The school councils in Maamulaha are also enjoying some collaborative working, and providing the opportunity for school councillors from the across the network schools to meet each other and work together has proved a popular addition to our network projects. Children from each school council meet to exchange and develop ideas of what makes a school council effective. This year, our network of school councils is working with Local Authority Governors at the Council Chamber to establish an agreed job description for a school councillor.

Over 100 children and staff from Maamulaha schools were joined by Cllr Janet Burgess, Deputy Leader of the council, along with James Potts, LA Governor at Christ the King School and Darey Cletus, Islington Youth Councillor and Member of the British Youth Parliament.

The children enjoyed the spectacle of the City Chambers and spent the afternoon benefitting from talks and advice from the experienced councillors. Darey Cletus, who is now a member of the British Youth Parliament, said “I hope I have inspired the children I worked with today to continue to make a difference to their school communities.  I was in the School Council when I attended Sacred Heart in Islington so perhaps one of them will be the leader of Islington Youth Council one day”.

After much discussion and sharing of views, the children arrived at the 7 key traits they most felt made good councillors, which you can see by clicking this link: School Councils Skills 171115 FINAL.

The children were inspired by the venue and the speakers. Abigial Gezi, age 10, Hargrave Park School said, ‘This experience will help me to have a brighter future because the speeches we heard were so inspiring.’ Tara Seaton Williams, age 8, added ‘Doing things like this helps me to be less shy and better at speaking.’