School Council
School Council (led by Mrs Read and Mrs McPherson)
Mrs Read: readn@loughton.school
Mrs McPherson: McPhersonc@loughton.school
This is a formal group of pupils who will seek and represent the views of their peers. As well as ideas for improving the school environment, they will help to fundraise for important national causes, such as Comic Relief, our Christmas Giving Tree and the local Food Bank. Through their role of school councillor, children will learn about democracy. They will learn how to present their views and how it is important to listen to the opinions of others. Through this they will develop the skills of participation and communication and discover how to resolve conflict fairly. Above all, the aim will be to make positive changes to the school all whilst having fun!
School Council – Summer Term 2025 Update
Wow! What an amazing term we have had!
The summer term started with a school improvement visit with Mr Bacon from The Alliance Trust who visited the school to review the progress of our school improvement priorities. A few days later, we then had a two day visit from Ofsted. Both Mr Bacon and His Majesty’s Inspectors interviewed our school councillors and were interested to hear their opinions on the school environment and found the children to be engaging and polite with thoughtful comments and ideas.
We then joined forces with Mrs Pryor, Chair of Governors, to really hone ideas for the courtyard area and to decide how the money we had fundraised for in the Spring term would be spent. Our Year 6 school councillors had a very exciting trip to B & Q where they checked prices and made lists of items to purchase – as well as coming back to school with a boot full of plants! Mr Farmer sr, Mr Farmer jr and their team along with Mr Cox then got to work to bring School Council’s ideas to fruition. Check this link for photos of the project:
Court yard renovations - Loughton School
You will surely agree that this is now a wonderful area and an asset to the school.
It is always sad to say goodbye to our Year 6 school councillors but we wish them well with their onward journey and hope they will remain involved in school life as they progress through secondary school. A special mention must go to Alex C who is our first school councillor to have served every year since Year 3. It has been a pleasure seeing him blossom from a shy Year 3 to a confident and inspiring Year 6. We shall miss his quirky manifestos, clever ideas and thoughtful viewpoints. Good luck to Alex, Emmy, Neriah and Vyan. You’ve all been amazing this year, and we are so proud of you!
Some comments made by the outgoing school council on their achievements this year:
“Representing the school and knowing your class trusts you to make decisions makes me proud,” Finn, HB9
“I enjoyed representing the school, talking to Mr Bacon, Break the Rules Day and the whole process of doing the Courtyard,” Roger, HB8
“You might come up with an idea and others will build on it. Show up and try your best,” Neriah, HB14
“Being a school councillor is fun, but also about making the school a better place. Don’t be afraid to share ideas,” Alex, HB15
“I enjoyed going through the suggestion box – there were so many ideas! – and learning what other people want to do,” William, HB7
“It was fun helping the school and knowing about things before everyone else!” Kai, HB2
“Designing the Courtyard was fun!” Vyan, HB13
“It was good talking to other people outside of the school and collecting fundraising money from our classes and handing it to the office,” Aiden, HB12
“I liked meeting children in other year groups and knowing about exciting things first so we could get involved. Overall, it’s just a really good and fun job!” Ieva, HB6
2025 Spring Term
The spring term is typically our busiest term for fund-raising and this year remains the same.
First, School Council decided to support the 40th anniversary of Comic Relief with a Mufti-day for Red Nose Day, on Friday 21st March. The school was a sea of colour as children were encouraged to wear red or bright colours with an 80s flavour! We raised a total of £401.72.
The last two weeks of term saw School Council support Sustrans’ ‘Walk and Wheel to School’ eco-initiative, encouraging as many people as possible to walk, cycle or scoot to school. Over a third of all classes took part with some classes having as many as 75% of children report walking, cycling or scooting to school during that time. As the weather turns warmer, we hope that people will continue to use more sustainable means of transport for traveling to school.
Finally, we held our 'Break the Rules' day on the last day of term. Children could choose to break a number of school rules, such as wearing their own clothes, bringing in chocolate or crisps for break, and having squash or juice instead of water. They could also choose to wear fancy dress, make-up, nail varnish or even temporary hair colour and whacky hair styles! This year was our third year of 'break the rules' and our most successful to date, after we decided to trial ParentMail payments for the first time. We raised a total of £505.07, which will be used towards improvements to the internal courtyard area. School Council have also been working alongside our Chair of Governors to draft letters to local companies requesting their help with donations of materials to help develop this area.
