Student Leaders
School Council
Each year, at the beginning of the Autumn Term, children from Year 1 to Year 6 are invited to present a manifesto to their class based upon their ideas for developing our school. Their classmates then vote for the child who has presented the most effective ideas and who they think will represent their views and share these effectively with school leaders. One member from each class is elected.
Our School Council meet regularly with Ms. Williamson. They support our school behaviour code through being a model of good behaviour in their classes and around the school. They observe at the end of our Celebration assemblies and ensure children leave quietly, presenting certificates to the most respectful class. They regularly support our Friends Association events raising money during Christmas and Summer fayres, organising charity events and leading fundraising. They were really pleased with their recent fundraising day for Children in Need 2021 - everyone wore their onesies or pyjamas for the day and we raised an amazing £690.75 for this great cause!
During Anti-bullying week, the School Council also helped teachers to share and present information and worked to heighten awareness around our school.
In the past, our school council has visited the Houses of Parliament in London and met our local MPs. We hope that we will be able to do some more things like this soon.
Eco Council
Our Eco Council are elected in the Autumn Term by their peers.
A message from our Eco Council:-
As members of the Eco Council we help to look after the school environment, to save electricity and water. Everyday, two members of the Eco Council are in charge of keeping our playground tidy and collecting any litter. It is a tough job so please help us by putting your litter in the bin. When you leave a room, be sure to turn off the lights, the projector and anything else that is using electricity and not being used. We need to look after our resources. Remember to recycle too! Each class has two bins - rubbish goes in one bin and paper in the other - don't mix them up! Thank you.
The Eco Council developed a more global understanding of recycling when they visited Milton Keynes Recycling Centre. They found out how rubbish was sorted and then reduced, reused and recycled and even had their photos added to the centres new brochure! They have brought this knowledge back into school to improve what we do at Giles Brook. In Autumn 2021, our Eco Council took part in the 'Plant a tree' Campaign with the Parks Trust and Mrs. Fox. They are now busy working on recycling old pens with Mrs. McCullough - don't throw these away! - the Eco Council have lots of plans as these can be recycled and reused!
If you have any suggestions as to how we can care further for our environment and our school, please let us know. Look out for our Eco Council board in school, opposite the IT suite.
Play Leaders
Play leaders support our youngest children on the playground. We welcome applications from children in both Year 5 and Year 6. Interested children receive training where they learn a variety of games to support play on the playground at lunchtimes and are taught how to engage and encourage children who might be involved in more solitary play.
Play Leaders are easily seen on our playground as they wear bibs and caps.
Park Rangers
Our Junior Park Rangers work with the Park Rangers at our local woodland – Howe Park Wood. They meet annually with other Junior Rangers and complete activities to develop their understanding of this ancient woodland. They ensure that the information sent through to our school is shared with all our children through assemblies and take part in weekend events when they are available. Our Junior Rangers have supported the planting of 20 elm trees in the woodland in a drive to bring back elm to our city and have planted trees ahead of the Queen's Jubilee. They have also made bird boxes and feeders as well as insect and bug hotels – many of which are still in use on our school site.
Arts Council
Our School Arts Council was formed during our bid for ArtsMark status. We now have a group of children who represent art in many ways - from music to drama, dance to painting and drawing – they all have a talent and an interest in the arts in one way or another and act as ambassadors for the arts in our school.
This Autumn Term 2021, the Arts Council have been looking at the use of sketchbooks with our lead teacher, Miss Mack.
Digital Leaders
Digital leaders are a fantastic asset to our school community. We have a hard working group of digital leaders, two or three students from each class from years 3 through to year 6. All the digital leaders went through an application process - we had lots of applicants and it was really hard to choose!
Digital Leaders meet every other Friday lunchtime (Years 5/6/Years 3/4) in the ICT Suite, between 12:15 and 12:45 p.m. During the year they work on special projects and explore and share their skills so that they can support their peers in class.
Some digital leaders have presented the new skills they have learnt to their class and some have even gone and supported other classes! The children are all taught the same skills and willingly support each other – they work with great enthusiasm! We are looking to continue to engage our students with an interest in digital technologies through the Digital Leader scheme.
Sports Leaders
Sports leaders support the children at break and lunch times so that they can participate in different sports in a controlled and safe manner. We welcome applications from children in both Year 5 and Year 6. Interested children receive: training where they learn to lead and officiate games to support play on the playground or field at lunchtimes; teaching on how to engage and encourage children who might not be as confident as others; knowledge of how to set up the area where the games will take place. The Leaders are given responsibility to develop intra school team sports so that children from different year groups can interact and make new friendships. These primarily take place at break times.
School Librarians
All of our pupil librarians are hard working, responsible and have a keen interest in books and reading for pleasure. We have a group of up to 6 pupil librarians supporting the day to day running of the school library where they have the opportunity to develop a sense of responsibility, communication skills and self esteem. After receiving training, pupils have set times agreed with the School Librarian where they help to shelve fiction books in alphabetical order, shelve non fiction books according to the dewey number system, keep the shelves tidy and organised, help with book repairs, assist with displays in the library and around school and support other pupils to find what they are looking for.
