Bartholomew School Council
The School Council is a successful and influential force at Bartholomew School which allows elected students from all years to represent the concerns and views of their peers. The School Council identifies, discusses and develops issues that are important to students and aims to make a positive difference to learning within the school. The School Council is routinely consulted by staff on a wide variety of matters so that the ‘student voice’ can play a real and important role in key decisions for the school. The School Council recently achieved the national Eco-School Silver award, and also organised a conference between several local schools to raise awareness of the plight of people in Darfur.
The aims of the School Council:
- To provide a voice for students to express what is important to them within our school
- To develop a school-wide ethos where learning is the central focus for all major decisions in our school
- To be representatives of the school community, both internally and externally
- To work with staff (both teaching and non-teaching) to provide better and more targeted facilities where appropriate
- To fulfil the ‘School Development Plan’ aim of providing the best learning environment possible for all students
How the School Council is organised:
There is one whole School Council representing the views and voice of our students. It has an overview of the whole school and works with the Senior Leadership Team, the Site Manager, and teaching and non-teaching staff to get the best possible results out of everyone involved in our school. The School Council meets as a whole between four and six times each year, in addition to a two day residential conference at Hill End Camp near Farmoor at the start of each academic year. During this conference, the work of the previous year is reviewed and the students make action plans for the next, which they present to the Headteacher.
There are four major sub-committees which focus on developments in particular areas:
- Teaching and Learning
- Charities
- Ethos
- Environment
The purpose of the School Council is to build the best possible learning environment for all, through true partnership between students and staff. We are continually impressed with the commitment and enthusiasm shown by the students towards the School Council, and the superb ideas that they generate as a result. We are delighted that the outstanding work of the School Council has been officially recognised through our Leading Edge status (the ‘Thinking Voice’ project) and that this project has been able to support School Council developments further.