Doing your best to make your home, school, and community a better place was the theme for Northumberland’s largest primary school as it celebrated its first Good Citizens Week.
Since the merger of Central First School and Hirst Park Middle School in Ashington, staff, children and parents have been establishing the new values for Central Primary School.
Yvette Robertson is inclusion manager at the primary school, which caters for over 1,000 children aged 2 to 11 years, and forms part of the Ashington Learning Partnership.
She said: “To be a good citizen anywhere you have to be a good person. That means showing respect, empathy and tolerance, along with having a good attitude or just helping others.
“Our school will be built on these core principles and it was vital pupils and parents played a key role in setting out the values important to them.
“The launch of our school council, Pupil Voice, also allows students to have a say on school life and share their ideas.
“This was a very important week for staff, pupils and their parents who joined in with activities looking at empathy, tolerance, democracy and British Values, in line with the national curriculum.”
In addition to setting up the school council, pupils were also challenged to come up with ideas on what makes a good citizen and how to embrace the ethos of being a ‘telling’ school.
This saw them designing cards to take action against bullying and creating a peer-to-peer buddy-system for breaks and playtimes to support fellow pupils that might be shy or disengaged.
Grandma Debra Orr, whose grandson Leon Cook, age 5, took part in the workshops, said: “Citizenship week has really made changes at home, Leon has been sorting out arguments between his cousins, asking them to say sorry when they’ve fallen out with each other. I’ve really enjoyed coming into school and joining in the activities with Leon. Good Citizens Week is a great initiative; it’s really got the kids thinking about their actions and impact on others.”
Tia Sweetlove, age 9, said: “I have really enjoyed learning about what makes a good citizen. I can think about what I have learnt and make changes. If I see my friends throwing rubbish on the ground I will ask them to pick it up.”
Mrs Taylor, mum to Kaitelin, age 6, said: “Citizenship Week has really helped at home. Sometimes Kaitelin can have a poor attitude, now she’s helping her brother with his reading and doing more jobs around the house like helping me with the washing up.”
To find out more about Central Primary School visit www.centralprimary.org