School Council and Pupil Voice

Children and young people can offer unique perspectives on what it is like to be a pupil at their school; involving them in decision-making can create meaningful change and better academic outcomes, as well as facilitating a sense of empowerment and inclusion.

A whole-school approach means listening to the voices of everyone in the school community. This includes children and young people as well as parents and carers, and school staff.

What is it and why is it important?

Pupil voice in schools means a whole-school commitment to listening to the views, wishes and experiences of all children. It means placing value on what children and young people tell school staff about their experiences. It is a key factor in children’s mental and emotional health and their overall wellbeing.

Children and young people need to be provided with meaningful opportunities to share their experiences, views and hopes about their school. Pupils need to know that it is safe and that it is important for them to express their views on what happens at school. They need to know that what they say is valued and will be listened to and considered.

The school council is a group of children who are elected to represent the views of all pupils, make some decisions about whole school issues and help improve the school. Two representatives are elected from each class and meet every few weeks.

So far this year, they have sought ideas about charities to support and arranged and helped organise and run fundraising days.  They are currently exploring ways to promote positive experiences during lunchtime in the school hall, including being mindful of the noise level, respectful interactions between all and raising awareness of food waste.

Photos and details of the school’s fundraising days can be seen here.

School Ambassadors

This year, we have introduced the new Year 6 'Ambassador' roles and are looking forward to developing them further with the children, as the year progresses.  

As well as being positive role models, the children are encouraged to think about others and make positive changes to our community.   

These ambassador roles aim to provide the children with real opportunities to develop and improve our school community, support our wider community and build valuable life skills with the children.  

The children work with members of our leadership team to plan, deliver and assess projects within 6 broad categories that fit with our vision and values as a school.  

• Courageous Advocacy Ambassadors 
• Eco Ambassadors 
• Physical Health Ambassadors 
• Safety Ambassadors 
• Wellbeing Ambassadors 
• Worship Ambassadors 

 There are agreed roles and responsibilities for the Ambassadors.  

The Ambassadors work together as a team to identify projects which will be child driven, require a level of commitment to see it through to the end and pitched at a level that allows for success.  

Overton CE Primary's collection point for Basingstoke Foodbank

The Year 6 Courageous Advocacy Ambassadors have established a collection point at school for donations for the Basingstoke Foodbank. This followed several months of research and meetings with volunteers from the foodbank.  

Courageous Advocacy is all about making a difference by standing up in support of important causes, sometimes for those who feel they have little or no voice.

On his 75^th birthday in November, the King launched his new Coronation Food Project which aims to help those in need of food whilst reducing surplus food being thrown away.  It aims to address the growing problem of those who cannot afford food.

 As a team, they have found out that:

-there are 14 million people in the UK facing food insecurity

-food banks are warning of rising demand

-The Trussell Trust charity stated that 1.5 million emergency food parcels were given to people by its foodbanks between April and September, an increase of 16% from the previous year

-almost two thirds of these were for families with children

We wanted our collection to go to Basingstoke Foodbank as there are other collections in the village which go to Andover. We fully support all those places collecting, but we wanted to donate to Basingstoke as it is close for Overton families who may need to access it.

We also wanted to highlight the other services the Basingstoke Foodbank offers to support families in need.  Thank you to all those people in the community who have donated so far. 

Please click here to find out more about the Basingstoke Foodbank.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The other services Basingstoke Foodbank provides: