We were very excited to be voted to represent our class and we enjoyed our first meeting!

"We were surprised and shocked to be chosen but we really enjoy being on the school council." - Oliver and Lillie-Mae Year 4

"I feel proud that the class have chosen me to do it." - Shaw Year 5

"I was so pleased to tell my family." - Poppy Y5

For our first school council meeting, we invited members of last year's school council to meet with us to help us learn more about our role. We also discussed our aim for this term and what we would like the school PTA to raise money for. We had some ideas of our own, such as improving playground equipment and getting more iPads, but we will discuss these with our class to see if they have other ideas that we could share in our next meeting.

We were also very excited to learn that, in March next year, Key Stage Two school council members (from this year and last) will have the chance to visit the Houses of Parliament to learn more about the People's Parliament. We will be learning about how different opinions are considered, as decisions are made at parliament, and also developing our understanding of the history of democracy with a focus on how individuals and groups can bring about change. We are all very excited about the trip!

During Term 2, the school council were kept busy arranging fundraising events for Children in Need; they spent time planning and promoting the event across the school. They were then kept very busy during the day running a cake sale for the school. Everyone in the school council should be very proud as they helped raise an amazing total of £526.56- well done!

Throughout the term, they were also involved with interviewing new members of staff as well as helping Mrs McKenzie complete a class questionnaire to gather children's opinion of maths. Mrs McKenzie will be using this information to help us improve our maths even more. 

This term, the school council have been handed back to Mrs Dixon after her maternity leave, having been looked after by Mrs Heard for a year!

We started by meeting in the Head Teacher's office and discussing the work of the school council so far.

Over the next few weeks the school council undertook the following tasks:

• Composing a thank you letter, on behalf of the school, for a grant for new iPads.
• Discussing reading rewards.
• Research book vending machines.
• Talking to teachers that lead subjects to gain pupil voice.
• Planning a fundraising aspect of World Book Day.
• Talking about our upcoming trip to the Houses of Parliament.

Trip to the House of Commons!

Last Wednesday, the 13^th March, past and present members of the School Council went to visit The House of Commons! We were excited and nervous to visit this historical building (including standing in Westminster Hall, where the Queen lay in state), and saw the sights of London as we drove over Westminster Bridge (Poppy counted 113 red buses on our journey!).

As the school’s elected council, we felt like we were the ‘school’s parliament’ and were eager to see the real thing! When our guide, Morgan, told us that the Prime Minster was in the building, having just finished Prime Minister’s Questions, we couldn’t believe it! We walked through the building and the police checks until we were right in the heart of Westminster Palace.

After a short tour, we were ready to go up to Public Gallery to watch part of a parliamentary debate on wind farms as part of Urgent Questions. We thought the technique of bobbing was very strange (when MPs stand up and sit down to indicate they want to ask a question) and Mrs Dixon, Mrs McKenzie and Mrs Heard enjoyed all the excellent vocabulary being used! The children agreed there was lots of tension in the room as they watched the ‘professional argument’.

We walked back through the building, spotting the dents and holes in the brickwork from World War Two bomb shrapnel and past various demonstrators and placards on Parliament Square. It was time to go into our workshop with Laurel and meet our MP, Helen Whately (who is also the currently Minister of Social Care).

We had an amazing multimedia room for our workshop- we watched a film on the walls! We voted on different issues as to whether they were fair or unfair and gave fantastic reasoning. Miss Whately was very generous with her time and answered lots of the questions we had generated in our groups. She was very impressed with our confidence!

After the trip, Poppy wondered what it would be like to go into politics, Oreofe noted that we had been somewhere the King was not allowed to go, Shaw reflected on what the history of Parliament would have been like and Jacob was impressed by the projections in the workshop. The children were a credit to the school and staff hope this is a visit they remember for a long time!