At St Mary's C of E Primary  School we believe that every pupil’s voice is important and should be involved. We launched our own St Mary's C of E Primary School Smart School Council in 2024 to help us achieve this in a simple, practical way.

There are three core parts to our Smart School Council : A Communication Team, Class Meetings and Action Teams.

1. Communication Team

The Communications team is made up of a class representative from each class across the school. This small group of pupils help to run the Smart School Council and get everyone involved. They are elected every year and each pupil has a specific role which helps the Communication Team to run.

2. Class Meetings

Class Meetings are pupil-led meetings held in every class. They will run every couple of week's and should take about 5-10 minutes to run. The Communications Team will lead these in their classrooms with their class and use the Class Meeting Tool to run these. The class teacher role is to support the children will lead the meetings. The class meeting tool runs via the computer and guides pupils through the process of running the meeting. Each meeting will be based around a single question that small groups in each class discuss and pupils turn and talk  and debate and agree on an answer. Votes and ideas are entered into the tool for the Communication Team to check and discuss with  Mrs Guise (our Smart Council Lead) and Mrs Benson.

Class meetings will be used to discuss school improvements such as the catering, playground equipment, book choices for library, rewards, trips  and our anti bullying policy.

3. Action Teams

Action Teams are small groups of pupils who will help lead school improvement.

Our Action Teams are based around Charity & Fundraising, Rights Respected Schools, Eco Warriors, Sports Champions and the Arts.

Our Action Teams will open up opportunities to other pupils across the school that care enough to make a difference to our community and school. 

Action Teams will be just one part of our pupil leadership here at St Mary's.

There are some key features of the St Mary's Action Team:

1. Any pupil can be part of an Action Team

2. Action Teams are pupil-led but supported by a member of staff 

3. Action Teams are led by Action Team Leaders

4. Action Teams may feed into whole school improvement.

5. Actions and attendance at Action Teams should be recorded to analyse involvement

Our Action Teams students will have to complete an Action Team form with Mrs Guise. They need to name their Action Team and plan what they are going to do. Mrs Guise will give support to the Action Team when they need it and the children can go to her if they need a particular question answered, or need some information. The Action Team may also need a budget so they need to plan and have an idea of any money that they think they might need to get the Action Team up and running. 

By being a member of our Smart School Council our children will develop their social skills and have the opportunity to be part of a team that makes a difference. The children will have more involvement in school life and will play a role in the development of a positive school community.

Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) says that children and young people should have a say in decisions that affect their lives.  Smart School Council also provides a meaningful way in which all of our pupils can voice their opinions and have their views taken into account in decisions which impact upon them. It allows pupils be involved with a democratic community, teaches them about British Values and also brings life skills to the forefront of their school lives

Smart School Council is an important and useful way for our schools to provide leadership and development opportunities for all of our pupils.  It is an excellent way in which to increase participation, teaching our pupils about democracy, local and global citizenship and accountability.

Pupil Voice