The Junior School Council at Kew East Primary School meets every Wednesday at lunchtime. The members represent Level Two, Level Three and Level Four in the school. At the beginning of the year, potential students give a small speech explaining why they would like the job of representing the class, how important the role is to them and why people should vote for them. The class members then vote for who they would like to represent them for the year.
The Council is made up of one representative from each of the Level Two classes, and two representatives from each of the Level Three and Four classes. The President and Secretary are voted for by the Council at the beginning of the year and are always Year Six students. The Vice President and Assistant Secretary can be Year Five or Six students. To apply for these positions, all potential candidates plan a short, persuasive speech. After giving the speech to Council members, a vote is taken.
The JSC President and Secretary meet with the Principal every month to report on what has been achieved, or any issues that have been highlighted for attention. They also report to the School Council once a term to keep them informed on decisions made and action taken.
Junior School Council organises fundraisers each term in order to regularly support charities. Our biggest annual commitment is sponsoring a World Vision child in South America. We also annually send money to the State Schools’ Relief Fund. We sell Anzac and Legacy badges, send money to different World Vision charity requests, support Rotary pencil and pen donation requests and organise donations to local grocery drives for needy families at Christmas.
To raise money, we have one fundraiser each term . The fundraiser days have themes, such as Opposites Day, Pyjama Day and Sports Star day. They are very popular with the school and even the teachers join in!
Apart from deciding on fundraising events, it is the Junior School Council representatives’ job to ensure that any issues their peers have are brought to the Council for discussion and action. One development in particular that this has led to is the introduction of bike racks in our school. Each year, Junior School Council representatives actively demonstrate the school value of responsibility by being a part of the important and active role Junior School Council has in the running of our school.
