At St Mary’s, our School Council has been formed to listen to the children’s wishes and ideas and to improve our school.  The School Council consists of 12 members from Years 1-6 and we have regular meetings together to discuss ideas.  We are all very enthusiastic and committed to our roles.

What is the School Council?

The School Council works to make improvements to the school and the way we do things at St.Mary’s. We seek to improve things and discuss what to do. Everyone gets a chance to speak and when we’ve finished we decide with Miss Dempsey and then our Chairs have to talk to Mrs Ruane.

Who are the School Councillors?

Every year we run an Election campaign to vote for two new representatives for each class. A good representative will speak at the Council meetings about things that their class is interested in. They will also tell their class about what is going on in the Council meetings and put the minutes up in the classroom.

The Minutes

The minutes are the notes that we take at the meetings; they record what was said and what will happen next. If your class representative was at the meeting their name will be listed. If they explained to Miss Dempsey that they couldn’t come their name will be in the apologies  section and if they just didn’t bother showing up, they will be marked as absent.

Glossary

We try to be very professional in the Council so we use a lot of business words. Hopefully this will help.

Agenda – a list of things to talk about

Councillor– someone who has been voted for to work for their class mates on the school Council

Minutes– the notes taken during a meeting so people can see what goes on

Motion– an idea for the Council to discuss

What School Council Representatives Have To Do

The things you’ll be expected to do are …

  • speak on behalf of the rest of your class
  • make important decisions about all sorts of things
  • attend regular meetings and give up your own time to do project work
  • take everyone’s comments seriously
  • make sure the minutes are displayed in your class
  • report back to your class all of the decisions that the Council makes

The Perfect School Council Representative

The kind of person you need to be is …

  • approachable; that is someone that other people feel comfortable talking to
  • cheerful and enthusiastic
  • someone who gets along well with people
  • has good concentration
  • responsible
  • helpful
  • a good listener (look at the person who’s talking)
  • someone who can explain something well
  • fair
  • someone who respects other people’s ideas ~ be open minded
  • kind
  • confident ~ don’t be shy
  • doesn’t think about themselves and what they want ~ you’re there to speak for everyone
  • patient
  • reliable
  • creative
  • understanding