Pupil Information

Student Council

The school council meets every two weeks. Meetings take place from 8.15am during Friday registration in Room M.

The Aims and scope of the School Council are set out below:-

Aims

• To provide a forum for discussion of issues of general concern to pupils and staff.
• To encourage pupils to develop a sense of ownership of the school.
• To afford the pupils an opportunity to influence the future development of the school.

Scope

• To advise the Headteacher and other appropiate persons of issues of concern and interest to the pupils and to make recommendations for action.
• To consider various aspects of school policy and to make recommendations for action.
• To be responsible for the rules governing the running of the Council.

Organisation

• The Council will consist of two elected representatives from each form who will act as representatives for the whole year.
• The Council will meet approximately once a fortnight.
• The Council will be run in a formal way by a member of staff.
• Minutes from the Council will go to the Senior Management Team for discussion.
• Students will receive a reply to any points raised.

School Council Reps

The school council is made up of two representatives from each form in Years 7-11. The council meets every two weeks on Friday mornings during registration. In fact, we aim to begin the meetings at 8.15am. The meetings are run by the Year 11 reps, until Easter when the Year 10s take over for the summer term. The Year 10 reps usually continue to represent their forms through Year 11 to have some experience and continuity within the team. A member of staff, usually Mrs Holden, but sometimes Dr Swale or a member of the SMT attends the meeting, mainly to raise issues from the staff and to give advice or answer questions. The girls take the minutes, which are circulated to forms and staff.

The role of a school council rep is to raise issues which are of concern to her form and to feed back the minutes of meetings to her form. She may also be asked for her opinion, or her form's opinion on issues raised by the staff. A good time for the reps to discuss issues with the rest of their form is on Wednesday mornings, when the staff are in their meeting. The reps should therefore be happy to speak out within a group and to talk to staff. They must be able to attend the meetings, which will begin early on Friday mornings. They should also be prepared to do the job for the whole year and, in the case of Year 10, possibly for longer.