The children in Little School and Prep were celebrated last week when the Mayor came into School to award them their 'Mayer Level' Awards as part of the Birkenhead School Civic Awards.
The Birkenhead School Civic Awards ceremony was a celebration of the children and all their hard work over the last year working towards their Mayer Level badges.
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Mrs Ford, Head of Little School, remarked; "I am delighted to say that this first year has been a great success and every child who has entered and completed the entry level of the scheme was awarded their Mayer Award. The idea for creating our own Civic Award scheme came as a result of the want to continue with the very successful scheme provided by the council that was extremely popular with our children for many years, unfortunately, with the scheme no longer running, I wanted to do something to allow the children to still explore and learn important fundamental skills to become a good citizen."
"The thing I absolutely love about the Civic Award is that it enables us as a school to celebrate the children’s achievements both in and out of school. We are able to recognise and promote the children’s strengths and help to shape them into good all round citizens that understand the importance of community, perseverance, self-reliance and personal achievement."
The scheme is made up of five strands which the children have to complete, evidence and sign off with the appropriate bodies:- Local Awareness, self-reliance, service to others, personal achievement in physical activities and wide use of leisure time, this links amazingly well with our own Birkonian values:- Respect, responsibility, resilience, inclusivity, compassion, courage, humility and integrity.
The Birkenhead School Civic Award is designed to progress over the course of five years. Each level is named after a Park on the Wirral and each level has its own colour. The levels are:-
- Entry level – Mayer Award
- Eastham level
- Ashton Level
- Royden Level
- And ending with Birkenhead Level
It is designed so that each year the children go in to a little more detail within each area to show development and progression. For example, their projects may be a little more involved as the levels progress and their service to others may develop to helping out a local charity with a sponsored event.
Mrs Ford continued; "I want to express how proud I am of the children who received their very special Mayer Award badges and certificated presented by Mr Mayor on the very special occasion. Their determination to succeed and do well stands them in good stead for their journeys ahead, both here in School and in their lives beyond, in many years to come."
"This scheme has been described to me as a mini 'Duke of Edinburgh Award', which makes me smile. How lovely would it be if sometime in the future some of the children who received their Civic Awards were invited to meet the Duke of Edinburgh to receive their Duke of Edinburgh Gold awards, definitely something to think about!"
Congratulations to all the children who received their badges and certificates, we can't wait to see what you produce in the pursuit of the Eastham level badge!