School Council
We have had a great start with our school council this year.
Activities to date:
- September: An election for new school council members was held. It was great to see some new faces joining the school council this year. We hope they work as hard and enjoy being part of the council as much as last year's pupils did.
- October: We took part in the Key Stage 2 Assembly to remind pupils of the new playground rules that were established in June. Last year the school council was able to work with Mr Long and Mr Cousley to buy new toys and storage for the playground. They reinstated playground points to reward good behaviour at break and lunch. Playground points are continuing this year again and Mr Taggart's class won the prize of a trip to the cinema. In October, school council also established suggestion cards in each of their rooms. Many suggestions were put forward by pupils and by Hallowe'en, we had identified four suggestions that the council felt would be achievable by the end of the school year.
- November: We looked in more depth at the four possible suggestions (A glued path under the willow tunnel, a tuck shop, vegetable grown on site to be used for school dinners & a school newspaper) . Each year group carried out a PMI on a specific suggestion and council members reported back their findings. This helped the council narrow down the suggestions to one that they want to focus on achieving - a tuck shop. School Council wanted to do more research around this idea before having a meeting with Mr Long to discuss this possibility. They have carried out a survey with pupils in their classes to establish what kind of sweets pupils would buy from a tuck shop and met again to collate their findings.
- December: School Council are researching the cost of sweets for a tuck shop. They are also trying to plan exactly how and when a tuck shop could be run and thinking about whether it would link with our school's healthy eating policy. It is hoped that once these areas have been thoroughly thought about, the School Council will meet with Mr Long to discuss the possibility of setting up a tuck shop. Watch this space!!
Welcome to our School Council 2016!
Elections are over and we have our new members for this year...
P4:- Gracie, Poppy, Matthew and Lexie
P5:- David, Molly, Rhys and Bella
P6:- Joanna, Daniel, Freddie and John
P7:- Grace, Anael, Katie and Isaac
We are having a bit of an adventure this year and joining forces with the Eco - committee to help build awareness of our environment. At the moment we are making suggestion boxes so other pupils can put forward their ideas for changes they would like to see us bring in.
On the 21st October we are having a visit from an education officer from Stormont. She will be helping us to find out about the roles and responsibilities of the school council. We'll keep you posted.
Stormont School Visit
We have had a super morning! Marina, a Stormont education officer, came to visit our school council to talk to us about how we are similar to the Stormont Government. We found out that our main job is to make changes in our school that are important to pupils in Orangefield. We will also need to talk to Mr Long during the year to tell him about plans we would like to put in place.
Thanks Marina!
School Council Focus 2016-2017
Pupils throughout Key Stage 2 put forward a suggestion to enhance their playground. This wish was included in all suggestion boxes and so school council felt this should be our focus for the year.
Problem: Mr Cousley orders new toys for each school year and replenishes them throughout the year. Mr Long estimates £1500 is spent per year on playground equipment. Equipment is being lost, broken and not tidied away. Considering the current situation regarding the education budget we feel this is wasted money.
School Council would like to address the playground problem and get all pupils involved in the process of finding a solution.
School Council are carrying out a survey (Week Beginning: 23/1/17) with P4-P7 classes to find out how the playground is used: what games are played, what toys are used, how should toys be stored and tidied away and what would pupils like adult staff to do while supervising play?
11/1 & 19/1 – Plan, agree and type up survey questions. Discuss how to carry out surveys in class.
30&31 Jan – collect results and discuss what to do next. Mrs Sweetlove will prepare PowerPoint presentation of results so they can be looked at carefully by the council on Fri 10th Feb.
Since carrying out the questionnaire and speaking to Mr Long, Ms Greenwood and Mr Cousley, school council have prepared an action plan to use playground points to encourage pupils to follow 4 rules when playing in the playground;
- Respect all pupils
- Respect the school environment
- Respect school equipment
- Line up when the bell rings
They presented their ideas in Assembly to teachers and pupils. This is what they said...
You asked school council to address problems in the P4 –P7 playground through class suggestion boxes.
We have carried out a questionnaire to find out what the problems were and how you wanted the playground be.
We thought carefully about the problems and have come up with a solution.
We met with Mr Long to talk him through our proposal and he is in favour of carrying it out.
Our aim:
To find a way to improve respect and responsibility in the playground.
We want to encourage toys to be used and stored correctly, friendships to grow and disagreements to be resolved with respect.
This is how playground points will work:-
In our playground we will follow the rules to get playground points
Each day our points will be totalled by class school council members.
Each week P7 school council members will tally playground points, display them on the notice board and inform Mr Long.
Mr Long will announce the winning class each week in Assembly.
At the end of each half term the winning class will get a prize!
The winning class can vote for the prize they would like to receive.
Assembly presentation
Our Trip To Stormont!
What a super day we have had. We arrived at Stormont this morning and were met by James, the educational officer. He took us into the Assembly Room where we heard about the MLA's jobs as well as finding out about the role of the Speaker. Our School Council asked lots of very sensible questions. While we were in the Assembly room, we took part in a debate about wearing school uniforms. There were some very interesting points of views put forward by our school council.
After a short snack we went into the educational room and took part in a mini election, which showed us how the voting system in Northern Ireland works.
At the end of our time in Stormont we looked around the Senate Room and found out how this room is used.
Our school council members were so well mannered and represented our school incredibly well. I am very proud of them all.
Thank you to the parents and nannies that were able to come with us.
CAR PARK SAFETY POSTER COMPETITIONS
We are running a carpark safety poster competition.
Please get involved and help our school community to think about keeping children safe around our carpark.
- Your poster should be A4 sized.
- It can be hand drawn or created on the computer.
- It needs to have a slogan that highlights safety in the school carpark.
- Closing date 9th February.
A winner from each class will receive a prize from Mr Long in Assembly and an overall winner will get to see their poster, enlarged, on display in the carpark.
The School Council is now into its fifth year. Two children from each P4 to P7 class have the opportunity to become class representatives. The pupils present a short speech and each class votes for the pupil they believe will work as part of a team to make school an even better place than it is already.
The children meet regularly each term. At the beginning of each year they make suggestion boxes for their rooms so all pupils get to put forward their ideas. The school council members use these suggestions to create an achievable project that they think will enhance our school. There is a lot of discussion and problem solving involved!
With the help of the School Council the following changes have taken place:
- A school motto has been created.
- Golden rules have been established that the whole school has agreed to abide by.
- Manhole covers have been painted with anti-slip paint to prevent accidents and injuries in the playgrounds.
- Improvements made to the Key Stage 2 playground area.
Last year we entered into the Speaker’s School Council awards with our Playground Safety project. Unfortunately we did not win, but we were very pleased to have gained a highly recommended certificate – it has pride of place on our school council notice board.
2015/16 School Council Members are:
Caoimhe McClure Jack Campbell Chelsea McNeill
Matthew Wishart Grace Adamson Caleb Lindsay
Zaynab Sabri Hannah Steele Freddie Swan
Ryan Armstrong Anna Hutchinson Joanna Hunt
Quinn Mildenhall Ellie Sparkes Cameron Walsh
Elle Ferguson
- Orangefield Primary School and Nursery
- Cameronian Drive, Belfast, BT5 6DF
- info@orangefieldps.belfast.ni.sch.uk, 02890704822