Pupil Voice
At Five Ways Primary School, we value the opinions of our pupils when setting School Development Plan priorities. We are delighted to have 4 active school councils who meet on a regular basis to share the views of their peers. Representatives on the councils allow our pupils to put forward their ideas and opinions, and participate in decision making for our school.
Junior Governing Body
The Junior Governing Body is made up of 2 representatives from each Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 class. The Junior Governing Body meet every half term to discuss issues that have arisen and to aid school improvement. There is a designated Chair, Vice Chair, Treasurer and Secretary who take an active role in setting agendas, minute taking and managing a small budget.
Recently the Junior Governing Body have given all children a voice by providing a suggestions box in each classroom. These suggestions are shared and considered at each meeting. For example, they organised a fundrasing Maths Day for the school. In the future the Junior Governing Body are hoping to carry out learning walks around school.
Sports Ambassadors
Physical activity and school sport is celebrated at Five Ways. For this reason Sports Ambassadors are elected to represent each class across KS1 and KS2. Pupils who are elected as Sports Ambassadors are presented with a bespoke badge which they wear with pride. Regularly meetings are held with Mrs. Marsh, who is our P.E. Leader at Five Ways, to discuss important topics focused on P.E. and School Sport
Previous discussions include ways of allocating funding received from the PTFA and the Government. Discussions have centred around how we can support children at Five Ways to lead a healthy lifestyle. The Council have designed and named our new ‘Daily Mile’ track which is due to be installed on our school playing field in the near future. Decisions regarding the Daily Mile track included looking at samples of different surfaces and different colours before placing an order with the contractor. Sports Ambassadors have also been involved in choosing new playground markings, which have been installed on the Year 3 playground and the pavilion playground. The Council supported Mrs. Marsh when gathering the views of pupils across the school, in terms of the design and layout of the the playground markings which were kindly funded by the PTFA.
Eco Council
The Eco Council focus on all things environmental! Five Ways is a school that is proud of the fact that we hold the Eco-School's Silver Award. 2 representatives from each Key Stage 2 class are present on the Eco Council. They organise recycling within the school and consider how best to keep the school environment a pleasant and safe place to learn and work. They also develop and implement energy saving strategies within our school.
The Eco Council organise recycling including paper, plastic bottles and ink cartridges. They also undertake gardening activities. .jpg)
Woodland and Wildlife Council
The Woodland and Wildlife Council is a group of Key Stage 2 children who are interested in the outdoors and particularly in nature and wildlife. The aim of the council is to help in the development and management of our woodland and wildlife areas around school, in order to increase the number of plant and animal species we have on the school grounds. The Woodland and Wildlife Council meet as a group at least once every half term and are split into four working groups:
- Species identification – the children identify plants and animals that are present on the school grounds
- Feeding the birds – the children feed the birds each week and make sure they have clean water to use
- Species habitats - the children will help to increase the amount of different habitats in the woodland and wildlife areas (e.g. identify positions for nest boxes, build a bug hotel, construct and maintain dead hedging in the woodland area, construct dead wood piles)
- Forest area management – the children will help to maintain the cherry tree saplings, maintain dead hedging, put up signs to educate people and maintain dead wood piles.
During the summer term, all of the children in the Woodland and Wildlife Council will have the opportunity to help construct and maintain a small wildlife garden.
