North East academy trust looks to engage children in politics with new pupil leadership group
Pupils at WISE Academies are taking on a new leadership role.
North East-based education trust WISE Academies is enabling its children across the region to have more of a say on how the schools operate with its new Pupil Leadership Team.
The Team consists of two children from each of the trust’s 16 academies, including Ashley Academy, in South Shields.
The leadership group looks to shape the future and ensure that the voices of the children are heard across the academy trust.
WISE Academies will be hosting a meeting of the Pupil Leadership Team three times a year at the various council buildings across four local authority areas.
The first meeting was held on Wednesday, June 11, at South Shields Town Hall - with Councillor Jay Potts, Mayor of South Tyneside, being on hand to open the meeting for the pupils.
Natalie Fountain, the regional education director at WISE Academies, has given an insight into how the leadership group’s first meeting went.
She said: “The pupil leadership group is made up two children from each school, which are based across four different local authorities.
“We want to give them the chance to meet in each of the council buildings across the area because we want them feel how important the role is, as well as allowing them to experience what a council chamber is actually like.
“The Mayor of South Tyneside opened up the meeting and highlighted that he is in role where he was put forward by his peers, much like the pupils in the leadership group.
“All of the children were also presented with a badge and a certificate from the Mayor.
“A pupil from one of our schools in Blyth had sadly passed away and their parents had chosen three charities that they would like to be supported in their honour.
“So as the leadership team’s first vote, they used the polling station and ballot box to vote on the charity that all WISE Academies will support in the next school year.
“They also elected a chair and a vice chair, a secretary and a vice secretary, who will all receive training from our local government staff across the Academies.”
Natalie has highlighted that staff have had a lot of positive feedback from the pupils who took part and spoke about the importance of engaging pupils in sectors such as politics.
She added: “We’ve had great feedback from the children, given how far away some of the schools are, it may have been the first time that some of the children had been to South Shields.
“Zoe Carr, the CEO of WISE Academies, spoke to the pupils and revealed that she was the first from her working class family to go to university to show them that it doesn’t matter who you are, you can do anything.
“These children need to know that they can be anything that they want to be if they work hard enough for it.
“A lot of our schools are based in highly deprived areas and our WISE childhood pledge sets out what we can provide for our children.
“This pledge ensures that children will experience a wide variety of different things while they are pupils at our schools.
“Visiting things like South Shields Town Hall is important because it is an amazing building and seeing the pupils experience that is a good thing for them.
“It is all about giving them self-belief to be whatever they want to be.”
You can find out more about WISE Academies by visiting: https://wiseacademies.co.uk/.
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