Pupil Voice~ School Council

Our Pupil Voice Team.

Each year group has two Pupil Voice representatives. Any child can choose to stand as a representative if they want to. You will need to write a speech and share with your friends why you think you should represent the class. The rest of the class will then vote on who they think will do the best job. Our reps stay in post for 6 months on a rolling programme.

As from April 2017 our reps will be 

Year 1: 1R Olivia, Presley and Thomas      1F Lydia and Beau      1N Lottie, Maya and Samuel   

Year 2: 2S Alfie and Beth                            2J  Mia, Elliot and Cruz     

Year 3: Darcy, Lincoln and Milly

Year 4: Archie, Elena and Jacob

Year 5: Luke, Callum and Ben

Year 6: Yaseen and Harvey

At regular meetings the team discuss various agenda items including these items:-

These decisions need to be made: -

Sept - Setting our aims for the year ahead. What is our school vision and how can we as school council support this?

           Meet with Chef James to discuss the  Pupil Choice menu.  Which charity shall we support?

Oct - Learning Walls- are they helping us? Review the Behaviour Policy. Review Homelearning policy

Nov - Review of lunchtimes

Dec - Presentation Award  Review the school report format- is this useful? Does it support children and parents?

Jan- Being Food critics and deciding on children's choice menu.

Feb -Reviewing the Achievement Team Meeting structure

March -presentation Award

April- Being Food critics and deciding on children's choice menu.

May- Deciding on key events and opportunities for the forthcoming year

June- Deciding on key events and opportunities for the forthcoming year

July- Presentation award

Our Pupil Voice reps also evaluate our Collective Worship on a monthly basis .

Our Pupil Voice in class

Each class has Achievement Team meetings. Anyone can suggest an issue and the whole class will suggest ways to solve the issue. Together the class will choose the ways that they would like to try and solve the problem. During the week, the Achievement Team plan is referred to and at the end of the week it is reflected on and tweaked if necessary. After 3 weeks we finally review our plan and celebrate what we have achieved together.

Our Achievement Team plans can be found displayed in our classrooms.

Presentation Awards:

Spring 2017: Our representatives awarded the presentation award to Lucas in year 3 and Bella in year 2. Well done to you both!

Autumn 2017: School Council awarded prizes to Millie in KS1 and  Finlay and Poppie in KS2  for the most improved presentation during this term.

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The Dog Trust Fundraising Week

We have just finished counting the money the children have raised for their chosen charity the Dog Trust. St Matthew's raised a huge £652! Incredible! Thank you to everyone who donated cakes and biscuits to the tuck shop and those who bought sweet treats throughout the week; for wearing mufti and donating; for entering the guess the name of the cuddly dog competition and for paying to enter the drawing competition! You are a very generous lot and the dogs will be very grateful the money you have all raised. A special thank you to all of the children, parents and staff who helped to make the fundraising week such a huge success. Hopefully we will be able to welcome a representative from the Dog Trust to accept our donation!

The winner of the drawing competition was Frayer in year 2 and the winner of the Guess the name of the cuddly dog was Martha who correctly guessed that his name was Dave. Well done girls.

Thank you again. We will choose another charity to support during the next academic year during the Autumn term so watch this space.

Our visit to Marjon to interview student teachers

This week Mrs Potter took our year 4,5 and 6 school councillors (Yaseen, Harvey, Ben, Callum, Elena, Jacob) to Marjon to interview some student teachers who will be applying for teaching jobs shortly. Our councillors designed their own questions and bravely asked them to 40 or so students. The children were amazing and represented our school superbly. The student teachers were amazed by their maturity, ideas and fabulous questions. Well done children you were awesome!

Reviewing and reflecting on the CaterEd menu

This week the school council team mat with Chef James after sharing their ideas and opinions about the present CaterEd menu. We spent time discussing our favourite and least favourite parts of the menu and suggested ways in which it could be improved in the future. Our opinions will be taken by James to the next CaterEd meeting when he will share them and these ideas will hopefully shape the winter term menu.

