Our School Parliament

Homelands Primary School Council has evolved into a School Parliament.

Here at Homelands, a group of pupils are elected by their peers to represent the views of all pupils to improve our school.

From this elected parliament, a ‘cabinet’ is formed. Some of these children hold titles such as ‘Speaker of Homelands’,  ‘Press Secretary’ and ‘Caring Cabinet’.

Our School Parliament meets regularly to discuss the ideas of their peers and address any problems which have been brought to their attention. These may include the school improvement plans, environmental issues linked to school, lunch and breaktime arrangements, behaviour, clubs, general day-to-day activities etc. 

Members of the School Parliament are responsible for carrying out the ideas that have been agreed, for example: what to spend fund raising money on; improving lunchtime across the school or planning new playground activities. They have also been part of policy planning, working alongside subject leaders.

Being a school parliamentarian is a responsible and respected position at Homelands. Our School Parliament has continuously been highly effective; resulting in every child learning a lot from taking part and the school becoming a wonderful place to learn and play. 

Why do we have a School Parliament? 

Our School Parliament is about the following: 

• Working and learning together to achieve shared goals.

• Learning about democracy by being involved in a democratic process and organisation.

• Learning how to play a positive role in our community whilst being a positive role model for others.

• Improving our school for everyone.

Our School Parliament’s job is to involve everyone, not do everything. Everybody needs to help by: 

•  Finding things that they would like to change 

•  Finding ways to make things better 

•  Putting their ideas into actions 

• Communicating and working with other partners such as school leaders, governors and members of the community to achieve their goals.

How does our Parliament work? 

•  Each class will elect a School Parliament member(s) 

• School Parliament will meet regularly

• Every class has a ‘memo board’ displayed in class for any child to record their ideas, questions or issues they would like School Parliament to discuss at their next meeting.

• Each member is responsible for transferring these ideas into their ‘Parliament Agenda’ books. These are taken to meetings and discussed.

• Once a term, the School Parliament meet with our headteacher Mrs Urquhart to discuss these ideas and issues further.

• The Speaker will chair the meeting with support from an adult and notes are taken.

•  The School Parliament Member from each class go to a Governors meeting every term.

• They also attend a breakfast meeting termly.

When the classes share ideas with their class representative they will, in turn, take it to the next School Parliament meeting to discuss and tell the class what is happening with that idea.

Our School Parliament will try to make an idea happen by discussing its viability and seeking the permission, funds, wider support or time required.

If they cannot make the idea happen there will present their clear reasons why it cannot happen. 

What do our staff do for the School Parliament? 

The staff at Homelands are welcoming, encouraging and value the role of our School Parliament. They support School Parliament by…

• Making sure meetings happen when they are supposed to 

• Supporting pupils to run meetings 

• Ensuring that there is time given for meetings 

• Initially modelling chairing a meeting 

• Supporting class discussions

• Ensuring everyone feels listened to

• Empowering the Members of School Parliament to affect change

• Working alongside School Parliament to fulfil initiatives and ideas which the children believe are necessary to improve the learning and experiences of all pupils at Homelands Primary School.