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At Grove Academy, keeping children safe and supported is at the heart of everything we do. In addition to the integrated layers of pastoral care throughout the school structure, we also encourage and facilitate peer support amongst students. Amongst our primary cohort are a group of dedicated Year 6 students who assume a variety of roles and responsibilities in providing peer support.

After a considered selection process involving nominations and voting, students are chosen to fulfil a number of support roles. Jonathan Gomez, Mehru Nisa Zahid, Zainab Shah Bakhsh, Ashley Semedo and Rafay Ali are part of the Playground Leaders Team, appointed in September 2022, consisting of 12 students.

Their duties include looking after the play equipment, making sure it is in good condition, distributing equipment during play times, ensuring that everyone has access to the play equipment and students are sharing and playing safely and fairly. In addition, they ensure the rules of play are followed, such as using equipment properly as intended and within designated spaces and putting away properly at the end of play.

The Play Leaders role sometimes involves mediating and helping peers to resolve problems. Rafay Ali related an incident when one child took play equipment that was being used by other children and described how he talked the child into returning the equipment saying, “We try to make sure everyone is playing fair.” A sentiment echoed by the rest of the team. Ashley Semedo states, “We make sure the play equipment is available to everyone and is being used safely. We help everyone to share the equipment and we make sure that anyone who does not have any play equipment has someone to play with, so they are not left out. We help them to be more social with each other and make sure that everyone is involved and has a friend”. Similarly, Zainab and Mehru Nisa reiterate their interest in helping people, fairness, and participating in the school community, as their motivation to be part of the Playground Leaders team. Although Jonathan Gomez was not initially appointed as a Playground Leader, he became part of the team by demonstrating responsibility and suitability for the role after consistently helping the team. He now manages the rota for the Playground Leaders ensuring that everyone takes turns to be on duty and also gets a break from duties.

The team go on to describe some of their other responsibilities in supporting the school community including collecting and reuniting lost property with their owners and helping the premises team bring bikes and scooters out of storage at the end of the day for students to travel home. Rafay informs that in addition to their role as Playground Leaders, some of them are on the School Council which consists of students from years 4, 5 and 6. Their role is to understand the needs of their peers and feedback ideas to Mrs Bullen to deliver what the students need. The student council also participate in event days such as the recent Christmas Fair.

Four students were recently appointed to headship positions. Jonathan is Head Boy, Zainab is Head Girl, Rafay is Deputy Head Boy and Ashley is Deputy Head Girl. Ashley explains that nominees submitted a speech to the class for voting. Class teacher Mrs Moor carefully monitored the process and the candidate’s fitness for the role before awarding the positions. These appointments are quite recent, and the scope of responsibilities are yet to be defined.

This group of students demonstrate the calibre of young people at Grove Academy and their readiness to be proactive members of the school community. In line with the Grove academy mantra of ‘Be Ready, Be Kind, Be Safe, Be Proud’, all students are encouraged to participate in the school community. Assuming responsibilities at a young age can be challenging but our students are well supported and easily identify staff members they can go to for support.

Mehru Nisa is confident that a teacher can always be found in the playground for support. Zainab would always refer to a teacher if there was a problem that she did not know how to solve. Jonathan explains “If there is a situation that the Playground Leaders can’t handle, they would decide which teacher to refer to depending on the situation”. Rafay adds “if there is a big problem then we would go to any of the high-level teachers like Mrs Bullen, otherwise, it’s better to go to the class teacher first”. Ashley states “The class teachers are very understanding and always try to get everyone’s perspective to resolve problems” and agrees that students are heard.

This group of students all have very different histories with Grove Academy as they did not all arrive at Grove at the same time. Zainab states “It’s a good school”. Jonathan adds “It’s a very nice place, teachers work hard to make sure students are safe and happy.” Rafay explains he has been at Grove Academy for a few months now and his first impressions of the school were positive stating “It’s a good school, everyone is nice and friendly.” Mehru Nisa joined grove Academy quite recently and expresses “I’m new to grove, I like the school, the children and teachers are good.” “As someone who has been here for a long time,” says Ashley, “I can see the school has developed a lot. Children are given opportunities to develop and take on responsibilities in new and different ways of learning”.