School Council
School Council
At Brookfield Primary School we really value our pupil's views. We ensure that pupils have a strong voice in the running of their school, by gathering their views, opinions and ideas through our school council. Our aim is to help our pupils lead change through direct democracy.
What is the School Council?
The school council works to make improvements to the school and the way we do things at Brookfield Primary School. The School Council are proactive in looking for things that could be better and then discussing actions of what to do. They are committed to ensuring all pupil voices are heard and ensuring all pupils feel part of the whole school community. They regularly distribute surveys and questionnaires that drive their improvement mission and find ways to continually improve the school and environment for everyone. The School Council are active in seeking pupil's views and regularly undertake activities in response to priorities recommended and voted on by pupils.
All members of the School Council are invited to school council meetings and given an opportunity to speak and share their opinions and ideas. They can also share any concerns they may have. When they have finished sharing, they vote on the best ideas and then start working on changing things for the better. Sometimes they have to talk to teachers and Senior Leaders. Sometimes they have to make phone calls to people outside of the school.
Who are the School Councillors?
We believe that every pupil’s voice is important, so though we have School Council Representatives, we also aim to involve all pupils.
Our School Council is made up of a number of teams;
The Communication Team
The Communication Team is a small group of pupils who run the Smart School Council.
The Class Meeting Teams (all pupils in school)
The Class Meeting Teams involve all of our pupils in each class from Reception up to Year 6. All pupils are involved in the Class Meetings. They are super-snappy, pupil-led meetings held in every class. They normally take about 5-10 minutes.
The Action Team
The Action Team is a group of pupils who create a club, campaign or activity to create the necessary change, as a result of listening to the pupil voice.
Every year we run an election campaign to vote for new School Council representatives. A good representative will speak at the council meetings about things that their class is interested in, new initiatives or their concerns. They will also share what is going on in the council with the whole school, in order to keep all pupils informed.
What do we use for the School Council?
To help our pupils engage with democracy in their world we use the 'Smart School Council' platform.
This platform helps our School Council to:
Set up quick and easy, pupil-led meetings across our school
Brief our teaching staff to get them on board and create buy-in for our School Council missions and improvements
Easily involve the whole school
Develop leadership and teamwork skills
Glossary
We try to be very professional in the council so we use a lot of business words. Hopefully this will help.
Agenda - a list of things to talk about
Councillor - someone who has been voted for to work for their class mates on the school council
Minutes - the notes taken during a meeting so people can see what goes on
Motion - an idea for the council to discuss
2021-2022 Panel
Mrs Schofield will be running the council this year with the help of Mrs Goddard and the councillors.