Pupil Parliament
This ambitious student democracy initiative was launched across the Trust in September 2021. It involves representation of students from KS1 through to Sixth Form in all of the Vale Academy Trust's nine schools.
The aim of the VAT Pupil Parliament is to reflect on both current and possible future issues in schools and consider how best to tackle them by listening to others, raising awareness, and then implementing pupil's ideas to support improvement over time.
Sixth Formers take the lead in organising the agenda for the virtual parliamentary sessions that take place online via Teams.
Primary School Members of the Pupil Parliament are democratically elected by their peers and work in tandem with each school's Pupil Council and Pupil Parliament, gathering popular ideas for initiatives that are considered and voted on during the parliamentary sessions, helping to foster beneficial links between the primary and secondary phases. Younger students are supported in understanding how they and their school can participate so that all can work together to achieve their agreed aims. The plan is for regular meetings to take place involving all school representatives in order that they can share what they have been working on at their own settings. Two such meetings have taken place to date.
Examples of recent projects include:
- Green Wellbeing spaces in all schools
- Focus groups on youth crime, in conjunction with Thames Valley Police
- Primaries International Day – planning stages
- Litter picking
- Science Awards initiative
Read on to find out more about our student parliament representatives .....
I’m the Local Governing Body Link. I contact local councillors to put Pupil Parliament initiatives into action. I currently study politics, sociology and history. Catherine
I am responsible for keeping in contact with the governing bodies and secondary school leadership members we need for each project. I'm delighted to play my part in facilitating positive change and working with pupil groups across the Trust to achieve this. Joshua
Having been part of the parliament for a while now, I can truthfully say that we are a hard-working team with a focus on many different projects that I am sure will make a positive impact on the school environment for students. Martina, Parliament Co-Chair
As secondary school link I'm responsible for informing other secondary school links about upcoming projects. I enjoy being able to encourage the sharing of important ideas for change with pupils across our schools. Kalai
Currently, I am studying Maths, Physics and Further Maths with a view to studying computer science in the future. My goals for the parliament are to increase younger children’s understanding and love for STEM subjects and to increase their awareness of the current climate crisis. Tanisha, Parliament Co-Chair
I'm studying Spanish, History and English Lit. My role in the Pupil Parliament is Primary Link. I’m the contact between primary schools and the Parliament, so that we can collaborate on initiatives. I enjoy working with children as well as teachers, and I think primary schools are really important to our community! Tilly
I'm in Year 10 and a Primary school link. I'm a passionate speaker, and enjoy discussing ideas and communicating with a variety of people, whilst occasionally delving into the theoretical! Rosie
I enjoy a Primary Link role with the parliament, which involves discussion and information collecting from primary schools. Joshua