School Council / Eco Team

School Council

Meet once a month.

Take it in turns to be chair and write minutes.

Year 8 representatives have a meeting every month with Mrs Evans to discuss what they are doing, anything Mrs Evans wants them to do and anything the Senior Leadership Team can do to help the council.

Achievements this year;

Got more dog-fouling signs to put up, from the council.
Conducted a ‘dog-poo watch’ over a term.  Patrolling the field and taking photos of any ‘offending items’ to send as evidence to the council.  Who then sent MORE dog-fouling signs!!!

Organising the Year 8 Leavers’ Prom.

Fundraising – indoor wooden bowling alley at the Christmas Fayre.

Playground survey – still being collated – to look at what pupils want on the playground, e.g. do Year 5/6 want new markings on the playground or would they prefer the money be spent on equipment etc.  Do year 7/8 want more sheltered areas etc.

Helped with Healthy Schools Assessment. Showed assessors around the school and spoke to them about the application.  Have since come up with other ideas to help continue with the Healthy Schools progress – working with Mrs Evans to create an outdoor eating area and a rewards system for healthy lunchboxes etc.  Discussing with kitchen staff the possibility of expanding the lunchtime ‘tuck shop’ to include healthy options and to be ‘staffed’ by pupils.

Requested a community notice board for parents and the wider community to be able to see what is happening at the school and in the area.  This is now up outside the drama hall.

Anti-bullying Alliance survey – carried out in October and used to inform decisions for running/organisation of playground friends. 

Finance Survey – carried out with year 7s last July.  Collated by school council and used to inform planning of new Economic Wellbeing and Financial Capability unit of work for year 7 PSHEE/Citizenship.

Playground Friends – two school councillors are responsible for overseeing the playground friends – ensuring they are on duty and helping them whenever necessary.  Next year this will become much more formal.

School Council, Eco-Team and Playground Friends will all receive Student Voice training in the autumn.

Playground Friends

Started in September 2008

Playground Friends are in charge of equipment and are there to ensure everyone has someone to talk to if necessary.

Next year, they will receive Student Voice training and will be much more involved in leading activities at break and lunchtimes (this has been requested by as a result of the Year 5/6 playground survey). Hopefully we will get more equipment for them to use.

They will also be receiving some extra input on SEAL so that they can help to implement SEAL on the playground (along with extra posters which will be displayed and were created with the help of Years 5/6).

Eco-Team

Meet once a month.
Take it in turns to be chair and take minutes.
Reps have a meeting once a month with Mrs Evans like the school council.

Fundraising – held a stall at the Christmas Fayre selling homemade cakes and cards.   Held a ‘mint ice-cream sale’ and ‘Green Day’ non-uniform day.  Asked other staff to take part in ‘Green Day’ by using resources provided by Generation Green for lessons across the curriculum during that week.

Created posters asking people to turn off lights and switch off computers properly at the end of the day – put up around the school.

Buying extra recycling bins for the drama hall; a compost bin and a water butt.  When all bought and organised will be holding a ‘recycling roadshow’ through year assemblies to explain what can be recycled at lunchtimes and how.  They will then have a team of ‘experts’ to man the recycling area to ensure items are placed in the correct bins.

Jointly with the school council we are buying a greenhouse for growing vegetables – Mrs Evans suggested using these for cookery etc – in order to help with being a self-sufficient school.

Monitoring energy usage in the school and regularly taking up-to-date carbon footprint surveys online through Generation Green.

Parents and the wider community can help us to raise green leaves, by visiting British Gas Generation Green website.