Pupil Parliament

At Oldfield Brow Primary School, we actively promote pupil leadership opportunities, enabling pupils to develop valuable communication, organisation, and debating skills. We see our Pupil Parliament as being a way to embed the voice of our learners within the school improvement cycle and embedding our learner's understanding of the British Value of democracy alongside the rights of the child as part of our work as a UNICEF Rights Respecting School. We intend for our Pupil Parliament to be a well-respected body within the school and consist of learners from Year 1 to Year 6.

Who are the eligible members of our Pupil Parliament?

Oldfield Brow’s Pupil Parliament will consist of a group of children who have been democratically elected as representatives of their class. They will meet weekly with meetings led by Mr Butler.

Every two years, we will elect eighteen learners from Years 1 to 6 to represent the views of all pupils in their class and work alongside our school’s leadership team of Oldfield Brow to improve our school; using pupil voice as a way of evaluating school improvement initiatives as well as identifying improvement priorities.

What is the role of a ‘Member of the Pupil Parliament’ (MPP)?

Members of our Pupil Parliament (MPPs) will be actively involved in how our school is run. The children will be working closely with Mr Butler and Miss Drabble and will be required to attend weekly meetings.

Mr Butler will be the adult liaising between the parliament and wider school leadership. They will be instrumental in setting up the parliament and teaching MPPs the skills of effective debate and challenge. MPPs will also be in regular contact with the Senior Leadership Team and other members of staff.

As a member of our Pupil Parliament, learners will take on leadership roles within each meeting to ensure 'Pupil Voice' is heard and considered and will actively represent our school and take responsibility for guiding change.

The learners who are involved in our Parliament will meet regularly to discuss topics, issues and initiatives that affect them and their learning environment. For example, one aspect of the children’s work in this area would be to hold regular question and answer sessions with key members of staff, including the Headteacher, which are designed to offer pupil enquiry into some of the aspects of the school’s work.

During their regular meetings, MPPs will follow a clear meeting schedule linked to supporting the school’s development under the following headings:

Curriculum development and delivery (Quality of Education)
Embedding the Rights of a Child as a UNICEF Rights Respecting school (BRITISH VALUE LINK: Individual Liberty)
Effectiveness of the learning environment in promoting and allowing all children to meet our high expectations in their learning and behaviour (Behaviour and Attitudes)
Embedding our School Values in all aspects of our school’s work (Personal Development)

We will also be seeking the views of the children as to what areas of the school’s work they feel they can have an impact on.

What personal qualities do our MPPs need?

We are looking for someone who is confident to work with their class to share ideas but someone who can work with other adults around school and even have a role in some of our assemblies.
Someone who takes pride in our school and wants our school to be the best it can be.
A good role model who will also promote the Rights of a Child as we are on our journey to becoming a Rights Respecting School.
Someone who listens carefully to the views of others and takes their ideas on board.
Someone who can be impartial. You need to represent the majority view of your class, even if you don’t agree!
Someone who is responsible and committed. You will have to commit time to this role and accept that you may need to do things during break times, lunchtimes, before and after school.
Someone who is enthusiastic.
Someone who is creative and has lots of ideas on how to make our learning and school environment the best it can be.
Someone who is kind and respectful to all in school.
Someone who can show perseverance and does not give up easily! I am sure you all have amazing ideas but some projects may take time to be completed so just be aware of that.

Elections

Every child in Year 1 to Year 6 has the opportunity to be elected to the school council. It is an entirely inclusive and transparent process that is completed every two years.

The children all attended assemblies based on the concept of democracy and this will be a focus of our PSHCE lessons during the election period too. The children now know how important it is to make sure that everyone has the chance for their voice to be heard.

Following this, every child will be been invited to put their name forward for election. Each candidate will prepare a speech/presentation (no longer than 2 minutes) for the rest of their class which is designed to convey their suitability for the role.

We will be supporting our learners to use all of the information above to produce your presentation focusing on the key skills and qualities that we are looking for.

We will then hold an election where each class will vote for the pupil in their class that they think will be most suitable for the role based on their campaigns/presentations. The pupils with the most votes will form the Pupil Parliament.