School Council

What is our school council for?

The school council is about:

• Learning to work together
• Learning about democracy
• Learning how to play a positive role in our community

The school council’s job is to involve everyone, not do everything. It needs to get everyone:

• Finding things they want to change
• Coming up with ways to make them better
• Putting those ideas in to action
• Seeing what works (evaluating)

How does our class council work?

• Our whole class has a meeting every month.
• We decide what we’re going to talk about the day before the meeting, so everyone has time to think.
• A different person runs the meeting each time (with help from the teacher if they need it).
• A different person takes notes each time (with help from the teacher if they need it).
• We elect two people from our class to go to school council meetings.

What will the school council do for our class?

When you give your class representative an idea, she or he will:

• Note it down in their notebook.
• Take it to the next school council meeting
• Tell you what is happening to your idea within two weeks

The school council will try to make your idea happen by getting:

• Permission
• Support
• Money
• Time
• If they can’t they will tell you why not.
• If they can, they will want your class to help make your idea happen.

What will staff do for the school council?

• Make sure meetings happen when they are supposed to.
• Support pupils to run meetings.
• The Headteacher will answer all the school council’s questions within one week.
• If the Headteacher has to say ‘no’ to anything, she will explain why.

Staff role in class meetings

Before meetings:

• Ensure there is time given for meetings.
• Make sure there is agenda up in your classroom at least a day before the meeting.

During meetings:

• Initially model chairing (discuss what worked, what didn’t work). Slowly draw back your role.
• Support the Chair and Secretary quietly – a whisper in the ear.
• Eventually, you want to just be a point of information