Welcome to the School Council Page 

Little Ealing Primary School is a member of the Smart School Councils Community. This charitable organisation was established to help schools promote pupil voice and engage all pupils in decision-making, social action and developing essential life skills.

The Smart School Councils model has three core elements:

Communication Team:

The Communication Team is made up of one pupil from every class, elected at the beginning of the year to help run the Smart School Council and get everyone involved. At LEPS we refer to the members of our Communication Team as ‘School Councillors’, and they meet at lunchtime once every two weeks with the School Council Coordinator, a member of staff who is responsible for overseeing School Council activities. The job of the School Councillors is to coordinate fundraising, and set questions for the rest of the school to vote on, evaluate the results of previous votes and agree on actions that arise from them. They also act as an extra channel of communication, bringing ideas from their classmates and relaying information about School Council activities back to their classes.

Class Meetings:

Class Meetings have been key to the success of the Smart School Councils model at LEPS and enable all the pupils from Year 1 to Year 6 to vote regularly on an issue or question of interest. The aim is to allow pupils to voice their opinions and to have a say in the way our school is run.

Class Meetings are short, focussed sessions that are held once or twice every half term. They are guided by the ‘Class Meeting Tool’, an online form that is sent by the School Council Coordinator to every class teacher. The Class Meeting needs one person to lead it and another to record class responses on the form, and these roles are taken by pupils whenever possible.

Each meeting is based around a single question, with three or four possible answers. Pupils discuss the subject in groups of three and agree upon an answer. Votes are entered into the form and collected electronically. The results are then checked and evaluated by the School Councillors and fed back to the classes.

Action Teams:

Action Teams are the third element of the Smart School Councils model. These are small groups, clubs or teams who get together to share an interest, organise an event or try and improve something about the school. Action Teams need to be approved by a member of staff but should be able to be run by pupils independently. Pupils cannot arrange clubs or activities that require adult supervision or the use of school resources unless a member of staff has agreed to participate.

At Little Ealing Primary School, our School Councillors have a vital role to play organising fundraising activities, collaborating with the school’s PTFA in events such as the Christmas Bazaar and the Summer Fete, and acting as a spokesperson for their class. But the Smart School Councils model means that all pupils are encouraged to express their opinions, be involved in decision-making and lead change if they want to. Pupils learn how to discuss and debate issues, work as a team, communicate, negotiate and compromise. They are regularly exposed to core British values such as democracy, tolerance and respect for others’ views and the profile of pupil voice in our school is raised as a result.