Minutes of the meeting 16.11.16

Present everyone but Hudson

School prayer


Agenda

• Meeting with school management .re lunchtime arrangements
• Letters requesting donations

Lunchtime issues
Mr.Carter, Mrs Wellman and Mrs. Grice attended our meeting today to find out what children are saying about lunchtimes
year 6 say everyone is squashed and want longer tables as there is not enough room
year 5 say games are too rough.
year 4 say its squashed in hall while eating lunch and too noisy.
year 3 agreed there is too much rough play on playground and suggested more equipment might help
year 2 wanted chairs as they feel squashed
Year 1 felt it was too noisy and they can't hear the dinner ladies.

Options.
 Shelby suggested two sittings so that there would be more space and less noise.
Lunch time charter with clear expectations.
Lunchtime sipporters elected in each class to remind children of correct behaviour and help in supervising trips to the cloakrooms.
Dinner ladies to have an action which children need to copy.
House points/ stickers to be given for quick and quiet responses.

Donations
Shelby and Mia have agreed to work with Mrs Rees to write letters requesting local businesses donate a Christmas tree for the front of school, and oranges for Christingle.

The meeting closed ( a bit late!)
Blog by Jack

minutes of the meeting 9.11.16

Everyone present.
school prayer
Agenda

1. Visitors in school
2. Handing over the blog

Mrs rees said thankyou to School Council for meeting with a visitor yesterday. She was very impressed with us!
We are having another visitor tomorrow and we are looking forward to telling him about our school and the way it works.

Today Mrs Rees showed me how to do the blog, so now I will be taking over.
Jack

Minutes of the meeting 5.10.16

Apologies; Harrison absent
School prayer
Agenda
Feedback from Macmillan morning
Lunchtime discussion

Firstly congratulations everyone, we raised even more for Macmillan Cancer this year!

Many school councillors have been approached by children with issues over lunchtimes. The problems appear to be;

• Overcrowding
• Small tables
• Noise/ smell
• Mess
• Bad manners
• Rough play outside.

We discussed the problems at some length.
Action.

• School Council could produce a new lunchtime charter for inside and outside and address the noise, mess, manners and rough play.
• Representatives might approach SMT about overcrowding and small tables; possibly suggest separate sittings for KS1 and KS2, or some classes return to eating in their classes.

Lois thanked everyone for coming and closed the meeting.

Macmillan Coffee Morning

On Friday 30th September we took part in The World's Biggest Coffee Morning to raise money for Macmillan cancer nurses. The event was a great success thanks to the enormous number and variety of delicious cakes supplied by members of our school community.

 

 

We had far too many cakes to eat at the coffee morning and so we plated them up and sold them at home time.This doubled the amount of money raised!

 We, as School Council, would like to thank everyone who helped with the event in any way. Your generosity will make such a difference to the lives of many.

 

And the cakes were wonderful too!    Thank you!

Minutes of the meeting 28.9.16

Everyone present except Y6 (on residential)
Mia yr 5 led as vice chair.
School prayer.
Agenda.
Presentation for Macmillan Coffee morning
Children in Need Day.
Role of Cchool council


Actions.
First, we discussed what we needed people to know about what the money raised on Friday will do.
We wrote a short presentation, divided up the parts and practised reading aloud ready for the Big Coffee Morning.

Next we looked ahead to Children in Need day. We decided that it would be good to support this great fundraiser. We agreed to have a non school uniform 'Wear spots for a pound' day. We also looked at the various items we could sell to raise money and decided that the ear bands would be most popular. We will ask for these to be ordered.

Finally, we discussed exactly what our role as school council should be.
These are our aims.......

·   To find out the views and ideas of the children in our school 

• To take the best ideas forward and act as a link between children and management of the school
• To represent the children of our school when decisions are being made that affect us all
• To meet with School councils from the other schools in the BET academy
• To think of ways we can improve our school
• To ensure the school is a safe and happy place for everyone
• To promote good health and good behaviour
• To welcome visitors and show them around
• To raise money for the school
• To raise money for charities, both in our community and the wider world
• To make sure everyone has the opportunity to

 'Be the Best That They Can Be!'

                                   WOW!!! WE ARE GOING TO BE BUSY!

