Our school council is made up of two children from each class in Year 1 and Year 2. We hold regular meetings to find out what our children think about our school and how they would like to make improvements. The members of the council ask the children in their class for their thoughts and ideas. School Council children are also the champions for British Values. 

November 2023

What an exciting week it has been for New Malden with King Charles visiting our lovely community! Our lucky school council children went to the high street on Wednesday and got a front row position for when the King arrived! The King was so friendly and seemed happy to chat with the children, asking them whether they preferred maths or English at school! The children were so polite and confident and even made the King laugh!
 
Prior to the visit, school council got together to write the King a letter telling him all about our wonderful school and, what they think makes us special. When they finally met the King they handed over the letter and we are really hoping he reads it and maybe even sends a reply.
 
We are so proud of the children; they behaved so beautifully and waited for the King with patience and good humour despite the pouring rain. One of the children commented that it was his dream to meet the King and that his dream had come true! It was a wonderful afternoon all round. We feel so proud that King Charles got to see our local community and it’s diverse cultures and that our children were able to be part of the experience. We hope it will be a day they remember for years to come!

February 2023

School Council met with Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats who is the MP for Kingston and Surbiton. They asked lots of excellent questions about how Sir Davey would be helping schools, and how he would improve New Malden. They learnt about how Sir Davey worked with other MPs to make laws for the country, and that we needed laws to keep everyone safe and happy. They learnt that in the same way we have school rules to keep us safe and happy at school. The children were excited to hear that Sir Davey was elected, just like school council children were elected by their classmates. Well done School Council!

January 2023

Last term, some of our School Council children were selected to help Burlington schools find a new catering company to provide our school lunches. The children did an excellent job with food tasting and giving their honest feedback about what they liked and disliked about each one. Their views have been taken as part of the selection process and we are excited to say that we have found a new catering company. Look out for news on the new caterers this term! Well done School Council! 

The School Council learned that they can help make big changes to improve our school through democracy; that their ideas and opinions mattered. Through democracy, we learned that our voices were important. 

November 2022

Democracy in Action!

Each class voted on which areas of the school they would like to improve, and what they wanted to do to improve it.  The most votes were for the reading den and the sandpit.  The children wrote a shopping list of things they wanted to buy to improve the reading den and sandpit.

The school council members took a trip today to New Malden High Street with Mrs Yay-Walker and Miss Ahmed to purchase items that their classes voted on to improve the reading den and sand pit area in the year 1 & 2 playground. The children were very excited to be representing the views of the children in their class!

July 2022

The school council help Mrs Yay-Walker and the governors take care of the playground to ensure it is safe. They work hard to spot areas that need repairing every year, and make helpful suggestions to improve the playground. This year, they were involved in making some big decisions. They noticed that some of the playground equipment was very old and needed replacing. They gathered the views of their classmates, and met with Mrs Yay-Walker to design a new playground. They came up with some great ideas, including a slide, repairs to the playground surface and a bigger area to play football.

UPDATE in September: After the summer holidays, the children returned to find a brand new playground which included many of their ideas. Great work school council!

Each class voted on a name for the new climbing area of the playground. ‘Jungle Gym’ was the winner with the most votes!  

February 2022

We asked the children this question. The children at Burlington had some strong opinions about their school lunches. The School Council put this question to the test…
After working so hard gathering the views of their classmates, they wrote to Radish, our school caterers. Then we got a surprise visit in an assembly this week from Keighley (Area Manager) and Steph (chef) from Radish. She said that the children wrote such strong letters with great reasons why they should be allowed ketchup, she decided that Radish would have to make some changes. She shared that they WOULD allow ketchup once a week, with their fish and chips! The children cheered! The whole school thanks Radish, our fantastic caterers for the wonderful news! So the answer was YES! Democracy DOES work at Burlington Infants! Well done, school council! Well done Burlington Infants!

January 2022

Does Democracy Work at Burlington?
School Council have been busy finding out what the children in their classes thought of school lunches. Dhilan from Saturn class asked if we could have ketchup with our lunches. We were told that we didn’t have ketchup because it had sugar in it. School council worked hard with the other children in their classes to think of reasons why we should be allowed to have ketchup. The children decided they wanted to speak out about what they believed  in! They wrote persuasive letters to our caterers Radish, asking for ketchup. Does ‘democracy’ work at Burlington Infants? We are putting it to the test! Fingers crossed!  

December 2021

Each class in Year 1 and 2 held an election to vote for 2 children who would be their school council representatives.
The role of our school council is very important to the running of the school. Their job is to help the Headteacher make some important decisions and help improve the school. This week, school council met with our school chef, Steph, to share their class’ views about the food offered on the lunch menu. The school council children had to ask their friends in their class to vote for the foods they liked. The information the children shared with Steph will be used to improve the school lunches. Some foods were voted off the menu!

British Values

The school council will lead some of the work on British Values through assemblies and through class work. These values are built in to our curriculum to ensure our children become valuable and well-rounded members of society who treat others with respect and tolerance, regardless of background.
This half term, the children are developing an understanding of ‘Democracy’ and how they can influence decision-making through the democratic process.