At St Patrick's, we are proud to have a School Council as it represents the views and opinions of the most important people in the school: our children.

Our elections took place recently and we were thrilled with the number of children in KS2 who wanted to be a potential member of the council. They had all worked hard to prepare a manifesto outlining their vision and suitability for the role and then presented this through a short speech to their peers. Years 3 and 4 held their elections in class and pupils in Years 5 and 6 presented their manifestos to all KS2 classes.

The pupils took part in a democratic vote and two representatives were elected from each class. The results were announced during our House Point Assembly. 

Congratulations to our new School Council Representatives and well done to everyone who took part.

Our fantastic Year 5 and 6 School Councillors spent the day at the Waterfront Hotel.  They worked on designs for the hoardings which are currently in place around  Southport Theatre and the Floral Hall whilst the new Marine Lake Event Centre is under construction. They were all super ambassadors for our school!

Jack and Mollie represented our School Council and visited the Southport Lifeboat on Monday 25th April to celebrate the fundraising campaign through Love My Community. They received a certificate and a fabulous tour of the centre. We had a great afternoon!

Supporting our global and local communities

As a school community, we have been raising money for Ukraine, CAFOD and the SVP during the Lenten season. Our Year 5 and 6 school councillors took food to Church to be distributed locally over the coming weeks. See the latest news for photographs.

Southport Town Plan

In March 2022, the Southport Town Deal consulted with school councils on one of the projects in the Town Investment Plan called, ‘Les Transformations de Southport’ which aims to improve access and connections across the town centre making it easier, safer and more enjoyable for people to get about the town.

Our School council loved being involved as saw this opportunity as having a voice in their community. They were provided with plans and visualisations and after lots of exciting discussion, completed their feedback which will be forwarded to wider groups in the community.

Pupil Voice – Playtime Equipment

The School Council met to discuss aspects of school life that they particularly enjoy and how improvements could be made to make our school even better. One suggestion was to improve playtime with the re-introduction of exciting play equipment that will encourage pupils to create their own games and enhance their physical and mental well-being.

This has since been actioned and each class was given a budget to be able to choose suitable playtime equipment that will make break times more fun and active.

Feedback from pupils

The School Council have been busy collecting feedback from their peers about the playtime equipment different classes purchased earlier in the term. It has been very pleasing to hear the many positive comments shared at the last School Council meeting. These include: ‘Playtimes are more fun and interactive and are promoting a healthy lifestyle.’ ‘There’s less accidents.’ ‘People are learning to share.’ ‘Behaviour has improved. There’s no rough play or arguing.’

School Council 2019-20

Our School Council elections took place last week and we were delighted with the number of children who put themselves forward for the role of School Councillor.  All manifestos were of a very high quality and the children presented themselves so well when outlining their ideas for making our school even better.

Years 3 and 4 held their elections in class. Children in Years 5 and 6 presented their manifestos to all children in Years 4, 5 and 6. Following this, children then completed voting slips and put them in the official ballot box, provided by Sefton Council. All results were announced at the House Point Assembly on 10^th October 2019.

Well done to all those who took part and many congratulations to our new School Councillors! 

Christmas Fundraising and support

Our School and Eco Councillors have been selling pots of bulbs once again this year to raise funds for the Don Orione Centres in the Philippines, India and Kenya.

The centres are run by the Sons of Divine Providence who make sure the money goes to where it is most needed. In the past, we have sent money to the centre in Bangalore where they look after street children, helping them with their education, to help with repair work in the Philippines following the storms and to an orphanage in Kenya.

Fr Martin and Joseph Tipping visited the School Council in January 2020 to thank them for their efforts.

Two Year 5 representatives from the School and Eco Council were keen to talk to KS2 pupils at the beginning of March raising awareness of how to look after our common home in response to Pope Francis' message 'Laudato Si'

Thank you girls for preparing such a powerful message.