School council

The school council exists to provide a means to consult students on school issues, give students an opportunity to raise concerns and make a positive contribution to the school as well as a means for staff and pupils to work together through discussion and joint decision-making in order to make the school a better place.

We set up the council to help students to develop responsible attitudes, to improve pupil/staff relationships, to create a sense of belonging and ownership of decisions relating to pupils and to give students hands-on experience of decision making in improving the school’s learning environment. It has been a great success and there have been some lively discussions!

Each class elects a class representative who attends regular meetings to discuss issues raised. The class representative brings issues to the council for discussion and reports back to their class on decisions made or for further discussion. Link teachers and a link Governor also attend meetings. The council maintains a display board for information and to celebrate successes and ideas. An executive committee are also voted in, consisting of a chairperson, vice-chair, secretary and treasurer.

What has the council achieved this year?

• In September we had formal elections with voting in of new councillors by secret ballot.
• At the Christmas fair, councillors helped run a stall for FOGWA selling GW waterbottles.
• At Christmas, councillors chose The Shoebox Appeal as a charity to support and organised the collection of shoeboxes across the school to be sent out to Romania. A follow-up talk informed the children of where the shoeboxes had gone and how they had helped.
• An art competition was held for a design to go onto a playtime games shed. Councillors chose the winning design and painted the shed in bright, eye-catching colours.
• Councillors were privileged to be involved with some of the process for appointing a new Director of Studies.