in school and the surrounding area.
There are suggestion boxes in each class for children to write to their Changemakers and offer their ideas for how we can improve our school.
The Changemakers meet once per fortnight, on a Thursday lunchtime, with Miss Hunt and Miss Myers. After our meetings, they are given time to report anything we have discussed to their class.
The Changemakers have been responsible for planning the improvement of the playtimes in both KS1 and KS2 and have chosen a range of products that have enhanced their enjoyment at playtimes and lunchtimes.
As a result of the choices made by the school council, we now have:
- A range of indoor educational games
- Wooden playground equipment and adventure trails
- Picnic tables so that children can eat their lunch outdoors, weather permitting!
- Benches for children to sit together
- Artwork to brighten up the environment
- Metal sculptures of work created by the children
- More reading books for every classrooms’ reading corner
Digital Leaders meet on a Thursday lunchtime, with Mrs Callaghan. Children from Years 3 to 5 use this time to discuss how e-safety and digital citizenship can be promoted positively throughout school.
The children are working hard to develop skills to use the software and technology we have in school.
Playground Friends
We have a special system within school of ‘Playground Friends’, made up of children from Year 5 and Year 6. These children give up their own playtime to help other children in Reception and Key Stage 1 to have fun and play games.
The Playground Friends are encouraged to show the younger children how to play games fairly and as a team, using the equipment (skipping ropes, elastic, balls in all shapes and sizes). The Playground Friends are also encouraged to run and play their own games with the children.
Every week one of the children is awarded with the ‘Playground Friend of the Week’ award.
In Autumn 2016, the school council entered a competition ran by Cleveland Police to help make Cleveland a safer place. The brief was to create a presentation to encourage young people to think about their behaviour in public places. The school council chose to produce a short multimedia message to raise awareness about the effects of criminal damage to the local community. The children wrote their own script, acted in a short film and even edited it to make the final version. It was filmed by a parent of a child in school.
We are very proud and pleased to announce that The Glebe Primary came first in the multi-media Primary category. The children attended an awards evening at the Police Headquarters, and received a prize off Police and Crime Commissioner for Cleveland, Barry Coppinger. As a result, the film will now form part of a national campaign and will be shown to schools in the local area. A huge well done to all of the school councillors involved.
Watch the winning film below!
