Pupil Voice is an integral part of St. Mary’s. We have several different Pupil Voice opportunities and School Council is just one of those. A school council is a fantastic opportunity for pupils to get involved in the way a school is run. Our School Council is currently made up of 14 children between Years 2 to 6. Each councillor is elected by their class to become a School Council representative, serving for one whole academic year.

It is the councillor’s responsibility to ensure that they express both their own views and the views of the pupils that they represent. Having a school council is beneficial to the entire school as it provides communication opportunities between pupils and staff. It also gives pupils in school council the opportunities to develop their confidence, speaking and listening, and democracy skills. This will ultimately help to guide them into understanding what a being a good citizen means.

School Councillors are elected by pupils in their class to:

• Go to school council meetings and take part in discussions. School Council meetings take place once a month during Pupil Voice afternoons.
• Take the views of their classmates to the school council. Before each meeting School Councillors will be given an agenda for the meeting. Councillors will speak with their class before the meeting to ask for their views about what will be discussed.
• Report back to their class after each meeting. This will include what was discussed, decided, what is going to be done and by when, and what will be discussed at the next meeting.
• Holding assemblies and events to share information.