Why do we have a School Council?
A School Council encourages children to become involved in decision making within a school environment and it gives them a chance to change things, which make them feel happy and unhappy. We can also get great ideas from the children, which can help the school team and the local community. It allows pupils to experience democracy and learn the importance of being active citizens.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child states in Article 12: ‘Children have the right to express the views they have and those views should be listened to in anything that affects them’.
Aims of our School Council
We have discussed our ideas and made a list of our aims:
- To give all the pupils in our school a ‘voice’.
- To help our school be the best it can be.
- To help everyone feel safe and happy.
- To help children reach their potential.
- To give all the pupils a chance to learn how to be respectful, independent and accepting of each other’s feelings and differences.
How can we achieve these aims?
We have two pupil representatives from each class. The Reception classes will be involved in decisions and events but will not attend the monthly meeting. This monthly meeting will usually be held in Mrs Cattell’s classroom. We also have ‘Extraordinary Meetings’. These are short meetings to discuss one issue only. The School Council will collect ideas and suggestions from the rest of the school, especially their own class. This can be done during Peacemakers, PSHE and assemblies, as well as through the School Council boxes in each class, questionnaires and notebooks. This information will be discussed during the meetings and decisions will be made using a voting system. It must be understood by the School Council that they must be realistic about what we can achieve and understand that some things can’t be changed. We need to prioritise what we can change and this will involve some negotiations with other members of staff, visitors and the wider community.
What makes our School Council outstanding?
Every member of our School Council contributes to our school by being respectful, friendly, helpful, kind, independent and honest. We aim to work collaboratively by listening to all pupils and as excellent role models we feel we can achieve the School Council’s aims.