Rural Schools’ Ambassador Programme

The Harrogate Rural School Ambassador Programme has been running for about 5 years. It enables children from 12 rural schools on the outskirts of Harrogate to come together to share/discuss ideas to improve the outcomes for all the pupils in their schools.

It develops both collaboration and independence in the pupil ambassadors.

Pupil ambassadors attend half termly meetings, each taking place at a different school. The children chair the meetings and take minutes.

There is an adult facilitator, an HLTA from Killinghall CE Primary School.

Each school selects their two pupil ambassadors at the start of the academic year.

Information taken from 3 of the ambassador

school websites

North Rigton

Scotton Lingerfield

Each year starts with an Ambassador’s team building session held at Killinghall CE Primary. This involves games and pizza making!!

The final event each year is the picnic held in July.

HARTS PUPIL AMBASSADORSMeeting Agenda and notes

Host school

ambassadors to chair and minute meetingsSchools Present:

Date: 4th February 2013 at Sicklinghall School

Agenda item Discussion Action

1 Welcome from the host school and format for the sessionTour of the school

2 Minutes of the last meeting and any actions needed. Incl: Soccer tournament

3 Tree Planting for eco schools(Cake stall)

4 Questionnaire for pupils views on school curriculum

5 Alliance Book

6 AOB

Example agenda

HARTS PUPIL AMBASSADORS Minutes taken from the meeting held at All Saints on Monday 19th November 2012Present: Darley School, Askwith School, Killinghall School, North Rigton School,

Spofforth School, Sicklinghall School, Goldsborough School, Follifoot School,Kirkbyoverblow School and Scotton School.

WelcomeKirkbyoverblow Ambassadors welcome all those present. The children were shown around the school.Discussion from last meeting and feedbackAll the Ambassadors agreed that the pizza making session as a team building session was brilliant. They

thought that this should continue at the beginning of each year and was a great way of getting to know one another. In addition to the cooking there were a couple of activities, the children looked round the host school and most importantly the pizza tasted good !

Alliance book:Mrs Castle explained what the Alliance Book was. She showed a couple of examples which had been put

together by last years’ Ambassadors. One group had taken their information from their school book. Mrs Castle explained that although it was very impressive there was too much information about the school and not enough about the roles of the Ambassadors and what they consider to be the best of their schools. Ambassadors to make some notes on their respective schools.

It was agreed to discuss this further at the next meeting.Eco school update:Each school reported on what they have being doing to help the environment. Most schools save paper,

paper towels and fruit and veg peelings. In addition others had Eco committees, gardening clubs growing veg, planting trees, shredding paper and selling for animal beds, wormery and bug hotels.

It was clear that most are doing a sterling job. Mrs Castle said that it might be nice to do an Ambassadors project. Children discussed a great length what they could do. For example:Planting trees Make bird food Animal homes/bug hotels Eco planting – out of seasonMake more use of scrap Using cut grass to make compostPlant veg and tomato plants in old wellies

Minutes cont….

Ambassadors decided that each school would plant trees on the same day at the same time.Mrs Castle said that they would need to raise money to by the saplings. Ambassadors agreed to have cake stalls to raise this money. Again this will be held on the same day.Mrs Castle agreed to fix a date for this which will more than likely be in the new year because of Christmas. Each schools’ ambassadors will then be responsible for arranging this including advertising, people to make cakes etc.Some Ambassadors thought they could arrange with their year 6’s to clean pond areas. Arts award:Mrs Castle explained what this involved. Ambassadors to find out if their schools are taking part.Alliance Soccer Tournament:The Ambassadors were very keen to take this on board. After lengthy discussion it was agreed that Years 5 and 6 should take part. Auditions will be held for teams which will of course include both girls and boys.Resolved to arrange this for after Christmas.

All saints closed the meetings at 3pm.Next meeting to be at Sicklinghall School – date to be arranged.

HARTS PUPIL AMBASSADORSMinutes taken from the meeting held at Sicklinghall on Monday 4th February 2013Present: North Rigton School, Scotton School, All Saints School,

Beckwithshaw School, Follifoot School, Darley School,Goldsborough School, Killinghall School, Askwith School,And Spofforth School.

