School Council Meeting Minutes
Friday 6th February 2015 at 1.15pm
Present: all class representatives; Head Girl and Head Boy; Mrs Weaver
Actions from previous minutes:
Mrs Weaver fed back to staff during their staff meeting on 9th December 2014 about how the classes felt about teaching and learning at St Mary’s. All teachers took on board your ideas and will act upon any suggestions. Head Girl and Head Boy distributed minutes to classes and the Head Teacher. HG and HB also reported that the new water fountains are now installed and are being used throughout the school.
What are you enjoying in school this year?
Early Phase:
Uffington: playing on the agility trail, playing outside, show and tell.
Malmesbury: playing with the role play food; number bingo; playing with our friends and writing.
Barbury: our topic work on castles and Brunel; our ICT lessons; trips to Steam and Warwick Castle and writing fantasy stories.
Avebury: going on trips; our PE lessons and after school clubs.
Liddington: lessons: maths, phonics, PE, ICT, topic, trips and using the playground markings.
Middle Phase:
Silbury: RE, topic, maths
Ermin: learning about different places in Britain through our topic sessions; writing; schools trips (Caerleon); decimals in maths; investigations in science; using publisher in ICT and morning maths.
Sarum: writing stories; making new friends as we’re in different classes; Fossil Rock roadshow that came to visit and using Scratch in our computing lessons.
Upper Phase:
Waylands: our topic on coasts, learning new things; writing myths and legends; art with lots of variation; PE, learning new skills
Salisbury: a range of sports in PE; computing lessons; the range of clubs on offer; booster maths classes; playtimes where we can talk to our friends;
Ridgeway: Computing, disco, PE, Braeside, more art, a lot of maths work, school dinners, the new water coolers, school clubs (netball).
What could we do to improve school at the moment?
Early Phase:
Uffington: more gardening, singing, cooking and more outdoor area games.
Malmesbury: play with everyone and be kind to one another; only go on the pirate ship when it’s our turn.
Barbury: raising more money to charity by having a cake sale on a Friday.
Avebury: have swimming lessons.
Liddington: free hot chocolate at breaktime.
Middle Phase:
Silbury: chalk for the outside chalk board; skipping ropes, outside table so we can draw and place board games.
Sarum: use our sketch books more; having a buddy bench; more computer lessons and more art lessons.
Ermin: more sketching and art lessons; more outside based activities; using the apparatus more with Mrs Law.
Upper Phase:
Waylands: more novels in the library for older readers please.
Salisbury: An astro-turf pitch? It would be nice to develop another quiet garden that can be accessed during break times. We know that the Friends are going to put up gazeboes on the field in the hot weather but could we have a permanent structure?
Ridgeway: soap dispensers and toilet paper refilled more often; young leaders out again as the weather gets better.
Action: HG and HB to ask Head Teacher about our ideas and feed back at the next meeting.
How does our school deal with bullying?
Early Phase:
Uffington: we tell a teacher and there are posters around the school.
Malmesbury: we tell the teacher and they make them say sorry, we can also tell our buddy.
Barbury: we tell our teachers, TAs or the anti-bullying ambassadors.
Avebury: talk to them and tell them off.
Liddington: we have anti-bullying ambassadors and a bully box.
Middle Phase:
Silbury: we are happy with everything that is being done already.
Ermin: anti-bullying ambassadors; teachers sort it out straight away and having staff on the playground helps.
Sarum: we enjoy promoting anti-bullying in our anti-bullying week; we deal with issues well; we have a bully box and the bullying ambassadors; teachers don’t hesitate to intervene and sort out the problem; we don’t have any bullying in our school.
Upper Phase:
Waylands: we have a bully-box and bully advice posters around the school explaining what to do if we feel bullied; our learning platform has advice; we have an anti-bullying event each year and we can ‘blow the whistle’ if we need to.
Salisbury: our school is good at dealing with bullying although we believe that we don’t have any form of bullying at St Mary’s because teachers have zero tolerance.
Ridgeway: very well, it is sorted out by teachers instantly.
Is there anything else we should be doing to deal with bullying?
Early Phase:
Uffington: no.
Malmesbury: our class did not know who the anti-bullying ambassadors were, perhaps we could introduce this again in assembly.
Barbury: could ambassadors wear badges so we know who they are?
Avebury: write down their names.
Liddington: can we make sure that everyone knows who the bullying ambassadors are – they could wear a bright jacket.
Middle Phase:
Silbury: can we have a box to put notes in if children are being bullied.
Ermin: anti-bullying ambassadors need to be more visible; have a designated group session/time to talk about any bullying issues.
Sarum: make sure only serious and real problems are put in the bully box; ambassadors should be visible (maybe wear a badge or a jacket) and patrol areas (e.g. agility trail).
Upper Phase:
Waylands: Anti-bullying ambassadors are not well known to everyone – they need jackets or something to distinguish them.
Salisbury: No. Our anti-bullying ambassadors are on the playground to support others and try to prevent bullying. Nothing is ever put into the ‘bullying box’ although we do feel that one box is not decorated appropriately and needs to change. Every classroom has a notice on their notice board reminding us to tell an adult and there are posters around the school which give good advice.
Ridgeway: anti-bullying ambassadors need more meetings and assemblies, Mrs Pidlisnyj should create more opportunities for them to happen.
Action: HG and HB to ask Mrs Pidlisnyj to hold regular meetings with the anti-bullying ambassadors and to arrange another opportunity to highlight who they are to the early phase and the rest of the school (maybe wear a badge/bright jacket). Some sort of reminder about the anti-bullying box needed.
How do children behave in lessons?
Early Phase:
Uffington: good, nicely and helpful.
Malmesbury: we are quiet, happy and kind to each other.
Barbury: good, no messing around allowed in our class.
Avebury: we have very good listening skills.
Liddington: good.
Middle Phase:
Silbury: we do as we’re told.
Ermin: quite well, listen intently, work quietly; a few children call out but that is not very often.
Sarum: mostly well but some children let the whole class down by being noisy; children can get carried away when they do fun activities; we are lucky in this school as there isn’t much disruption in classes.
Upper Phase:
Waylands: we talk too much.
Salisbury: we have a positive attitude to learning and are always enthusiastic and up for a challenge and complete it with a smile on our faces. (Alex and Jack with everyone in agreement, well, nearly everyone!) behaviour is good.
Ridgeway: behaviour is good.
How do children behave at playtimes?
Early Phase:
Uffington: we are silly in the toilets and talk loudly in the hall
Malmesbury: we play nicely together; if we hurt ourselves we tell an adult.
Barbury: very well although sometimes there are a few problems at lunch time.
Avebury: a bit noisy and too much running around.
Liddington: very good but sometimes it gets a little rough.
Middle Phase:
Silbury: generally safe but scared by the wild running
Ermin: older children run very fast and KS1 children play rough games; can we allow talking once finished eating.
Sarum: all children play well together, especially on the playground markings but some children can play too rough; we should try to sort out arguments amongst our peers before telling a teacher.
Upper Phase:
Waylands: generally good behaviour; reception children run in and out of toilet doors, hitting, spitting at other children.
Salisbury: When we see younger children misbehaving on the playground we tell them to stop and try to sort out their problem. However, sometimes they don’t stop and in that case, we tell the adult on duty. On the whole, it is OK but when the problems occur it is usually the younger children arguing (early phase) at lunch break. We agreed that we need to act as good role models and if they don’t listen to us, then we should tell their teacher.
Ridgeway: alright; some trouble over the agility trail.
Action: Play Leaders need to be pro-active and engage others in games; prefects need to man the toilet doors and older children need to be good role models to younger children.
How do the children behave as they are moving around school?
Early Phase:
Uffington: some of us are noisy and some of us are quiet.
Malmesbury: we walk with our hands behind our backs and we are quiet. Sometimes we need reminding.
Barbury: we walk well with our hands behind our backs.
Avebury: we open doors for each other and walk with our hands behind our backs.
Liddington: good but sometimes we see children running down the corridor.
Middle Phase:
Silbury: we like walking with our hands behind our backs; people sometimes run down the corridor; children don’t hold doors open for adults; older children jump downstairs.
Ermin: Y6 are noisy when collecting their buddies, some of us run to maths and talk on the way to assembly.
Sarum: we like the way we walk with our hands behind our backs – it looks smart; some children need to remember not to run.
Upper Phase:
Waylands: often running in the corridors.
Salisbury: Very well as we walk quietly with our hands behind our backs. However, after lunch, according to the prefects, early phase run back to their class (down the corridor) to collect their coats and because there is no teacher in the classroom they are seen messing around. We agreed that our prefects need to ensure that they are doing their job correctly by spacing themselves out along the corridor and being firm with the children.
Ridgeway: little ones run up and down the corridor and the noise level is LOUD.
Action: Class teachers need to remind their classes about moving around the school and put in place rewards and sanctions for behaviour in the corridors.
Is there anything else we can do to improve behaviour around the school?
Early Phase:
Uffington: tell our friends to be quiet if they are too noisy.
Malmesbury: we need to remember the rules and tell an adult if we something that shouldn’t be happening.
Barbury: we need to stop children running in and out of toilets, could the door inside be locked during lunchtime?
Avebury: stop children going through the toilets and stop people running
Liddington: people are running through the toilets.
Middle Phase:
Silbury: no.
Ermin: bullying amabassadors to be more visible; very good but YR/1 a play a little rough – they don’t seem to listen to Year 6 when they tell them; let adults through the door first.
Sarum: we need to stop children running in the corridors – maybe Y6 could monitor; or we could have posters as a reminder.
Upper Phase:
Waylands: complaints about reception children hitting and spitting are not being acted upon because they don’t listen to us. Can the prefects help?
Salisbury: Some children are still running or talking in the corridors and others are using the toilets as access in and out of school. Because we are responsible Year 6 children, we need to ensure that we are good role models and help the younger children to follow the school rules. Prefects were reminded of their role in and around school.
Ridgeway: Y6 need to write down children’s names who run down the corridor and tell their teacher; prefects need to write down the names of children caught sliding down the bannister.
Action: HG/HB to ask Mrs Burchall if toilet doors inside the building could be locked at 12 and re-opened at 1pm. During morning break, prefects to be extra vigilant when on corridor duty and if children do not do as they are told then their names are to be written down and reported to their class teacher.
How can we stay safe on line?
Early Phase:
Uffington: don’t talk to people we don’t know.
Malmesbury: ask an adult before using the ICT equipment.
Barbury: keep our passwords safe.
Avebury: we don’t give out our passwords and tell an adult if we don’t like something that we see.
Liddington: don’t give out personal information, only go on websites that we know and try not to click on anything we don’t know.
Middle Phase:
Silbury: don’t tell anyone our password; tell an adult.
Ermin: don’t talk to people we don’t know or meet up with them; tell an adult about inappropriate material; use child friendly websites; we use a filter; ask about things we are unsure of and watch out for extra charges.
Sarum: be careful about what websites we go on; don’t open messages/email that we don’t recognise; keep our password and personal information private and click on the whistle on our learning platform if something upsets us.