Teaching and learning
School Council & House Points
Our School Council is a boy and girl from each class elected by their classmates at the beginning of the year. Through this process, all children from Year One to Year Six gain experience of Democracy which is integral to their understanding of ‘British Values’. Every two weeks, we gather to discuss, overview and analyse various school issues so that all children feel heard and together we can make St. Stephen’s an inclusive place to learn.
Recent Meetings
Tuesday 22nd June 2021
Today, we had a practise of the messages of gratitude we will read into tomorrow’s ‘Thank a Teacher and TA’ assembly. We were very impressed with each other’s loud speaking voices and again spoke about how these moments of thankfulness really make the world a better place. We are also very excited to surprise our adults!
Friday 11th June 2021
Today, we had a lovely meeting discussing the power of ‘Thank you’. We discussed all the ways teachers and teaching assistants help us every day. As the 23rd June is ‘Thank A Teacher Day’, we then hatched a plan to surprise our teachers with a thank you during our assembly on this day. School Council wrote messages that they will read out during this assembly and some lovely messages for the teaching staff in our St. Stephen’s community.
We will next meet on 18th June to practise for our assembly and talk through any other school pupil business.
Friday 21st May 2021
Today, we reviewed our school’s ‘Anti -Bullying Policy’. We discussed the different points included in it and considered why it is important that all schools have this and that pupils know about it. Our school council liked the steps we put in place in the policy and discussed how they would like to help develop what they know about resolving conflict. Here were some of their thoughts about the policy:
‘It helps makes sure no one is bullied here.’ Year 2
‘If bullying does happen, it helps the teachers and students know what to do to stop it’ Year 4
‘It helps pupils feel safe and happy here’ Year 6
School Council then took a discussion sheet back to their classes where they will lead a discussion based on what makes a ‘Happy Classroom’.
We will next meet the first week after half term. 
Tuesday 11th May 2021
Over the past two week, School Council have been incredibly lucky to work with Mr Perry about our school vision ‘Turn your ears to wisdom and heart to understanding’. Proverbs 2:2. This Thursday, they will help Mr P deliver an assembly sharing with the school their findings and reflections about St. Stephens’ vision.
Friday 23rd April 2021
Today, we had our first School Council meeting of the new term and it was lovely to have the sun shining down on us as we discussed the importance ‘Earth Day’. We came up with some ideas of how to care for our world but now we want to turn our attention to St. Stephen’s. All our councillors took a suggestion sheet that they will fill with their class’ ideas ready to share with us on our next meeting. Let’s get St. Stephen’s gorgeously green!
Friday 27th November
Today in school council we had a meeting to hear how everybody’s year groups are still coping with the rules during these Covid times. Most reported that everyone seemed to be quite happy but were looking forward to when they could play with children from other year groups.
We discussed that all school council children in KS2 will be responsible for keeping the KS2 playground clear of bikes and scooters which should make collection of them at the end of the day that bit calmer.
Realising that we have only a few weeks of term left, School Council’s mission for the next two weeks is to identify how we can make Spring Term even better in these odd times. One suggestion made by our Year Five member was to turn the playground into a skate park however as we debated this we realised that there would be lots of health and safety issues as well as financing to consider. This gave us lots to think about and hopefully we can work on some solutions in the coming weeks. Our next meeting will be the 11th December.
Wednesday 11th November
Today, we finally found out the results of our democratic vote. Our year six council members helped count the votes (supervised of course) on Friday ready for our meeting today. Our members gathered in the atrium at break time to find out the eagerly anticipated vote. The winners were chicken drumsticks/cauliflower cheese with a runaway 180 votes and chicken/veggie korma with 85 votes.
Our delegates scurried off to tell their respective classes the good news and happy whispers of ‘chicken drumsticks’ were heard across the playground throughout the day. This was such a wonderful opportunity for democracy and thank you school council for helping the vote run smoothly.
Friday 23rd October 2020
After a little break last week, due to ‘Hispanic Day’ we were back to it to prepare for ‘Parliament Week’ which will take place when we come back after half term.
In the spirit of democracy, School Council learned that all children in St. Stephen’s will get the chance to vote for two new dishes on our school menu in this very special week. Cookie will then put the two dishes with the highest vote on the dishes from Spring Term onwards. This will show that each child has the chance to make difference with their vote when they are older.
Over half term, School Council are tasked with making posters to get everyone excited for the week! Watch this space for the results..
Friday 9th October 2020
Today we had a quick session to remind everyone about our ‘Red Card to Racism’ day on the 15th October and then we were flying off to our different sections of the school to put up posters from the charity as well as the ones we have created at home. Can you spot them on our school windows?
Friday 2nd October 2020
Today, we had our first meeting of the school year. This was an opportunity to meet each other in a safe environment and to think about what we want this year’s school council to achieve. We thought about what a school councilor should be and came up with these ideas:
- To be friendly
- To be kind
- To lead by example
- To tuck our shirts in
- To stand up for positive values and to against bullying or mean words
- To consider how to make a school a better place
We then talked about our upcoming ‘Red Card to Racism’ day on the 15th October where we will wear red to show we are against racism and learn about being an anti-racist school.
School Council were then tasked with creating posters to advertise the event.
