The Haresfield School Council meets termly and is democratically elected in-line with our British Values.
Pupils who wish to stand for election, present to fellow pupils their reasons for wishing to stand and explain what they feel they could contribute to the success of the council. Every child on the council is voted in by their class.
The children are also key ambassadors for the school, and will fulfil such responsibilities as escorting visitors around the premises and helping guests etc.
We want our pupils to have a say in what happens in our school and to try to make it a better, safer and more fun place to be. Through the School Council, we hope that our children know that they are listened to and that each individual has an important part to play in our school.
In September, following a simple hustings, each class elects two representatives (usually one boy and one girl) to the School Council. The School Council then meets regularly throughout the year, to discuss ideas about how to make our school an even better place. After School Council meetings, members go back to their classes and discuss ideas from the meeting, and listen to opinions.
I feel very proud of the children at Haresfield School and wanted to write to let you know about some of the exciting decisions school council have made this year.
Firstly they decided that they did not want to buy plastic toys and equipment as the plastic is so bad for our environment. We also discussed the possibility of supporting a local charity all year long so that the benefits of the support would be more significant, following this school council suggested that we support a local charity this year and an overseas charity next year. They have decided on ‘The Foodbank’ for this year.
With this in mind the children have been coming up with ideas to raise the awareness of the charity and speak out for inequality. We have discussed what we will do when children in need is running and also what we could do for the Christmas jumper day. These are their suggestions:-
Children in need – we are going to have a spotty / stripy day in school, non-uniform and or face paints. We will be asking the children to bring in a small packet of biscuits, a packet of cereal bars or a small chocolate treat for The Foodbank, so that we can pass a treat to someone less fortunate than ourselves.
Christmas jumper day – wear something ‘Christmassy’ for the day and bring in something for the food hampers we will be building for the foodbank. (Details nearer the time)
The last thing we discussed at school council was about making a secret Santa sack in the hall to collect Christmas presents for children who are less fortunate than us. So when you are out buying gifts if at all possible could you buy something for a child in need in our local area? No more than £5. We will be taking our ‘Secret Santa’ gifts to be distributed by the foodbank.
I thought these generous acts show our children demonstrating the values our school strive to uphold and develop and it made me extremely proud to be the Head Teacher of this school.
Learning To Learn project – what is working well, what can we find out from other schools to make our learning skills even better?
Playground project - we have been working with Gloucestershire Healthy living and learning on developing positive playtimes. We have made some signs for the playground and we will be introducing get active ideas to the school.
We have also designed a new layout for the playground and have asked the PTFA and other organisations to help us raise enough money top have the playground resurfaced.
