At Watling Primary School, we view pupil leadership as a vital part of personal development, helping children to grow in confidence, responsibility and character. Through meaningful leadership opportunities, pupils learn to make a positive contribution to their school and wider community, develop their voice, and gain the skills needed to thrive as active and responsible citizens. We believe that every child should have the opportunity to lead, influence and make a difference.
We measure the impact of pupil leadership through regular pupil voice activities, feedback from staff and the wider school community and evidence of positive change brought about by pupil-led initiatives. By evaluating how effectively pupils contribute to decision-making, support others, and demonstrate our school values, we ensure that leadership opportunities have a meaningful and lasting impact on both individual development and school improvement.
Our pupil leadership teams promote the school’s Watling Way values of Wonder, Aspire, Teamwork, Learn, Include, Nurture and Ground-breaking, while also encouraging active learning and problem-solving.
Student Council
Our Student Councillors are a team of driven children, elected by their classmates and dedicated to making school life even better, often through ground-breaking initiatives. The Student Council has significantly improved our outdoor areas and has had an amazing impact on playtimes for all our children. Through their hard work and dedication, they helped bring about the installation of outdoor gym equipment and trim trails, as well as fundraising for picnic tables, benches and playground markings. They have also invested some of the money they raised into our wet play STEM resources. Collectively, they have enhanced opportunities for exciting indoor and outdoor play and made a positive difference to the whole school community.
Eco-Committee
Our Eco-Committee is working towards achieving the Eco-Schools Green Flag Award. Their stall at the 2024 Summer Fair, which was planned and run entirely by the Eco-Committee to raise funds for the World Wildlife Fund, was a huge success. The children demonstrated excellent teamwork and communication skills in organising and promoting the stall, raising enough money to adopt a panda for the school. The Eco-Committee has also been working closely alongside the Student Council to monitor how sustainable our classes are, advocating a responsible approach to energy use and recycling across the school.
Charities Committee
Our Charities Committee gives children the opportunity to develop leadership skills while embodying our school rule, ‘Be Kind’, and the Watling Way values of Teamwork and Nurture. By working together, members of the committee are able to support meaningful causes within our school and local community. Since the committee’s launch, we have raised over £2,000 for charity, with many more fundraising ideas already being developed. The impact of the work the Charities Committee did with St. Mark’s Meals was a wonderful achievement and something that directly benefitted both our school and the wider Milton Keynes communities.
Job Squad
Our ‘Job Squad’ gives pupils the opportunity to work as part of a team to support important functions within the school. We have Reading Champions, Admin Helpers and Assembly Helpers. These small but mighty teams help to ensure the smooth running of day-to-day operations in our school. The staff recognise the tremendous impact of these teams as they really help to spread the workload by adding great value to our school overall.
Year 6 Pupil Leads
Our Year 6 pupils take on the roles of Head and Assistant Head Pupils early on in the academic year. To be appointed to one of these roles, they have to go through an application, shortlisting and interview process. These positions carry a great deal of responsibility, with assigned roles such as leading assemblies, showing visitors around the school, welcoming and supporting parents for Parents’ Evenings, meeting with the Senior Leadership Team and being actively involved in decision making.
Pupil Takeover
The impact of our pupil leadership opportunities culminates in our end-of-year Pupil Takeover Afternoon during the Summer Term, when our Year 6 pupils take responsibility for many aspects of the school’s day-to-day operations. Some of the activities they undertake include planning and delivering lessons, answering the phones, costing and resourcing school residentials and site projects, and identifying priorities for the School Development Plan. It is a truly fantastic opportunity for our Year 6 pupils to showcase the incredible personal development journey they have made throughout their time at Watling Primary School before they transition to secondary school.
We are incredibly proud of all our pupil leaders and the amazing impact of their hard work.