School Council
Intent
At St. Andrew’s Primary School, we want to instil these British values within the school: democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect for, and tolerance of, those with different faiths and beliefs.
Our School Council helps to give children a voice and develop their confidence through discussions and listening to the views and ideas of the children. The School Council helps to organise events and deliver assemblies and to gather feedback from classes regarding a range of issues. We instil democracy by voting on actions and ensure that suggestions or concerns are acted upon. As well as this, the School Council helps to make our school a happy and safe place for all of the children.
Implementation
We meet to discuss the views and ideas of the children in the School Council every half-term. We organise events and deliver assemblies; for example, Anti-Bullying Week. After each meeting, the children of the School Council speak to their classes and gather feedback from them regarding a range of issues. The School Council will sometimes be involved in going on special visits to raise the school’s profile and also to develop links within the community; last year members of the School Council visited the Beaumont care centre as part of the school’s community work.
Pupil voice
As well as the School Council, all pupils are given the opportunity to share their opinions about their learning in monitoring and with external visitors. We encourage our pupils to make suggestions to improve their own learning and levels of engagement. Pupils from each class form curriculum teams in Maths, English, RE and Science. These teams help out on themed days and weeks and are used to speak to visitors about certain subjects.
Impact
At St. Andrew’s we want all of our children to be able to follow and act upon the British values: to understand that everyone has a right to an opinion and should be heard; to understand the meaning of and be able to follow rules and laws set out in a democracy; to understand that people are free to follow any faith or religion and should be free from persecution for doing so and that there is no room for racism or discrimination of any sort in our school or in our society. Children should be able to spot signs of bullying and stand together against it. They should know who they can speak to if they have a problem.
At St. Andrew’s, we want our children to:
- Be confident speakers but also good listeners.
- Be aware of environmental issues affecting their community.
- Be global, law-abiding citizens.
- Understand the difference between right and wrong.
- Know that everyone should have a voice to affect change.
