School Council

School Council 2025-2026

Our Role and Plans for the Year

Our School Council meets regularly with Mrs Spiby-Wilson to share ideas, raise important issues, and work together to make our school the best it can be. We aim to bring about positive changes that reflect the voices of all pupils.

This year, we have begun an exciting progression plan which outlines the projects we’ll be working on and would like to start. You can find it displayed on the School Council notice board in school.

Right now, we’re exploring fun and inclusive ways to fundraise for the school – ideas that pupils, parents, and staff can all enjoy and get involved in.

If you have a suggestion or would like to contribute your thoughts, please visit the discussion section of our notice board – we’d love to hear from you!

What We've Been Working On

Before half term, we asked students for their opinions on a few school matters:

🏫 Winter breaktime activity in the hall – Would you like this to happen next year during the colder months?

😄 Worry Wednesday – Should we bring it back?

🍽️ School lunches – Are you happy with the portion sizes?

🐾 School mascot – Would you like the school to have one?

Once we receive all of the votes back we will spring into action.

What’s Coming Up

We’ve got an exciting few weeks ahead, with lots of activities planned:

📋 Petitions - We would like to start some more clubs in school and are looking for ideas and approximate numbers in order to set these up. Over the next few weeks, we will be asking children to sign petitions for these clubs in order to demonstrate support before the clubs can be approved.

🎭 Comic Relief - We’ll be leading an assembly for the whole school on 20th March to explain the importance of comic relief and how our simple acts of silliness can help change lives.

🐰 Easter Raffle – We’ll be assisting with the Easter Raffle this year on 27th March and are hoping to offer some golden ticket prizes

🏃 Colour Run – on the 12th June we will be competing a colour run for The Rose Learning Trust Charity which this year is Winston’s Wish, a Childhood Bereavement Charity which offers free, accessible grief support to children and young people.

What We've Achieved

👔 Interviews - We have taken part in four interview panels and are really proud to have represented all the pupils in our school. We're pleased to say that our views were taken into account by the Senior Leadership Team when making their final decisions.

- one to help select our new Head Boy and Head Girl,

- one to help select a new Safeguarding and Inclusion Support Officer.

- two to help select new Learning Support Assistance to work within our school

🌐 Set up our own designated School Council page on ClassDojo

🎃 Halloween Disco – took place on 4th November and was an evening of fun and spooky surprises.

🧦 Anti-Bullying Assembly – We led an assembly for the whole school on 10th November to mark Odd Socks Day, promoting kindness, respect, and inclusion.

🌺 Poppy Appeal – During our first week back, we sold poppies and related items to support the Royal British Legion in the lead-up to Remembrance Sunday.

💛 Children in Need Fundraising Day – took place on 14th November, we organised fun activities to raise money for this amazing cause.

🎄 Christmas Fayre – This had to be postponed until the New Year but was an incredible success!

❤️ Valentines Disco - took place on 12th February and was an evening of dance, hot dogs and lovable selfies

We’re proud to be making a difference and helping our school community grow stronger every day.

Below is a list of activities that our School Council have implemented in recent years.

Christmas Toy Fayre

For the last two years the School Council has organised a Christmas Toy Fayre. We receive a huge amount of donations from parents, family, friends and local companies which helps to make the Toy Fayre a success and gives many of our families the opportunity to make Christmas that little bit better.

Thank you to everyone who donated toys, books and clothes. Thank you to all those who attended the event and assisted us on the day working the stalls, bringing children to parents along with all of the people who helped behind the scenes. We could not have done this without your support.

We managed to raise £350 and still have lots of items left which we are donating to Barnardo's. The School Council chose this particular charity because it helps to care for vulnerable children.

Hallam FM Cash for Kids: Wear, Share, Care

Our School Council members ran an appeal for Hallam FM Cash for Kids to help those who need it most. They were asking for donations of clothes, shoes, belts and handbags. Everything donated was clean and could be reused or recycled for further use.

The donations were collected and weighed. Owston Park raised £228 for this very important campaign.

Thank you to everyone who donated to this amazing charity that will give back to our community.

Eco Schools

Our School Council members have earned the Bronze Eco Schools award for helping to keep our school 02 by emptying recycling bins, ensuring lights are turned off if the room is empty as well as litter picking around school. We are now aiming to earn the Silver award and the Green Flag award.

As part of the 2022 and 2024 Mayoral Elections, KS2 completed an election in school. The children studied the manifestos of each party and completed the process of voting as a way to understand democracy. The majority vote was for the Green Party candidate. This ties in with the school’s ecofriendly environment that we are creating and showcases the importance of our environment to our children.

Worry Wednesday

Our School Council run a Worry Wednesday group at lunchtime on Wednesdays in the library. There is always one school councillor from each year group in there during lunch along with Mrs Spiby-Wilson. Worry Wednesday was created in 2022 to help support all of the children with any problems or worries they had. It is an opportunity for children to speak to other children about their worries and feel supported.

There is also a worry monster that lives in the library so if the children don’t want to talk to anyone they are able to write down their worries and then place them in the worry monster to give him something to eat!

The Big Battery Hunt

Owston Park School Council signed the school up to participate in the Big Battery Hunt. This is a programme to recycle batteries and help protect our environment.

There are some great prizes to be won, not only for the school that recycles the most batteries but also the pupil that recycles the most within those schools.

Any batteries must be recycled at a recycling centre and photos were sent to us at school and the big battery hunt website to help us keep account of how many batteries are being recycled.

For more information please visit www.bigbatteryhunt.co.uk