Westonzoyland Primary School ‘Achieving, Learning and Growing Together’
Student VCouncil Impact Autumn 2022
09/09/22
Welcome to new members and introduction
Checking books and badges
What we do in student voice
AOB:
Several children raised the need for Improvements in the garden area. We talked about the development project, paths, poly tunnel and rules for the garden area. We also discussed compost bins.
Z suggested that we sell our apples to help raise money for the school.
Main agenda item:
Mrs G showed the children the different behaviour acrostics she had made based upon their discussion about the school rules at the last meeting. We voted on what were the most important words to include and agreed a final lay out.
Actions:
Y6 to check with Ms Evans about apples
Mrs G to check with Ms Evans and Miss Grant about Eco Leaders
Mrs G to create the final school rules and send this out to staff and parents
16/09/22
Previous actions:
- School rules have gone out to teachers and parents and will be included in the new behaviour policy.
- Eco Leader applications are now being taken
AOB:
Waterbottles!
SV were unhappy that the rules about water in class bottles were not being followed up on followed through with.
SV agreed that there should only be plain water in class bottles but juice or squash were fine for lunchtimes. Flavoured water was only for lunchtimes. 'Air Up' bottles were ok in class.
SV felt that children were fiddling with their bottles in their classes and this was causing a distraction to learning.
They generally felt that rules around water bottles needed to be tightened up and then carried through for all children.
Mrs G sent out an email about water bottles to all class staff after the meeting and then followed this up in the next staff meeting.
Main agenda item:
Equity Statements
We talked about what these were and looked at some different examples.
We jotted down lots of ideas about what we could include. We decided that we wanted to focus on making everone feel welcome in our school.
We drew up a final 4 rules for Mrs G to take to staff.
Actions:
Mrs G to talk to staff about bottles
Mrs G to take the new Equity Statements to staff meeting for teachers to agree.
Mrs G to circulate the Equity Statements.
30/09/22
During this meeting we checked in with some of our existing projects. Mrs G updated on the progress of the Positive behaviour policy and that the equality objectives have been published on the website and sent out to parents.
Mrs G asked everyone to pay particular attention to behaviour over the next two weeks as she will be repeating the behaviour survey then and would like everyone to be looking really closely in their classes.
Mrs G brought some questions from staff about how aware children were of which staff member was in charge of which subject area and what parts of a topic were important to the SV and they would like repeating.
SV fed back that they were really enjoying the current topic. The bits that they would like to carry forward to other topics are:
- Opportunities for class discussions on particular issues.
- Having cross curricular links (Class story books that are linked to the topic, or opportunities for maths through the topic).
- More opportunities for computing skills as they feel they have not been keeping up with this on the new devices.
AOB:
The issue of smart watches was raised and we spent some time discussing what should and shouldn't be allowed in schools.
After a vote, it was decided that no new rules were required at the moment, but that we would monitor the situation, and if smart watches started to cause a distraction, then we would consider bringing rules in for their use.
Actions:
Some SV members to approach Ms Evans with ideas about particular garden areas.
Mrs G to check the green areas of the indoor classroom.
Mrs G to look into benches for the KS1 playground.
04/11/22
This was a business meeting.
Plastic recycling - Miss T to look into getting plastic recycling bins for the school.
Mrs G will ask Miss T to look into whether we can access a sorting bin for the playground.
P.E. - PE leaders are waiting for the new trollies to be put together. Mrs G will speak to Mr W about this. P.E. leaders will offer help.
Children keen for football teams to restart - Mrs G spoke to Mr W who said that this was happening.
S.V. were keen to have fixed goals on the playground to make playtime matches fairer and safer by giving clear targets. Mrs G has now got a quote for this and is getting it approved by governors at the next meeting.
Some children keen to start a cheerleading club. Mrs G suggested some staff to talk to about this.
Choir - Some children keen to start a choir. Mrs G announced that this was due to start next week.
Other - one child expressed concerns about 'Prime' flavoured water and whether it was an energy drink. We looked through the label together and discovered that it had added vitamins but was fairly low calorie and didn't have any caffeine in, so we were happy that children were allowed to have this at lunchtimes. SV reported that people were refilling the bottles with water and using these in class which we also agreed.
18/11/22
SV completed behaviour questionnaires with Mrs G to check on the impact of the new behaviour policy.
02/12/22
Feedback on Previous actions:
The Goals requested by SV are now ordered and are due to be installed in February.
AG went through the headlines of the behaviour questionnaire feedback.
SV children who are also on the eco-team went though how they will link between the two groups.
Fundraising ideas
We were asked by the PTFA for any fundraising ideas they could use in the future.
Lots of existing ideas like discos and village trails were very popular.
SV were keen that for future films, could the children get to vote in school (ballot box), rather than parents voting.
Their new ideas were - bake sales, sponsored events - particularly ones around the wider village and kids bingos (with prizes rather than money so that they can join in.
Ideas for PFTA investment:
The SV were keen on lots of ideas to develop the school grounds. Better outdoor learning areas. More exciting play. Benches replaced and new ones to create quiet areas and paths to make accessing some areas easier.
AOB
Older SV have fond memories of something called the Westonzoyland Talent Show and were keen to resurrect this. Mrs G will speak to Miss Grant about this.
SV commented that they found the posture chairs uncomfortable to sit on for long times. Mrs G said that she would look into this for future ordering.
SV commented again about having a golden table at lunchtimes. Mrs G said that she would remind staff about this.
SV raised concern about a dip in the infant playground. AG will get this booked in for attention.