At Westoe Crown Primary School, our School Council is an integral part of our whole school and local community. A new school council is elected every year at the beginning of the Autumn Term. This allows our pupils to experience the full democratic process, which is an important part of British Values.The process is that each class (Year 2 – Year 6) holds preliminary ‘hustings’ to produce a short list of 4 candidates. Voting slips are prepared, and candidates deliver an election speech.Pupils vote in polling booths borrowed from the Town Hall, then place their folded voting slips into a ballot box.The newly chosen class representatives (School Councillors and Deputy School Councillors) are announced in a whole school assembly, and receive their new School Council badges.
Why have a School Council?
Children have Rights.
The United Nations convention on the Rights of the child states in article 12- “Children have the right to express the views they have and those views should be listened to in anything that affects them.”
Ensuring that pupils at Westoe Crown Primary School have a genuine pupil voice is part of our School Values and showing our commitment as a Unicef Rights Respecting School.
Little people, BIG action! Pandemic, or no pandemic, school council forges ahead in 2022-23
The team this year…
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4
Year 5
Year 6
Do we make a difference?
In 2022-23 we aim to live out the values of Unicef’s Rights Respecting School Bronze Award and our school council will be the driving force behind making sure that the rights of every child at Westoe Crown are at the centre of everything we do.
We know we have made our school a better place to learn. Here are a few examples of the things we have achieved over the years:
- We used our fantastic writing skills across school to convey the important values we live out at Westoe Crown. This resulted in a poem: ‘ We live What Learn’. If this wasn’t enough, we also produced an amazing film to be viewed on the school’s website.
- We had a whole school writing competition to come up with a school motto… it sounded easy because it wasn’t a long piece of writing (only 10 words or less!), but it was so difficult. We were delighted with the winning motto voted for by staff, pupils, parents and governors: ‘Expect the Best, Achieve Success’.
– After 7 long years we eventually got yellow markings outside of school – it was our campaign ‘Drivers if you care park elsewhere!’ that made this happen; we were even celebrities in our local newspaper!
– Our ‘Don’t be Late get through the Gate!’ campaign was very successful and those few parents/children who were regularly late, took notice and punctuality improved. Of course, it was school council who made the speadsheet graphs for all the classes so we knew how well we were doing!
- We like it when we get rewarded for good behaviour so we asked our classes what sort of rewards would mean the most to them. We already have stamps, stickers, pencils, Kidzone vouchers, Teachers’ Certificates and Head Teacher’s Certificates. But we have introduced ideas such as badges, text messages to parents, names on website and more playground equipment to help us make our behaviour outstanding.
-We wanted more places to chill out in the playground so we used our writing skills again…how do you get 2 double-decker buses to convert into cool play and learning spaces? Simple answer, try to persuade bus companies to give you them for free! Yes, stagecoach bus company couldn’t say no to us! We are now working hard to convert one bus into a library using our STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) skills,
-Our campaigns for safer journeys into school started with a competition…posters for Reception-Year 3, and leaflets for Year 4- Year 6. A winner was picked, and the Local authority used the design on local signs around the area.