What is a Pupil Parliament?

Our Pupil Parliament is a group of students elected by their fellow pupils to represent their opinions and raise issues and suggestions with the headteacher and governors in the school. Our Pupil Parliament will also progress projects on behalf of the pupils, and be involved in activities such as: the School Development Plan, governing body meetings and interviewing potential new staff.

To be effective, our Pupil Parliament must:

• Represent all pupils across each key stage
• Take time to listen to all pupils and communicate their views
• Feed back to pupils on any developments
• Make things happen – or explain why they can’t!

October Pupil Parliament Update

During our Assembly on Friday, we celebrated all the children who had put themselves forward for the Pupil Parliament elections. We were quite astounded when approximately 75% of the children in the school stood up to be clapped. The children were praised for their efforts and confidence - for some children standing for election was a big task.

Certainly something that has come from the elections, and I know from the fantastic presentations in Onyx, is the wealth of wonderful ideas that the children have across the school. We do not want these to be lost and it is important to us that every child's voice is heard. This, therefore, will be one of Pupil Parliament’s first assignments - to ask each class to reflect on the election presentations and to put forward three ‘realistic’ ideas as to how to make our great school even better. Year 6 Pupil Parliament members will also visit the Nursery and Reception classes. As a Pupil Parliament, we will discuss these ideas and devise a plan to propose to Mrs Davies. 

All classes carried out democratic votes and congratulations to the following children who will represent each class for our school Pupil Parliament:

Diamond - Mila-Rae LB

Emerald - Harry BN

Garnet - Jai B

Jade - Jesse S

Onyx - Liam P

Opal - Liam AB

Sapphire - Rosie W

Ruby - Simukai E

Year 6 - Frankie W, Lucas G, Violet K, Max S

You will find a photo of these children in the Pupil Parliament section of the school website and on X (Twitter) @BPPrimarySch

A special mention to the Year 6 children who had to apply in writing for a Pupil Parliament position. Members of the Senior Leadership Team reviewed these applications (with the names obscured) and selected children were invited to an interview. They all dealt with this new experience admirably and we are very proud of them.

Lastly, we thank you for your help in supporting your child/ren with their applications/presentations. We definitely have some budding politicians in our midst that could give the current parties a few tips!

Farewell and Thank You

As a thank you from the staff and children at Brookmans Park School, the Pupil Parliament children were rewarded with delicious Snow Cones on Tuesday afternoon. This fantastic group of children regularly give up their lunchtimes to meet and discuss how to make a positive difference to our school. Many members have spent time at home designing detailed presentations or writing up reports. We are very grateful to these children and we wish the Year 6 members all the best in their secondary schools where they will hopefully take and use many of the skills they have demonstrated in their Pupil Parliament roles. Please see the Pupil Parliament section on the school website for more photos. Mrs J Johnson will be organising elections for a Pupil Parliament members in the Autumn term.

Grant Shapps' Visit to School

On Friday 14th July we welcomed Mr Grant Shapps to Brookmans Park School. We thoroughly enjoyed hearing about his political journey so far and plans for the future during a KS2 assembly. Following this, our Pupil Parliament members and eco-monitor representatives shared presentations with Mr Shapps describing the valuable work that they have carried out this year and their ideas going forward. He was impressed with how articulately the children spoke and their passion for creating a safer and more sustainable future for our school and surrounding areas. We thank Mrs Gold in her part in organising this event.

On the 19th June, the KS2 Pupil Parliament members were treated to a trip to the Houses of Parliament. This included a fascinating tour of the House of Lords and the House of Commons followed by a debating workshop. Please see two reports below by Evie and James.

Evie Ray - Houses of Parliament Trip Review
Overall I really enjoyed how we debated over the weekend being 3 days or 2 days long.
I also liked the quiz as we had to work together and had to really think about the answers. It was really interesting to learn about how decisions are made in Parliament regarding the running of the UK.

Pupil Parliament Visit to Houses of Parliament - Debating
workshop
By James Challis
The older members of Brookmans Park Pupil Parliament had
an exciting debating workshop at our visit to the Houses of
Parliament which taught us about how new laws are made,
including how they are presented as Bills. At first we did a fun
quiz with interesting facts about Parliament and the different
political parties. The two main political parties include
the Conservative Party and Labour Party. 
We were then presented with three laws, and we had to vote
for our favourite.  The law that won our vote was a three day
weekend.   
After that, we got into 2 groups and elected a leader for each
group.  We were then given time to discuss and debate the law
on whether we should have a three day weekend.  Group A
had to present the pros and group B had to present the cons.
There was then a vote by us pupils from pupil parliament
representing the House of Commons. 
The law was agreed and then the teachers, who were
representing the House of Lords, perfected the Bill and voted to
only have one day off a month! The children in the House of
Commons had another final vote and it was decided that the
law would stand. We enjoyed this amazing trip so much and we
would like to thank Mrs Johnson and Mrs Sharkey for arranging
this wonderful experience.

Our Incredible Afternoon with Royalty - Monday 13th March 2023

On Monday, the Year 6 Pupil Parliament went on a trip to Westminster Abbey for Commonwealth Day. This was a very prestigious event as His Majesty, The King was there.

Once we got to the Abbey, we found our seats and luckily they were quite close to the front.

Around 30 minutes into the event, the King and Queen Consort walked down the aisle with Princess Anne and The Prince and Princess of Wales. We stood up to sing God Save the King and then the event started.

Lots of speeches were made by members of the commonwealth and we even got to meet some athletes who competed in the commonwealth games!

There were lots of fun exhibitions and dances shown. We had lots of fun there and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. We are so grateful for this amazing opportunity.

By Mila C (Year 6)

What is a Pupil Parliament?

Our Pupil Parliament 2022/23

Who are we?

We are delighted to introduce ourselves as your new Pupil Parliament members for the 2022/2023 academic year:

Year 6 Members - Daniel, Lexi, Ryan, Tegan, George B, Tiana, Mila

Ruby - Evie

Sapphire - Georgia

Opal - Amelia

Onyx - Leonardo

Jade - Jessica

Garnet - William

Emerald - Jason

Diamond - Amaia

How are we elected?

Our Pupil Parliament is made up of pupils from Year 1 to 6. Children from each class are democratically chosen by their classmates at the start of each school year to represent the views of their peers at meetings. It is a great compliment to those pupils that are chosen, as it shows that their fellow students have placed their trust in them.

Our Upper Key Stage 2 children have to apply directly to Mrs Davies, through an anonymous application form, before being selected for the next stage. This year, they took part in an observed group discussion about their vision to change the school.

During the year, our Pupil Parliament will take part in a variety of activities which will help to make our school a better place for everyone, particularly focusing on well-being.