Y6 councillors- out of school visit.

Ashley Williams (5B)

Matters Arising

• Permission slips for early dinner

Some councillors have noticed that some pupils have lied to the dinner supervisors to go in early for their dinner pretending that they are doing jobs for teachers. Mrs Thompson addressed council about having a permission slip to give to the dinner supervisor which would have to be signed by teaching staff. She also told council that this idea did come up before in council and passed permission slip around for all councillors to look at and would have one printed out to show the head teacher.

Mrs Thompson addressed councils about which pupils do need to go in early for their dinner and as follows:

• Blog/ Media club- permission given by teachers.
• Class monitors- permission by teachers.
• Library monitors- permission given by Mrs Stephenson only.

Other pupils do go into dinner early to help dinner supervisors:

• Dinner hall monitors
• Playground monitors- permission given by Mrs Ridley/ Mrs Snell.
• Corridor monitors.

A.O.B

Council are quite concerned over finding out some pupils’ tuck shop money is going missing. They thought a good class rule is that each class teacher would keep a box to put all pupils’ purses/wallets in to keep safe and give out when tuck shop is on.

Apologies

Lola- Mai Tomlinson (3K)

Matters Arising

• Curriculum/ the changes of the school day

Mrs Thompson addressed the council that a request from Mrs Sargent, would like to know how our pupils feel about the new school day with having some assemblies at the end of the day. Lessons in the morning with Numeracy been taught first and the other changes.

Most councillors felt that they were still getting used to the changes. Some were quite pleased that Numeracy was taught first as this was their favourite lesson of the day and others were saddened as this was their weakest subject and it put a damper on their day. Some councillors were quite happy with the changes.

• Dinner hall rule

Vice chair addressed council about a dinner hall rule: when you sit down in a place, you should remain seated in this place until you have finished your lunch. Is this rule fair or unfair? Most councillors thought that this rule was fair. One councillor disagreed as they explained that sometimes when there isn’t a seat you have to sit on a bench and wait for a seat and take the next seat when it comes available and felt if you got sat next to someone you do not like or know.

• Dinner Lines

The Chairman addressed the council about the packed lunch line on the playground to how it is situated as it is unsafe been near the basketball court. Some pupils tend to join in on the ball games and the chair addressed council about having the line turned so it is against the wall.

Councillors’ feedback was that the packed lunch line had already been moved to this position and now was safer.

A.O.B

A few upper school councillors addressed council that some pupils were lying to dinner supervisors by telling them they had jobs to do for teaching staff to have their dinners first. Mrs Thompson addressed council that this issue came up two years ago and the council then had a permission slip idea and she would bring a copy of this to the next meeting to show.

       Leon Leaning

3T- Libby Crichton

       Oliver Easton

4S- Chloe White

      Kameron Cullen

4J- Katie Concannon

       Andrew Hall

5B- Chloe Hunt

       Ashley Williams

5S- Rose Campbell

      Daniel Bristow

6B- Lucy Young

       Jayden Gollings

6E- Katie Fong

        Lewis Dawes

Chairman- Jayden Gollings

Vice Chairman- Katie Concannon.

Mat

Camera Instructions

Welcome Back

 Welcome back to a new school year at William Barcroft Junior School.  I would like to start by thanking everyone for the warm welcome in my first few weeks as Head teacher.  I have met and chatted with many of you and hope to get to know all of you well in the coming years. 

 As I am sure that your children have told you I am happy to be called Mrs C. as a shorter, easier version of Mrs. Constantopoulos.  I try to get out on the playground before school and after school and I’m always more than happy to discuss anything regarding your child either then or during the school day.  My office is located directly off the reception area of the school at the front of the school. 

Name Badges

All school staff now wear name badges showing their full name and job title.  Whilst I felt it was right to include staffs first name could you ensure that surnames are used by the children and yourselves. 

 Shoe Changing policy

I am sure you are now aware that the school policy on shoes in school has changed.  I felt it more beneficial to the children to keep their shoes on during the day.  Some children were walking around with no shoes on, which not only is a health and safety risk but also very cold in the winter. The shoe boxes were unhygienic and the time required to change shoes wasted valuable learning time.

 Dinner

We now have a new school meals provider.  The dinners are very good.  Each day a member of staff eats in the hall and we are working hard to make the lunch times an enjoyable social occasion.  In the future you will be invited to come into school to enjoy dinner with your children. 

 Dinner Money

From now on dinner money MUST be paid weekly to the class teacher.  Daily payments will not be accepted and the front office will not take money. 

