Our School Council was first established in 2007 to ensure ‘pupil voice’ was obtained and more importantly, recognised. This aspect continues today.

Originally, student members came from the Post 16 department, which at the time was based next door to the main school. Over the following two years this small group of hardworking and ambitious young adults achieved an enormous amount on behalf of all the pupils which would impact upon our school; such initiatives resulted in:

·         Additional funding was obtained to buy new playground equipment for the early years

·         A School Council Record of Achievement Cup was introduced

·         The annual Leavers Party was organised

·         An ‘outstanding’ Travel Plan was compiled with members of the School Council making a presentation at County Hall to senior educational advisors.

Now that Curnow School is split across two school sites the role of the School Council has slightly changed.

At Lower School some of our pupils join their Illogan school peers. With support from Curnow staff, pupils attend structured School Council meetings. The purpose of such work ensures two aspects;

1. to ensure pupil voice across both school settings is represented and recognised and

2. to ensure that further inclusive learning opportunities can be planned in an informed way.

Our Lower School Governor attends all School Council meetings to assist in their role of monitoring inclusive practice which is then reported back to the Local Governing Body.

At Upper School, the students hold School Council meetings each half term; again there is representation from the Governors to assist in the monitoring of pupil voice and how the school obtains this. With so many changes happening in Upper School (curriculum and resources to name but a few) we aim to ensure the School Council is fully involved in aspects of decision making.

With the increased focus on the way we are planning to continue to improve the school environment we have charged the School Council with establishing a consultation process with their peers to examine the resources the school wishes to develop – (e.g. – outdoor leisure area, common room development) seeking out views and ideas, bringing these back for further discussion.

The School Council is organised by one of our HLTA’s. The Head Teacher and School Council Governor attend all meetings; agenda items have been determined and these are published in the school. Part of the School Council’s role over this academic year is to help identify and organise our whole school 'Charity Day' held in the summer term, which will underpin our SMSC provision. We strongly believe through such work we are able to uphold our school mission statement of ‘working for success’ and help strengthen the school community even further.

Reports detailing student voice are compiled and presented to the Local Governing body; this aspect of our work is featured within our 2016 – 2019 School Improvement Plan.