Holywell School Council

Our School Council helps all pupils at Holywell to become more involved in the life of the school. Representatives from each year group starting from Year 1 are democratically voted in by their classmates, and each member serves half a year on the Council (There are 2 representatives each half year from classes in Years 1 and 2 to support each other). It is the responsibility of each member to ensure that they express both their views and those of all the other pupils they represent. They are each issued a badge and a notebook. The School Council allows the pupils to develop skills such as confidence, communication and negotiation.

Our 2024-25 Successes

• School Lunch Survey – School councillors looked at meal options and then asked classmates to vote on the most popular school dinner options they would prefer us to provide at Holywell. This was fed back to Chef Sarah and used to make some positive changes to parts of the dinner menu in the summer term onwards.
• Collaborative UNICEF RRSA work with Rendell Primary School– Mrs Jukowski, Rendell Deputy Headteacher, brought six of their Y5&6 MPs to look at the work we have done to achieve the UNICEF Gold Rights Respecting School award. Eight of our KS2 school councillors took them on a tour around Holywell and discussed what they could do at Rendell to move from the Bronze to Silver award.
• Children in Need - ‘Design a Pudsey or Blush Outfit’- £99.67 raised.
• Where’s It Bin? Supporting local children’s hospice Rainbows – The School Council met Fundraising Manager Gary Farnfield from Rainbows and presented a collection drive assembly with him. We collected 160 bags, which equated to approximately £1,600 in sales for Rainbows Charity shops
• Pupil Voice and Action – Following feedback from pupils, ‘Class Time’ appears to be proving popular and workable. Pupils discussed various additional fund-raising schemes to consider next year.
• Comic Relief Day - The School Council raised £429.71 with their ‘Do Something Funny for Money’ event.

Our 2023-24 Successes

• PE Club Survey – School councillors asked classmates to suggest sports clubs they would like us to provide at Holywell.
• Leicestershire School Travel Survey – To promote greener and healthier travel to school.
• School Governor Visit to a Council Meeting– Mrs Chahal, chair of the teaching and learning committee, met our school council to discuss their work and answer questions about the work of governors.
• Children in Need - ‘Design a Pudsey or Blush Outfit’- £143.04 raised.
• Where’s It Bin? Supporting local children’s hospice Rainbows – The School Council met Fundraising Manager Gary Farnfield from Rainbows and presented a collection drive assembly with him. We collected 138 bags which equated to approximately £1,400 in sales for Rainbows Charity shops
• Pupil Voice and Action – Following feedback from pupils, ‘Golden Time’ will be changed to a more flexible ‘Class Time’ in the next academic year.
• Red Nose Day - The School Council raised - £335.48 with their ‘Do Something Funny for Money’ event.
• UNICEF Rights Respecting Schools ‘Gold’ Award – The UNICEF examiner asked several staff, governors and pupils, including our school council, all about how we learn about ‘The Rights of the Child’ and how we live that as pupils and staff at Holywell. We were awarded ‘Gold’ again!

Our 2022-23 Successes

• Children in Need - ‘Design a Pudsey or Blush Outfit’- £158.04 raised.
• Where’s It Bin? Supporting local children’s hospice Rainbows – The School Council met Fundraising Manager Gary Farnfield from Rainbows and presented a collection drive assembly with him. We collected 150 bags, which equated to approximately £1,500 in sales for Rainbows Charity shops
• Pupil Voice and Action – Following feedback from pupils, Mr Lewis was asked to service and reinstate the water fountains that had become out of use during the Covid pandemic.
• Red Nose Day - School Council raised - £338.85 with their RND Joke Competition
• Assemblies and Newsletter articles - Playtime Quiet Area reinforced to support Children’s Wellbeing. A letter from MP Jane Hunt to Y3 pupils regarding fossil fuels was celebrated.
• School Dinner Survey- School councillors conducted a survey in their classes, which will inform how we change provision for the better in the future

(Pre-order system introduced September 2023)

• Tesco Design an Easter Egg Competition- Working with our charity partners to brighten their store windows, we had three age-group winners, including the overall winner for the whole competition!