 Attendance

Unfortunately the attendance figures at the school over the past years have been very low.  It is extremely important that the children are in school in order to learn.

Holiday requests will be looked at in line with LA policy and will only be agreed to if the request complies with the four criteria laid out by the Local Authority and your child’s attendance is above 95%.  Please bare this in mind before booking holidays. 

It is also very important that you gain permission to take your child out of school for medical appointments.  You must bring the appointment card with you.

 Lates

Children who are late for school are also monitored with the Education Welfare Officer.  From Monday 21^st September if your child is up to 10 minutes late they will no longer be admitted through the front door but must go through the year four door, where Mrs. Snell will record the reasons.  If you are more than 10 minutes you will need to come to the front entrance but may be required to speak with the Head teacher.

 Lost Property

We have a lot of lost property which is left over from last year.  This will be displayed in the hall on Tuesday 22^nd at 3.15.  Please visit the school hall and take any clothing that is yours. 

 Term Dates

Thursday September 3^rd   to            Friday October 23^rd                 Term One

Tuesday   November 3^rd   to             Friday December 18^th            Term Two

Tuesday January 5^th          to             Friday February 12^th              Term Three

Tuesday February 23^rd     to             Thursday April 1^st                    Term Four

Tuesday April 20^th             to             Friday May 28^th                        Term Five

Tuesday June 8^th                to              Thursday July 22^nd                 Term Six

Request for help

We are keen to encourage parents to come into school and help.  If you would like to come in and get involved in any way please let us know.  This could be anything from reading, artwork or gardening.  Please let us know, we would very much appreciate it. 

Have a good weekend

Claire Constantopoulos

Head teacher

Mat

Booklet Printing

Apologies

All concillors attended, Demi-Leigh came late.

Minutes

Council Surgery-  Our first surgery on Monday 1st June went well as all classteachers had told all their classes. In all council had 8 issue requests posted in the box but nobody wanted to talk to the councillors taking the surgery. On Wednesday when Mrs Thompson met with the vice chairman to set this meeting agenda we had a look at all 8 requests and there were only 3 worth discussing.

• More Disclipline- A councillor suggested that some class teachers do give a verbal warning first but some don’t and put the pupils’ name up on the board and they think this is not fair. Majority of the council thought that discipline is fair in the school and disagrees with this request been given.
• Pet Day- Mrs Thompson addressed council and they believe it wouldn’t be allowed and think  the school insurance wouldn’t cover this event to have pets in school and also .safety reasons of what type of animal would be bought in to how dangerous they are? so again council disagrees with this request.
• Name Calling/ Bullying- Council seem to believe that there will always be a problem with name calling and bullying as it happens in all schools.

Our second surgery held on Monday 8th June didn’t go well at all as most pupils had already forgotten so Mrs Thompson to make posters to go up around school.

 A.O.B

Year 6 Corridor at Home time- at home time this corridor is far too busy as Year 6 pupils are leaving and our younger pupils and parents are entering through the same door to collect packed lunch boxes. Council feel that one day someone is going to get badly hurt as pupils are pushing and shoving each other. What do we suggest to do instead to make this safer for everyone?

Council suggestions

• Can Year 6 pupils leave through the Y5 corridor at hometime?
• Send each class on a rota system early to go and collect their packed lunch boxes and return to their class?
• Why should Parents come in through this door and if they are coming to talk to a class teachers, can they through reception instead?
• Could we move packed lunch sheves to have each in each year group corridor?
• Can each year group have a trolley in their unit to keep their packed lunch boxes on so will the new head teacher buy 4 new trolleys?

A year 6 corridor safety issue- why do we have pegs put up which behind a door?

On Thursday 11^th of June, Harry Cook, Kaishia Charlton, Mrs Snell, Ms Cook and Miss Charlton all attended a food tasting session at Old Clee Children’s Centre.

The object of the taster session was to get the opinions of the children and parents on the food that two providers were offering. 

The providers were Cygnet and Mellors.  Both providers were offering hot meals for us to taste. 

Kaishia tried everything on offer from Cygnet; her favourite was the Chicken Pie.  Harry tried the Chicken Curry and the Beef Bolognaise.  Harry’s favourite dish was the Beef Bolognaise.  There were also vegetables to accompany these meals, these included carrots, potatoes and broccoli.  There was also rice on offer to go with the curry.

There were two puddings available from Cygnet for us to try, a mixed fruit crumble with custard and a chocolate and pear pudding.  Kaishia liked the chocolate pudding.

