Welcome to the Smart School Council! We work together to improve our school.
Here at Hinckley Parks, every voice is heard! Rather than the traditional, small group of student representatives helping teachers make decisions, our school council – supported by Miss Lapsley - is special, because EVERY pupil in the school is able to have their say. Children in every year group share discussions and learn about democracy to help change and improve our school to make it even better. We then create ‘Action Teams’ who work on these projects, using ideas that the children have thought of themselves.
How does it work?
Weekly child-led class meetings are held in every class, focussing on ideas which have been suggested by children across the school. Children discuss these ideas for initiatives as a class, recording key points and the class has a vote to decide whether or not they think the idea should go forward to the next stage or not. The views from every class are then reviewed by the ‘Communication Team’, (our original School Council representatives), who decide on what the next steps need to be. If an initiative is given the ‘go ahead’, an ‘Action Group’ takes it forward from there and makes the idea into a reality. The Communication Team keep everyone updated on the progress of each initiative considered, using a board in the library. It shows projects ongoing, and also some new ideas which have been suggested. This visual representation keeps even our youngest pupils in the picture! As well as celebrating projects which have gone ahead, this progress board also explains why certain ideas have not been implemented. An example of this is the swimming pool which was unfortunately far too costly! This is an important part of the progress board, as children need to understand the reasons why some ideas cannot go ahead due to budget.
Who are we?
The Communication Team is a group of caring people
who are key to helping our school improve.
We read all the votes that are submitted from
the Class Meeting and decide on which
of your creative suggestions we can act on!
By Olivia Yr5
The Action Teams are groups of children who have
an idea for a project or improvement for our school.
They lead this themselves and after completing an
action plan with an adult to support them with
their idea, the communication team check on their progress
and support them.
By Hayley and Robin Yr3
What have we achieved so far?
- Improved our school menu, while ensuring healthy options
- Introduced a weekly home-reading prize to encourage children to read more
- Raised money following the Australian wildfires to rehome koalas
DO YOU HAVE YOUR OWN IDEAS ABOUT HOW WE COULD IMPROVE OUR SCHOOL? If so, let Miss Lapsley know!