1. Welcome:Sicklinghall Ambassadors welcomed all those present. The children Were given a tour around the school.The Ambassadors introduced themselves again.

2. Minutes of the last meetings and any actions needed:The Ambassadors agreed that the minutes from the previous meetingwere a true record.The Alliance Soccer Tournament was discussed. Mrs Castle said that as the weather had been so bad lately, the tournament was unlikely totake place this term. Each school is to sort out their teams. The teamswill comprise of 7 players with two subs, made up of years 5 and 6 girlsand boys.Hopefully the tournament will be during the school day at a venue tobe decided.

3. Tree Planting:Mrs Castle informed the meeting that the Ambassadors would notnow need to raise money to purchase tree saplings. These will besupplied by the Woodland Trust.However the Ambassadors said that they would still like to go ahead with their Cake Stalls. Each school to arrange advertising through posters, make cakes in school and ask for donations of cakes and pies.It was thought that the money raised could go to individual school Charities. Ambassadors to liase with their school councils about this.

Minutes Cont….

Next meeting to consider the Ambassadors having their own charity to raise funds for. The date set for Cake stalls will be on – Friday March 22nd 20134. Questionnaire:

Mrs Castle explained that each of the representatives from schools were to be asked to complete a questionnaire about the curriculum intheir own schools.Questions were put to the group for them to consider in full at the nextmeeting.

These included:What is the best thing about the curriculum/your learning in your school ?What improvements to the curriculum has been made and how (if any) have these improvements helped you in your learning ?What do you feel most proud of in your learning ?How does the learning in your school motivate you to do your best ?What (if any) could be improved ?Children considered these and recorded some ideas.Resolved to look at this in more detail at the next meeting and complete a questionnaire form.5. Alliance Book:

One or two schools and brought their contribution to this book.Mrs Castle asked schools which had previously produced an article toupdate and bring to the next meeting.

6. Any other business:Ambassadors would like to hold a netball tournament in the summer term.The meeting closed at 3pm.The next meeting will be held at Darley School - date to be confirmed.

Killinghall Church of England Primary School Killinghall School lies in the heart of the village.

Our school is a very special place and we are all very happy here. There are approximately 90 children on role. We have four classes ranging from reception up to year 6. As well as each class having it’s own teacher there is also a teaching assistant to help. As well as each classroom we have a special room called the Blue room. We have meetings, and groups of children can work quietly in this room.Our Headteacher is called Mrs Bassitt, she has been at the school for nearly one and half years and is great fun.We have four house teams. Every child and staff belong to a team. We chose the names for these teams , which are: Rollercoasters, Big Wheels, Dodgems and Helter Skelters – names taken from Fairground rides.We hold lots of events during the year when we can compete in our houses. This summer we are having a Summer Fayre and sports day, each house has organised their own stalls and games. Other special events have been; a climbing wall to raise money for sports relief, a visit from Nick Gillingham an Olympic swimmer and a helicopter landing on our field!We have a school council which is made up of one child from each year group. They organise lots of different things and help with fundraising for different charities.KS2 children are very lucky to have a special music teacher who comes in each Friday to teach us to play musical instruments. We are all learning something different like; trumpets, violins, keyboards, guitars and many more. We have formed an orchestra of over 50 children !! This year we performed at our special jubilee event.

We also have our own choir who have sung at many event’s, however the highlight will be to perform at Sheffield Arena next year.We are a church of England school and we have special assemblies including sharing assemblies when our parents come and join us.We are lucky that our teachers run lots of very different after school clubs like; sports clubs, cookery, art, sewing,drama and gardening. Everyone loves these.

Example -info for the Ambassador’s Schools’ book provided by the children

Example of events organised by the Pupil Ambassadors…..

Fund Raising for Sadie Rose Appeal

Cake Sales to raise money for eco friendly activities

Planting trees from the Woodland Trust

Rural Schools Science Day

Rural Schools Sports Events

Rural Schools Transition Days

Fairtrade events