Teachers taught a lesson by their pupils!

KENDALL Boylan was head teacher for the day when pupils took charge at Whitegate End Primary School.

The nine-year-old was among 28 year-five children who stepped into the shoes of staff as part of the Children’s Commissioner’s national Takeover Day.

One of Kendall’s first tasks was to take morning assembly at the Chadderton school on Friday. She also observed lessons, made decisions, contacted governors and wrote to parents.

Her classmates filled a range of positions such as the business manager, receptionist, teachers and teaching assistants.

Site managers did health and safety work while a learning mentor monitored attendance figures and organised Children in Need events. New cooks prepared and served a tasty school dinner of cheese and onion pie or sandwiches and salad. Parents, grandparents and governors also visited to talk to pupils about their careers.

Teacher Jemma Maslen co-ordinated the annual event and said: “Basically if it happened in the school the pupils did it. They loved every minute of it and they were quite tired on Friday afternoon.”

Pupils had to apply for the jobs they wanted after learning about the skills involved and Mrs Maslen added: “The hardest job to fill was the head teacher’s role because the head teacher has to lead the assembly first thing on Friday morning.

“We were quite surprised because we thought everybody would want to be the head teacher, but you need a lot of confidence to stand up in front of the whole school. Kendall was brilliant.”