Our School Council
Pupil voice is a very important part of the life of our school. We are using the British Value of democracy to make sure we all have a say in how our school could develop further and what role we can each play in that development.
We use democratic elections when choosing our school council members who are from Year 1 to Year 6. We always elect 2 members from each class from Year 1 to Year 6.
In September each year, we hold our School Council elections across school. Pupils in all classes can decide to put themselves forward to be their class representative on the council. They have to prepare a short presentation to persuade their class peers what skills they feel will be important and how they will be a great choice - putting forward the ideas and views of the class at meetings. Following these short presentation there are class elections - each pupil has one vote - they choose the person who will represent their class the best not necessarily a close friend. All votes are counted and the members are announced to each class, then in celebration assembly to the school. They are awarded a school council badge as a symbol of their new role and responsibilities and make a promise to be role models for attitude and behaviour, fulfilling all the expectations of being a school council member.
Autumn Term
We elect our school council.
Each class from Class 1 to 6 have a democratic vote - the pupils in each class decide who their representatives will be on the school council for the academic year. The pupils can put themselves forward and have to explain to the class why they should be voted onto the council.
Each pupil has one vote and the boy and girl with the most votes from each class make up the school council.
The focus for our meetings in the Autumn Term is understanding and agreeing roles and responsibilities within the school council.
It was agreed that these would be:
Chair – agrees the agenda before the meeting, keeps the meeting discussions to the agenda, agrees the actions following the meeting.
Minute taker – takes notes of the discussions…
Action minute taker – takes notes of any actions and who has to do them and by when…
Time keeper – keeps us to time and says when 5 mins left…
Within the school council, pupils were elected by the other council members to these roles.
The organisation of each meeting is agreed and that they would meet at lunchtime, twice a half term. The minutes of each meeting are given to Mrs Moulding our Headteacher by the Chair and shared on the School Council Meeting board in the corridor.
We all agreed the role of the school council:
The school council are to support the school's leadership team in making sure the pupils have a voice in the areas of development. Bringing the views, ideas, wishes and concerns from pupils in their class to be discussed at the meetings. Each meeting will have a focus but also the opportunity to raise any ideas or concerns.
The aim is that all stakeholders in school have a voice, pupils, staff, parents and governors.
In 2021-2022
The focus of the meetings over 2021 - 2022 was around the further development of our School Curriculum:
The school council members completed a pupil questionnaire with their class around a particular subject - we aimed to find out if pupils were enjoying their learning, whether they feel they are learning more and remembering more and what could make their learning even better.
The subjects the school council looked at are:
In Spring 2022:
Science
Art and Design
Geography
In Summer 2022:
History
Music
Design and Technology
Following the pupil voice questionnaires, members of the council met with our Headteacher, Mrs Moulding and our Curriculum Development Lead, Miss Got (Deputy Head) to share the feedback. In the meeting we looked at how the pupils ideas could be used to ensure the curriculum was meeting everyone's needs and enabling pupils to learn well.
Over the last two years:....
The focus of the school council was to support the leaders in school with the development of the Learning Environment across school - this links with the development of the school curriculum.
This is what we have done:
- First school council members surveyed their class peers to find out how the classroom environment is used and supports the learning; do the pupils prefer displays which offer support and guidance in the different curriculum areas linked to current topics or displays which celebrate the work the pupils are doing? Which of these different types of displays do they want more in classrooms or communal areas like the corridors and hall?How can the classroom environments be made even better for pupils?
- Each teacher was given feedback form the school council sharing the views of the pupils in the class so that they could begin to use this in improving the environments.
- It was concluded that pupils wanted a good mixture of learning support and celebration in the classrooms. In the corridors they wanted bright and colourful displays that celebrate the pupils work but also displays that they could look at and learn from.
Next the school council lead teacher Miss Jeffels and Headteacher Mrs Moulding began to develop ideas around a variety of wall art to inspire and support learning in the corridors and hall. It was decided to have:
- Reading wall art for EYFS and KS1 - focus on favourite characters and reading quotes to raise the profile of reading for pleasure.
- Reading wall art for KS2 - focus on favourite characters and reading quotes to raise the profile of reading for pleasure.
- A History timeline that was closely linked to the schools History curriculum, important dates and events across the world and local history dates and events.
- A Geography world map and world flags for pupils to refer to and learn from.
- A Virtues board - to inspire us all to use the virtues to be the very best version of ourselves every day. We agreed to use the life of St Patrick as an inspiration when deciding the main school virtues. The 'Mini Vinnies' would asked to support on this development.
Following school council surveys for pupils on favourite characters and staff on favourite reading quotes, Mrs Moulding commissioned "Promote Your School" to design our art work. We made changes along the way until we were happy with the designs.
Please see the pictures of the wall art that was installed and has had a very positive impact on our school environment:
