Senior Digital Leaders help to lead assemblies and the training for other pupil leaders.

A precious part of our school ethos is the importance we place on pupil voice and pupil leadership - at all ages and stages.

There are many benefits from actively seeking and promoting contributions from pupils, namely:

• the recognition of children's rights, including the right to have their opinions taken into account
• promoting 'active citizenship', improving pupil knowledge and 'social skills' and enhancing the quality of democracy
• the recognition that consulting pupils can impact on school performance, whether in terms of behaviour, engagement or attainment of pupils,
• using pupil voice to ensure that we are meeting the specific needs of our pupils as learners. (Taken from Whitty & Wisby, 2007)

The School Council works closely with Mrs Moffatt, our Learning Mentor. Here is what she has to say about the role of our School Council.

What is School Council?

A school council is a group of students who are elected / apply to represent the views of all pupils and to improve their school.

“ School Council” means all kinds of school based groups run by students, including student forums and youth parliaments.

How do we choose councillors?

Over the years we used a variety of ways of choosing councillors, i.e. elections, class nominations and job applications.

The job application I feel has been the most successful - because the children have to apply for the role, they show real commitment to the role.

What projects have been completed?

• Planting trees on the school field.
• Helping to plan and conduct the pupil, parent and staff election for our current school values. Taking part in assemblies linked to Democracy.
• Recycling projects, including presenting assemblies and supplying new bins to classrooms.
• Laying poppies at the war graves in Prescot with representatives from the Town Council and other schools.
• Designing posters with regards to parking issues.
• Designing the name and poster for 'The Hub', (our school canteen).
• Working with Knowsley Borough Council around the topic of 'bullying', also what children want from living in Knowsley.
• Surveying their peers about lunchtimes and outside spaces.
• Working with The Hub staff, talking about menus.

Looking ahead

• Visit to Prescot Town Hall
• Revisit litter, recycling and outside grounds - what can we do next.
• Being 'Safeguarding' champions in school - explaining how to stay safe and helping to share key messages.

Giving our pupils a say!

We regularly ask our pupils to share their opinions on various topics that may or may not be directly linked with school life. We also like to know what aspects of life at Prescot Primary are working well for our pupils and where we can improve. To gather views, we often use 'Survey Monkey' as an way of  gathering opinions using the iPads. The Digital Leaders will take charge of conducting the surveys, ensuring that all pupils have a chance to participate and that they understand the questions.