The school values are promoted and embedded in the daily life of the school. Throughout the school, pupils relate well to each other and show respect for others’ ideas and views. They exhibit excellent attitudes to learning, which is a key factor in ensuring they make good progress. Throughout their learning projects, children discuss and debate issues and explore ideas in a climate of mutual respect and trust.

Who is the Lakeside Team?

A dynamic, committed and cohesive staff work as a team effectively to ensure that learning and teaching meets the needs of children as individuals. Staff are supported by a strong senior leadership team, who provide a detailed and extensive programme of professional development for all staff, including bespoke support for our Wellbeing Class. 

There are 15 Governors who are divided into 2 committees and a Governor Leadership Team (GLT). Committees meet half termly and support the work of the school in a range of ways.  The GLT receive weekly updates from the Headteacher which keeps them up to date on both strategic and school level actions and events.

The school works effectively with a range of partnerships, including the Local Authority, specialist teacher teams, health workers and other settings. The Cluster of schools (which mainly serve Cardiff High School) work together closely to manage educational change within our local area and provide consistency for families.

There is a warm and positive relationship with parents and carers, who support many events including fundraisers, curriculum meetings, parental consultations, and have recently been putting themselves forward as topic ‘experts’ across the school to enable us to link our Learning Projects to the world of work and careers.

Pupil Voice Groups

Lakeside has five pupil voice groups and each has staff members attached to them:

The Pupil Leadership Team is made up of the Head Boy, Head Girl and their deputies.  Their duties include delivering the Anti-bullying Week assembly, greeting and speaking with visitors, carrying out research into various factors of school life, e.g. friendship and the availability of books, and managing and presenting the school’s news vlog.

The School Council’s focus is on representing pupil requests ranging from chips every day for lunch to better play equipment.  The School Council works closely with a local food bank, collecting, packing and delivering food donations at regular intervals throughout the school year.  They also organise assemblies and activities for special days, such as NSPCC Number Day and International Mother Languages Day, and last year they raised awareness about Guide Dogs and ran fundraising activities alongside this.  

Criw Cymraeg promotes Welsh throughout the school, making videos about the Welsh alphabet and modelling sentences, running competitions and quizzes for Shwmae Day and Dydd Miwsig Cymru (Wales Music Day), and helping staff organise Welsh Week and Eisteddfod activities and competitions.  

The Lakeside Citizens’ remit is the environment and global matters.  They encourage responsible recycling and energy conservation and recently made a video about the school’s new recycling bins.  Members of the group helped plant new trees in a local communal area and are now Guardians of the Trees for life.  The group’s work continues as they work on a campaign to reduce the amount of lost property in school and try to encourage people to label their possessions.

The Digital Leaders work hard to promote internet safety both in school and at home, delivering an assembly on Safer Internet Day and running an associated competition.  They have run other related competitions, e.g. photography and a My Life Online poem competition.  Digital Leaders are also the regular ‘go to’ people for help with technology problems in class.