School Council

We also meet regularly in between full meetings to continue organisation of our projects, film assembly videos and for updates.

Intent, Implementation and Impact

Intent

Our School Council aims to empower all children at Dovedale to have a voice. It gives all children in school a platform to share their opinions and ideas and it provides an opportunity for children to voice their concerns/issues confidently knowing that their voice will be heard and that their opinions matter. Our School Council helps to improve the school according to the children's point of view.

Through the School Council, children get the opportunity to experience the democratic process. It teaches them about the roles, rights and responsibilities within a school system. Children get to play an active role as citizens and it enhances their responsibility within the School community. Our pupils take pride knowing that they are making a worthwhile and positive contribution to the school.

Implementation

At the start of the year we hold a Dovedale School Council Election process. All children in school get the opportunity to apply to be on the School Council. The children who have applied then campaign and have the chance to persuade their classmates to vote for them. The hall is turned into a Polling Station and after ‘Registering to Vote’ all children in school receive a Poll Card which they will take to our school hall on Dovedale’s Election Day. They swap this for a Voting Card which they take to the Voting Booth to vote for 2 representatives from each class. Votes are posted in the Ballot Box. The school House Captains then spend time counting all the votes before announcing the new School Council representatives from each class (28 in total).

The School Council meet every couple of weeks. The meetings are run by the Chair and Vice Chair who are two of our Year 6 School Council representatives. They have an agenda for each meeting. Our other two Year 6 School Council representatives take the roles of Minute Keeper and Treasurer. The Minute Keeper writes down all the notes from each meeting. These are shared with all teachers in school and referred to in future meetings. The Treasurer counts all of the money raised from projects led by the School Council and keeps track of any outgoings.

The School Council take part in a range of child-led projects throughout the year that contribute towards our children leading happy and healthy lifestyles, in a safe, positive and fair learning environment. Examples of these include supporting different charities, setting up a healthy tuck shop, enabling litter picking around school and leading school events. They also listen to pupils’ voices around school. They regularly take clip boards with questionnaires onto the playground at playtimes to ask children for opinions/suggestions. These are listened to and considered in School Council meetings. They are aiming to put a pupil voice box in each classroom over the coming term.

The School Council lead an assembly to the whole school every half term to update the school on projects, events and relevant information. At the moment, this takes the form of a recorded video shown to each class where every member of the School Council has the opportunity to speak.

Impact

Enjoy looking at the impact the School Council has made this year.

The School Council organised an Easter Bonnet Parade to celebrate all things Spring and Easter. Children from all year groups designed and made an Easter Bonnet. On the last day of term, the whole school came out onto the playground and we all enjoyed watching the children parade around the playground showing off their creations in the sunshine! The Year 6 School Council children chose a winner from each class for 'the most creative design' - an award chosen by the School Council. The rest of the School Council took photos of the winners and awarded them with an Easter egg. Enjoy looking at the winners from each class! 

The School Council organised a Crazy Hair Day to help to raise money for Comic Relief. Children across school looked fantastic and everyone had a great day! The School Councillors from each class chose the 'Craziest Hairstyle' winners within their class. Take a look at our 'Craziest Hairstyle' winners.  

We set up a healthy tuck shop for children in KS2 to buy a piece of fruit at playtimes. This takes place on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays each week and is ran by the School Council. This took a lot of hard work to get here! We collected data from the junior classes on favourite fruits, had a meeting with the kitchen staff about allergies, worked out the cost to order fruit in and worked out how long the fruit lasts which helped us to work out which days we sell which fruit. We are hoping to make a small profit on this to put towards making our school an even better place!

We have organised for litter picking to take place every playtime. The first week the School Council had a go and then we set up a rota for different year groups in school to get involved. We love litter picking as it helps to look after our environment and makes our school an even nicer place to be.

December 2021 - Christmas Jumper Day 

We organised for the whole school to take part in Christmas Jumper Day. Everyone looked fantastic and we raised lots of money for Save The Children!

To elect our School Council for this year we held a Dovedale Election Day. Children who wanted to be on the School Council completed an application form and campaigned in their classes. All children in school then voted for 2 children who they wanted to represent their class. They had to take their Poll Card to Dovedale's Polling Station and exchange this for a Voting Card. This was then taken to the Voting Booth and the children marked X's next to their choices. They then put their Voting Card in a Ballot Box. The votes were then counted by our school House Captains and they announced the new School Council representatives in an assembly video.