Student Council
Student leadership is an important aspect of our school as we aim to ensure children continue to have a voice. We have student council representatives from Year 1 to Year 6 who have an important role in representing the views and concerns of their peers. The council members meet throughout the term to discuss their new ideas, share their concerns and support the senior leadership team in improving the school through a variety of projects.
We see the student council as an excellent opportunity for personal development specifically in the areas of leadership, public speaking and working with the local community.
Our student council members have a unique role within the school. They support the leadership team with the appointments of staff members, they engage in community projects and they represent the school in wider community discussions including a visit to parliament at the start of the year.
School Council 2025-2026
This year, our new School Council representatives were chosen through a democratic vote, reflecting the process of real parliamentary elections.
Through this experience, pupils gained an understanding of how democracy functions and had the chance to hear each candidate explain why they would be a strong representative for their class.
Here are this year's councillors -
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4
Year 5
Year 6
Houses of Parliament Visit - 5th September 2025
Our brand new School Council got off to a fantastic start to the year with a very special trip to Parliament last Friday!
The children enjoyed a fascinating tour of the buildings, including a visit to the House of Commons to see where MPs (and even the Prime Minister!) sit. They also had the unique opportunity to listen in on a debate in the House of Lords, discover the rich history of Parliament, and take part in a fun and interactive workshop.
It was a truly inspiring day and a brilliant way to kick off their School Council journey. A great day was had by all!
School Council 2024-2025
This year our new School Council members were elected democratically by their peers in an election mirroring real life parliamentary elections.
This enabled children to learn how democracy works and gave them the opportunity to listen to the candidate's reasons for why they would make an excellent class representative.
This year's school councillors are -
York class
Trinity class
Bristol class
Cardiff class
Belfast class
Glasgow class
Birmingham class
Exeter class
Edinburgh class
Nottingham class
Cambridge class
Oxford class
Houses of Parliament Visit - 6th November 2024
HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT VISIT - SCHOOL COUNCIL
Well, what a great day the School Council had on Wednesday when they visited the Houses of Parliament.
The children had the opportunity to -
. take a tour around the buildings,
. sit in the gallery of the House of Lords and watch a real debate,
. take part in a workshop learning all about parliament,
. meet the advisor of the Barking MP who was willing to answer lots of questions!
Below are some of the photos taken. For security reasons, we were not able to take photos inside but there was so much to see and do and we all certainly learnt lots about parliament and how it works.
The children (and adults) had a great day and they were impeccably behaved - a credit to the school!
Antibullying Week Assembly
This week members of the School Council delivered an assembly to their peers called 'Be a Hero'. This was centred around the subject of bullying and looking at how to ensure they know how to act in certain situations.
The children were excellent at leading the assembly and every child took part in a quiz where they had to select the best option. This meant all children were involved and the message was clear - 'Bullies are not heroes... you are the hero!'
anti bullying assembly ks2 12th nov 2024.pdf
UK Parliament Week
This year, children across the school took part in assemblies relating to UK Parliament week, which included a live tour of the House of Commons and an opportunity to find out 'who's who' in UK parliament today!
In class, the children then featured on an aspect of their local community that they felt could be improved on by their local MP; this allowed them to refer to article 12 of Rights Respecting 'Children have the right to give an opinion on issues that affect them'.
The children in KS1 discussed Road Safety and made some fabulous posters.
In KS2, classes learnt who their local MP is, Nesil Caliskan, and decided to write letters to her to highlight their concerns. They were excellent at putting their point of view across and then giving clear reasons for their views.
Social Enterprise 2024-2025 - The beginning of our journey
This year we are pleased to be joining the Social Enterprise Scheme for 2024-25. This is an opportunity for our children to become social entrepreneurs. We will be working on a way to generate income through tackling either an environmental or social issue that our community is facing.
One key area we want to tackle is School lunches and particularly food waste. With this in mind, some of our children attended a workshop ran by Social Enterprise, looking at how we could tackle this in our school and how we could incorporate recycling into this. We now have sessions planned for the coming months where we can put a business plan together and decide how best to tackle this. Watch this space!
Social Enterprise 2024-2025 - Starting the process!
After a very exciting session online with an entrepreneur from a successful business, our Social Enterprise group, consisting of members from both the School Council and ECO committee, finally decided on how to move their ideas on. A business plan was constructed and it was decided that we would recycle food waste from the school dinner hall into compost or pet food.
The children decided that they needed to complete the recycling process to see how it would work, what pitfalls there might be and how long it might take. They then discussed marketing and how they might promote their unique product.
Take a look at their amazing efforts so far ...
