The school council at the primary site meets regularly with a special emphasis on everyone’s (both staff
and pupils’) mental and physical health, through their understanding of the small steps to achieving the Link Priorities. The School Council communicates Link Priority items with both staff and pupils. They meet most weeks and organise charity fundraisers, create poster campaigns to highlight important issues, such as E-safety and most recently they designed Christmas jars and filled them with sweets to sell at our School Council stall at the Christmas Fair.
Older pupils at the secondary site understand the importance of their a school council which is underpinned by the following:
- Empowerment and ability to make a change; this means that pupils are in control and have the power to change things throughout the school by voting on issues that affect them.
- Developing confidence and assertiveness; this means pupils are able to talk to their class about issues raised in meetings and develop skills in public speaking. Therefore, having the ability to talk in front of their class and not be afraid of expressing their own opinions and the opinions of others.
- Taking responsibility; this means knowing that councillors who were involved in school council meetings made decisions that will affect the whole school.
- Making pupil voices heard. Having a councillor for each class lets pupils bring up issues that otherwise staff may not have noticed are important to them.
- Democracy. This is important as it is one of the five British Values that are taught to pupils in schools for them to understand the role they play in contributing to society.
Grasping these ideas and develop the skills mentioned above helps pupils succeed and grow into good citizens for the future.