On Thursday 3 October 2024, Bisade Adeyeye, aged 10, from St Francis of Assisi Catholic Primary School in Beeston came second as the new Children’s Mayor of Leeds was announced by the Lord Mayor Councillor Abigail Marshall Katung at a special event at Leeds Civic Hall.
Bisade spent much of the summer campaigning in an election that saw 6,204 local children and young people cast their vote in support of twelve candidates from across Leeds.
Campaigning on a manifesto about tackling littering, Bisade is passionate about ensuring she still works hard to tackle the issue and has suggested three areas that she would like to work hard on, along with her school:
- Recycle – have bins for different materials (paper, plastic, cardboard, etc). Educate staff and students on recycling. Making recycling more fun instead of boring; giving “Eco-Friendly talks” to the pupils and workers on how recycling can affect mother nature, animals, the planet, and us.
- Picking some garbage up through community efforts. such as: Getting all of the school to think about the environment. we should feel encouraged to contribute to our school recycling efforts. we should set up school recycling composting scheme; use more recycling bins – for particular materials – and ensure staff are trained and involved to help teach children about the side effects of litter
- And most importantly do not litter- people should be encouraged to recycle through different advertising campaigns. Having each pupil from each class design a poster/leaflet to encourage recycling in the school. The purpose of the poster is to acknowledge how household and school waste and how it should be disposed properly in a friendly, encouraging, and understanding matter.
Bisade describes her experience of being chosen to be 1 of 12 children with the opportunity of becoming Leeds Children’s Mayor:
“It felt extravagant to be in the final 12 and I felt really special. I was super proud of myself and being given the opportunity. The event was very fancy and we met many different councillors, many of whom were friends of our local councillor Ed Carlisle. I plan now to make my own news report to be able to continue to combat littering.”
All staff at St Francis of Asssisi Primary School are super proud of Bisade for her passion and drive to help create change in the community.
Main photo: Bisade receives her certificate from the Lord Mayor of Leeds, Cllr Abigail Marshall Katung
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