Social Enterprise 2024-2025 - Dragon's Den!
On Wednesday 21st May, a combined team of School Council and Eco Committee members proudly represented our school at a Social Enterprise competition, where they pitched their brilliant Recycling Food Waste idea to a panel of four business experts.
Not only did they impress the judges—they walked away with 2nd place AND the award for Most Innovative Pitch! 🌟
We’re beyond proud of their creativity, confidence, and teamwork. Stay tuned next half term as they bring their idea to life right here in school. Amazing work, team!
Visit to the Mayor of Barking & Dagenham - June 2025
Visit to the local Mayor!
We’re delighted to share that the School Council had a wonderful and inspiring visit to the Mayor of Barking & Dagenham, Councillor Princess Bright, on Monday.
It was a truly informative experience — the children asked lots of thoughtful questions and had the unique opportunity to use the microphones in the Council Chambers, just like real councillors! Councillor Bright was incredibly welcoming, and the pupils thoroughly enjoyed learning about local government and civic leadership.
School Council 2023-2024
Our 2023-2024 Student Council are .....
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4
Year 5
We have lots of exciting plans for this year. Please take a look below at our first project!
Class Council
Each week our school councillors hold a Class Council with their class to talk about what has been discussed at School Council Meetings, discuss Rights Respecting, update on projects and to ask the children if they have anything they wish to be taken to School Council.
Social Enterprise Scheme - Introduction
One of our main projects for this year is to work with the Social Enterprise Scheme on creating an opportunity to become social entrepreneurs. We will be working on a way to generate income through tackling either an environmental or social issue that our community is facing.
We started with a workshop where we looked at the sorts of issues facing our local and global community.
We then followed this up with a further workshop where we looked at how we might market and sell our idea to other people in our community. We even held a 'Dragon's Den' where we tried to sell our product to others - there are definitely some budding entrepreneurs amongst us!
Our next step is to make a final decision on what we would like to do and decide how we can involve the community.
Social Enterprise Scheme - The big decision
We have decided to focus on one of the key issues that arose from our whole school vote that took place in UK Parliament week, which was 'Litter and Recycling'.
As a group we had further discussions about what we recycle and what we feel has an impact on our local environment. We thought that plastic waste is an issue so with that in mind we decided to use some of the plastic that is hard to recycle and create recycling projects of our own using plastic bottle lids.
We then launched this with our classes and we have now started a whole school initiative collecting plastic bottle lids.
Look at what an amazing start Exeter class have had!
Visit to the Mayor of Barking & Dagenham - March 2024
This week the winners of our 'Parliament Week' competition had the honour of meeting the Mayor of Barking & Dagenham at Barking Town Hall.
Along with some members of the School Council, they learnt about her role, how she was selected and what she enjoys most about her job. The children were able to ask her questions in the Council Chambers. They also got to meet local Councillor Haroon who talked about local issues and was more than happy to accept some posters and letters that the children of ECS had made to highlight local issues such as road safety and recycling.
Social Enterprise Scheme - Dragon's Den
Fantastic news! WINNERS!
Remember all those plastic bottle lids we collected last term for our school Social Enterprise project, well ....
Our wonderful Social Enterprise team took part in a 'Dragon's Den' competition on Tuesday 30th April, at Barking Learning Centre, against seven other schools from across the borough. They had to pitch their 'Bottle Lid Recycling' idea to a panel of ‘Dragon’s’ who then asked them questions - it was quite nerve wracking!
The group all presented brilliantly; they spoke loudly, clearly and were not fazed by any questions they were asked. What an outstanding group!
It was very hard to call who would win a prize as the standard of entries was very high. This made it even more special when we were awarded the prize of 'Most Creative Pitch'. Well done team!!
Once again, congratulations to all the team – very well-deserved winners!
Go ECS!
School Council 2022-2023
Our 2022 - 2023 Student Council team!
This term, we were fortunate to have the Black Curriculum come in and deliver a workshop on colonialism. The children were impressive in how they articulated their thoughts and opinions on this historical matter. The children's views and questions were collated and put together by a live artist.
Have a look at the final version below.
Community service - Food donations
Last term, we asked for children, families and friends of Eastbury to donate food in our bid to support the Barking Food Bank. Thanks to the giving nature of our communities, we were able to deliver this food to the food bank who were more than grateful. 
Parliament Week - Get into voting
This week we looked at the importance of democracy and why it's important for people to exercise their rights to vote. We used this as an opportunity to appoint our Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary & Editor who did exceptionally well to deliver a speech for why they were the best candidates for the role.
