School Council
Our School Council is child-led. Each year, membership of the council is carried out through a voting system, and two children are voted for from each class (this links to the British value of democracy). Mrs Johnstone facilitates the meetings, which are carried out once every half term.
(We also have an Equality And Rights Advocates group led by Mrs Lennon; please see our ‘Equality’ page for information about this group.)
School Council 2023-2024
Our School Council met this month. Further information coming soon.
School Council 2022-2023
Here are the actions that we have achieved this academic year:
- Worked with Southern Water on the SUDS project, helping to install and plant lots of planters around the school grounds to help reduce water waste and flooding
- Ran a survey to rename our school garden, which is now called The Wild Garden
- Ran a competition to design a sign for The Wild Garden
- Suggested that our food waste from the school kitchen is used to create compost for our school garden, using the newly acquired tumbling composter – this system is now in place
- Gave feedback on their classroom learning environments – the learning walls are very helpful but some of the writing is too small to read and there is sometimes too much information on there
- Discussed the use of the Quiet Area (now called the Cosy Cabin) and how some children run around in there (since this discussion, the EARA group, who created the Cosy Cabin, set up a supervision rota)
- Gave feedback on the height of the toilet doors in the Y5/6 toilets – taller doors need to be installed
Archived
Eco-School Committee 2021-2022
Our first Eco-School Committee has now been formed. Each class voted for two representatives to take their views about the environment of the school to meetings.
Koalas: Samuel and Helena
Polar Bears: Allina and Flo
Lemurs: Frazer and Poppy
Chimpanzees: Camilla and Toby
Orangutans: William and Clarita (Joint chair)
The first task for the committee was to carry out an environmental audit of the school. Here the classes discussed how good the school was across 10 different areas: biodiversity, energy, global citizenship, healthy living, litter, marine conservation, school grounds, transport, waste and water. At our next meeting we will decide which areas need to be improved based on these results and we will set up an action plan to address these issues. At this point the whole of the school community will be invited to take part so look out for updates on what is happening.
With the support of a grant from Wightlink, our School Council helped to create wild flower meadows around the school grounds, installed a tumbling composter, planted trees for the Queen’s Green Canopy in partnership with the Woodland Trust (https://www.wightlink.co.uk/community/fund/primary-schools/brighstone-primary):
- Created wildflower meadows by making bee bombs to deploy across grassed edges of the main school playground
- Planted a native woodland copse with 30 trees supplied by the Woodland Trust at the end of our playing field
- Created a chalk downland wildflower mini habitat which will replicate the flowers found on Brighstone Down
- Created a contrasting heathland flower habitat which will replicate the heathland habitat found on the downs
- Renovated our redundant vegetable garden to provide diversity through growing fruits and vegetables which can be eaten by both children and wildlife
- Provided a bird feeding and watering station in the corner of our playing field to give the children an opportunity to investigate local bird life.
Eco-Schools Action Plan presentation
Y6 Pupil Leadership Team
Our Y6 pupils had the opportunity to apply for leadership roles. To ensure accessibility, they could apply via letter, email, PPT, or in person. Some roles were also opened out to the Y5 children. After considering the applications, we are pleased to announce the following leadership roles:
| Y5/6 Leadership Roles | |||
| Head Pupils | Arya and Charlie | Buddies | Caspar, Tom, Anna, Poppy L, Christopher, Lucy W |
| Sports Captains | Max C, Jude, Lucy B, Max B | Librarians | Lucy B, Jared and Lucy W |
| Hive Captains | Fraser, Toby W, Nico, Leigh | ||