Is King’s St Alban’s a fair school?

At the beginning of this week, the School Council met for an early morning meeting and the discussion topic under consideration was whether our school a fair school for everyone. Pupils from Years 3 to 6 communicated with empathy and demonstrated respectful listening skills as well as clearly articulating their views.

At King’s St Alban’s we pride ourselves on outstanding pastoral care; we pledge to nurture individuals and guide them towards achieving maximum success both inside and outside the classroom.

All clubs at King’s St Alban’s are open to both boys and girls and we are particularly delighted that we have girls participating in rugby and football. Children considered whether we could do more to promote a greater balance of boys and girls being involved, particularly in hockey and football. Year 5 pupils identified that basketball is a highlight of PE lessons and allows all children to develop skills and be coached to an equal level.

Once discussions had moved beyond demands for more playtime and fewer maths lessons (!), the children focussed on all the things they enjoyed about school. Whilst respecting the fact that Forest School is primarily an area for the younger children, our older children feel they would love to spend more time in Forest School, including roasting marshmallow and sitting around the fire pit.

It was decided that the rules of the playground are fair; however, the view of the School Council is that many children would like to play football more often, and concern was expressed for our Year 6 playground monitors, who often spend five minutes packing equipment away at the end of breaktimes. Our co-curricular programme is vast, vibrant and regularly reviewed. Children would like to request drama clubs for younger years, baking club and mindfulness clubs for Years 5 and 6.

Mrs Kilbey was impressed that the School Council participated in an honest and mature debate about the opportunities available at King’s St Alban’s. Amazingly the words homework and school lunches were not mentioned: praise indeed!

School councillors have been tasked with asking pupils in each form to come up with ideas and solutions for playground zones. The suggestion is that we need fair access to space for specific year groups in order to play hockey and football. We are also looking forward to building a collection of mindful games that can be enjoyed in the outdoor classroom.