At one Kingston school children are made self starters and leaders in their own right.

Surrey Comet:

St Joseph’s School headteacher Frances Robertson, who is in her second year of headship at the school, recalled her first lesson to primary children.

She said: “At my first assembly I asked ‘Who is in charge of your learning?’ The students said me, then they said their teachers, then their parents. Then the room went quiet.

“Suddenly this little hand went up and asked ‘Us?’”

Since taking up the post at St Joseph’s Mrs Robertson has placed a strong emphasis on children taking responsibility and leadership of their own learning.

Through this approach she says youngsters can develop their cognitive, spiritual, emotional and psychological learning much better.

She said: “Now if you ask any of the children ‘Who is in charge of your learning?’ they will all say ‘Us’.”

She added although the school takes part in conventional weeks like science week and art week, it is not reliant on such events to guide children in their subject work.

Mrs Robertson said: “You can do art week and then forget about it for the rest of the year, but here we don’t want to do that so we try to embed all these things throughout the year in classes.

“We make children ready for high school and if we can do that, we have done our job.”

Surrey Comet:

L-R: Matthew Piper, Jenapa Mahadumrongkul, Mya Cook-Barbier, Alan Gowthaman & Stephen Mualhall

Matthew Piper, seven, said: “I want to be a footballer when I am older. I’m a fast runner. I support Barcelona. Ronaldo is my favourite player.

“I really like eating school dinners here and I like playing bull dog in the playground."

Jenapa Mahadumrongkul, eight, said: “I like school trips the most because you get to have fun with your friends and explore other buildings outside the school. My favourite trip last year was to Chessington World of Adventures. I like the sea life there. Some fish glow in the dark.”

Mya Cook-Barbier, nine, said: “I like that we get to meet our friends at school. I like doing maths and learning about fractions. I do football after school and I support Spurs. I want to be an architect when I’m older because I like maths and drawing.” 

Alan Gowthaman, 10, said: “I like doing sports especially football and cricket. I support India in cricket. After school I do football club and karate club. I am a yellow belt in karate. My worst subject is English because there is too much writing.”

Stephen Mualhall, eight, said: “I like playing it and running away. I have lots of friends. I like all the subjects at school. I haven’t thought about what I want to be when I’m older. But I like PE and football.”