School Council

What is a School Council?

"Children and young people have the right to express opinions on matters which affect them and have those opinions taken seriously".

(Article 12-The United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child)

School Council - current priorities decided in our first Spring Term meeting.

We looked in the Suggestion Box to gather ideas.

Two ideas that we think are worth expanding on:

1. Have a Health and Wellbeing display wall (Joey) - we invited Joey to the meeting so that he could explain his idea. His idea was to have a ‘Health and Wellbeing display’, we decided that this should be in the Heartspace so that all children can use it. Progression Step 3 create posters and information to go on display for all junior children. Why? To encourage people to look after their body and mind.

2. More outdoor learning (Carys ) - although we agreed that we all do lots of outdoor learning, it is something that we really enjoy. We will take this feedback to our classes and hopefully plan more outdoor activities alongside our teachers. 

Suggestions from councillors:

1. Cultural Day or Week - Action: children or classes choose a country that they’d like to come to school representing. They could wear different clothing. Some children may want to do a presentation if they have experiences of that or a specific country. Try foods from different countries. 

• Could we get visitors into school from different countries to talk about their culture. (See Diversity Ranger actions)

1. Can we get parents in to talk about jobs - it may help children to learn about new jobs. Action: contact parents (via the newsletter) to ask if they would like to come into school to talk about their job. Class teachers could then invite in parents/members of the community that they feel would be beneficial. 

1. World Book Day - Action: book swap, School Council to create an outdoor ‘book-themed’ scavenger hunt for classes to complete. 

Summer Festival:

School Council members went to different classes to gather ideas for a theme for the summer festival, previous themes have included ‘Eisteddfod’ and ‘The Platinum Jubilee’. Some ideas that were collected and debated were:

• 2025: Quarter of a Century 
• Musicals 
• Books 
• Diversity and Inclusion
• Summer Solstice 

Due to prior discussions, it was decided by School Council members that ‘Diversity and Inclusion’ would be the theme for this summer. Some initial ideas include: singing songs from different cultures or songs that have the theme of inclusion, creating and displaying artwork inspired by other cultures, showcasing work throughout the year that celebrates diversity and inclusion, having food stalls from vendors from different countries/cultures and inviting musicians into school that are from diverse backgrounds. We could also give a proportion of money to a charity that promotes/supports people from diverse backgrounds.

Diversity Rangers:

1. Delivered books centred around the theme of diversity and inclusion to class teachers, class teachers sorted through books that they felt were needed in their specific class. The remainder of the books were placed in the ‘Global Majority’ section of the library for general use.
2. Cultural Day/Week (see school council notes above)
3. Try to get more visitors - Diversity Rangers wrote a message for the newsletter, asking for people from ‘global majority’ backgrounds and/or people with disabilities to come into school to discuss their experiences.
4. Progression Step 3 ‘Diversity Rangers’ used books from the library to identify people from ‘global majority’ backgrounds that they could learn about connected to their current topic. This was made into a table and will be sent to their teachers who will be asked to incorporate this into planning. 
5. Involved in the planning and discussions surrounding the Summer Festival (see above). 

Young Ambassadors (Sport)

1. Our Young Ambassadors have now logged an impressive 40.5 hours between them (13.5 hours each) on the Vol Hours app. This app logs the amount of hours that they have committed to improving sport in Llwyncrwn so far this year. The targeted hours set by SportRCT is 50 hours combined, so they are only 9.5 hours away from the target!

2. Recently these hours have been accrued by reviewing the results of the Pupil Sport Survey that they produced. As a result of this survey the following afterschool clubs will take place this term: Football (Year 5/6 - Mr Brown), Netball (Year 5/6 - Mrs Arnold), Multi-sports (Year 3/4 - Mr Morgan. 

3.Following the Pupil Sport Survey the Sports Ambassadors are currently working on an application to apply for £250 funding from SportRCT, through their ‘Dragon’s Den’ initiative. The Sports Ambassadors want to improve P.E. lessons and expand our sports day by purchasing more ‘field event’ based athletics equipment. This will include shot puts, more javelins and measuring mats for jumping events. They hope that this will diversify P.E sessions for all pupils and improve sports day by making it longer and ‘accessible’ for children whose talents lay outside of track/running events.

 The aim of the School Council is to give pupils the opportunity to express their views on school life in a forum where they will be listened to and action taken  appropriately. It will also enable them to actively participate in improving the school community and this will help them participate in more events and help them engage with more people.

Together we can help our School community to be better and discuss what we need to do. We can guide our School to be a better place with your help.

By Seren Perkins