School Council

We have had a busy term!

At the start of the term, we received a Parliament loan box. This included a range of replica items that can be seen in the House of Commons and House of Lords. We spent a meeting talking about all of the different items, then we planned an assembly to deliver to our Phase groups. We told our peers about where Parliament is, who is in charge of debates and showed the items, explaining what importance each one has.

In the last couple of weeks, we have been preparing for a meeting with the Governors about ‘Belonging to Alban City School’. We decided that as a group, belonging means “you find your place and feel comfortable. It is also when you feel secure and trust people around you”.  We spoke about the different ways that you can belong (through your classes, clubs, school council and friendships) as well as an example of where we have all felt like we have belonged. They had so many wonderful examples of how they belonged in various scenarios across the school. They delivered the presentation with such confidence and answered all of the governors questions. They should all be super proud of themselves for this achievement.

Entering our last term as school councillors after Easter, we spoke about what we would like to achieve. We have lots of ideas, so look out for an update!

Have a lovely break – see you next term!

The School Council was rather busy last term!

In Autumn 1, we discussed plans to improve the school and started with a fundraising event. As you know, we had an injured fox visit us in the playground and it was collected by a charity called Pumpkins Wildlife Hospital. The School Council came up with ideas to raise money for the charity and in Autumn 2, the whole school participated in ‘Wear it Wild’ day. We created posters and hung them up around school and told our classmates about it. It was a great day and we raised £650!

Also in Autumn 2, was UK Parliament Week. The councillors held debates in their class and we met a few times throughout the week to talk about what Parliament is and compared it with the local council. We were fortunate enough to meet Helen Campbell who is the deputy leader of the district council, a county councillor and the deputy executive member for Highways, and she stood for Parliament last year. The council prepared questions to ask and had a great insight into her role and what the council does to support the local area. 

This term, we will have a loan box from Parliament that focuses on learning about the processes that take place in the House of Commons and House of Lords and how the UK Parliament works. We will be meeting to talk about what we would like to achieve this term as well.

This half term, the school council have been reflecting on the school year that is coming to an end as well as thinking of further improvements we can make to the school next year for the new school council.

We have discussed what went well this year, each taking a turn on something to speak about.

Alp spoke about the parliament trip, sharing how he found it interesting learning about the history of the House of Commons and House of Lords, as well as meeting Daisy Cooper (MP for St Albans). Sanjana and Rosie said how they have enjoyed the wider range of lunchtime and after school clubs, particularly the alternative to sports clubs. Emit and Olivia have said they have enjoyed the menu changes this year, such as the special menu at Chinese New Year and the Year 6 Leavers Menu. Byron shared how the learning in classes has changed, including flexible seating arrangements and the school trips linking to their learning. Alice said she has enjoyed the changes to break and lunch times with Opal, having the different stations which meant there is more to do and less boredom. Finally, Tate and Rowan said they felt the suggestions box in Autumn term was an important part of making improvements to the school using pupil voice, including implementing the changes to the lunch choices and playground improvements.

Looking at moving into the new academic year, we discussed what we would improve or new ideas for the new school council to be a part of.  These included:

• Sports club differing to the sports learned in PE lessons
• Further developments with Opal
• Sports Leaders being more involved at lunch times
• School council fundraising for local charities
• Suggestions box in classrooms

Thank you to all the school councillors who have worked super hard this year. They have all been a fantastic voice for the students at Alban City School.

We are all looking forward to what improvements and changes we can make in school and the local community next!

School Council elections will be held in Autumn Term.

This term the School Council have met three times to discuss and make decisions on projects to continually improve the school. Not only that, but we have also collected a questionnaire based on equality and diversity as well as written letters to local sports clubs, asking for donations to our wonderful, new playground.

All of the School Council Representatives have contributed, debated and voted on behalf of their peers as well as explained the questionnaire to their classes and brought up new ideas to include everyone at school.

Next term, we will be focusing on how we can improve the toilet facilities around the school.

This half term the school council has been meeting to talk about ideas and suggestions and to think about what we would like to focus on this year. We also met with the old school council for a handover.

We have agreed to make a suggestion box which we will be putting out at the entrance of the school in soft start to encourage other school children to give us suggestions and ideas. We would also like to introduce a class kindness chart which the school councillor could monitor.

Congratulations to our new Alban City School Councillors for the year 2024 / 2025 who were announced in assembly today! We are already looking forward to our first meeting.

The school council were very lucky to recently visit Westminster on a special school trip.

We started the trip with a tour of the House of Commons and the House of Lords and even got to sit on the viewing platform and witness a live debate!

After the tour we were then treated to a debating workshop where the children learnt about how the different political parties work and they role played debating a new bill in the house from two opposing sides.

Daisy Cooper our local MP then came to meet with the school council and answer questions about St Albans and more importantly the tax on sweets!

Today the school council were very lucky to meet the Mayor of St Albans, we prepared questions to ask the Mayor in advance before having a detailed conversation with him about his role in the city. The school council once again were a credit to the school.

As part of the school councils interest in helping the local community we decided to head down to the local nursing home ‘Verulam House’ where we chatted to the residents, played games and even got to meet their parrot and hatching chicks. The school council were very friendly and kind and were great ambassadors for the school.