Here at New Ford Academy, our Academy Council consists of a team of devoted, dedicated children who are elected by their peers to represent them and their views in and out of school.

The process of being voted into the Academy Council couldn’t be easier. Each year, children who wish to join this group either express their interest and are then voted in by their peers or they are nominated specifically by a class teacher who thinks that they would be an ideal candidate to represent their class across both the school and local community.

In this group, children take their roles very seriously. As a result of their hard work, the children in the Academy Council are able to orchestrate changes and take a pivotal role in representing New Ford both in the local and wider community.  The Academy Council meet every 2 to 3 weeks to not only provide a voice for all pupils, but to assist and contribute ideas towards important decisions about the school and it’s environment, arranging charity events and much more.

Our school council decided that they wanted to raise money for a child choice charity.

They organised a survey and a whole school vote on which type of charity the children would like to support and raise money for. The most popular was animals.

Our school council then shortlisted three animal charities for the school to chose from.

Local – Dogs home

National - RSPCA

Worldwide -WWF

We had our 1^st Charity assembly looking at a local dog homes and the important work of the international WWF Charity, watching videos about their Impact. We learned about the work these charities do and their impact.

We also had a 2^nd Charity assembly, exploring the work of the RSPCA. We had a special visitor from the North Staffs RSPCA, Peter Allen with their mascot dog Rosie – a beautiful black Labrador cross. We learned all about the history and important work of this charity too and the impact they have in our local area.

Our staff and children loved meeting Rosie and was a highlight to the week for many.

Our children then voted to share their views on which charity they wanted to support with some of the funds raised from our Autumn disco this week. These are there results:

Our charity disco raised £240 in ticket sales. The school council had a discussion about what to do next.

They decided to give £200 to RSPCA as the winning charity (which also rehomes dogs and other animals as part of its work)

They decided to give £40 to WWF in acknowledgement of them receiving support from a fifth of the school.  The school council voted to choose which animal to adopt and chose a snow leopard.

The school has received its own mini snow leopard to take care of and an info pack.

Here are the certificates to say thank you from the charities.

As a school council last year and this year we have been involved in celebrating and thanking staff with special rewards and a monthly staff award last year in addition to thank you cards that we sent out to all teachers at Christmas.

As a school council last year, we came up with the idea of having furry toys to represent reading roles that we use in school.

We have also since added Shaun the sheep to our furry friends last year to represent the skill of inference.

Here is what some of our previous School councillors have said about their experiences too: