Pupil Voice
School Council
How our members are elected
Members of our school council are elected each year by their peers. They serve for one academic year. They are elected because they want to make our school even better and our learning even more powerful for everyone. Their opinions and input are valued. There are regular opportunities in class for children to share improvement suggestions with their class councillors. Our School Council aims to meet at least half-termly, sometimes more frequently if we are working on a project, to discuss suggestions together.
The following children have been elected by their class to represent them on the School Council for 2025-26.
School Council Projects 2025-26
Single-Use Plastic
As good Global Neighbours and concerned about plastic pollution and its impact on our world, our School Councillors have rightly been raising awareness of the use of single-use plastics within their classes and across the school. They are asking everyone in our school community to think carefully about how we can look after our planet by reducing our reliance on single-use plastics at school. As a result of School Councillors asking classes to
reflect on simple, practical changes we can all make to cut down on plastic use and waste, we are all
placing an even greater emphasis on tackling this important issue as we move forward. For example, in
school, we are thinking about the prizes we award and how we can avoid single use plastic products. We
are also being much more mindful about materials we use. Please do talk about the topic of single use plastics at
home and consider any changes that you can make — not only to support our School Council, but also to
help make our world a better place. Every small action can make a real difference!
Ripple Effect Charity
Our School Councillors have been researching how the issue of poverty and hunger internationally can be tackled through sustainable agriculture. Wanting to support and make a difference, School Councillors have met the community manager of Ripple Effect charity to discuss ways in which we can support them with their Garden
twinning projects that support people the world.
Sway Parish Council
School Councillors wrote to Sway Parish Council to ask for a meeting with members in order to learn about how The Parish Council works and how children from St Luke's can be involved in making decisions that matter to them.
Letter to Sway Parish Council.pdf
Sway Parish Council replied to our letter and are meeting our School Councillors on Monday 24th November here at St Luke's School to share the way in which The Parish Council works and how decisions are made. We will together explore ways in which our children can become involved and how their voices can be heard at a community level.
Book Swap Event
School Councillors are looking forward to holding a book swap event on Tuesday 25th November. Every child in the school will have the opportunity to take home a new book, swapping books with friends.
School Council Projects 2024-25
Recycle with Michael Campaign
The School Council continue to think about ways to encourage children throughout the school to be active Global Neighbours. After looking at different schemes for collecting unwanted clothes, the Council decided that the Salvation Army's 'Recycle with Michael' was an ideal charity to support. Members of the School Council led a whole school collective worship to kick-start the project. In addition to helping support the Salvation Army, we also raised money for the school. Thank you everyone who contributed.
Recycle with Michael Letter .pdf
The Lions Eyeglass Recycling Scheme
In the Spring Term 2025, School Councillors announced our involvement in a campaign which aims to support children and adults across the world to access basic, yet life changing, eye health care and glasses. Many people do not get the eye care they need, especially those living in hard-to-reach, rural areas and our children wanted to help! This term, we donated unwanted, unused or old eye glasses and sunglasses to Lions International. The Lions partner with an organisation called ‘Unite for Sight’, providing volunteers from the charity with a supply of spectacles to take with them on missions to countries across the world.
School Council Book Swap
School Council Projects 2023-24
In 2023-24, the School Council have focussed on making playtimes and lunchtimes an even better experience at our school. They wrote to parents and requested games and activities for wet playtimes - we had so many donations which are all being thoroughly enjoyed. This saved us the need to buy new games which in turn both saved money and reduced the amount of new material having to be produced.
School councillors also wrote to FOSLSS to request a donation for new equipment and games to play outside. Our Year 5 and 6 councillors led a whole school assembly explaining the new toy zones; children are now enjoying swing ball, cricket, limbo, football, frisby, bat and ball games, bouncy hoppers, skipping ropes and much much more! Thank you, FOSLSS!
Games and Books Upcycling
Thank you to everyone who brought in good quality used books and games so that others could then take these home so that not only did we save money on not having to buy new items but we also saved lots of materials and resources that are made in making these items.
Bottle Top Recycling
Thank you to everyone who sent in bottle tops with which the children made their Christmas decorations thus reducing waste both in the plastic tops and also in the need to buy new decorations. There were so many sent in that we were also able to send lots to charities to also use.
Bottle Top Christmas Decoration Letter
Water for Africa
Thank you to everyone who supported the School Council initiative to raise money for projects run by 'Water for Africa' by wearing something blue or watery. We managed to raise £130 which was then increased when the children decided that the collection from our Harvest Service should also support the same cause.
School Council Actions in previous years
Clothes Recycling
The School Council has been thinking about ways in which we can help the planet by recycling clothes. This will mean that we are not wasting unnecessary resources and damaging the environment by buying new items. We decided to hold a recycled clothes event. Nearly 600 items were donated: that's 600 previously loved clothes which have found new homes and therefore reduced the number of new clothes that need to be bought.
In previous years, following decisions by the School Council, we purchased a fish tank, introduced a new reading reward scheme, created posters on what makes a good learner and bought additional play equipment for the toy shed. Last year, the School Council thought about the effectiveness of our feedback policy, how we challenge ourselves in Maths, increasing choice when ordering a school dinner and making sure we all get to school safely. They also led a whole school initiative about Global Neighbours.
