Schools celebrate launch of The Kirkby Child
by Educate Magazine May 19, 2020 · All News
Knowsley has seen the launch of the Kirkby Child across the Kirkby Collaborative of Schools.
The Kirkby Child started life at Kirkby High School which wanted to develop a set of core values and skills with the school community that were important for students to work towards both in and out of school.
Following the success of the concept with the school community at Kirkby High School the headteachers of all the schools in Kirkby agreed this would be something to be adopted across the family of schools.
The Kirkby Schools Council has met on numerous occasions to discuss and debate the concept and potential values and skills for all children in Kirkby, including pictorial representations of the Kirkby Child.
Over fifty different values were identified. Those values were then shared with the wider school community and local businesses to invite thoughts on the most important of the concepts.
From those responses final decisions were made about an agreed set of values for all schools in Kirkby which included:
• Respectful
• Honest and truthful
• Positive attitude
• Resilient
• Good communicator
• Confident
• Committed and hardworking
• Aspirational and ambitious
• Polite
All schools in Kirkby marked the launch with a range of events including special assemblies and Kirkby Child days.
Every child received a bookmark to take home outlining the nine values. The schools also have a range of posters and a cut out figure.
In January they held a Kirkby school community launch event at Kirkby Gallery.
Steve Dixon, development manager for Kirkby Collaborative of Schools said: “Representatives from each collaborative school met at the gallery to celebrate the launch. They then went around the town centre distributing posters, bookmarks and cut out figures to local businesses and shoppers.
“In this way we hope to share the concept with the whole Kirkby community so we can all work together to support the Kirkby Child.
“We would like every child in Kirkby to reflect the set of values in the way they conduct themselves both within and outside of the school”.
