Discussing Elections at Shirley Warren

Today we had a visit from our new councillor, Sally Spicer, who is also a governor.

She told us that she got elected for the Labour Party for the city council. She is looking after an area which is called Redbridge Ward which is Millbrook, Maybush and Lordshill.

We had questions to ask her:
Why did you want to be a councillor?
I like helping people and I want to make the area better for people.

I want the park to be better in Millkbrook, there is going to be a big new park in Mansel Park.
Another passion is housing, I want more council houses.
We can't always do the things we want to do because we don't have lots of money.
I am on committees like the licencing committee.
There is a new Lidl being built so I have been working on that and residents are happy they have a different shop to go to as well as Tesco and Sainsburys.
Recently a bus stop that elderly residents use was stopped so Sally has sent lots of emails to try and change this. Here is a photo.

What did you study in school?
I wasn't political, I wanted to look after children.  There isn't a criteria when you want to be a candidate: I had to say I wanted to help people and I got chosen by my party.

Why did you want to be part of it?
I feel we need people to do good things in the city.

How do you help people?
Sometimes they phone me and I've got a website.

Are you happy about what you're doing?
Yes, I work at the hospital so I do this in my spare time.

How hard was it?
Quite hard because you have to convince people you are best for the job.

Are you having a good time with your work?
Yes, it's very rewarding and I have done things like help keep the swimming pool open.

What was one of the easiest things?
Getting the hedges cut along Romsey Road.

And the hardest?
Oaklands Pool

Fumes or futures... Green Council meeting

Recently, Christian Aid sent us a pack “fumes or futures” which was a brilliant way to talk to Green Council about the subject of Climate change and share facts in a fun and informative way.

Today, we used resources from the pack to play the games and make “chatterboxes” (fortune tellers).

We thought about what we would like to ask our class and one suggestion was, "How can we save energy?"

I'm sure that's a question we all can be thinking about and I was really pleased at how much the children knew about the subject.

Mrs Williams

Green Council talks Road Safety and Reducing Plastics

There are two issues concerning Green Council at the moment, and we worked on them in our meeting today.

First, we are still concerned about road safety and secondly (inspired by class 5D) we want to encourage the school to reduce plastic usage in school.

Here we are making posters and designing little sketches for next Thursday's assembly so that we can let our friends know the very important messages about safety and recycling.

PSCO Louis comes to visit

Today we had a special visitor in Green Council, PSCO Louis De’Ath.

The children asked him some questions. Here are some of the answers - I wonder if you can guess what they asked him!

He said he started in 2016 after running a hotel. He works out of Redbridge Fire Station. He helps the community and then tries to fix things. If you have a problem or a worry you can talk to him.

He looks after vulnerable people especially if old people are lost. He also get calls about lost pets.  The last thing he did to help someone was knock on someone’s door because he was going to talk to their neighbour, and they actually did need help with their boiler which he was able to do.

He had some leaflets about road safety which was brilliant because as a Green Council, that is one thing we want to focus on next.

If you see PCSO Louis out and about in the community, don't forget to give him a smile and say hello.

Democracy - Good Egg

In Shirley Warren, we know and understand the British Value of democracy.
This is where everyone has a say and we use a vote to show what the majority have chosen.

In our school, we have an award called the Good Egg, which is presented to one child in Key Stage 1 and one in Key Stage 2 at the end of every term. The child is someone who is shows kindness, respect and support as voted by their peers.

This is how the process works. 
First, children nominate someone in their class, with reasons why that child is a good egg.
Second, the class have a vote and the winning name is sent to our Green Council meeting.
Finally, Green council have the difficult task of listening to the descriptions of all of these amazing pupils and voting on the ones the governor will present the award to.

We keep that name a secret until the end of term assembly.
Today Green Council will vote for Autumn 2018's Good Egg.
If you were going to nominate someone in your class, who would it be and why?

Playground Markings have been completed!

Did you notice anything different about the look of the bottom playground when you came back from our half term holiday?

We finally saw the playground markings refreshed after we fundraised for Mr Kelly's 50th birthday and we were given a donation by Capita. As you can see, the snakes and ladders game goes all the way up to 100 again.

We hope there will be lots of happy playtimes at Shirley Warren, even though the wintery weather is coming.

