CHIDREN’S VOICE AND THE SCHOOL’S COUNCIL

IN OUR SCHOOL THE CHILDREN ARE PART OF A STRONG TEAM. 

We work together for our school vision of ‘Anything is possible we can all succeed’. Our pupils have a real say in the issues that effect them and we value their opinions. We run a school’s council which is a formal group of pupils who are elected by their peers and represent the rest of the school and the views that they have. Experience shows that if children are supported and nurtured and feel highly involved in the development of school activities it can really impact the school improvement program. Article 12 of the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) says that children and young people should have a say in decisions that affect their lives. To ensure we support the rights of our children they are strongly involved in development within our school, including being a part of the interview procedure for new employees.

Our School Council:

We aim to empower all children to have a time and space to make decisions regarding their own wellbeing. Through class meetings, we support, cultivate engagement and teach tolerance and respect for every pupil who attends our School. The children who are a part of the School Council are supported to be well-informed and inspire their peers; strengthening the school community as a whole. The children meet on a regular basis and are supported to make wise decisions about their own wellbeing, working as a team, encouraging and supporting one another.

The school council helps children learn tolerance and respect for others, their beliefs and care for the school environment. 

Our School Council are a group of democratically voted in children representing year 1 - year 6.

Throughout the year the School Council work together to ensure the voice of all the children within our school is heard.

Since the start of this academic year the School Council have already met, discussed and identified numerous topics and tasks they would like to promote within our school community.

Last week they met to feedback about the class council meeting held regarding the children's knowledge of the word Democracy. Democracy is one of the four fundamental British Values -  the underpinning what it is to be a citizen in a modern and diverse Britain. From this, we could discovered that the older children (years 5 and 6) had a secure understating of what this British Value means within our school, whereas our younger children were familiar with the word, but not with its meaning or significance in their lives.

School Council's next step is to create and then present to each class what Democracy is and how it used in school life - such as the Goose vote, in home life - electing what is for tea, or even in the wider community - voting for the town councillors or a local member of Parliament.

FUNDRAISING – COURAGEOUS ADVOCACY

For our pupills, it is vital that we build within them a deep sense of understanding of the needs and understandign of wellbeing and how we need to treat others with dignity and respect. We wish them to become agents of change through the links they make within the School Council, working as a school team to affect change. We encourage them to identify areas where they may perecive an injustice and challenge this. There are a variety of different charities that the children vote to support and dicuss their rationale behind why each choice is made.

Midlands Air Ambulance

One of our set charities is the Midlands Air Ambulance. Our children discovered that our local air ambulance is funded purely on charitable donations, as our school is located so close to our base and they see it fly over on a regular basis. They decided to hold a fundraising barbeque back in 2014 and each year sicne, the children have worked to support the charity. During COVID in line with our school vision ‘Anything is Possible’, the children suggested we paint a Thank You to the charity to enable the helicopter crew to see we were supporting them through difficult times. 

This year, they had the idea that they would eand the work they do and suggested we approach other schools in the Malvern area to have a ‘wear it red’ day on Valentines day to show our love for the Air Ambulance. Our school managed to raise £563.44 on this day but combined, the schools in Malvern made £6,100. Our local radio station BBC Hereford and Worcester came to run a feature on this.

There are also a variety of other charities which the children choose to support, all of which will have been discussed by the school council before a plan is implemented to ensure that the ethical choices made support the areas of need the children have voted on. 

Children in Need

This year we have also supported Children in Need. The BBC Children in Need campaign has been running for many years. It receives widespread advertising and children are at the heart of all its work and for our children the campaign highlights how important it is to support the charity to ensure they are there to help hildren and young people when they need help the most. The funding supports projects up and down the UK that inspire and champion children to provide the opportunity for them to thrive and be the best they can be. Our school vision embodies this philosophy and the drive and enthusiasm of the way our children approach the children in need chairty ideas is testament to their understanding if the the importance of the charity’s work. 

Each year, the children come up with some unsual and unique ideas for fundraising and over the last few years this has ranged from covering a member of staff with silly string, to running a school disco for the class that raised the most money individually. This year in 2022, the children decided they would keep it easy and they paid £1 to wear spotty clothes to school for the day. We raised £440.12. Pudsey is obviously the key mascot and this year we were honoured to receive a face-to-face visit from Pudsey himself which clearly delighted our children.