School Parliament

St Marychurch CofE Primary and Nursery School School Council has evolved into a School Parliament.

Here a group of pupils are elected by their peers to represent the views of all pupils and to improve their school. From this parliament a ‘cabinet’ will be elected. Some of these children hold titles such as Environment Minister, Recreation Minister, Reading Minister, Creative Arts Minister, Ethos Minister. The School Parliament meets, once every half-term, to discuss and sort out problems. These may include the school improvement plans, environmental issues linked to school, worships, school lunchtimes, behaviour, clubs etc.

Members of the School Parliament will be responsible for carrying out the ideas that have been agreed, for example: what to spend fund raising money on; improving lunchtime across the school or planning new playground activities.

Being a school parliamentarian is a really responsible job and as St Marychurch Primary School Parliament is evolving to be a very effective one, it does mean that every child learns a lot from taking part.

Our School

We want our school to be the kind of school that everyone enjoys coming to, where everyone knows and understands each other. We want it to be a cheerful place, where we look after everyone: minds are nurtured and lives are fulfilled.

We want it to be a safe place where children can be trusted to be sensible, because everyone follows the class and school Golden Rules and expectations and lives by our Trust and School Christian Values. We want everyone to be honest, have good manners and to treat people and possessions with respect.

We want to be proud of our work and try our best every day, so we do well with our learning and are the best that we can be. We will keep going when things are challenging and listen carefully to each other. We want to find out interesting and useful things about the world.

If everyone can do this, we will remember the great time we had at St Marychurch, with our friends, for the rest of our lives.

What is our School Parliament for?

The School Parliament is about the following:

• Working and learning together
• Learning about democracy
• Learning how to play a positive role model in our community
• Improving our school for everyone

The School Parliament’s job is to involve everyone, not do everything.

Everybody needs to help:

•  Finding things that they would like to change
•  Finding ways to make things better
•  Putting their ideas into actions

How does our Class Parliament work?

•  Each class will elect a School Parliament member
•  Our Class Parliament will have a meeting every month
•  The class decide what they are going to talk about the day before the meeting so that everybody has time to think – set an agenda
•  The main or vice representative will chair the meeting
•  The main or vice representative takes notes each time, with help from their teacher if it is needed
•  The School Parliament Member from each class will go to the School Parliament meeting each month to put across the classes view

What will the School Parliament do for our class?

When the Class Parliament share ideas with their class representative they will in turn, take it to the next School Parliament meeting to discuss and tell the class what is happening with that idea

The School Parliament will try to make your idea happen by getting the following:

•  Permission
•  Money
•  Support
•  Time

If they cannot make the idea happen there will be clear reasons why this cannot happen.

If they can make your idea happen they will need your help to make it happen.

What will staff do for the School Parliament?

•  Make sure meetings happen when they are supposed to
•  Support pupils to run meetings

Staff role in Class Parliament Meetings

• Ensure that there is time given for meetings
• Initially model chairing a meeting
• Support class discussions