School Council
“Give young people a greater voice. They are the future and they are much wiser than we give them credit for.” — Desmond Tutu
At Sunnyfields, every child has a voice. As a Rights Respecting School, our school council provides a meaningful way in which the pupil opinions, ideas and viewpoints are heard and valued (Article 12 - UNCRC).
In addition, it gives our pupils the opportunity to develop leadership and become partners in their own education, thus helping to make positive contributions to the school environment and ethos.
A new school council is elected each year, by their peers and is made up of 2 representatives from Year 1 to Year 6.
This year's school council members are:
Year 1 – Hawa and Rafael
Year 2 – Yara and Arthur
Year 3 – Sophia and Aditya
Year 4 – Laila and Hamza
Year 5 – Hanaan and Luca
Year 6 – Fullah and Vedant
All our School Council members understand that they act as representatives of their classmates in discussing school issues with the school council teacher and Headteacher. They also help to make decisions about school life and organise projects that support learning and school development.
Over the years, the school council have successfully organised themed days, had a positive impact on school policies and hosted a whole range of exciting and worthwhile fundraisers.
The school council set up a 'School council Suggestion box' where suggestions for school improvements or ideas can be placed. These are then discussed, often at length, at the School Council meetings with the School council teacher representative.
Some of the suggestions implemented are:
- Special days like Halloween day, Earth day (where members of the school dressed as endangered animals) and ‘Just one tree day’
- Creation of the 'Sunny Room' - a calm room where pupils can reflect or work with an adult, uninterrupted and free of noise
- Suggestions for different types of after school clubs like sports clubs, art club, cooking club, gymnastic, street dance etc
- Increased awareness about road safety so that children feel safe to walk to school NOT take the car, and wrote a petition about road safety around the school and presented it to the Mayor of Barnet when they visited the town hall in November of 2022
- Made and are working towards keeping their pledges about climate change
- Spoke to the school cook about plant based foods which is why the school children enjoy Meat-free Mondays and Tasty Tuesdays.
The school council this year are very passionate about improving the school environment, raising awareness about the importance of planting more trees and helping one another to have a successful and happy school life.
With this in mind, the children will be focussing on these projects:
- Organising and running a ‘Just one tree day’ where children will be able to wear green to show their support for planting more trees
- Fundraising for important issues like orphanages
- Having a Halloween Day
- Leading school votes for a better junior playground
- Designing a school sign
And many more!
The School council look forward to reading more suggestions and ideas so as to work towards a common goal of becoming more responsible, and playing a positive role in their local and wider community.
