Pupil Leadership and Empowerment at Gateway School

At Gateway School Pupil Empowerment can be seen every day within the class. Pupils are encouraged to set their own goals and challenges in every lesson and use the Zone of Proximal development (or red, amber and green!) to assess where they are in their learning and what next steps they need to take to continue to make progress. Outside of the class, pupil leadership is just as important. There are great opportunities for pupils to further develop their leadership skills if they wish to do so being part of different teams and councils in school. Read on for a summary of roles our fabulous pupils can engage in.

Eco Council - meets weekly to discuss and plan who best to make a positive impact within the school. Last term Year 3 and 4 Eco Council reps trialled separating and saving paper in their classrooms. Each day they weighed the result. At the end of the week the bag was too heavy to weigh. As a result, this term the Eco Council has rolled out the programme for all year groups. Each class will be responsible for emptying their paper bins at the end of the day and putting them in the designated bins ready for recycling.

School Council - an essential part of our school life and a brilliant vehicle to listen to the voices of each child and provide children from all year groups the opportunity to develop their leadership skills. The School Council were very busy last term focusing on their chosen charity, the Thames Valley Air Ambulance. They organised and held a fantastic fundraiser that raised over £250. They are busy sharing our new national charity of the RSPCA and thinking about their next fundraiser. The Council members also focus on issues that are important to them as individuals. One of the Year 6 Councillors explained why they would like to have dedicated library time slots. This has now been actioned and Year 6 are able to read at their leisure.

Year 6 responsibilities - Being the eldest pupils of the school brings added responsibility and opportunities to support Secondary School transition. Year 6 pupils thoroughly enjoy having important leadership roles across the school, these include supporting other pupils in the school, working with specialist staff and Heads of Department; assisting in the Early Years classes; collecting House Merits across the school; supporting the office team and helping to create yearbooks (and lots more besides), there really is something for everyone.

We look forward to bringing you news soon about our new Food Council that has just launched.