We held our first meeting of 2022 today. Due to restrictions over the previous weeks our previous meeting had to be cancelled so everyone was looking forward to this week’s meeting.

At the start of the meeting we discussed our previous targets. Pupils had been collecting information from their classes around bullying and what we could do to make The Observatory School a bully free school. We discussed the reasons people may bully and what we could do to support the victims of bullying.

Here are some of the key points raised during this section:

  • If there has been an incident during lunch or break times, this needs to be reported to a staff member so that they can help.
  • The council suggested a post box in classrooms so pupils who see any bullying or if they are the victim of bullying could post it in the box. This would help people if they did not feel they can talk to anyone about it.
  • The council also suggested a buddy system where victims of bullying could support each other and have someone to talk to in school.

We will continue to develop this and we are looking forward to hosting Safer Internet Day in February where we we tackle the issue further.

On this week’s agenda we spoke about wellbeing. Miss Gower explained what it meant and the council gave their thoughts on the matter. They discussed the impact of Covid and how this has made some people feel sad and depressed. One of the councils tasks this week is to get ideas on how we can improve pupil wellbeing throughout the school. They will bring their ideas to the next meeting.

We also spoke about the school uniform. The council had a majority vote that the uniform was a good idea. James said that it prepares them for adult life and getting a job. Arran said that some people did not like the ties as they felt uncomfortable. The council are going to do a survey with their classes to get the whole schools view on the uniform.

Mrs Dowd joined the meeting to ask the pupils for ideas to celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee. Lots of ideas were discussed, ranging from a festival to having afternoon tea!

As always the council were very sensible and mature, taking turns to speak and listening well to the views of others.