Fairfield School are Democracy Friendly
Meet our first Democracy Friendly Special School
Fairfield School in Batley are the very first special school in Kirklees to receive our Democracy Friendly award. Fairfield provides a learning experience for students aged 4 to 19 who have a wide range of complex needs. Hazra Jogyiat, Post 16 Teacher, has taken a lead role for our programme in school.
Having fun and creating opportunities
In her own words, Hazra has had a lot of fun creating a wide range of learning opportunities and experiences for students at Fairfield School.
Their Democracy Friendly journey began with students taking a walk around their local place, pointing out local facilities such as bus stops, post boxes and lamp posts for lighting our streets at night. They took pictures of these facilities and talked about them when they returned to school. Students also had lots of fun cutting out and decorating the letters of the word ‘democracy’ whist talking about choices and independence.
Hazra has supported the students to take part in lots of different Everyday Democracy Activities at school. We’ve created this video to share some of Fairfield School’s Democracy Friendly journey so far.
Becoming Kirklees Youth Councillors
During their learning journey, five pupils were recognised for their excellent leadership skills and were nominated to become members of Kirklees Youth Council. This has helped the young people to become more confident getting involved in local democracy, to connect with councillors and to know how to get support with their ideas. They feel included, respected, listened to and able to contribute to what’s happening in their local place.
Working alongside each other
Hazra has recognised the importance of connecting the youth councillors at Fairfield School to other young people in the area. She invited youth councillors from Upper Batley High School to meet the youth councillors at Fairfield. Now these groups are working alongside each other to deliver a joint social action project.
“The young people really benefitted from this visit as they had the opportunity to mix with mainstream school pupils who are at similar ages, get to know each other, have some banter and get really comfortable”.
Youth councillors from Fairfield school took part in the Our Kirklees Futures Learning Summit, where they shared their learning experiences alongside students from Newsome Academy and Kirklees College.
“The young people have had the opportunity to meet many different people of all ages and talk to them and ask questions, when normally they wouldn’t have been able to”.
Hints and tips for other schools…
“Do what feels right!!! Follow your gut instinct. Do what’s best for your pupils, do it your way and do it bigger and better. Give them a whole lot of confidence that will blow you away.”
Get involved – sign up
We welcome expressions of interest from schools anywhere in Kirklees who would like to join our Democracy Friendly programme, at any time. Have a look at these pages to find out more about our free programme, see what you can expect when you sign up, and learn more about the benefits for children, young people and schools.