At St. Martin’s C of E (VA) Primary School, our Year 5 children take part in the Archbishops’ Young Leaders Award. This is something that the children look forward to taking part in each year!

What is the Archbishops’ Young Leaders Award?

The Archbishops’ Young Leaders Award (AYLA) supports the Church of England Vision for Education by offering a programme that enables young people to flourish and to live life in all its fullness. The award focuses on developing the whole child; heart, soul and mind, providing opportunities for all children to discover their potential as young leaders; build habits of servant-hearted leadership; and to become agents of change in their communities.

Educating for wisdom, hope, community and dignity is central to the award; providing opportunities for children to understand, explore and serve the common good. Children investigate what it means to follow the example of Jesus and be servant hearted leaders in the world around them. They evaluate and develop their own leadership skills and character virtues; examine social issues that affect their communities; and take part in practical action projects to ‘be the change they want to see’.

The Archbishops’ Young Leaders Award embodies values such as service, compassion, humility, endurance, justice, wisdom and hope; helping children to explore, reflect on and apply these values to their lives. Through the lesson content of the award, children creatively and imaginatively investigate these values and what it means to apply the Christian principle of serving others. The children learn about a variety of Christian leaders and how their faith has inspired and influenced them to take action and bring positive change to others.

What is the impact of the Archbishops’ Young Leaders Award on our children at St. Martin’s?

The lesson materials that we use support children’s spiritual development, actively enabling them to reflect and explore spiritual and ethical issues including prejudice and injustice, poverty, isolation and loneliness, respect and tolerance from a Christian perspective. Enquiry-based activities allow pupils to think critically and creatively, ask deeper questions and respond in meaningful ways to problems facing society. Many of these activities are pupil-led and encourage responsibility, a growth mindset and a belief that they can affect change.

The Award supports children’s social development by providing planned curriculum opportunities for pupils to use a range of social skills including communication, teamwork, conflict resolution, cooperation and negotiation. Within the classroom, children often work with people outside their social group which allows the application of these skills.

The Award seeks to develop children’s emotional intelligence as they consider the prejudices or stereotypes they may have towards particular groups in society. Children are encouraged to think about how their behaviour and actions impact others and how disagreements can be overcome. Working together in this way creates a sense of purpose and belonging, increasing empathy, care and encouragement.

“Never before has it been so important for our young people, regardless of their background or faith, to discover the life skills of compassion, patience, self-control, gentleness and leadership. The Archbishops’ Young Leaders Award is helping to raise a generation motivated by such virtues.”

Dr. John Sentamu, Former Archbishop of York and Archbishops’ Young Leaders Award Founder.

Watch the video showing our children explaining what the Archbishops’ Young Leaders Award is, what they have been doing and what it means to them to be young leaders.