St John's Church of England Primary School

School Council

The school council was elected last March during the week of the UK General Election. Each child in each class had two votes: one for a boy and one for a girl. Children who put themselves forward for election were able to ‘campaign’, make posters, give speeches, and all the things that adult politicians do, but in a much better behaved manner!

In the end, the councillors elected were:

Class 2: Katelyn, Harrison

Class 3: Harvey, Ellie

Class 4: Ellie, Reece

Class 5: Georgia, Finley

Class 6: Lucy, George

The council meets regularly, usually on a Tuesday afternoon, and then feeds back to their class.

Topics discussed by the council have included:

• How to make lunch times in the lunch hall more pleasant, for example, as regards noise levels, manners, the way we eat our food and the importance of 'Love of Neighbour' during this busy time.
• Manners throughout school in general, and the importance of respect, both from children to adults and from adults to children.
• How to make play times safer, yet still fun.
• Relaunching our quiet area at the front of the offices as a ‘reflection area’.
• In 2015, to tie-in with the 800^th anniversary of Magna Carta, the council also produced a school version: The St John’s Magna Carta, which emphasised not only the rights of members of the school community, but also responsibilities.

Before meetings, class teachers give councillors time to consult with classmates, so that the opinions expressed in meetings are not those of the councillors, but show the councillors representing their classes. Having said that, we are very lucky to have a set of very able councillors who are not afraid to express their own opinions!

The next elections for new councillors will take place in May 2016, but the current councillors will stay on to mentor the new and show them the ropes.

We hope this pattern will continue for many years at St John’s and the School Council will go from strength to strength.