Our favourite meals at St Matthew's which we suggest stay on the menu are:

1. Ed's all day breakfast

2. Roast dinner

3. Cheese burgers

4. Cheesy wheels

5. Bubble battered fish and chips

Our least favourite meals at St Matthew's which we suggest are removed from the menu are:

1. Chicken fajitas

2. BBQ chicken and rice

3. Quorn chilli

Our suggestions for new meals to be included on the menu are:  

1. Chicken nuggets

2. Hot dogs

3. Macaroni cheese

Autumn Term Presentation Award 2017

This week the school council met to discuss and decide which learners from key stage 1 and 2 deserved to win the Autumn Term 2017 Presentation Award. Oh my goodness, what a challenge it was! We had asked the teachers to select a small selection of learner's books which we then scrutinized together. After much deliberation we have chosen 2 winners from Key stage 2 (as we couldn't decide) and a single winner from Key stage 1. We will announce the winners during the celebration assembly on Friday 15th December so watch this space! 

Autumn term Presentation Award winners

St Matthew's school council are pleased to announce that the winners of the Autumn term presentation award 2017 are:

Key Stage 1: Millie in 2J

Key Stage 2: Finlay in year 6 and Poppie in year 5

Well done to all of this term's winners your beautifully neat handwriting and exemplary presentation is fantastic. Please keep up your brilliant effort, you should be very proud of your achievements!

In March, the school council will meet again to look at the nominations for the Spring term award. Remember that every lesson and every piece of work counts so do your best to present your learning as beautifully as you can!

Here's what you said

During our school council meetings we have been discussing and feeding back points which the children in our classes have shared. We have discussed a number of topics and here are some of the comments people have made:

We asked, "Do you feel safe in school?"

You said...

"I always feel safe in school. I know I could speak to any adult if I didn't!" Louie Yr2

"I feel safe in school. This is a safe space." Amy Yr 3

"The fire alarm can make me feel nervous, but I know we practise to keep me safe!" Kaitlin Yr4   

We asked, "Is there an adult you could go to in school if you had a problem?"

Everyone said...

"Yes!"

We asked, "What is bullying?"

You said...

"Bullying is someone being mean Several Times On Purpose". Callum Yr5

"Bullying isn't an accident. It's someone being unkind over and over!" Yr 2

"If you're being bullied say NO, then tell and adult." Yr 1F

"Bullying can mean unkind words and physical hurting, Several Times On Purpose." Maddie B Yr4

We asked, "Is there bullying in our school and if so is it dealt with?"

You said...

"There is bullying at our school but if you tell an adult they will stop it!" Yaseen Yr 6

"Telling a grown up helps to sort out bullying. Then they'll get people to say sorry - it would stop!" Yr 2J

We asked, "How do you keep yourself safe online?"

You said...

 "Be careful of opening emails as they might contain viruses!" Maddison and Archie

" Report incidents and things you're not happy about to an adult and if someone says something mean online don't be drawn into it."

Jamie Year 4

"Don't ever share your personal information!" Violet

" If you see something that makes you feel uncomfortable while online in school click on the dolphin!" Yvie

" Be careful of PEGI ratings, they're there for a reason!"

We asked, "How do you keep yourself safe in school?"

You said...

"Challenge adults you don't know - ask who they are!"

"Remember not to run inside, you could hurt yourself - or someone else!" Isabelle

"Never open the front door - only adults should do that!" Madison T

"Never go with someone you're not expecting to pick you up!"

We asked, "What are the British values?"

You said...

"Respect - you must treat others how you wish to be treated." Yvie T

"In Britain we treat everyone equally, it doesn't matter about the colour of people's skin!" Reece 

"We should respect teachers, police officers, fire fighters in fact everyone around us!" Maisie 

"Everyone we know is special and should be treated this way!" Alex

"We know that in Britain we follow rules - I would like to know more about the rule of law!" Emerson

We asked, "How the British Values promoted?"

You said...

