School Council

At New York Primary School, pupils have a voice. The views of all our children are important and our annual, democratically elected School Council gives them the opportunity to have their voices heard and make a positive impact on the learning and experiences at our school.  

The process begins with councillor nominations where pupils are proposed by their peers or self nominate. Each year on Election Day those prospective councillors prepare and deliver a short speech to their class peers, outlining their aims and why they would make an excellent school council member. Each New Yorker exercises their democratic choice by completing a voting slip to select their school councillor. 

Our school council meets regularly throughout each term to discuss ideas and suggestions that have been brought to councillors or members of staff by other pupils in school. The council welcomes visitors into school. Gillian Bell (Senior Education Member of Parliament), worked with us discussing British values and democracy. The School Council discussed specific school events, whole school rewards, healthy eating and playground rules. We agreed a new PROUD word (Sportsmanship) and celebrated this in assembly during The World Cup.

Each School Council meeting is minuted and school councillors report back to their peers in class to raise whole school awareness of the discussions and take feedback and suggestions.