School Council and Pupil Parliament

Our school council is headed up by our Head Pupils, who were selected after a democratic process including a letter/video or presentation of application to their class and an interview with members of our Senior Leadership Team, where they were invited to talk about why they wanted the role; why they might be a goo choice; what they would like to do if they were successful in their application and what they felt was the most important aspect of being a head pupil.

This year, after surveying groups of children to better understand the barriers which often prevent them from applying to be part of the school council, we made changes to the application process based on the feedback from children.

This year, children were able to apply by selecting from these options:

· Present to their class; this could include the use of a powerpoint or it could simply be verbal;

· Prepare a short video, emailed to the school office which can then be shown to their class;

· Write a letter to the class, which could be read aloud by a classroom adult or by your child.

 

Children who wanted support from adults in school with their application were also invited to attend drop in sessions in the week prior to presenting.

Each class learnt about what it means to be part of a democracy and every child from Years 2-6 completed a ballot voting slip, placing these inside the ballot box in their classroom.

Our school councillors meet regularly to work with the Senior Leadership Team and subject leads from across the school to support ongoing work across the curriculum. For this academic year, there are two main priorities which we are working towards:

• Embedding the VAT character and citizenship award into school life
• Developing our enrichment and extra-curricular offer

 

The aims of our school council are aligned to our Unicef Rights Respecting Schools work and promote the following articles:

• Article 12: When important decisions are being made that affect you, you have the right to give your opinion and to be taken seriously.
• Article 29: your education should help you develop your personality, talents, and mental and physical abilities. It should encourage you to develop respect in your own culture, for other cultures and for the environment. It should help prepare you to live in and contribute to a free society
• Article 13: you have the right to find out information and to share your ideas through writing, speaking, drawing or any other way, unless it may harm you or anyone else.

Our Head Pupils also sit on the Vale Academy Trust Pupil Parliament, alongside representatives from the other Vale Primary and Secondary schools. At meetings, wider community projects are discussed and representatives regularly meet with local MPs to talk about how they can work in partnership to support improvements and new projects in the local community. In 2021-2022, the Pupil Parliament have already featured in the Oxford Mail: Click here to - Oxford Mail Article