The School Council

The Student Council serves as the voice of the children with representatives from each class. These elected representatives – one boy and one girl – meet with Miss Hayward, Key Stage 2 Lead, every 3 weeks to discuss issues that have been raised by their class. When planning new whole school developments, the Student Council are consulted – their ideas, views and opinion are sought. The children’s views and their concerns are always taken very seriously. This body also fundraises on a termly basis to improve the areas of the school that they would like to focus upon. This changes on an annual basis and is voted on at the first meeting of the year.

What is their history?

School Councils have been around for around 40 years, but now with citizenship being taught, there are many more around.

The government says that school councils are important but they aren't forcing schools to have one.

In some countries there are laws which state all secondary schools must have councils. These include:

• Ireland
• Germany
• Spain
• Sweden

What does the Student Council do at Alexander First School?

Our school council does a number of things:

• The school council meets - with Miss Hayward present - to discuss and sort out problems. These may include school lunches, behaviour or ideas for fundraising events.
• Members of the school council are responsible for carrying out the ideas that have been agreed, such as planning discos, carrying out acts of service through our Broom Farm Friends (BFF) association, or interviewing potential new staff members.

What jobs are there?

Each year, every class will normally elect 2 representatives to be members of the school council.

The council will then meet to elect officers such as:

• Chair
• Secretary
• Treasurer

What makes a good one?
A good school council is one that represents the views of all students and gets things done.

Many schools have councils, but they are not all successful. These are some things that our Student Council at Alexander First School effective:

• We hold regular meetings
• Our Student Council  is not too big yet represents pupils across the school
• Class councillors feedback to the class regularly
• Good communication between representatives and their class is of the greatest importance
• Training for school council members is provided
• Smaller groups (subcommittees) are made for working on specific events or issues
• A bank account or budget (however small) is provided
• Annual evaluations are carried out

Do they get anything done?
Good school councils get things done. At Alexander First School our examples include:

• Successful campaigns to the local council and got their toilets sorted out
• Re-designed the school lunch menu following meetings Caterlink
• Reduced bullying by introducing compliment tokens
• Changed from school uniform to ‘own clothes’ for the Autumn term (post-Covid-19 return)

Do you get out of lessons?
Our Student Council meeting are arranged so that pupils do not miss the same lessons each time. Additionally, meetings are sometimes held at lunchtime or after school.

As part of our work on International Day of Democray speeches were made and voting was held to nominate Student Councillors and Eco-warriors. Many congratulations to the following children who were successfully elected by their peers to be the 2021 School Council representatives:

Year 1: Hinatea and Mann

Year 2: Emily and Yacine

Year 3: Selina and Aaliyah 

Year 4: Malayil, Lexie, Tahar and Amelia

You can learn more about the activities and achievements of our school council on their designated Class Dojo page!