School Council

A school council is a formal group of pupils who act as representatives of their classmates in discussing school issues with a member of senior leadership and staff. It’s a brilliant way of representing and contributing to pupil voice in school.

At Harthill Primary School, the Council are elected by pupil vote in a formal ballot each year. All candidates can nominate themselves to stand and must share their proposed policies in order to encourage people to vote for them. As this is a democracy, each child is given a ballot paper and votes anonymously on polling day. The 10 candidates with the highest votes form the council and the candidate with the most votes is elected as School Minister.

The current School Council and School Minister were elected on 4th July 2024.

School Council meet regularly to discuss pupil-led priorities for school development. This term, they have agreed their policies to be:

Spending the annual budget, raised from attendance winners in 2023-24.
Ensuring safe parking around school at pick up and drop off.
Raising the profile of pupil-led assemblies and creating an assembly floor book.
Ensuring playground equipment is looked after.
Developing the school pond area.

School Council provides a meaningful way in which pupils can voice their opinions and have their views taken into account in decisions that impact upon them. It’s an important and useful way for us to provide leadership, problem solving and development opportunities for our pupils. It is also a good way to teach

teaching young people about democracy, local and global citizenship and accountability.

School Council is supported by Mrs Littlewood and meets regularly with the local Parish Council and members of the Local Governing Body to learn more about how a council can have the most impact.

Last year, School Council were instrumental in:

Collecting parent and pupil voice
Buying new playground equipment
Developing the school library with the purchase of new books
Sharing and reinforcing school rules
Developing Eco- Warriors
Organising the School Election