School Parliament

Ashford School Parliament

The School Parliament is made up of 25 students from Years 7 to 13. They meet up every 2 weeks to discuss a number of key issues.  These issues are split into 5 distinct areas:

• Community
• Environment
• Health and Wellbeing
• School Houses
• Teaching and Learning

The Parliament has an elected Prime Minister, whose job is to organise parliament meetings and to act as the spokesperson with the School’s Senior Leadership Team. There are also Shadow Minister’s elected, and their role is to rigorously check the research of proposed bills and propose counter points for the Parliament to debate.

Issues that have been addressed and actioned by the School Parliament in the past year include:

• Self-defense training for girls
• Food waste action plan, in collaboration with the school’s catering department:
  • Plate scraping to ensure pupil’s recognise food waste and improve food waste disposal
  • Increased awareness of requesting smaller/larger portions
  • The team is currently working on improved imagery and advertising for this, as well as other initiatives to improve sustainability
• The allocation of recycling bins in every classroom.
• Liaising with Pastoral Lead Mrs Timms regarding the provision of trousers for girls.
• The “Big Project” – the Parliament have been allocated a budget by the Senior Leadership Team to propose and instigate a large-scale project that will benefit all pupils. The Parliament have brainstormed ideas and a shortlist of projects have been submitted to the SLT for feedback.

Positions of Responsibility

Prime Ministers: W. Hall and H. Groom-Shorter

Shadow Ministers: A. Kershaw and O. Jacobs

Minister for Community: T. Reed

Minister for Environment: A. Naky

Minister for Health and Wellbeing: A. Tahir

Minister for School Houses: L. Vavasour

Minister for Teaching and Learning: C. Coleman-Nye