"We have a display in class and talk about the values, but I would like to know more - maybe Yvie's dad who's a police officer could visit?"

"We allow and welcome people into our school regardless of their skin colour or religion!" Year 3

"Maybe we could think about the values by using role-play - this would be a fun way to find out about them!" Finn

We asked, " How are you encouraged to live a healthy lifestyle?"

You said...

"We do lots of exercise in the playground and we do clubs and PE!" Archie

"We have healthy school dinners, but we are allowed a treat!"

"We have learnt about healthy lifestyles in class." Maisie
 

We asked, "How do the adults promote healthy lifestyle choices?"

You said...

"We are encouraged to bring healthy snacks to eat at break times!" William and Dax

"At lunch times you aren't allowed to have more than one pudding, unless you want another piece of fruit!" James

"The adults eat healthily which encourages us to eat healthily!" Evie

"We are allowed to drink our water whenever we want, this helps us to stay hydrated!" Year 3

"Mr Proctor talks about running and playing sports in class." Year 3

"We can share with the class when we have played sport outside of school and if we've won medals or trophies." James

We asked, "What do you love about your school?"

"I love our classroom!" Ollie G 1N

"I love all of the teachers, they teach us lots!" 1N

"We love the big space we have to play in." 2S

"We love the trim trail." 2S

"There are lots of great clubs!" 2S

"All of the teachers are really nice!" 3P

"We do lots of fun learning!" 3P

"We have lots of resources to help us with our learning!" 3P

"I like the Christian values we learn about and that everyone follows them!" Clayton 4P

"Wearing mufti on your birthday is really good!" William 4P

"Learning new things is great!" 5A

"We've got loads of friends - no bullies!" 5A

"Half days on Fridays is brilliant!" 5A

We asked, "How can we improve our school?"

"I think we should add more colour to the walls inside and out!" 1N

"I would like even more time for reading!" 1N

"It would be better if there was better more controlled playing in the playground." 1N

"We would like to learn more science" 2S

"A longer break on Friday would be good!" 2S

"We think that sometimes children could be nicer to each other!" 3P

"More free time would be good." 3P

"We want more trips and chances do more creative projects!" Dax 4P

"Having school pets would be lovely!" Taylor 4P

"Can we have a forest school?" William 4P

"Bringing back play leaders would make a difference in the playground!" 5A

"More library books would be an improvement!" 5A

"An outdoor classroom and spiritual garden would be good!" 5A

We asked, "Are learning walls effective in the classroom?"

You said...

"Yes they have lots of resources to help us with our learning".

"The stem sentences are really helpful in maths and the impressive vocabulary  helps in English".

"The learning walls give examples of our learning journeys which are helpful".

We asked, "How can they be improved?"

You said...

"It would be good to have more sentence starters to help with English".

"More maths challenges would be good!"

We asked, " Do you find class ATM's useful?"

You said...

"Yes, they are helpful to identify and think about problems and how we can work on them".

"We can use them as a reminder about things we've talked about".

We asked, "Do class ATM's help us to make improvements?"

You said...

"They are helpful for a short time although we don't always go back to them".

"They are helpful but we need more of them maybe to discuss behaviour in the playground".

Making a difference: our chosen charity for this year 2017-18

Following our whole school vote regarding which charity to support the school council are pleased to announce that the children of St Matthew's have chosen to raise valuable funds for the Dog Trust. The dog Trust is a well respected charity which has helped treat and rehome dogs who have been mistreated and abused for over 100 hundred years. We are very excited to start raising money to help our canine friends in need!  https://www.dogstrust.org.uk 

Anti-bullying Week: awareness poster competition

This year we have celebrated the anti-bullying message and campaign by holding an anti-bullying poster competition. We received hundreds of amazing posters. They were fabulously informative and demonstrated a super understanding of what bullying is, the anti-bullying message  and the importance of stamping it out! Though the winners and runners-up have already been announced, the school council wanted to share the children’s wonderful achievements with you! Well done to all of the winners and runners-up!