We support Water Aid

Earlier in the year, Tony from Water Aid came to speak to Green Council about how many people around the world don't have enough water to stay healthy. he challenged us to raise money for Water Aid.  we asked Costco to donate some cups so we could fill them with water and make some money but instead they gave us a cheque for £50 for Water Aid.

Last week, Tony came in to be presented with the cheque. He had the opportunity to share more about Water Aid with every class in Key Stage 2, so we all have more awareness of Global Issues around water.

Here is the cheque Costco sent.

PCSO Visit to Green Council

Today, PSCO Louis De'Ath came to tell us about his job.

He works at Redbridge Fire Station.
We thought that the police arrest people, give warnings, investigate and help at car accidents.
We found out that most importantly, they help people!

Louis is a PCSO. A Police Community Support Officer. If you are lost and you see him, he can help you.  He wants to make sure everyone is OK.  He showed us his special radio.  He likes cycling along Warren Avenue.

He said the biggest thing we can do to help the police is to talk to them! Tell someone you trust if something is happening that isn't right. Just like in school, we need to talk to each other to help everyone be safe.

Sometimes he has to check if there are children playing safely, and he reminded us to take care on the roads and look both ways. We are going to remind our class how to stay safe.

If you see PCSO Louis around, will you give him a smile or a wave?

Aldermoor Green Council Farmers!

Today Green Council visited Aldermoor Community Farm to see how Richard and the team Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, and also to reward our Green Council reps for working hard all year on Pupil Voice issues.

First, we had to identify the root vegetables from the leaves above. There were carrots, radishes and beetroot. Would you know what they look like or what their leaves look like?

Next Richard asked us to pick the radishes. We learnt that he will sell them in his shop on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 9am-5pm and they now take card payments.

When the radishes were picked there was space to plant new seeds - radishes, beetroot or carrots.

After this the hungry chickens needed feeding. If you want to go and feed the chickens at the farm, it is only 20p when the farm is open.

Our last task was plaiting garlic. This was quite tricky but a clever Year 6 who already had plaits demonstrated this skill.

We found out that one of our Year 4's is a regular volunteer on the farm.

Last but not least, somebody made friends with a caterpillar. can you see it on her arm?

Thanks to Farmer Richard for letting us help him.
If you want to know more about Aldermoor Farm, look up http://aldermoorfarm.org.uk/ There may be an Open Day coming up soon.

Clean Air at Shirley Warren

Today, Jean MacGrory from My Journey at Hampshire County Council came to talk to us about Clean Air at Shirley Warren.

We learnt that pollution is bad for the environment, for example by factories and burning fossil fuels.  Southampton is in the top 5 worst cities in the UK for pollution.
Cars are one of the worst way in which our city is polluted.
We found out that we can do things like walk or cycle to school and have plants around the house.
We need to share with our families that we need to be thinking about using our cars less if possible.
Jean told us all about Clean Air Day on 21st of June. It's a Thursday but you could go after school and there are things for children to do until 7pm.

She also left leaflets with clean air advice, including a new app to help asthma and people with breathing problems find out what their air quality is like.

If you have any thoughts or ideas about Clean Air and how we can help, you can ask Mrs Williams, the Green Council leader.

Water Aid Speaker comes to Green Council

Today Tony Ridley come to speak to Green Council about Water Aid.

Mrs Williams made notes so that the Green Council reps can share with their classes the information he gave. This blog is a good way of sharing information.

Tony worked for HSBC and they supported the Water Aid charity and let him talk about it to local groups. He is now retired, but still does talks for Water Aid. He told us:
* 884 million (that's 884,000,000) people had no access to safe water in 2011, the figure now is only 650 million!
* Children often get diseases and may miss school as they have to get water.
*900 children under 5 die every day from very very bad tummy bugs.
* You can only go 3 days without water.
* In the UK people use on average 150 litres a day. In Africa they use 10 litres a day.
* 2.3 billion (that's 2,300,000,000) people don't have access to a toilet. That's about 30% of the world.
* Water Aid works with local people to provide sustainable solutions.  Here is a picture of some of the things they do.


We are going to raise some money for Water Aid charity and will make plans for that at our next Green Council meeting.

Green Council care for our school

Recently, Green Council met and had lots of items on the agenda (things to discuss).

A few meetings ago, some members noticed that playtime equipment was sometimes going missing.

So in our last meeting we started to label equipment with "SWP". We are hoping this will mean that fewer balls and other playtime items will disappear!