The School Council continued the work on promoting the importance of Global Neighbours. They decided to support the Salvation Army by collecting old school uniform. Following the collection for Christian Aid at the Harvest Service, the School Council voted to support the World Wildlife Fund using money from the collection in the KS2 Christmas Carol Service. The School Council also reviewed tablet use/ screen time and impact on children throughout the school.
Some of the School Council visited Tesco in New Milton where their Community Champion took them around both the store and the warehouse so that they could learn about how Tesco are trying to help with recycling and what we, as shoppers, can do to help.
Sal's Shoes
There are an estimated 300 million barefoot children worldwide. 58 million children worldwide are not in school. 29 million of these are because they do not have the means. In many countries you cannot go to school if you do not have shoes. Therefore, the School Council decided to collect shoes and send them to those children that need them. We managed to collect 100 pairs of shoes to help those children who need them most.
School Council's Letter about Sal's Shoes
Visit to Tesco to Investigate Recycling
As part of the school's ongoing work as Global Neighbours, some of the School Council visited the Tesco store at New Milton to talk with their Community Champion, Amanda, about the work that they are doing as a company to help reduce the negative impact of packaging as well as the decisions that we can make as shoppers.
First, Amanda talked about how shoppers have a choice between packaged fruit or loose fruit. Then the School Council learnt about the difficulties in recycling 'shiny' plastic but how some bread packaging can now be recycled with plastic bags. Amanda then shared all the things that Tesco are doing to reduce waste before having a look around the warehouse and then a final look around the store at the packaging of soft drinks and bathroom products.
To find out more about the school's Global Neighbour work, visit our Global Neighbours page.
Review of use of tablets/ screen time
The School Council completed a survey across the whole school about the children's amount of screen time at home as well as what websites and apps are being used. As a result of this, they are now preparing a presentation to be shown in school and a letter to parents summarising their findings.
Damage to our planet assembly
In the Spring term, Year 4 School Council representatives, alongside children from their class, prepared and presented an assembly to the rest of the school about the damage to our planet that is caused by producing all the meat needed for people to eat, and the possible alternatives.
Eco Warriors
Our Eco Warriors ensure that, in our school, energy is not being wasted unnecessarily. Each day, they take it in turns to visit each classroom and make sure that lights and whiteboards are not being left on when classrooms are empty. They also check that each class has a recycling bin and that it is being used correctly.
Autumn 1 2025 - Dressing up swap shop!
Some of the Eco-warriors had the fantastic idea of a 'Dressing up swap shop.' They organised donated costumes according to characters and topics and ran the swap shop at the end of the school day. It was a great success!
Please see below for past projects
Learning about Environmental Issues
In all that we do, we try to make ourselves greener. Through our curriculum and in Collective Worship, we aim to raise awareness about environmental issues. The school had solar panels installed in Summer 2021 and we have an ECO team who try to reduce energy waste. All that we do, complements the work of the Sway Greening Campaign in our wider community. ECO SWAY, a volunteer group, made up of residents and councillors, aims to raise awareness about environmental issues in Sway through the Sway Greening Campaign.
New Forest Climate Change Assembly
This year, we have have learnt all about New Forest habitats - (peat, marshes, heathland and woodland) and the importance of visiting them responsibly and working with nature to help climate change. New Forest Park Authority led an assembly in Spring 2022 sharing ideas about how we can all make a difference in our local area.
Sway Carnival 2022 Logo Competition
This year, children have taken part in Sway Carnival Logo Competition to design a logo in line with the theme 'Our Beautiful Planet'. Well done to Isla Wharton, winner of the competition. Raising awareness of the need to look after our Beautiful Planet, the logo will displayed and used in all Carnival published material.
Recycling
In Autumn 2021, the School Council organised a Clothes Recycling Event. Drawing attention to the need to reduce waste, they asked children to bring in unwanted/outgrown clothes so that someone else could benefit from them. Nearly 600 items were donated and found new homes therefore reducing waste.
In the past, we have asked everyone to bring in crisp packets and earned money for the school at the same time as sending them on to be extruded into plastic pellets!
Our school eco team have taken part in the New Forest Schools Energy Project. They discovered where our energy comes from and the importance of reducing how much we use. They monitored the temperature in classrooms and reminded us all to switch off lights that are not needed. They discovered that making sure we close windows and doors at playtimes and turning off lights at the end of the day can save the school £335!
Eco-Innovators - Low Emission Vehicles
In order to tackle climate change and air quality, the UK wants every new car and van to be effectively zero emission by 2040. To support this, many more public chargepoints will be needed to meet the demand from electric vehicle (EV) users. These chargepoint designs will need to use space efficiently, complement existing streetscapes and be user-friendly.
We therefore created designs for on-street electric vehicle chargepoints which could be used to reduce daily fossil fuel consumption and therefore reduce the negative impact of emissions on climate change and air pollution.
Our School Eco Team in action
The school eco team 2016-17
Learning how to use the thermal imaging camera
Discovering how good insultation saves energy