We strongly believe in and are committed to creating a pupil leadership culture where children take on key leadership roles and have their voices heard. We want our children to be actively involved in school improvement and feel listened to. Our aim is for Knightwood pupils to be articulate and to be able to express their views clearly. Our children feel safe sharing their opinions and viewpoints.
Knightwood has a whole-school commitment to listening to the views, wishes and experiences of all children. We place value on what our children tell school staff about their experiences. We want our pupils to know that it is safe and that it is important for them to express their views on what happens at school. What they say is valued and will be listened to and considered.
We use Smart School Council across the school. This is important in ensuring that all children have a voice. Each class holds regular class meetings, which are led by the children. The meetings are based around a single question that the children debate and answer in small groups or individually. Votes are then considered by the senior leaders in the school.
Have a look at some of the questions we have asked and the results:
What is the most important thing we should celebrate in the Friday assemblies? It was close, but the children were really clear. We should celebrate Normans, followed by house points and children who have displayed the school values.
Is bullying a problem at Knightwood?
What should we plant in our school allotment? The winning vote was pollinator flowers with 35% and vegetables a close second with 28% of the votes. We now need to get digging!
Sports ambassadors - Children in Year 6 apply for this role and are interviewed by the sports coaches and PE leader.
“Our role as Sports Ambassadors is to allow children to have a voice in PE and to encourage this, we have made a “Sport Suggestion Box” where children can contribute to the subject by suggesting sports that interest them or that they might want to try. They can also ask us questions through the box for us to respond to.”
Reading ambassadors - These children promote reading across our school and visit local pre-schools and younger age groups to read to them. They also run popular reading tents at lunchtime.
Mental Health First Aiders - This role involves playing with the KS1 children, using zones of regulation to spot children who might need support, listening to them, helping them get back in the green zone using strategies such as breathing/distraction and reuniting them with friends of their own age.
Play leaders - "I like helping the younger children and being a role model. I enjoy seeing their smiley faces!"
Eco Warriors - Our Eco Warriors work hard to make Knightwood Primary School a greener place. The team achieved the Green Flag award in July 2024 for their hard work.
House Captains - Every child is placed into a house when they arrive at the school. Each house has two Year 6 captains that are selected through elections involving the whole school. The House Captains play an important role in the school, encouraging positive behaviour, being ambassadors for our school when we have visitors and representing and leading their houses on important days such as Sports Day.