At West Earlham Infant & Nursery School we have a School Council made up of 2 representatives from each class in Year 1 and Year 2. These School Council members are elected by their classmates twice a year. There is the possibility for representatives from Reception to join the School Council midway through the school year.
The School Council meets once a month and is facilitated by a teacher. The School Council discusses a wide range of issues, and representatives report back and collect ideas from their classmates following each meeting. We believe that every child has a voice in our school and that every child can contribute their ideas and opinions through their class representatives for discussion by the School Council.
Some things which the School Council may discuss:
– how to improve our school
– listening to views and concerns of pupils
– how to engage pupils in action
– how to improve school and local environment
– upcoming school events
2023-24
In the Autumn term we focused on our school environment – we did an audit of the different spaces inside and outside, and we gathered pupil views on how they feel at school. We discussed ways in which we can improve our inside and outside spaces.
In the Spring term we looked at the different languages spoken by our pupils and their families. We found out that nearly a third of our pupils speak or hear a different language at home! We decided to celebrate this by choosing a “Language of the Month” – translating some words into this language to practice in class, and doing some research about the language and where it is spoken. This has been really positive so far and we have continued this into the Summer term.
Please find below the minutes from our school council meetings this year:
2022-23
This has been the first year of our school council and it has been very successful. During the first half of the year we focused on our outside playground space and things we can do to improve it. We decided to create a “Friendship Bench” where children can go if they are feeling lonely or can’t find someone to play with. Other children can then go over and invite that person to join them in play. We painted it in rainbow colours and made a sign on the wall. We also discussed in some detail plans for a fundraising event for the school, which we hope to hold next year.
During the second half of the year we focused on travelling to school safely. The school council members conducted a survey to find out how our pupils travel to school. The results showed that most pupils walk or bike/scoot to school. We went on to discuss road safety and issues that affect our pupils when travelling to school. Pupils designed some posters to encourage safe travel to school.
Please find below the minutes from each school council meeting this year.
