Student Council

Our MISSION STATEMENT

The Purbeck School holds the belief that successful education requires active participation from staff, students and governors of the school (and other schools within the Purbeck pyramid), parents and guardians in the home, and members of the community. We believe that effective relationships are promoted through consultation, collaboration and open communication.

The PURPOSE OF our STUDENT focus groups

The purpose of our student focus groups is to encourage pupils to get involved in issues that concern them in and around school. Our student focus groups will be based around the principle of listening to the views of pupils and ensuring these views are acted upon. Put simply, the student voice is a force for improving The Purbeck School.

Organisation

The student focus groups are overseen by Assistant Headteacher Mrs Watson. It draws representatives from each of the tutor groups in Year 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11. On a half termly basis, student focus groups will meet with either Mrs Watson, a member of the Senior Leadership Team or a Middle Leader to discuss matter such as teaching and learning, pastoral support; the community and extra-curricular provision in the school.

Timetable of upcoming focus groups

Date	Year Group	Staff Member	Topics
Week commencing 23/9/24	11	Mrs Watson	Support & preparation for GCSEs
Week commencing 30/9/24	7	All members of SLT	Answering your questions on Purbeck School and reflection on the start to year 7
Week commencing 11/11	Whole School voting	Mr Darley	Reviewing the use of CCTV by our school toilets.
Week commencing 25/11	10 tutor groups in years 7-12	Miss Yarnold	Anti-bullying & school environment
Week commencing 9/12	Whole School	Mrs Watson, House Leaders and members of the Sixth Form Student Leadership Team	What’s your experiences of being a young person in our school?
Week commencing 3/2	Whole school	Mrs Watson and the Sixth Form Student Leadership Team	The Purbeck School Mission and Ethos

Please check back for a record of minutes from each focus group and the actions taken

What did the Student Council achieve in 2023-24

You Said…	We Did…
We would like more house competitions.	House Leaders, Mr Mead and Mrs Watson listened to the student council suggestions and a year plan of house competitions has been planned. The first is a ‘Coin Challenge’ which will be closely followed by The Best Pumpkin Design for Halloween.
Can we have more non-uniform days?	Last year, we had three non-uniform days. One was raising money for ‘Show Racism the Red Card,’ the second was for ‘#willdoes’ and the third for Red Nose Day
Please can we have a meal deal in the canteen.	A meal deal was introduced for £2.70
Can we have a breakfast provision.	The café is now open before school serving a range of pastries and toast for breakfast
Year 11 would like some breakfast before their exams.	Our catering provider kindly sponsored breakfast for our year 11 students before they sat their exams.
Can year 10 and year 11 have revision time built into the tutor programme?	Year 10 and year 11 tutor groups were given revision time and a box of revision resources to help them prepare for their exams.
We would like more trips.	Mrs Watson is planning activities week for July 2025.
We would like to do more to celebrate national awareness days and key issues in society.	We introduced a weekly ‘Bold Voices’ tutor time session to give you all further time to discuss matters such as LGBTQ+, racism, sexism and protecting the planet. We also ran half termly campaigns such as Pride month where we created our own Purbeck School Pride Logo and where we showed ‘Racism the Red Card’ by wearing something red, whilst fundraising for their charity.

If you are interested in supporting or joining our student council, please contact cwatson@purbeck.dorset.sch.uk

Please do read the student council minutes for further actions taken.

Student Council

Our MISSION STATEMENT

The PURPOSE OF our STUDENT focus groups

Timetable of upcoming focus groups

What did the Student Council achieve in 2023-24

Student Focus Group Minutes