What is a School Council?

A school council provides a meaningful way in which pupils can voice their opinions and have their views taken into account in decisions that impact upon them.

Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) -Respect for views of the child.

At Wynndale Primary, our school council is a group of children that represents the views of all our pupils. It gives our children the opportunity to have their voices heard and be part of the whole school community. They help to make decisions about school life and organise projects that support learning and development, such as organising charity events, theme days or representing the school at outside events.

We value the opinions of our pupils and our school council gives pupils a forum to share these opinions with our school council staff representatives - Mrs Evans (Assistant Head Teacher) and Mrs Taylor (Pastoral Lead), the Headteacher and other members of staff.

Who are the School Council Representatives?

A new School Council is elected each year and is made up of 2 representatives from each class from Year 1 to Year 5, and 4 representatives from our Year 6 class. All School Council representatives are elected by their peers at the beginning of each academic year. This is done through an election process, and gives us the opportunity to be able to talk to children about, and promote, the British Value of Democracy. 

Our School Council members for this academic year are:

Year 1 - Esme and Mabel

Year 2 - Kasia and Seb

Year 3 - Esther and Ivy

Year 4 - Alex and Kaitlyn

Year 5 - Hermione and Leo

Year 6 - Grace, Halle, Issac and Oliver L

🌟 Aims of the School Council 🌟

• To give all pupils a voice in school decisions.
• To share ideas that make our school even better.
• To help everyone feel happy, safe and respected.
• To organise events and activities for pupils and the community.
• To look after our school environment and resources.
• To raise money for good causes.
• To work with staff, governors and parents to improve school life.

Here are some details of projects our School Council have been involved in this past year –

Suggestion Box – This year, Our School Council had the great idea of a class suggestion Box. The School Council made the boxes for their classes, and designed the slips for the children to fill in to share their ideas. We are super proud of them for this idea, it has really enhanced Pupil Voice, and as a result of this, we have started to make changes in school for the children. Some examples of this include, Engineering after-school club, changes to our tuck shop offer, and a weekly Book Swap.

Weekly Book Swap – Our School Council not only came up with the idea of the Book Swap, but they also organised the advertisement, and the running of the Book Swap.

Parliament Week – Our School Council attended an exciting event at Mansfield Library where they got to meet our local MP Steve Yemm. The children listened to Steve talk about his role and they thought about the similarities between being a local MP and being part of our School Council.

Anti-Bullying Week - Our School Council support the staff team in promoting this week across school.

National fundraising – For Comic Relief each year, our School Council sell Red Noses at break time. They also support whole school fundraising for Children In Need.

Hello Yellow – Each Year, our School Council meet to look through a selection of resources from Young Minds, for classes to explore World Mental Health Day – Hello Yellow. They select which resources they think their class would like to do, and then take it back to their class teacher to deliver to the class.

Christmas Fayre - our School Council members run a stall at our annual Christmas Fayre - they make items such as Reindeer Food to sell, which raises funds for school projects.

Easter Bake off – Our School Council help to organize the collection, and display, of the cakes. They work together to choose the best cakes to win the prizes.

Supporting our local Hospice – Our School Council representatives went along to support a fundraising event at John Eastwood Hospice. The children helped support different stalls including selling cakes and running a human fruit machine, to raise money for the hospice.

WynnFest – Our School Council meet in advance of WynnFest to share ideas of how we can raise funds for the school. They decide together what kind of stall(S) they would like to manage, and they give up their free time on the day to help support the stall.