We will soon be letting you know how you might be able to help with the courtyard project too, so watch this space to see how this develops over the next term!
2024-2025
Autumn Term
Our newly elected 2024/25 School Council spent the early part of the term getting to know each other, discussing their manifestos, and deciding on the sorts of things they would like to achieve and support this year. We are very lucky to have four members of our new School Council reprise their roles from the previous years, and a special mention must go to Alex in Year 6, who is our first school councillor to have been elected every year since he began his journey at Loughton School in 2021! Alex said:
“School council is a big part of my school life, and you have made me so happy.”
Our fundraising focus this term has been our Christmas Giving Tree - collecting gifts for less privileged children, which will be shared by one of our local children’s centres in the week before Christmas. We had a record-breaking 600 items donated, which we hope will make a real difference to under-privileged children in Milton Keynes.
As you will have seen, the School Council did a fantastic job of decorating our Giving Tree! Thank you to our Loughton School family for your generosity.
2023-2024
Summer 2024
The summer term proved to be a very exciting one for our School Council!
First, we were able to spend some of the money raised on revamping our school library furnishings. Ideas were discussed, classmates' opinions sought, and votes taken to decide how the money should be spent. We now have two teepees erected with another one arriving soon, a selection of cushions and soft toys and a few blankets. The children across the school have been delighted with the re-vamp and library sessions are proving to be calmer and more relaxed.
We continued with our biodiversity challenge and took some Year 3 children to the local allotments. A special mention must go to school councillor, William, in year 3, who wrote to the King about his concerns for the environment. As a result of the School Council's work with the Parish Council to improve the local area, we applied for a Picture News Impact Award. We recently discovered that we had been awarded GOLD status.
We are incredibly proud of how hard this year's School Council have worked. We must say goodbye to Alex, Alexia, Niamh and Sara as they move on to secondary school. We wish them well and hope they will continue their journey by getting involved as they move on in education.
Spring 2024
This term, the School Council had its busiest term, despite it being such a short term! After our successful fundraising last spring, which generated a great deal of new and exciting books for our school library, the School Council voted to raise more funds to go towards making the library a more comfortable and inviting area. A cake sale was held just before half term and raised £427.02 towards this venture. Our second Break the Rules Day will be held on the last day of the Spring term and funds raised will be added to this. Friday, 14 March saw the school community come together to raise funds for Comic Relief’s Red Nose day. Our non-uniform day raised £355.00 which was banked and will go towards helping those in need both here in the UK and across the world. Coming next term, we will be joining with the local Parish Council to improve some local land and support biodiversity – watch this space!
Autumn 2023
Our newly elected School Council spent some time this term getting to know each other and discussing things they would like to achieve this year, as well as deciding which charities to support.
They were very keen to promote our Christmas Giving tree, which has become a long-standing Loughton School tradition. They had lots of fun decorating the tree and designing posters encouraging people to donate new and nearly new items to benefit those less fortunate than themselves at a time of year that can be especially challenging for some families. We delivered over a hundred gifts (a very large car boot overflowing with items!) and the local Children’s Centre were delighted with the generosity of our Loughton School community.
2022-2023
Meet our newly elected school council:
Autumn term update:
This term, School Council has been very much focused on raising awareness within their classes of those less fortunate than themselves and in finding ways to help others with Christmas approaching. They decided to support the local Children's Centre with their appeal for new and nearly new items for children up to the age of 18. They also decided to promote the MK Food Bank's reverse advent calendar. They spoke to their classes, designed posters, which were then placed in prominent places around the school, and arranged for donations to be collected, sorted and counted. We have been truly touched by the compassion they have shown towards others.
Next term, School Council would like to focus on some fundraising for the school, as well as looking at ways to support other charities. They have come up with lots of great ideas and it will be exciting to see what they will arrange next.
Spring term update:
It has been a very busy term for the School Council who have arranged two successful fundraisers this term.
They spent the first half of the term discussing which charities they would like to support and thinking of new ways to raise funds for the school. After the success of last year’s Red Nose Day, they decided that this would be a great place to start and through a non-uniform day and after school cake sale, they raised approximately £800 for this very worthy charity. Year 3 and 4 School Councillors helped to set up the cake sale and Year 5 and 6 School Councillors helped with the selling. We were incredibly proud of all of them.
