School Council

What is the School Council?

  • The school council is an inclusive, structured, forum for discussion and decision-making.
  • It provides a means for children to raise issues and concerns.
  • It provides an opportunity to consult with all pupils.

Why have a School Council?

  • The school council helps children develop responsible attitudes.
  • It helps to improve behaviour and attitudes in the school.
  • It gives children a hands-on experience of issues in the National Curriculum, including PHSE (Personal Health and Social Education) and Citizenship.
  • It fosters a feeling of belonging, encourages listening to others and develops self-confidence.

How does the School Council work?

  • The Chair, usually a teacher, leads the meetings which follow conventional committee procedures with minutes being taken.
  • The class representatives bring issues to the School Council and then feed back to their class as soon as possible.

When does the School Council take place?

  • Usually once monthly during school time for approximately 30 minutes.

School Council

The school council is a democratically elected group of pupils who represent their class at meetings. Each Autumn term two pupils from each class are elected by their class-mates to represent their views at the school council meeting. This is usually done by secret ballot.

The school council enables pupils to have a voice and to understand that their opinions count and enables pupils and staff to work in partnership towards shared goals.

It provides a basis for active learning of important life skills, such as speaking and listening skills, teamwork, emotional literacy, problem-solving, moral reasoning skills, self-esteem and self-confidence. It also provides a dynamic foundation for learning about citizenship.

Through the school council pupils can become more responsible for maintaining good behaviour towards members of the classroom and school community and more able to resolve conflicts amongst their peers. They can raise issues about how the school is organised and have an opportunity to become involved in making changes to areas they feel do not work.

The elected class representatives meet regularly throughout the school year and then report back to their class and gather feedback for the next meeting.