Over the past five years the children of Hartford Infant School have successfully elected two councillors from each class each year.
The children are all allowed to self-nominate and are encouraged to write their own manifestos in the week leading up to the election.
We aim to coincide our elections with the UK Parliament Week in November of each year. All teachers prepare the children through a series of lessons in our PSHE sessions and in assemblies on what voting means to ensure all children are aware of the connotations. We then hold our elections in class where the prospective councillors present their manifestos before the class members take part in a discreet voting procedure. Then the exciting results are revealed!
The elected representatives meet with a nominated member of staff regularly to discuss areas of importance. They also feed back views, ideas and opinions to individual classes and in assemblies. The school council occasionally meet with Hartford Junior School Council to discuss and collaborate on projects affecting both schools. Each school councillor wears a pin badge during the school day. This way everyone knows who the school councillors are and who represents the student voice.