Our School Council

At Hatch Warren we believe strongly that pupil voice needs to be heard; our School Council provides an exciting opportunity for all children to be part of decisions made in our school. It builds children's confidence and encourages effective communication in decision making.

The Election Process

At the beginning of each academic year, our School Council is elected democratically within the first half term.  Children who wish to be on the council have to prepare a talk to persuade their class they are the best representative for them.  Our School Council officers help to run our polling station where each child in the school votes anonymously for the pupil from their class who they believe will successfully represent their views and opinions. The votes are then counted and our representatives receive a badge in assembly.  

‘UN Convention on the Rights of Children Article 12:  Children have the right to say what they think should happen, when adults are making decisions that affect them, and to have their opinions taken into account’

How our School Council works

The School Council meets on a regular basis and discusses suggestions, ideas and opinions from the school community.  For example, our children democratically make decisions on which charities they support (local, national and international).  In addition, they share and discuss matters that will improve their school environment, as well as how we can develop community links. 

Changes they have been involved with include:

MUGA

Designing the library

Playground markings

Resourcing play equipment boxes

Re-designing the music room

Designing the woodland areas 

Current school council projects - a report from the Chair, vice chair and secretary 

Our Journey of Wellbeing Ambassadors:

After the last few years of our Wellbeing Days, we have found out how important the wellbeing of every pupil in the school is to Mrs Cady and Mrs Manton. We were delighted to be selected as Chair, Vice- Chair and Secretary and wanted to make a difference to the school as soon as possible. This made us think about creating Wellbeing Ambassadors for the school. Our original idea was actually Anti-Bullying Ambassadors however we quickly realised the wellbeing of our school came above bullying. As we later found out that as a junior school – we do not encounter bullying as much as we first thought we would. We put together our ideas and sent them to Mrs Cady. We sent her a letter and she responed quickly. We then organised a meeting with Mrs Callow – the chair of governers – and Mrs Cady to flatten out anything we hadn’t already covered. They said that we could go ahead and plan it all out. We went into a school council meeting with our ideas and confirmed our actions  with the class councillors. We sent a letter to Mrs Ryan asking for tips on where to buy resources and got straight ahead with buying;  we bought new Wellbeing Ambassadors badges and personalised hi-vis vests. We created a powerpoint to show in assembly which we did on Wednesday 1^st December to pupils all across the school. Everyone in school now knows about our new idea and journey through creating the ambassadors and we hope to receive some applications in the near future.  We will  keep you posted on our new project and how it is going. J

Georgia – Chair

Laurie – Vice-chair 

Serra- Secretary

Previous school council projects:

All of our ideas have come from discussions with our classes. The process often involves writing a letter to Mr Dawson, Mrs Callow or Mrs Ryan. We manage a small school budget.

These are some of our achievements so far...

• An outside clock as requested by classes so that children know what time it is if they need to come in at lunchtime
• Starting the house system in the school. Classes suggested it would be a good way to reward children. The school council then asked governors, staff and children to name the houses which they wanted to be a variety of people who have demonstrated a growth mindset in what they do. Every child in the school was then put into a house and they collect rewards which are announced in assembly on a Friday and a cup is given out
• Agreeing a school motto by talking to staff, governors and children: Inspire, Believe, Persevere, Achieve
• Working with a member of staff to design and start "Growth Mindset" certificates which are given out in assembly on a Friday
• Organising a Race for Life around the school grounds
• Working with the council to investigate air pollution around the school site
• Identifying the "Welcome" area at the front of the school needed to be more welcoming! School council visited the local garden centre to get advice for the piece of land, planted it and layered stones on top
• Classes said they would like a scooter rack so the school council organised an Easter challenge day and raised enough money to purchase and install a scooter rack outside our school
• Designing a new library for the school
• Designing and meeting with a company who drew new lines on our playground
• Meeting local charities and deciding who to fundraise for (RSPCA and Foodbank)
• Initiating the idea of a school MUGA and fundraising
• Starting an eco-council in the school
• Working with the JRSOs to design road safety signs which are on display outside our school