We believe our school council's main purpose is to give pupils a voice in their school's decisions, encouraging participation and improving the school environment by allowing them to express views, address concerns, and work on projects like fundraising and improving facilities. 

It also serves as a platform for developing leadership, communication, and other valuable life skills, empowering our children to contribute to their school community and gain a sense of their own value, skills and the importance of community.

School Council at Barton comes in a variety of formats, depending upon the project or concern in hand.  Sometimes we allow peer groups to vote for who they would like to be on the school council and these elected leaders will canvas opinions and decide upon the priorities for action.  This was the case for our recent Loneliness in Old Age project. 

On other occasions, staff will identify a topic connected to our wider priorities or concerns within the community and select a group of willing candidates at random, for example, names in a hat.  This was the case for our project on East Anglian Children’s Hospice fundraising and profile-raising project. 

Alternatively, teachers and senior leaders will hand-pick a group of pupils with particular skills or those who would benefit from the opportunity to try out and develop their leadership skills.  This was the case with our recent Living Barton Values initiative.

At the commencement of the project, the team will identify its objectives, work out the steps to achieving them and present their findings, aspirations or requests to the necessary parties who will help them achieve their goals.  This could be governors, FOBS, Barton Lunch Club or the rest of the school or parent community.

It is an invigorating and rewarding aspect of our school life and an excellent means of enabling the children to make a tangible difference to school life and the community.