“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” - Benjamin Franklin

At St Peter’s Catholic Primary School, children are at the heart of our school community.

As a school, we value the thoughts, ideas and opinions of all our children and the Student Council is one way of ensuring that the voice of the children is heard and has an impact on the development and daily life of the school.

Each year, children are invited to represent their class and year group on the school council.  They may put their name forward and make a presentation encouraging others to vote for them. Elections are then held within each year group.

Our councillors help to keep our school:

• a safe and happy place for children
• a place where children can voice their concerns
• a place where we encourage all children in the school to suggest improvements
• a place where suggestions or concerns are listened to and acted upon.

The student council is organised weekly and children from Years 1 to 6 are represented. Each weekly meeting focuses on a specific area providing a greater opportunity for pupils to have their voices heard and to act on decisions.

Weekly meetings are centred around key areas such as:

• Our School - where we aim to promote pupil voice and help to develop and realise ideas such as whole school celebration days and changes to make playtimes and lunchtimes more enjoyable for all.
• Our Community - where we aim to make links with those in our parish and local community. We have planned and participated in the prayer life of our parish by making decisions about how to share worship during 24 Hours with the Lord. We have also visited and video-called residents of our local nursing home, Westacre.
• Our Country - where we consider national events and help to drive support and understanding for them in our school.
• Our World - where we consider others’ positions around the world and support those in countries more vulnerable than our own. Often, we do this through charitable outreach with charities such as ‘Smile Train’. We also maintain diocesan links through prayer and support with our sister school in St Jude’s, Bamenda.
• Our Environment - where we support helping to make a difference for our environment at school and in our community. This has involved an ongoing recycling programme of things such as pens and crisp packets which has been encouraged and supported by the university of Winchester sustainability programme.
• Our Responsibilities - where we support everyone in our school by taking responsibility for our shared areas and entire school community. These roles are mainly given to Year 6 children where they lead in setting examples for other children throughout the school. This involves: monitoring our school library by organising and recommending books; being sports leaders for younger children at playtimes and looking after our sports equipment; looking after our younger children by being a special playtime friend and assisting adults in the set-up of singing and assemblies.

Student councillors collect the thoughts and ideas of the children in their year group then bring them to the appropriate council meetings where decisions on how to progress further are made and then action is carried out.

We are the St Peter’s School Student Council.  Our mission is to ‘Put Christ at the Centre’. This is easy to do because we have found so many ways to live out our beliefs.

Every year we have a newly elected Student Council who meet weekly.  They bring not only their ideas, but also their enthusiasm. We are willing, ready and able to meet challenges and engage in campaigns that captivate us. 

This year we have been participating in:

• Monthly visits and relationship development with the residents of Westacre care home
• Plastic-free Winchester conference
• Recycling of crisp packets for the school and community
• Recycling of plastic pens
• The Shoebox Appeal
• Harvest Mass Food Bank and Night Shelter collections
• Christmas Festival – our day full of fun at the end of the Autumn Term
• Fundraising for the Piam Brown Ward at Southampton University Hospital
• Development of a new Environment Plan for our school
• Links with the Sustainability Programme at the University of Winchester
• Support of Emmaus, our chosen Lenten charity

Our Student Council is “fun and exciting” explains Thomas G, and “always busy, full of new things to do” - Lily T.  Iosu has said that he particularly enjoys visiting his new friends at Westacre care home.

As we respond each year to the Students’ Voices, our activities differ from year to year but always express our desire and belief to put Christ at the Centre of all we do and who we are as a school.