Oliver’s Battery has a very active School Council who support the staff, the Governors and most importantly, really ensure that the pupils within the whole school are able to have their opinions heard.

The Council has two representatives from each year group (years 1-6). The pupils are selected by a voting system from each year group. Potential Councillors prepare a presentation for their year group on why they feel that they would be good at representing the pupils and the children then vote for their rep.

We have a wonderful group of pupils on our current School Council who support each other to make sure that everyone has a say, even our youngest members.

School Councillors have lots of varied tasks:

• Showing people around the school and explaining about the different classes; they are always keen to show off our amazing school grounds!
• Meeting with Governors to discuss the views of the pupils during the Governing Body monitoring visits. These have included showing books and art work, discussing educational visits and explaining how and why they feel safe in school
• Lunch with the Governors so that they can talk in a more informal setting
• Meeting with Inspectors and advisors from the Local Education Authority
• Deciding on charities that the school will support during the academic year
• Helping at school events
• Bids for funding from the PTA and ideas for school improvement

The School Council also works on projects which have been generated by the whole school community:

Allotments

Pupils were very keen to further enhance the use of our wonderful grounds and have a developed a project to create new school allotments in conjunction with a group of parents. We have already had a grounds preparation day ready for building the raised beds and the group met with an expert on how to manage this which was very interesting. We are looking forward to being able to grow, to cook with and eat some of our produce!

Our Eco Council 

As part of our commitment to the environment and our community, we have a School Eco Council made up of two Eco Ambassadors from each class (years 1-6). We want children to feel empowered about protecting our planet and creating a more sustainable future for all.

We follow the Eco-Schools programme, which breaks down the complex topics of climate change, biodiversity loss, and plastic pollution into an actionable framework, empowering children to make a difference in their school, local community, and beyond. It aims to create environmental awareness and action and embed these as part of the ethos of school life.

The Eco Council is designed to be pupil-led, and together, the council is working towards the prestigious Eco-Schools Green Flag award.

The core topics are:

1. Biodiversity: Caring for all plants, animals, and insects.

2. Energy: Reducing energy use and investing in greener energy sources.

3. Global Citizenship: Making our planet more peaceful, sustainable, and fair.

4. Healthy Living: Improving physical and mental wellbeing.

5. Litter: Reducing litter, which harms wildlife and costs millions to clear every year.

6. Marine: Protecting all rivers, canals, lakes, and oceans.

7. School Grounds: Improving schools for students, staff, plants, and wildlife.

8. Transport: Finding more environmentally friendly ways to travel.

9. Waste: Refusing, reducing, reusing, repairing, and recycling.

10. Water: Protecting our most important natural resource.

The Eco Council is encouraged to investigate a topic, look to real-world solutions for inspiration, and create an action plan. They have been able to include the rest of their class and school staff in their investigations and have reported their findings and action plans in an assembly.

Through the Eco Council, we aim to give children the opportunity to have an impact outside our school community. In March 2024, our school took part in The Big Plastic Count, a national initiative supported by Greenpeace to investigate the amount of plastic waste generated by UK households. We found that each school family threw away an average of 63 pieces of plastic packaging each week, with 87% of our plastic footprint coming from food and drink packaging. The data from The Big Plastic Count will be used in UN negotiations for a Global Plastics Treaty which will set a global target to reduce the use of plastic for a more sustainable future.

Ambassadors

The School Council have consulted with staff and pupils around new Ambassador Awards for years 1-6 that recognise consistent high standards of behaviour, conduct and contribution to the school community. The badges are ordered and we look forward to adding this to the range of ways that we congratulate pupils on their efforts.