If you see any playtime equipment around the school or community, please bring it back to the office.

We are going to try very hard to look after what we've been given and we hope everyone will help us.

Special Project for Green Council

Green Council had a special visitor today, Jenny from Sustrans.  She has chosen 3 of her favourite schools to help her with a project finding out how children travel to school.  The Green Council and teachers will be recording the data every day for four weeks for her.

Here she is explaining the project to Green Council.

We are looking forward to seeing the results, which she will come and explain to us.

Rob's Remarkable Run!

Here are a few photos of Rob running through our school on the Friday before half term, as he celebrated his 50th birthday by running 50 miles around the outskirts or Southampton. We are thrilled to be able to share the results of the fundraising which raised £390.13, with the winning class, 5M raising £52.71 We would like to thank all families who donated and are pleased to say that we can now commission work on our playground markings, which will be completed as soon as possible.

Nurture Quality Mark Award

It was a proud day here at Shirley Warren Primary as Councellor Paffey presented the Nurture team with the 'Marjory Boxall Quality Award' in recognition of meeting the quality standards mark for our Nurture Provision.  This is a great achievement for Mrs Bedwell, Miss Allen and SENCo Mrs Dinnage who have worked hard to gain this award.  We would like to thank representatives from the Nurture Network who accompanied Councellor Paffey.

What happens in a Green Council meeting?

In our school we have a "Green Council" which is made up from one representative from each class.

We decide the agenda and ask classes to discuss some of the issues we raise.

At our last meeting yesterday, we had asked classes to design some markings for the playground which we hope to be able to use in the future for our playgrounds.

Each class brought to the table their winning design and the children in Green Council had three votes each to decide which they liked.

Here are Green Council voting for the designs.

Here are some of the winners.

Bike It Jenny visits Green Council

At the end of last term, Green Council had a treat. Jenny Babey from BikeIt came to see us and brought festive travel activities.
She talked about Active Travel - how to be active on the way to school.
She held a competition to name the bear.

Jenny wanted to know what activities the children would like at school. We said anything that helps us to travel safely and live a healthy lifestyle. Lots of children asked brilliant questions about cycling and road safety.

Zoe won a bell and all children had goodies to take home to remind them to travel safely.

Thank you Jenny and we look forward to working with you in the New Year.

Parliament Week at Shirley Warren Primary school!

This week we have been celebrating democracy following an National Initiative called Parliament Week.  The idea is to show young people how a ballot box works and have them participate in a vote.

Mrs Mann asked the question: Do we want to buy equipment so that people can play Tag Rugby in the MUGA? This is an important question for our school because a lot of people like to play football in the MUGA and if Tag Rugby is introduced the rotas will have to change and there will be less time for football. So everyone in the school had to think carefully before they voted.

Here is a picture of Green Council putting their class votes in the ballot box.

After that, everyone in Green Council received a free badge, pen, balloon and stickers to take home.
It will take a little time for the votes to be counted. What do you think the results will be?

Celebrating All Different, All Equal - Anti Bullying week at Shirley Warren

Last week saw the annual nationwide focus on Anti-Bullying which many schools take part in.

In our school we invited parents in to help update our anti-bullying charter and to see the activities we were doing to help share the message, "All Different, All Equal".

We asked all children to draw round their hands and on one side write or draw what they felt was different about them and on the other side what was the same as others.

Green Council made some examples to show the school what to do and here are their hands.

We were so pleased that so many parents could join us and we are pleased that our children understand that although everyone is different, we all have equal rights.

The Big Switch Off at Green Council

Today we had a a special visitor in Green Council.
Zaki from the Environment Centre came to talk to us about The Big Switch off.

He gave an introduction to energy saving in the school/home.  We now understand that some things use more power than others. Equipment on standby can be using power. We thought about what is using energy in the school, how much energy it uses and what we could do to reduce it.

We learned about the Big Switch Off, taking place in Shirley Warren on Sunday 19th November, where they are asking people to use as little energy as possible between 6-7 p.m. that evening. The amount of energy being used will be monitored on the network

We decided that we will ask our friends to try and save energy by trying to use a slow cooker, using the washing machine or other machines in the morning and putting on the dishwasher after 8pm

Here is a picture of Green Council testing the effect of a hairdryer and a lightbulb on the energy meter. With everything on, the meter reached 1,700 watts. What a lot of energy.