Benton Dene Schools

School Council 2020/2021

What is a school council?

A school council is a group of students who are elected to represent the views of all pupils and to improve their school.

Each class has a pupil on the council or is represented by a pupil who will visit their class and collect their views and bring them back to the meetings. The school council is an exciting thing to be part of for pupils and staff as it's about the children be involved in contributing to and making decisions about things in the school and the school community that impact them. It is especially important for our pupils to have the chance to communicate their views and opinions and not be overlooked.

The School Council met again this week to discuss ideas for a new buddy bench area in the playground. Children from across school had taken their time to create some fantastic designs for the bench, and the councillors shared these with each other. We have decided that Benton Dene School has lots of budding designers and we are going to try and include ideas from lots of different children when we decorate the benches.

Benton Dene School Council have had their first official meeting of 2021! With COVID regulations in mind, we met in 2 different groups and spaced out in the hall. The theme for the meeting was ‘If there was one thing you’d like to change in school, what would it be?’ Councillors had asked their classmates this question and were ready and prepared to feedback the responses. And what fantastic responses they were!

Some common themes were quickly identified: more time on the trampolines, using the bikes and scooters more often and extra playtime. The good news is that, going forward into the summer as COVID regulations decrease, we will be able to access all of these resources a lot more!

Children also asked for more non-fiction books, more toys for playtime and even some special treat days! We are currently looking into these ideas and the non-fiction books are on order! The councillors are going to survey their classmates and find out the type of toys or treats they’d like.

Children also mentioned they’d like some more lunchtime sports clubs. This is something Mrs Yarrow is already looking into so watch this space!

Finally, a lovely idea came from Blue 5 about having a buddy system to support children who might be struggling to find somebody to play with. We are excited to hear more about this idea, and how the children would like it to work. How thoughtful and caring of the children from Blue 5.

Thanks goes to the School Councillors for all of their hard work so far.