Helping Others and Working Together to Make Changes

At Oaklands, the voice of the children is very important and so we have a School Council who help to inform us about many aspects of school life, and help us to make decisions about our school. Their work also enables them to have a say on matters in the wider community.

We have an active group of school council members, made up of representatives from  the Chestnut Pathway classes and they will have been voted on to the school council by their peers. 

The School Council meets once a fortnight in the Head Teacher’s office. They discuss a range of issues, such as the school environment, the school lunches and the types of activities they enjoy. The group are encouraged to seek the ideas and opinions of the peers in their classes and they have clear rules about how to participate in the discussions. The meetings enable pupils to make a significant contribution to improving the ongoing life of the school.

In our last meeting we were joined by our Chair of Governors Mr Malcolm Robbins, this was via zoom to ensure everyone's safety. In this meeting the children were able to show Malcolm the work they have already done and talk to him about future plans.

The future meeting will include working with the schools Eco group to work towards a Silver award with Food for Life. Others will include looking at our own school improvement plan;

• Quality of Learning and Teaching – Do they feel that the staff use Makaton enough?, do they feel challenged?, how can staff help them more?
• Creating the right environment for learning – Do they feel the classrooms are a good place for learning?, Do they enjoy having the Spinney area?
• Preparing pupils for life – Is the school doing enough to help prepare them?, what life skills would they like to learn?, would they like it if Oaklands had a secondary school as well as a primary school?

The information that is covered in each meeting is shared with their class and opportunities for their peers are given to see if they agree with topics that have been discussed.