Student Council ‘Our Voice’
School Council
At Shepwell, we value every student and their individual opinions. This is reflected with our anonymous comment boxes regarding bullying, curriculum and general suggestions in which students can post any of their concerns or ideas. We have also introduced a number of student representatives in the form of Head Boy and Girl and Deputy Head Boy and Girl. These elected students will be meeting regularly with Mr Pritchard-Jones to discuss school issues. These positions were introduced to further create a culture of openness where students feel valued, listened to and secure in voicing their concerns and suggestions.
We are also extremely proud of our Student Council who meet at least once a half term. Our council representative meets with all students and gains insight into what they are happy about, what needs to be improved and ideas on how we can move forward together. Our student council representative is then invited into a Senior Leadership Team meeting to feedback on the opinions and ideas of their peers. We are very proud to report that the most recent action taken as a direct suggestion from the students at Shepwell is the introduction of individual water bottles for all students and members of staff. Students wanted these as they were conscious of environmental issues and wanted to cut down on our plastic consumption through eliminating the single use plastic cups which came with our water fountains. Previous student council outcomes also include shorter lunchtimes and lunchtime activities, introduction of packed lunches, introduction of music lessons, ideas about our garden area and curriculum suggestions regarding humanities and activity times. We have also responded to students wanting revision classes and taken on board their ideas for external trips. Student council have also played a major role in deciding the colour of their new school uniform which we are looking forward to introducing soon. Finally, we are extremely proud that students and staff cohesively created and voted for the new school mission statement “believing is achieving” which we feel encapsulates our ethos here at Shepwell. We are now looking forward to the next Student Council meeting to listen and respond to more exciting ideas from our students on how to improve their school even further!
Pupil Voice
At Shepwell we want pupils be involved in all aspects of the school, we enjoy having their feedback and ideas, as this contributes to the development of new facilities, the uniform and this website!
We run competitions to ask for pupils help with things staff would like to update or change- for example our new school motto ‘Believing is Achieving’, was the outcome of our latest competition.
Pupils are happy to give us feedback about how they feel about school, here are some of their comments:
“Shepwell has changed my life. I spend more time with my family and they now like me being with them”
“Shepwell helped me to be confident. They always listen to me and help me. I’m not scared of school anymore”
“You really did save my life”
“I can’t thank you enough for your encouragement and inspiration. You have changed us all for the better”
“I couldn’t have wished for three better teachers. He loved the lessons and has made fantastic progress in just three weeks”
“The work you do is truly amazing-never give up”
“I can’t believe it’s the end of my time at Shepwell, it’s gone so fast. You’ve all seen me at my worst and at my best but you’ve all been there to support me every step of the way. I couldn’t be more thankful. I’m going to miss you all loads”
“I hated school and never wanted to go. Now my attendance is 90% and I’m very proud of myself and I love school. Thank you Shepwell”
“At Shepwell I’m much more focussed and very proud of myself”
“I really love Shepwell, teachers are nice and helpful and I know I’m making much more progress in lessons”
“I like Shepwell I find mainstream school depressing and this makes me feel poorly again”
“At mainstream I wasn’t getting anywhere, I struggled; teachers didn’t understand, help or care about me. Only one teacher tried to help but at Shepwell everyone helps me”
“Shepwell has given me confidence. I’m really proud of myself for walking into school on my own. My grades have gone down because I missed a lot of school. Shepwell is helping me to catch up and I know I’m doing really well”