School Council
Overview
At Edgbarrow School, all students know that they are valued as individuals and can make a positive contribution to the school, local area and wider community.
Our students’ voice is an important part of the school structure and we encourage students with many skills to be part of that voice. Students are involved for example as peer mentors, prefects, student observers, form representatives and charity representatives. Each group of voices elects students to represent them on our School Council led by our student leadership team. Our School Council is driven by the voices of the students and works on projects throughout the year suggested by the voices. They are instrumental in driving forward our involvement in the Eco-Schools project, supporting charity and providing student-led pastoral support. The School Council also play a part in staff appointments and are running projects to support learning in the classroom and improving the school environment.
The School Council has five action committees - Learning; Support & Guidance; Communications; Fundraising; and Eco-Team.
Learning
The Learning team comprises student observers and literacy ambassadors. They are working to keep the high standard of learning for all pupils throughout the school. The student observers are from Year 10 and they observe lessons and give feedback and suggestions from the student perspective. The literacy ambassadors are a newly formed group of pupils from across the school who are working on promoting literacy skills and are setting up a guided reading scheme for younger pupils.
Support & Guidance
The Support & Guidance team consists of the school prefects and peer mentors. The team is involved in:
- setting up a weekly club for those in Year 7 who are finding the transition difficult, which will be managed by the peer mentors. It will be held on Thursdays in the Art department where there will be activities and games.
- some of the students from this team have been invited to Brakenhale School to discuss the issues affecting young people today.
- prefects are doing well in their roles and are leading by example.
Communications
The Communications team is created from the form reps. The aim of the team is to advertise and promote the work of the School Council committees to the school and Edgbarrow community and keep them informed of events and projects. This includes holding drop-in centres to give and collect feedback and liaising with the E-Learning department with updates for the website.
Fundraising
The aim of the student charity team is to look at ways of giving back to the local and international communities. This group has representatives from all year groups. Our fundraising events have included a cake sale in the autumn term which raised almost £500 which has been donated to helping The Butterfly Tree charity. Our next fundraising event is a school-wide Talent Show to showcase the performance skills of Edgbarrow students.
The Butterfly Tree is the whole school charity and we hope to continue supporting them. For further information see below:
The Butterfly Tree Charity
A message from Emma Kennedy:
As an ex-Head Girl of Edgbarrow School, it was lovely to have the support of both the students and staff of Edgbarrow for this fundraising event. I have been volunteering for The Butterfly Tree both in Zambia and the UK for almost a year now and have recently been given the title of Project Manager for The Butterfly Tree. The money Edgbarrow kindly raised will go towards improving education facilities and resources for the orphans of the Mukuni Chiefdom.The Butterfly Tree is a UK charity and NGO in Zambia, which supports orphans and rural communities decimated by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The charity runs many successful projects in the Southern Province of Zambia, such as providing housing, improving education and health facilities, malaria prevention, HIV/AIDS awareness, feeding programmes and safe drinking water.
For more information about the work of the charity, or to donate, please visit their website at www.thebutterflytree.org.uk or email emma@thebutterflytree.org.uk.
School Representatives
School representatives are students elected by their peers to act as a link between them and the school management and other school committees.
Why join Student Council?
- Great on your CV, college applications
- A good way of meeting other students
- Opportunity to change school life
- Get your voice heard
For further information about Student Council please email Mrs King
