What is a School Council?
We are incredibly proud of our school council and the work they do on behalf of our students for our school. They were the first school council in Trafford to form a written constitution and the opening line taken from the Convention of Children’s Rights sums up their work very well:
Children have the right to say what they think should happen, when adults are making decisions that affect them, and to have their opinions taken into account.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 12
At St. Matthew’s CE Primary School our school council have a clear mission:
‘Working on behalf of our fellow students to improve our school and community.’
How does the School Council Work?
Our School Council allows pupil voice to be an integral part of the curriculum and for all children in all classes to share their ideas/feedback. Our School Council acts as a communication team between the children in school and the school leadership.
Each week the School Council chooses a question for each class to discuss. It is always a multiple choice question. Each class meeting starts by showing the results of the previous meeting as well as the actions, and then introduces the new question. Each class is organised into small groups to discuss the question. KS1 classes feedback their answers and KS2 classes feedback their answers and also have the opportunity to add actions.
School Council at St Matthew’s
Our School Council are pictured here receiving training on ‘Smart School Council’ so they are able to conduct class meetings and collect feedback from all members of the school community.
Recent work
To mark Parliament Week, our school councillors recently supported our Rights Respecting Schools work by holding a referendum to decide which articles should feature on whole school RRS Charter.
To event was a huge success and children enjoyed having the opportunity to voice their opinions in this way.