Prendergast Ladywell Fields College - from 4 active citizens to 100 in 6 months flat!

A reflection blog post from Simon Jones, Head of Geography and Citizen Schools co-ordinator at Prendergast Ladywell Fields College, Lewisham:

"Six months ago the belief that pupils as Citizens had a voice or that they could bring about change within the school, let alone the wider community did not exist.

Starting with four pupils we now have over 100 pupils from all years working on four campaigns and increasingly engaging with their communities.

From the beginning I felt that the project should be pupil driven, pupils devising the programme of study, pupils teaching pupils, pupils recruiting pupils, pupils writing to, talking to, meeting with their community.

So far the pupils have been very successful, a core group of well motivated and well organised campaigners with a wide network of community links.

However we had reached a crisis point. Our teams were overstretched,  our campaign teams consisted only of pupils, and our project had become too big for just me to co-ordinate.

We met and discussed the problem and agreed on a three step solution.

One : Appeal to the staff of the school, recruit three members of staff to each campaign team.

Two : Invite parents to join the teams and establish regular meetings.

Three : Establish sustainable links with the wider community and invite them to  campaign meetings.

Our goal is to establish self sustaining, truly representative teams, which are driven by pupil voice."

Good luck to Simon and the huge Prendergast team - your energy, commitment and drive is phenomenal.  London Citizens is privileged to have you as a member school.