Pupil Voice
Children are central to everything we do at Our Lady of Grace and their contributions to school evaluation are highly valued and important to our development planning.
In the classroom, children engage in dialogue with teachers orally and by responding to the feedback given in their written work. Discussions in class are an essential part of the learning experience. Pupil comments, which express children’s current knowledge, their speculations and the questions they would like answered, can be seen in all classrooms on working walls. Children’s reflections on their learning are integral to displays of learning around the school and feature on pages of many of our website
Mission Statement
Children from Years 5 and 6 looked closely at our school Mission Statement. They thought that younger children might not understand it very easily and they decided that they would write their own.
Then a group of them met and taking extracts from the work of all the children, re-fashioned our School Mission Statement!
Mission Statement from Years 5 and 6
- At Our Lady of Grace Catholic Primary School we believe that EVERYONE who walks through the school gates has the potential to grow.
- Our school helps everyone to achieve greatness because we are all determined to do our very best.
- We are always told "Just do your best and let God do the rest!"
- We believe that we can succeed because we have parents and staff who have high expectations of us.
- We are proud to be a place of many different cultural backgrounds.
- We all try to follow the teachings of Jesus and so we make our school a place of welcome, of kindness, of hope. We value the contributions of every individual who is part of our school community.
- We feel like members of a large family - we know that we are loved and cared for - and so we feel safe.
- We try to live out the special Values that we talk about in class.
- We say a daily prayer that reminds us that God is at the heart of everything we do.
- At Our Lady of Grace we believe in having respect for difference in all its forms.
- We are proud of our many academic, sporting and musical achievements.
- WE ENJOY LEARNING!
School Council
We are on the School Council and we would like to talk to other children about how to improve our school.
We would like to find out how the children at Our Lady Of Grace feel about our School.
We listen to your ideas about what makes the perfect school and write them down.
We take them to Mr Small and see how we can start to make our School a great place to be.
School Council Policy and Aims
A School Council helps to ensure that pupils have:
- a safe, happy, fair learning environment
- a chance to voice any concerns and act upon them
- an opportunity to learn problem-solving skills
- a chance to take an active part in managing our school.
A School Council should encourage pupils to develop:
- a sense of ownership over policy and practice
- responsibility towards the school community and environment.
A School Council should give pupils experience of:
- Planning, organising and monitoring small projects
- Speaking and listening skills
- Negotiation skills
- Basic budgeting and managing money
A School Council should prepare pupils for citizenship by: teaching us about roles, rights and responsibilities within the school and in the community.
Our School Council – 2024-2025
| Mireya & Archie (Yr 2 St Joseph) | Ria & Aexander (Yr 2 St Gerard) |
| Rose & Beres (Yr 3 St Martin) | Megan & Monty (Yr 3 St Peter) |
| Maria & Caleb (Yr 4 St Francis of Assisi) | Lilyana & Caelan (Yr 4 St Martin de Porres) |
| Rosie & Rafael (Yr 5 St Elizabeth) | Ola & Theo (Yr 6 St Patrick) |
| Paloma & Rylee (Yr 6 St Oscar Romero) | Mary & Spencer (Yr 6 Mary & Spencer) |
"I love my school because everyone in it is kind and special."
"This school is a welcoming school and it makes you part of a family."
"You will never be lonely because you will always have a friend. That's what makes our school special."
Head Boy & Head Girl – 2024-2025
Pupils in Year 6 put themselves through the process of Head Girl and Head Boy elections with enormous maturity – and we were tremendously proud of them! The candidates had all worked hard on their election speeches which were thoughtful and inspiring.
Congratulations to Harry and Lucy (Head Boy and Head Girl) who were voted in by staff and everyone in KS2. We wish them every success for the year ahead.
Houses of Parliament Visit 2023
The School Council was very grateful to take a trip to central London and visit the Houses of Parliament! The pupils were taken on a tour around the site and even got to take a seat on the famous green benches to watch a debate! After the tour, the School Council took part in a Law and Debate workshop, where they took on the role of MPs and disputed various important issues, such as the banning of homework! The pupils also met our local MP, Matthew Pennycook, he took the time to answer their questions about his job and gave the children advice on how to be successful in their role at school.
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School Council Reading Event
To promote reading and build friendships, School Council members read with their peers across the school. During quiet reading time the School Council members visited each class and read with a variety of pupils, they discussed the books and helped younger pupils decode any difficult words.
School Council visits the House of Parliament 2021
The School Council visited the House of Parliament in June and the children were very excited about the visit.
The day began with a very informative tour of the House of Commons as well as the House of Lords. We learnt how our democratic system and the House of Parliament works. We also learnt about how proceedings are carried out and some history of both houses. We toured the Westminster Hall and stood in the exact spot where Nelson Mandela and Barrack Obama stood when they both visited the Parliament. Sadly, we did not meet the Prime Minister but we saw an MP filling in his slip to reserve his seat. Finally, we participated in a Campaigning Workshop, which taught us how change happens. It was an exciting, inspiring and insightful day.
What the School Council learnt on their trip to the Houses of Parliament by Kiedis
The School Council members were lucky enough to visit the Houses of Parliament accompanied by Mr Small and Mrs Adeyemi.
Now let me tell you a few things we learnt.
- The Houses of Parliament is a very big building in Central London.
- When King Henry VIII ruled, like every royal before him, lived in the Houses of Parliament (although then it was Westminster Palace), due to the outbreak of fire in 1512, King Henry moved to where all the royals now live – Buckingham Palace.
- In 1097, Westminster Hall was built by William Rufus. At first it was a court room and a celebration room. Attached to the ceiling were sculpted angels. They were there because when a fire was lit, all the smoke gathered to the ceiling so it looked like angels were coming down from the clouds. This hall is very old. When there was a fire most of the building burnt down but the hall was untouched by the flames.
My Experience at Parliament by Chibu: (please click on the link below to read)
School Council meet local MP - Matthew Pennycook
Our local MP visited the School and the School Council members were incredibly excited to meet Mr Pennycook. We used the opportunity to ask him questions about the issues affecting our environment like Climate Change and the use of single use plastic with the view to finding out what the government is doing to reduce the effect of both issues on our environment. We had already prepared questions which we posed Mr Pennycook. He finally encouraged us to join in the campaign by reminding our parents to use the bag for life when going to the shops. Some of the questions asked were:
- How can the government make shops do away with plastic bags completely?
- What can be done to reward organisations that take positive steps to eliminate or reduce the use of plastic?
- What can be done to encourage the sale of electric cars?.
It was a very informative meeting the children had with him. Thank you Mr Pennycook.
TfL STARS Gold Awards Ceremony
The Head Boy & Head Girl represented the School at the STARS Primary Gold Awards Ceremony at The Kia Oval, London. They took part in workshops and looked at more ways to help improve sustainable travel.
SUMMER TERM 2016
What an exciting opportunity - we were invited to site to sign one of the steels going into the main hall structure!
We met with two of the Contractors - Kwame and Andy - who showed us the plans and exactly where our signed steel would go.
SPRING TERM 2016
New Build School – Site Visit
The School Council were given the opportunity to visit the site where the new school is being built. They talked to the Contractors and saw what work was being done.
Downloads
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