St Bernadette's Catholic Primary School
Learn to love, love to learn
At St. Bernadette's Catholic School you will find us caring, hardworking and co-operative. We follow the ways of Jesus using our talents and gifts to make our school special. We show respect to all and welcome you.
Head Teacher: Angela Cowings
SEN Contact: A. Hulse
Hob Moor Road, Yardley, Birmingham, B25 8QL
0121 783 7232
This year the school councillors will be working alongside the rest of the school and staff to help achieve the ‘Live Simply’ Award. Our main aims over this next term are:
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To remind/ encourage children in their year to reduce their use of plastic water bottles in lunch boxes.
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Our KS2 children will write a blog for the newsletter/ website about the food prep sessions that our school cook will have with a group of parents/carers.
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All children to remind/ encourage children about uniform swap. School Council to help the support staff in their year band when the swap takes place. They will promote within the year band to gather uniform that is no longer needed/ old and unnamed. Promote through posters, Twitter and Newsletter.
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Digital down day – School Council will promote the day within their year bands and to write a blog/review about the day. They will interview other children about the day and benefits. This will be promoted through assemblies, posters, Twitter and Newsletter.
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This year the school councillors will be working alongside the rest of the school and staff to help achieve the ‘Live Simply’ Award. Our main aims over this next term are:
-
To remind/ encourage children in their year to reduce their use of plastic water bottles in lunch boxes.
-
Our KS2 children will write a blog for the newsletter/ website about the food prep sessions that our school cook will have with a group of parents/carers.
-
All children to remind/ encourage children about uniform swap. School Council to help the support staff in their year band when the swap takes place. They will promote within the year band to gather uniform that is no longer needed/ old and unnamed. Promote through posters, Twitter and Newsletter.
-
Digital down day – School Council will promote the day within their year bands and to write a blog/review about the day. They will interview other children about the day and benefits. This will be promoted through assemblies, posters, Twitter and Newsletter.
Making a Difference
St. Bernadette’s has a very active school council in which an elected member from each class in Key stage 2 meets fellow students in a discussion forum where views and ideas are shared.
The Election Process
In order to become a school councillor the children had to present their election manifesto before their year band in assemblies. The children were then asked to voted for a chosen candidate from their class using a ballot process. Each of the children were given a voting slip which they had to exchange for a ballot paper. The children then had to go to the voting booth and select their candidate by placing an ‘X’ in the box.
What is our Vision?
To have a school which is dynamic, a school that not only listens, but acts upon the views of its pupils. To further promote and express the voice of the child, not just within our school but within the City of Birmingham and with schools around the World. We hope to extend and share our ideas through further communications with other schools across the globe.
What is our Aim?
To raise people’s awareness that children have valid ideas. To be a voice for the children in our school. To make our school an even more friendly and pleasant place in which to learn. To make suggestions as to how our school could be improved further. To further improve our school environment. To raise money for charities.
Digital Down Day – Monday 20th March
During Digital Down Day, we made pledges with our peers to think of ways to reduce how much energy and electricity we use both in school and at home. We spoke about the benefits of using less electricity and how we can begin by making small changes that will have a long-term benefit.
Some of the pledges we thought of were:
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Remind our adults in class to turn any switches off that are not in use.
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Switch off from the plug socket, rather than putting devices on standby.
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Not to over rely on using the interactive white board and to only use when necessary.
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Sharing devices with peers if we are doing the same activity such as laptops.
What can we do at home?
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Rather than using a tumble dryer, take advantage of the warmer weather.
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Allow more natural sunlight to come in to rooms.
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To go outdoors more, rather than always using consoles, phones, tablets etc.
As a school we promise to help reduce our usage of electricity in order to live simply and to have a positive impact on our local environment and the world.
Written by our School Councillors: Abrar, Jawad, Grace and Spencer
World Earth Day 2023 – A day to remember
A joint blog written by our School Councillors
On Friday 21st April 2023, we celebrated World Earth Day as a school and took part is some fascinating activities that have left us with much to ponder. We learnt about the harm that is currently being caused to our oceans and learnt ways that we could prevent this from becoming worse.
The theme of this year was ‘Invest in our Planet’ and we looked at ways that we can shift the responsibility to everybody so we all have our part to play in preserving the environment.
Our Year 4 School councillors conducted an interview with Miss Cowings, who was very impressed with how confidently our Nursery pupils spoke about how sharks and dolphins are being killed and hurt in the oceans due to plastic pollution.
Miss Cowings also discussed how the use of plastic packaging can be unnecessary when buying fruits and vegetables in supermarkets because it can end up at the bottom of our oceans. This left us thinking about how we can choose food items without plastic packaging.
Jess Phillips Visits St. Bernadette's
On Monday 3rd of July, Jess Phillips visited our school to discuss her role as an active member of parliament. Jess is a Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley with Small Heath also recently falling into one of the many areas that she supports. Jess helps over 150 000 people within the Yardley area and has made a lasting, positive impact on the lives of so many.
As a School Council, we had been preparing for this long awaited visit and couldn’t wait to meet a member of parliament and were honoured that Jess took time out of her busy schedule to meet us. The School Council had the opportunity to ask her questions about her roles and responsibilities. Jess also held an assembly with our Y5 and Y6 pupils, where she discussed the importance of helping and supporting others around us.