Our 2021-22 Successes

• Children in Need - ‘Design a Pudsey or Blush Superhero Outfit’- £152.38 raised.
• Red Nose Day -  School Council raised - £843.95 in our ‘Be Funny for Money' campaign
• Assemblies and Newsletter articles on - Pupil Wellbeing. Science Week and how charity partners Tesco kindly donated tonnes of biscuits and spaghetti for our whole school science week experiments this year.
• How are we all doing? Pupil wellbeing questions for the school council and the Pupil Survey.

Our 2020-21 Successes

This was the year that we had the second COVID-19 partial Lockdown and lots of Home Learning, but we still managed to do a great job supporting our school and charities:

• Children in Need - ‘Design a Pudsey or Blush Outfit’- £192 raised.
• Bernardo’s Cottage Fundraising - School Council raised (and counted)  £440 !!!
• Red Nose Day - ‘Draw a Funny Face for Mr Petrie or Mr Stephenson’ School Council raised - £163
• Assemblies and Newsletter articles on Eat Them to Defeat Them – Fruit and Veg drive.
• How are we all doing? Pupil wellbeing questions for the school council and Pupil Survey.

Our 2019-20 Successes

This was the year that we had the first COVID-19 lockdown (from March 2020):

• Pupil Voice and Action – Following feedback from pupils, our pupil Ambassador wrote a letter on behalf of the School Council to Rose, Head of the School Kitchen, to ask for vinegar to have on chips on Fridays.
• Children in Need Playground Cake Sale – Donations of cakes from Aldi, Morrisons, and Sainsbury’s - £284.10 raised.
• Where’s It Bin? Supporting local children’s hospice Rainbows – The School Council met Fundraising Manager Gary Farnfield from Rainbows and presented a collection drive assembly with him. We topped the leaderboard AGAIN this year with 234 bags collected!
• Assemblies and Newsletter articles on Road Safety when walking, cycling or scootering to school; Balanced Packed Lunches – Healthy Lunchboxes.

Our 2018-19 Successes

This was Holywell’s Golden Anniversary (Celebrating 50 years):

• Introduction of pen recycling across the school in partnership with eco reps. (BIC/Terracycle)
• Additional/replacement playtime and lunchtime play equipment
• Voting across the school to buy Holywell Golden Gifts raised by Golden Celebrations:

        Outdoor Storytelling Chair and Stools

        New Library Comfy Seating

        Outdoor Stage Backdrops for both KS playgrounds

• Children in Need / UNICEF Cake Sale - £192 raised.
• School Council wrote questions for and interviewed the prospective Headteacher!
• Where’s It Bin? Supporting local children’s hospice Rainbows – We topped the leader board AGAIN this year with 236 bags collected!
• Red Nose Day ‘Taking the Biscuit!’ School Council decorated biscuits and sold them with squash at playtime - £105.66 raised.
• Lunchbox Survey with support from Leicestershire Nutrition and Dietetic Service (NHS).
• Assemblies on how to pack a healthier Lunchbox using pupil power.

_____ is opaque and does not allow light through.

Our 2017-18 Successes

We worked hard on several projects. Here are some of the highlights:

• Design a new School Council Logo Competition
• Children in Need Cake Sale & Colouring Competition - £144.87 raised.
• Red Nose Day ‘Wear Red’ - £512.83 raised.
• Where’s It Bin? Supporting local children’s hospice Rainbows – We topped the leaderboard again this year with over 200 bags collected!
• Pupil Voice and Action – Break and dinnertime play equipment needed replacing, so every pupil in the school voted in their classes, and we purchased the most popular choices for each key stage.
• School Dinner Food Tasting Afternoon – Pupils gave the ‘School Food Support Team’ feedback on current school meals and also sampled and commented on some new dishes, to develop future school meals provision.
• Achieved the UNICEF RRSA Gold Level Award – The highest award possible!