Our School Council represents the views of all our Northern pupils. It gives children the opportunity to make their voices heard and feel part of the whole school community. Every class at Northern has a “Have Your Say” box which links to our UNICEF Rights Respecting School Award specifically to Article 12 which says that every child has the right to express their views freely and that their views should be taken into account when decisions are made. School Council members meet regularly to discuss issues that matter to the children and together with our Senior Leadership Team, devise ideas and strategies to make Northern the best that it can be.
Our Mission Statement
- We want to implement change to make our school even better.
- We hope to create a safe and healthy learning environment.
- We hope to give every pupil in our school a voice.
- We will give full attention and support towards any pupils who have concerns of any kind.
- We constantly set new targets for ourselves and work hard to achieve them.
- We ensure also that all children in school have their voice heard by holding regular class council meetings.
Our work so far this year
School Council meet on Wednesday afternoons. We have carried out a whole school Pupil Voice Survey and using this, we were able to identify areas that pupils at Northern wanted to improve and change.
School Council members have delivered an assembly about football slots as this was a popular request on the Pupil voice.
We have sent letters to local businesses asking them to donate prizes to our raffles throughout the year.
We have held class council meetings to find out what we can put in place to support those children who feel overwhelmed at playtimes.
The school council have also been involved in rolling out the Dojo Shop in their classes, that we are working towards playground monitors and that we are going to be working on road safety as this is an ongoing issue for school children at Northern.
Northern’s School Council
Know your rights!
Do you know any of your rights as a child? Have a look at the display by the infant playground door and see which ones are most relevant within school.
Showing our Rights Respecting Ethos
Now that we have been awarded the BRONZE status as a Rights Respecting School, staff and pupils are now working and striving towards gaining the next award….SILVER! To gain this award we must ensure that at the heart of everything we do at Northern we are aware of and are addressing the rights of the children as set out by the United Nations.
There are over 40 rights set out by the United Nations Convention, known as ARTICLES, which apply to all the children in the world, not just the UK. These Articles are believed, by the UN, to be the things that a child would need in his/her life in order to become a happy, healthy and well rounded member and contributor of society. To see a full list of the Articles, please click on the web link below.
At Northern, the majority of what we do naturally and automatically addresses some of the UN Articles, we just need to show awareness of how and when. For example, certain displays around school will now show the RRS logo, highlighting which Articles the work or display is linked to. Staff will link their planning to the Articles when relevant and the Governors and relevant staff will link plans for the school and school policies to the Articles. Certain assemblies and theme days (e.g. Christmas Jumper Day) will also relate to certain Articles, particularly those that reach beyond our own school community. You may have noticed posters up around school and in classrooms showing some of the Articles and hopefully teachers will be making their classes more aware of the Articles that are most relevant to them.
Working towards the silver award is something that will progress and develop over time as the Articles are something that our staff, pupils and whole school community will need to become more familiar with in order to ensure that we make the right progress – a challenge that Northern is more ready to take on!
Rights Respecting Schools Award
During the next few months, School Council will be helping Mrs Egan with a very important task. They are working hard with us and the rest of the school towards gaining an award from Unicef called the Rights Respecting Schools Award. This involves working with Unicef to look at children’s rights both here and around the world, and making sure that Northern is always focused on making sure our pupils rights are at the focus of everything that we do. We will also be striving to help support other children who might not be part of our school community, ensuring that their rights are respected and provided for too whenever we can through charity work such as Red Nose Day which will be on Friday 15th March and will support lots of charities.
For more information on RRSA, please click on the link below.
- Rights Respecting SchoolsHere is a link to Unicef’s website which provides more information about the RRSA for pupils and parents who are interested.
As of January 2018 we have officially earned the Bronze Rights Respecting Schools Award. As a school we are now continuing on our mission to strive towards gaining the Silver Award and further developing our understanding of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child and how we can ensure everything we do as members of the school can link back to ensuring that children everywhere are having their rights honored.