Trotts Hill Primary School and Nursery
Our School Council represents the views of all our pupils. It gives children the opportunity to make their voices heard and feel part of the whole school community.
The School Council is an important part of Trotts Hill and the children feel proud to be elected. In September, the class vote for their representatives for the academic year. All children from Year 2 to Year 6 are given the opportunity to stand for election. After making a speech to their class, their peers vote. This is an important part of children’s experience of British Values and a democratic process in school. Children attend a fortnightly meeting with Mrs Cook.
On Thursday 6th February, our Year 5 and 6 school council members once again met to have their voices heard at pupil parliament. The topic of focus was: mental health. Jerome, Hannah, Georgia and Ruby confidently spoke about what Trotts Hill currently offer to support mental health, including the introduction of OPAL, our mental health ambassadors, worry monsters and PSHE lessons. We also came away with ideas on how to develop this further which we will work on alongside the rest of school council.
On 19th November, the school councillors in Year 5 and 6, Ruby, Georgia, Jerome and Hannah, attended a school parliament meeting at the Stevenage Council Chambers. This was an excellent opportunity to develop their oracy skills. All of children contributed to the meeting with confidence (in front of 14 other schools), articulated their feelings and passionately discussed a new project for Stevenage schools to embrace, which is going to have a mental health focus. It was clear to see their drive for improvement and demonstrated what excellent assets they are to their community.
Our aims are to:
- Maintain and improve OPAL
- Collect and act on pupil voice
- Raise awareness of Junior Duke
- Implement actions from School Parliament including whole school projects
- Generate our own ideas for projects to improve our school
School council have worked hard this year to drive school development. They have remained enthusiastic throughout and have been a strong voice for their peers. Councillors have continued to drive OPAL, collecting ideas to further extend it, and creating and delivering leaflets to the local community advertising resources we would benefit from. School council have continued to collect pupil voice and publish this in class newspapers.
What have you achieved this year?
Fawaz: Making OPAL great and achieving the platinum award.
Cara: Making people happy!
How has it felt to be part of school council?
Gabriel: It is so good. It is one of the best groups I’ve been in because we can make a difference.
Alma: I love being in School Council because I like helping people and making the school better.
Fawaz: It is like being a real councillor of the school. Perhaps I could be the councillor of Stevenage in the future.
Joshua: I like being able to help with OPAL.
Ilaria: I like being able to write the school newspaper.
This term, school council have met frequently to support with the OPAL action plan. Children have been involved in sourcing equipment to support with OPAL and have helped us make connections with local companies. We have been able to add lots of tyres and logs to our ever-growing loose parts collection.
School council also raised money during the OPAL stay and play, selling refreshments, which has been used towards purchasing resources for OPAL.
School council also wanted to create a school newspaper which is now available in each classroom.
This year our focus has been to support the OPAL project, promote and celebrate the Junior Duke awards and to support a range of school events, including raising money for charity. Our School Council team were excellent this year and should be very proud of themselves - well done!
For our final term as School Councillors we focussed on creating a new 'Play Charter' for our OPAL project. We reviewed the current Charter, made suggestions for how to adapt this to our school then consulted other children to create a final version. We also helped Mrs Wilby to make a celebration video with quotes from children in our classes saying how much they have enjoyed the OPAL project so far.
This term we have been focussed on leading OPAL play assemblies and collecting pupil voice from our peers. We performed a role play to encourage others to tidy up and modelled how to carry the large loose parts so that everyone can stay safe. In addition to this, we have campaigned to have new mirrors installed in the toilets so that we can clean the mud off of our faces after OPAL sessions. Finally, we planned activities for Comic Relief with a 'Joy' theme which everyone enjoyed.
Our new school council were elected in October and have had a busy half term. They have created an action plan for the year, and also supported Hello Yellow and Children in Need charity events. In class, they have acted as role models by promoting the introduction of the Junior Duke Award. We have also spent lots of time discussing the OPAL project, including coming up with ideas for resources and activities. Next term, the school council will also help to plan and lead OPAL assemblies.
During their final term in office, the School Council have been extremely busy. They helped to organise and promote Marathon May, sharing with their classes how regular exercise would benefit their health and wellbeing. School Council also led an assembly about the Junior Duke Award scheme we will be starting next year and did an excellent job. This term they also decided that their classes were not happy with sharing the classroom toilets so suggested trialling separate toilets for girls and boys. They have also made some suggestions for equipment to replace broken parts of the trim trail.
Our School Councillors have had an excellent year and should be extremely proud of their contributions - well done!
This term our new school council have been getting stuck in to their new roles. We have promoted 'Eat Them to Defeat Them' within our classes and got the Games Club equipment ready for when it can restart. Some members of the school council spoke also about their role with our School Improvement Partner.
As our school councillors missed the Spring Term, we decided that they would continue for the Autumn term. This term they have been involved in planning activities for Mental Health Monday (to be launched next term), supported whole school events such as Hello Yellow, Children in Need and the fun run, and discussed who they find inspirational. The school councillors also supported the election process for the new school council team. Well done to all of our school councillors, you did an excellent job this year and should be very proud.