School Council
At our school the children elect two councillors per class who remain in post through each academic year. During the Autumn term councillors from years 1 to 4 are elected. In the Spring term Councillors from Foundation are elected.
We begin by gathering nominations. (We check that those nominated are willing to be elected!) The next step is elections. We encourage nominees to ‘canvass’ this often involves each candidate telling their class why they think they would be a good school councillor. The elections are by secret ballot, the boy and girl with the highest number of votes become the class councillors.
Our school is a community and the children have a stake in how it is run. School councillors can bring issues and questions from their classes to a school council meeting. Each class has a suggestions box which anyone can use to get something discussed at school council meeting. The school staff can use the school council to consult how the children feel about any aspects of school life.
Here are some examples:
The children have asked our Literacy subject leader for more Rainbow readers.
The children have asked their classes to review our school Anti-Bullying Policy leaflets. The children’s suggestions went into the revised leaflets and they helped provide new drawings for these.
The Staff wanted to know about the children’s perceptions of behaviour in our school. The school council surveyed their classes. As a result we are involving the children in nominating their classmates for Behaviour Superstar Awards. The staff are working on reducing the ‘hot-spots’ for where behaviour can get tricky.
The children chose where to put our new Friendship Stop board for the front playground.
The children have gathered ideas from their classes to help shape a Playtime Charter showing all our rights and responsibilities. We are currently working on this.
We have made links with a school in Wimborne and been involved in planting a Time Capsule in the new Canford Bridge.
We have attended some of the Borough of Poole Schools Council Forums we have met the Mayor and the Director of Children’s Services and taken part in discussions about children’s issues in the whole Borough.
