Pupil Leadership

At Yarrells, there are so many opportunities for children to lead. It is important to us that pupil leadership is not merely the wearing of a badge or the carrying of a title, but that along with the privilege of leadership comes a clear set of responsibilities that add value to and enhance the lives of those in the school community.

Our children participate actively in the life of the school and our young leaders have a say, whether they are on the Eco-Action Team, one of the five pupil committees, or are Form Captains, House Captains, Sports Captains, Music or Drama Captains or Buddy Mentors. We are very proud of the way the ‘pupil voice’ is encouraged at Yarrells.

Pupils have the opportunity to be involved in all sorts of decision making and recent examples include new uniform, charities & fundraising activities, community days, eco-action and opportunities to bid to the PTA for various school projects.

Yarrells Parliament

Pupil Parliament representatives from Year 2 to 5 are elected each term from amongst their peers to be involved in this important leadership development opportunity. The Pupil Parliament discusses various issues with their own classes to take forward to their meetings. This gives children the chance to think about and discuss ideas, concerns and opportunities. The Pupil Parliament meets regularly and also contributes to specific assemblies when the children on the Pupil Parliament tell us about their work and what they have achieved. Pupil Parliament facilitates the ability for views to be expressed and for children to be heard.

There are four pupil committees:

Environment

Inclusion and diversity

Learning and resources

Health and Well-being

Recent initiatives that have been brought to, and passed by the Yarrells Parliament (presided over by the Head and Chair of the Advisory Governing Body) have included:

• Environment Day, with new wormeries and composting areas built by the school
• Inclusion and Diversity Day, with drumming workshops and inclusion initiatives set up in our community
• New play equipment bought for break-times
• Solar panels cost-benefit analysis
• ‘Wellbeing Wednesdays’ introduced and run by the pupils

School Captains and Vice-Captains

These are chosen from pupils in Year 6 by the staff and change termly.

There are two school captains and two vice captains elected each term. They meet with the Head regularly, represent the school at significant events such as Open Days, Prize-Giving and the school drama performances; they help younger pupils and, with the Head, look at ways to improve the day-to-day running of Yarrells. They sit at the front of each assembly and are responsible for hand delivering birthday cards to pupils throughout the school.

Pupil Librarians

Chosen from Year 6 - remain in post throughout the year.

The Events and Charity Committee

The Events and Charity Committee is an exciting role for eight Year 6 pupils to help coordinate and run charity events throughout the year. The pupils have the opportunity to share their ideas for charities to support, including researching, presenting in assembly and nominating charities to donate to. The pupils look at ways to enhance the already exciting charity event days within the school calendar, alongside coming up with new events to add to the schedule.

Some of the events include:

• Harvest Festival
• The Summer and Christmas Fairs
• World Mental Health Day
• Fairtrade Fortnight
• The Poppy Appeal
• The Shoebox Appeal
• Reg Nose Day
• amongst others...

Pupils from the Events and Charity Committee can be seen promoting charity events in school, running stalls and raising awareness.

However, a hugely important aspect of this role involves meeting charity representatives and volunteers within the local community such as by visiting Poole Food Bank to donate produce.