Minutes of the meeting.21.9.16

Everyone present  (except y5 reps)

Lois led the school prayer
Everyone was issued with their School Council badges. They look great!

Agenda

• Preparations for The Big Coffeee Morning
• Volunteers to help at parents evening

Actions.
Publicity for the Coffee Morning.
We discussed how we could promote the Coffee morning to make it a great event. We decided to make our own posters to advertise the date of coffee morning and also some to ask people to bake cakes for the event.
We worked together to compose a text for our School Secretary to send to all the parents.
Parents Evening
Although everyone wanted to help we decided for our first official job we should choose our Y6 reps.

Any other business
Several year groups brought their comments boards that had already been filled in with requests for issues to be discussed. It was decided that as we had our posters to make these should be postponed for now. It is clear, however, that children would like the lunchtime process to be improved.........More on this when we can..........

The new Council for 2016 / 2017

Today the new School Council met for the first time. We re all very excited and proud at being chosen to represent our classes as the Voice of BSM pupils!

Agenda
Election of Chairperson, Vice-Chair and Technical Support.

Action
Lois was unanimously elected as Chair......Congratulations Lois!
Mia was chosen as Vice Chair and Jack kindly agreed to provide technical support and help with the blog.
We took photographs for our display board so everyone will know who we are. We will also make class cards where children can write their ideas and any issues they would like us to discuss in School Council.
We agreed that at our next meeting we would plan and prepare for the big Macmillan Coffee Morning.
We can't wait to get started!

End of year

In our last two meetings we worked in groups to fill in a questionnaire about School council. We reflected on what we have achieved in terms of serving the community (raising money for charities),  and for the school (raising and spending money, resolution of problems,) We also thought about how our work has helped us develop our own confidence, debating skills and problem solving and enabled us to develop in the Christian values of responsibility and service.
A job well done!

minutes of the meeting 13.6.16

Yr 1,2,3,4,5 present. Ronnie not available,
 Keeley acted as Chair.

Agenda

• class comments boards.

Today we had the opportunity to look at the requests and comments submitted to School Council via the class boards.
Y6  Request for space to play ball games at playtimes.
Discussion. We understand it is not safe to play football on the school field.
School Council proposed the use of the playground for a limited number to practise ball skills ( play time only and on days when most of the school are on the field)
Y5 Complaints about hot school meals.
Discussion, Some felt that the quality had gone down but this was not unanimous.
Y4 Car parking.
Discussion Children all agreed there were still problems with people parking on yellow lines and they did not always feel safe outside the school. We agreed another reminder should go into the news letter.
Y3 Toilets,
Discussion Some members felt that children needed to be reminded to flush the toilet after use. It was pointed out, however, that flushing the toilet was not always effective.
Y2 Money for new equipment.
Discussion Y2 had tried to play tennis but the nets were all spoiled. Members also felt that skipping ropes and hula hoops needed to be replenished.
Y1 WIFI
Discussion y1 have been having problems using the i-pads because of limited WIFI =. They just wanted us to know!

School Council trip to the council offices.

 Seeing SERVICE in action!  

On Friday 20^th May, our School Council joined the School Councils from Spetisbury and Archbishop Wake Schools on a visit to the Blandford Council Offices. 

 

The morning was led by Councillor Andrew Kerby. First, he initiated a debate about the European Union and the forthcoming referendum on June 23^rd when the country will be voting on whether Britain should remain as part of the European Union or leave.

 

After listening to arguments on both sides each school council withdrew to discuss the issue.

 

We learnt more about the democratic process and then voted using a secret ballot.

 

When the votes were counted we found 28 voted to stay in, and 6 voted to leave the European Union.

 

 

After the debate, Councillor Kerby took us around the offices and told us more about the work of the council. As we have been celebrating the value of SERVICE, it was interesting to hear about the council‘s role and commitment to SERVING the residents of Blandford. Every day they advise and help people with issues about housing, health, education, social care and safety. They review planning applications - like the proposal for new housing in Blandford St Mary. They also organise the cleaning of the town and waste management. In fact many of the things we just take for granted!                                      

 

 

 

We would like to thank Councillor Kerby and the staff at the council offices for a very interesting morning and for the work they do every day.

