I have made a number of visits to Coryton Primary in the last few months in addition to my usual visits for Governors meetings. I have made a point of trying to visit as many School Councils as possible as it is one of the Assembly's policy initiatives which I fully support - the fact that the establishment of a School Council to give pupils a say in how their school is run is mandatory in Wales rather than just 'encouraged' as in England.
I attended the meeting of the Coryton Primary School Council in November and was impressed by the way the meeting was run and the issues which were being fed into the Council by the various year group representatives.
In December I returned but this time took the Assembly Education Minister, Jane Davidson AM with me so that she could see the Assembly's policy in action in a Cardiff North school. The children told Jane that they were pleased to be members of the Council and they thought it was a good idea to have them.
Interestingly one of the issues which was raised on both occasions was the pupils dissatisfaction with the toilets. It seems that this is not unusual as this issue was also highlighted by the Children's Commissioner, Peter Clarke, when he attended a meeting of the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee (of which I am a member) a couple of years ago. Peter Clarke told us that the state of school toilets - the fact that there were often covered in graffiti, did not have locking door and sometimes didn't have soap- was an issue which was raised with him regularly when he visited schools across Wales.
However, in this case the children are using the School Council to make a positive difference. They voted to spend some of their budget (some of which had been provided by the Governors and some of which they had raised themselves at the recent Christmas Fayre) on re-decorating the toilets. They decided that each representative would consult with their class colleagues and they would consider the results of the consultation before deciding what colours they should use.
A fine example of democracy in action. Maybe these children will be the political representatives of the future!
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