Little Leaders and Young Leaders
At Gorsefield Primary School, the leadership structure exemplifies Fundamental British Values through mirroring the Governmental structure of Departments. Pupil leadership is distributed across six departments: Department of Education; Health, Wellbeing and Safety; Rights & Justice; Sports; Environment; and Media and Culture. Each of these departments, and the leaders within them, play an important role in contributing to the vision, ideas, shaping and making a significant impact to life in school and beyond.
Each department consists of ‘Little Leaders’ and ‘Young Leaders’. Our Little Leaders comprise of children in KS1, and their positions focus on key tasks that ensure that school runs effectively. Our Little Leaders lead about the skills required for operational tasks, such as organisation, turn-taking and listening. For example, Little Leaders in the Department for Media and Culture share Picture News articles with each class, which are placed in classroom reading areas. These accessible jobs give our youngest pupils great operational responsibility, whereas our Young Leaders take a more strategic direction in the visionary outlook of the school, learning the vital skills needed for visionary/ strategic leadership such as coaching techniques, innovation, aligning etc. For instance, our Department for Education recently consulted about the school’s feedback policy, playing an integral part in shaping its key elements and monitoring the impact of this through quality assurance opportunities.
All pupils must apply to be a member of each department. Their applications must include evidence of their commitment to learning, understanding the eight learning goals and how they are able to demonstrate this for the department chosen. Close links are made to the Learning without Limits curriculum.
Pupils meet at the start and end of each half-term. They plan what they would like to achieve in the half-term, then review the progress. Additionally, pupils can reference this against the UNCRC rights, ensuring that their rights and the rights of others have been met throughout this process.