 

                                                                          

Minutes of the meeting 16.5.15

Years 2- 6 only
Agenda Visit to the council offices.

Our School Council have been invited to visit Blandford Council offices to see the work being done there. This fits very well with seeing service in action in the community, and of course this is the Christian value we are exploring and celebrating this half term. We will also be learning more about the referendum on June 23rd when the country will be voting to stay or leave the E.U. As many of us were unsure of the arguments for each side of this debate, Olivia, our secretary offered to print out some information we would all understand from the newsround website.Thank you Olivia.
Arrangements were agreed for the visit.
A.O.B.
Concern was raised that children were not being awarded enough ace points to ever be able to achieve silver or gold certificates. Mrs. Rees agreed to pass this on to teachers.
Council reps requested the return of cycle club---a very good way of ensuring our safety on the roads.

Friday 29th April

Today we interviewed the candidates who were hoping to become our new head teacher. We saw five people and asked each one a selection of our questions. We were very impressed with all the candidates and the way they answered our questions and talked positively about our school and it's future.We really enjoyed being part of this important process and would like to wish everyone who attended the very best for the future.

Minutes of the meeting 18.4.16

Every one present
Ronnie led the school prayer

Agenda
Interview questions
Confidentiality and good manners.

We discussed all the qualities we were looking for in our new head teacher. Then we thought about what questions we needed to ask the candidates to find out if they were suitable. We created a list of our favourite questions and discussed what would be good /not so good responses.
We talked about how the interviews should be conducted and how important it is to be polite and respectful and not to talk about the process after the interviews.

Ronnie thanked everyone for coming.
Next meeting....Agree on pairings and practise questioning.

minutes of the meeting 11.4.16

Apologies from Conor (abs)
School prayer
Welcome

Agenda
Feedback on class questionnaire.
Interview with Mrs Brown.

Each class contributed the three most important qualities their class had decided upon. After some discussion we agreed on the following wishlist.
Someone who...........

·         Is fun and can make our learning fun

·         Listens, respects and values everyone and their opinions

·         Is a good communicator/teacher

·         Is trustworthy. Someone we can rely on to care about us and our school

·         Challenges and inspires us, but is also supportive

·         Is a good technician, musical, arty and creative

·         Is able to manage behaviour, but not too strict

·         Will organise exciting whole school activities

·         Is sporty

Spends money wisely

We then invited Mrs Brown to consider our thoughts and add what she felt was important. She said that first and foremost you must love working with children and their families. A knowledge and understanding of the law, health and safety, up to date curriculum and assessment recommendations are also essential. She felt a clear vision, and the Christian values of service courage, perseverance, hope humility etc underpin making the school successful.
 Good I.T.skills and a sense of humour also help!

Minutes of meeting 21.3.16

Every one present

We welcomed our new Reception Class representatives onto School Council, Elena and Connor.

Agenda
School Council's part in the process of finding a new Head teacher for our school.

We discussed how important it is that the children of our school have a say in the appointment of the new Head teacher. We agreed that school council could help by....

• Completing a questionnaire in each class, asking what qualities and skills children want in their head teacher.
• Interviewing Mrs. Brown to find what she thinks are the most important skills necessary in a head teacher, and what our school needs to take it forward.
• Creating a wishlist
• Devising questions that will enable us to appreciate the qualities of each candidate.
• Showing candidates around
• Inreviewing candidates
• Feeding back to the adult interviewing panel.

The meeting closed with members filling in their own ideas of what makes a good head teacher and then taking questionnaires to their own classes to lead discussions there.
Further action. Mrs Rees will submit our plans to the Chair of Governors.

Minutes of meeting 11.1.16

Everyone present.
The School prayer

Agenda  The School Charter.

Action. We discussed the School Charter. Everyone was very familiar with their own class charter. We discussed the importance of having a whole school Charter in a prominant position so that all children, staff and visitrors would understand what is important to us as a school.
We thought we would like to create an A1 size poster with the Rights and Responsibilities clearly written. Reference should be made to the UNCRC article that each right relates to. As some of our younger children are not yet reading we felt it would be a good idea to include photographs of children demonstrating positive attitudes and behaviour to display alongside each point.
We discussed possible opportrunities to obtain these photos.