School Council
Our School Council
The School Council enables children to take responsibility for themselves and others and gives the children ‘a voice’. It encourages them to make a positive contribution to their school, its environment and ethos. The Council promotes a sense of community within school and is used to support and develop citizenship. It encourages teamwork and helps to improve speaking and listening skills. It encourages resilience, reciprocity, reflection and resourcefulness.
The school Council can only be effective when all the children have access to it. This is achieved through fortnightly Class Council meetings, which allow all children to become involved in discussion and decision making. In each class, two children are chosen by their peers every 3 terms to represent them at School Council meetings. These two children take the issues raised in class, which may be either whole school or class related, to a weekly meeting where all classes are represented. This creates effective communication between Class and School Councils. Each class receives a copy of the meeting minutes to discuss in their Class Council. School Council representatives verbally feedback to their class after each meeting and an agenda for the next meeting is sent out with future discussion points.
Many excellent suggestions are made and great work is done by the councillors. Recent initiatives have included:
- Working with a landscape gardener to redevelop the nature area
- Deciding upon, and initiating the school House system
- Deciding upon designs for playground markings
- Leading the development of our Healthy Tuck Shop
- Writing and reviewing our anti-bullying policy
- Reviewing procedures such as school dinners and playtimes
The School Council are given a budget each year and have to decide, in consultation with the whole school, what they would like to spend it on to improve the school. Recent purchases have included:
- Soap dispensers for all toilets
- De-odourizers for all toilets
- Mirrors for KS2 toilets
- Games parachute for each class
- Basketball hoop
- Dressing up clothes for playtimes