The other provider, Mellors had several hot dishes to try and a range of puddings.  They also offered sandwiches, salad and fresh fruit.  All of these items would be available to children who stay school dinners if Mellors win the school meal contract.

Kaishia tried all the hot dishes which included a Cottage Pie, Tomato Pasta and a Quorn Lasagne.  Kaishia enjoyed most of them except the Tomato Pasta. 

Mellors were also offering an apple crumble which both Harry and Kaishia really enjoyed.

Harry and Kaishia really loved the Fairy Cakes that Mellors had on offer, this was their favourite item. 

Mellors also offered fruit juice which both children enjoyed.  They also enjoyed the fresh fruit that was on offer.

Both of the providers said that the ingredients they used would be sourced locally and neither of them would be using frozen meat products. 

Mellors also told Mrs Snell and Ms Cook that they used the Red Tractor system; this means that they can identify which farm their meat or fruit and vegetable products have come from.  (For more info go to www.myredtractor.co.uk) 

Mellors also seemed very keen to engage children and parents in various activities to encourage them to have school meals. 

Harry’s mum and Kaishia’s Aunt were both very impressed with the food that they tasted.  Harry’s mum is vegetarian and was pleased to see so many vegetarian choices on offer. 

Overall we preferred Mellors because we liked the choices of food they had on offer and in particular we liked the fact that there were sandwiches, salad and fresh fruit to choose as well as hot meals.

There were three other schools at this event and all of us were asked to fill in evaluation forms as we went round.  We had to rate the food according to its appearance, taste, smell and portion size.  All of the information that they collect from the taster session will help the council to make the final decision about who cooks our school meals from September.

You can find information on both company’s by going to the following websites:

www.mellorscatering.co.uk or www.cygnetfoods.co.uk

Demi-Lee Dolby(6B)

Demi Goodwin(5St)

Callum Goodwin(5T)

Minutes

Mrs Thompson addressed the council to announce the results of our secret ballot held for a new chairman to step in until the end of the summer term- new chairman is Ted Godfrey-Warner.

Again mainly to go over the same minutes we had at our last meeting regarding communication between class councilors and their class teachers to the reason we are starting a Council Surgery.

Council Surgery- To hold every Monday morning playtime in the doorway of Year 6 unit. Mrs Thompson will write a notice to go out to each teacher to start as soon as we come back after the half term on Monday 1st June. To hold our first session on the first day back.

What we need for sugery- A box for pupils to posts any issues/concerns if they don’t want to discuss with councillors. Scrap paper and pencils and the councilors on hand need paper & pencils to make notes.

Rota- Monday 1st June- Ted and Jordan-leigh.

          Monday 8th June- Katie and Kai.

          Monday 15th June-Connor and Scarlett.

          Monday 22nd June- Elliott and Demi G.

          Monday 29th June- Saskia and Kallium.

          Monday 6th July- Abbie and Daniel.

          Monday 13th July- Harry and Katie.

End of Meeting closed. No A.O.B.

Kai May (3B)

Minutes

We had a secret ballot/vote for a new chairman within the council, as Cameron left and moved school at Easter.

Candidates were as follows

Abbie Nicholls, Connor Stevenson, Demi-Lee Dolby, Devon Randerson, Demi and Callum Goodwin, Ted Godfery-Warner,Kallium Snelson and Katie Fong.

Each councillor came up and voted confidentally giving their slip to Mrs Thompson. She will tally after the meeting and tell the chosen candidate.

Results

Chairman- Ted Godfrey-Warner with 5 votes

Abbie Nicholls-4 votes              Devon Randerson & Demi Goodwin – 2 votes.

Demi-Lee Dolby, Connor Stevenson, Callum Goodwin and Katie Fong- all 1 vote each.

Kallium Snelson- 0 votes.

A.O.B.

Communication between councillor and class teacher

Mrs Thompson addressed school council about Classteachers spending time with their class discussing school council matters, so other pupils can get involved and raise their issues. Only 2 class teachers do discuss school council with their class and their councillors do bring back feedback for various matters.

Mrs Thompson addressed school council again to ask how many councillors approach their class teachers themselves to ask if their teacher will discuss matters. Again only 2 councillors came forward and have asked their teachers. Mrs Thompson addressed council again that being a school councillor is an important role in school and communication is poor between school councillor and teacher.

Soon to start an school council surgery one playtime every week over the next few weeks were all pupils are invited to pop along to raise their concerns/issues either verbally or written. Mrs Thompson will sort a rota for councillors to be picked to do the surgery. Meeting ran over, so this ongoing in to the next meeting.