Section

  • The School Council

    At Ysgol Friars, our School Council is a group of students who are democratically elected to represent the views of all pupils and enable the pupils to become partners in their own education, making a positive contribution to the school environment and ethos. 

    School, year and class councils enable pupils to have a voice and to understand that their opinions count.

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  • Our School Council meets – usually with a link teacher – to discuss and sort out problems.  Each member will be responsible for various agreed tasks e.g. updating school council noticeboards, meeting with canteen staff, contributing to sub-committees etc.  Year Council meetings are held roughly twice every half-term.  Class meetings are held during registration periods.  Meetings of the full School Council are held during lesson time.  However, it is usually arranged so that you don’t miss the same lesson each time, and teachers will expect pupils to catch up.

    • Each year, every class normally elects 2 form representatives to become members of the Year Council.  Each form representative in the Year Council will then elect 2 representatives (one boy and one girl) to become members of the School Council.

      • For our School Council to be effective it needs to represent the views of all the pupils and get things done.  How can it do this?:

        • Regular meetings twice a term;
        • A council that isn’t too big;
        • Regular class/Year Council meetings;
        • Good communication between representatives and their class;
        • Training for School Council members (all class representatives);
        • Smaller groups (sub-committees) working on specific issues;
        • Annual evaluations.

        • Our School Council has a good track record of success over the years:

          • Increased safety for pupils along Penrhos Road by campaigning for a crossing point;
          • Installed bike racks to encourage students to cycle to school;
          • Led training days for other School Councils in Gwynedd;
          • Led a ‘mobile phone safety’ campaign;
          • Supported various fundraising and citizenship campaigns e.g. eco-school;
            • Pupils said they were unhappy about the amount of litter being left by pupils on the school field and have talked about have an ‘Anti-Litter Team’ of volunteers tidying up the school site.

            The School Council arranged for Keep Wales Tidy to organise a litter survey of the site and created an ‘Anti-Litter Team’, led by Mr Walters, to help raise awareness about the impact leaving litter on the field has and also lead litter-sweeps.  One was completed just before Christmas.

            • Pupils said they wanted to update the school rewards system.

            The School Council have looked at the credits and rewards and should be ready to launch the scheme after Easter with a School Rewards shop, run by Mr Wilson.

            • Pupils said they wanted a non-uniform day to raise funds for the School Council to spend on pupil issues.

            The School Council approached the School’s Management Team who said said this can be arranged for 2015-16 as all the monies from the school’s non-uniform days have now been allocated.

            • Pupils said they were unhappy about the state of the toilets.  They felt that taking the mirrors out of the toilets would mean fewer pupils would go there to ‘hang out’ and cause damage there.

            The School Council set up a ‘Toilet Team’ within the school council to specifically look at improving matters.  We’d like you to make sure you report anyone who you see damaging the toilets to the detriment of others, and use the toilets responsibly.  You suggested we should remove the mirrors to reduce possible vandalism - there have now been fewer incidents of vandalism.

            • Pupils said you would like more opportunities to meet Mr Foden to present him with the views of the School Council.

            The School Council needs arrange this with Mr Foden who is more than happy to meet with members of the School Council.

            • Pupils said you wanted more opportunities in the school to recycle.

            The School Council worked with the eco-committee to arrange green recycling bins for paper in each classroom.

            • Pupils had some good ideas about updating the school website.

            The School Council asked Mr Rooke, the IT Manager, to look at these.  There are already more surveys available and with all ICT courses following moodle, pupils should all get used to the new website.  There will be a new layout after Easter, making navigation of the website much easier.  To find out more about the school, pupils and their parents need to ‘follow’ @Friars_School on twitter

            • Pupils said they didn’t feel they heard enough about what the School Council was doing.
            • The School Council has made sure that the noticeboards all get updated, this new one specifically has been created and the Year Team Leaders will make announcements in assemblies.  However, we also need pupils to contribute to form meetings and for form representatives to attend year meetings and represent their class.