They then put forward a new fundraising idea of a ‘Break the Rules’ day and after consulting with Mrs Green, they decided to raise money for new books for the school library. There were a total of 10 rules that children could choose to break, for 20p each, from wearing their own clothes to dying their hair and having less healthy snacks and drinks than would usually be allowed! Most children took part and in total we raised £480. Mrs Green agreed to match this amount and then rounded it up to £1000! School Council will be involved in deciding which books to purchase for the library after consulting with their classes early next term.
Summer term update:
School Council started the term excited by the amount of money raised for ‘Break the Rules’ day on the last day of the spring term. The first half term of the summer term entailed lots of discussion about how to spend the money, including devising and completing surveys with their classmates to decide what sort of books would be most enjoyed by as many children as possible within the school. We then had a very successful trip to Waterstones in Central Milton Keynes to hand pick a wonderful selection of books, which are being added to the school library.
In the second half term, the children have been enjoying debating various issues, including whether cats are better than dogs and whether snowy days are better than sunny days. The children have been using their powers of persuasion to try to change their opponent’s mind from their initial stance.
We are so proud of the school council for all their hard work this year. They really have been a credit to the school and to their families. A special mention must go to our lovely Year 6 school councillors who will be leaving the school at the end of the summer term: Elena-Mary, Lauren, Zainab and Kayla. We wish them well for their journey into secondary school and hope that they will continue to be actively involved in school life.
We asked School Council to tell us how they felt about their role this year. Here are some of their responses:
“We are the people who have made a huge difference. I’m glad to know I was part of it.” Alex C, Y3
“I like to know that I’ve made a difference to the school” Emmy, Y4
“It was an honour and a privilege when people voted for me” Alex M-G, Y5
“It makes me feel proud for being a school councillor” Alice, Y5
“I feel like I’m part of something. My hard work has paid off” Aila, Y5
“It made me feel happy. I enjoyed making new friends in other year groups“ Elena-Mary, Year 6
2021-2022
Autumn term update:
The school council promoted our harvest festival appeal where we raised 563 items for the MK food bank. The children displayed, sorted through and boxed these donations ready for collection. They then went on to promote our Christmas 'giving tree' donations where we received a record breaking number of new and nearly-new presents for disadvantaged children in Milton Keynes.
Spring term update:
We have a very keen and enthusiastic school council who were delighted when meetings could resume properly in the spring term! Our School Council have shown themselves to be extremely caring and aware of the needs of those less fortunate than themselves. They have actively supported national and local causes such as collecting harvest donations for the MK Food Bank and celebrating difference with ‘Odd Socks Day’ in November. In March, they managed to raise in excess of £1000 for ‘Red Nose Day’ (Comic Relief) with their initiative to dress in red for the day and hold a ‘design a red nose’ competition. On this day, they also joined forces with The Green Team to host a cake sale with proceeds being shared equally between Comic Relief and Shelter.
The School Council are looking forward to more fundraising later in the year, where they hope to be able to contribute towards the renovation of the school’s internal courtyard. Together, they will debate how the area could be used to benefit all students and how they can raise awareness and funds. Now that restrictions have been relaxed, watch this space to see what they will achieve next!
Summer term update:
This term, School Council have discussed playground games and equipment and sought their classmates views. They have debated animal testing, showing compassion with a unanimous vote that beauty products should be tested on humans rather than on animals. Just before Easter, they implemented the BIG Little Give campaign and sorted out two trolley loads worth of donations for the MK Food Bank. Further to a very kind donation from a parent, the School Council sorted out the donations allocating them to different parts of the school and wrote thank you letters to show their appreciation.
Next month, the school's governing body has invited the School Council to their meeting to discuss ideas for improvement to the school. The children will be given questions to ask their classmates and will report back to the governors in due course. It is still hoped that School Council will be able to add their views, and that of their peers, to the redevelopment of the school's courtyard when this gets underway.
It has been wonderful seeing the School Council work so diligently to support the School as well as the local community and I would like to extend a special thanks to our Year 6 councillors, Patricia, Danai, Kerry-Anne and Shay who we will miss greatly as they move on to their secondary schools.