On the afternoon of Wednesday, June 19th, we had the honour of hosting local candidates for the general election. The candidates engaged with our school parliament and representatives from each class.

With enthusiasm and curiosity, the children posed insightful questions to the candidates regarding their plans for Northfield.

We covered crucial topics such as the pressing cost of living crisis, speeding and parking concerns on Frankley Beeches Road, measures to tackle anti-social behaviour, the future of our beloved NHS, the importance of adequate school funding, and, pertinent to Refugee Week, strategies to support asylum seekers and refugees. Mrs. Perry, brimming with pride, praised the children for their confidence, passion, and eloquence. Their remarkable display surely won the admiration of all present, securing their place in Mrs. Perry's list of favored candidates.

Samaritan's Purse - Operation Christmas Child.

Thanks to your generosity and kindness, on Tuesday afternoon, the School Parliament delivered 62 shoeboxes to Starbucks in Northfield. These gifts will be sent with your love and prayers to children in the Ukraine. Thank you so much!

We also held our monthly meeting and enjoyed a hot chocolate as a special treat! 

The Key Stage 2, Class MPs had a wonderful day at the Houses of Parliament on Monday. They took part in a 'Peoples Parliament' workshop and enjoyed a tour of the Palace of Westminster.

The history of the Houses of Parliament spans over 800 years from the Anglo-Saxons to the present day and the children were enthralled and amazed at the architecture and interior of these iconic buildings.

Unfortunately, the children didn't get to see the new Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, as he was attending the COP27 Climate Change Conference in Egypt. They did however get to see the Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, and held a question-and-answer session with our local MP, Gary Sambrook.

Many thanks to Mr Sutton, the chair of our School Standards Commitee, Mrs Perry, Mrs Parker and Mrs Holmes for accompanying the children on this memorable day and to the children for being simply amazing!

This year, once again, we will be taking part in the Samaritan’s Purse Project – Operation Christmas Child. The mission of Operation Christmas Child is to show God’s love in a tangible way to children in need around the world, to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.
This year, the shoeboxes will be sent to children in the Ukraine.

The School Parliament and Caritas Ambassadors have been busy visiting each class in school to explain how to pack a shoebox. They have also distributed leaflets.
To find out more about this project please follow this link
https://www.samaritans-purse.org.uk/what-we-do/operation-christmas-child/

If you can help by donating a shoebox of gifts (or just one item for a shoebox) please send these into school by Monday 14th November. 

Your gifts will be delivered to our local drop off centre on Tuesday 15th November.

Thank you for helping us help others!

On Monday 10^th October, our new School Parliament spent the day with the Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Councillor Maureen Cornish, at Birmingham Council House.

The Class MPs joined the Lord Mayor for juice and biscuits and had the opportunity to ask her questions about her very important role.

It was very interesting to hear about her day-to-day work and listen to stories about all the people she meets. She met Prince Charles of Wales (now King Charles III) this year, during the Commonwealth Games and we had the opportunity to look at the guest book that he had signed.

We were then taken on a tour of the Council House, we looked at pictures of all previous Lord Mayors, visited the Lord Mayor's office and finished our day sitting in Council Chambers.

This was a wonderful opportunity and a great way to start our new term in office.

We were absolutely delighted to announce our new Class MPs in Friday's Gifts from God Assembly.

Our new School Parliament are looking forward to visiting the Lord Mayor of Birmingham at the Council House soon.

On Monday, pupils in years 2 - 6 took part in the School Parliament Election Day.

The results will be announced on Friday during the Gifts from God Assembly.

We are so excited to find out who will be our Class MPs for this school year!

Welcome back! A new school year means a new School Parliament! Elections for new Class MPs will take place at the end of September, please have a look at the information provided. We are so excited to find out who will be elected as our new MPS!

On Friday afternoon, we welcomed our local MP Gary Sambrook into school. Gary met with the Debate Team, School Parliament, and the children in Nursery. He even joined in with our Water Aid Day activities (and only got a little bit wet).

On Friday, the Debate Team had the opportunity to take part in a Digital Surgery with our local MP Gary Sambrook.

Eloise started the meeting by asking an ice breaker question, then we all had a turn at asking some challenging questions which we would like to share.

1. Macdonald’s or KFC? Which do you prefer and why? (Eloise) 
2. We have been carrying out some research on you recently and I discovered that you once worked for James Morris. Can I ask, what sort of work you did for him and how you became an MP yourself? (Lukas) 
3. Why did you decide to join the conservative party? (Zack) 
4. I have noticed a few regular homeless people around Northfield lately, some I regularly donate to. What is being done to help get these people off the streets? What support is in place for them? (Tobias) 
5. What are your thoughts on air pollution and what should we be doing about it? (Maisie) 
6. Violence in Northfield is currently at an all-time high and my parents do not feel that it is safe for me to walk home from school alone. What plans do you and the conservative government have in place to tackle this? (Joshua) 
7. Walking home from school with my mum and younger sisters we often see drug paraphernalia on the pavements. This is a real concern. How can you ensure that are streets are kept clean? (Elizabeth) 
8. We must ask you about Party Gate! Boris Johnson, our leader, told us all to stay at home at Christmas last year. We did as he said and couldn’t see our family and friends. What are your thoughts on the situation, and can you tell us why we should trust the conservative party? (Caelan) 
9. What is your view on testing in primary schools? Do you think that SATs are a good measure of success? (Eloise) 
10. There are so many potholes on the roads in Northfield. What is being done about this? (Lukas)  
11. So many parents are struggling to feed their children since the cost-of-living crisis and the usage of food banks has risen considerably. What are the government doing to help us, your constituents? (Maisie) 
12. I enjoyed taking part in the community games at Victoria Common recently. It was a fun free day out for the children in Northfield. Do you think more could be done to help struggling families in the school holidays? Everything is going up in price except for my parents’ wages. I am lucky I can do nice things but so many children can’t. What can you do to ensure that all children have the same opportunity when schools are closed for the summer? (Tobias) 
13. Family and friends are still waiting for operations that were put back during the pandemic. The National Health Service was established in 1948 and promised for health care for all from cradle to grave. Is it fair that people must wait so long to be seen by a medical professional and why aren’t we able to see our GP in some surgeries anymore? (Millie) 
14. For many years we have been fighting to reduce the speed limit on the roads around our school. This has been unsuccessful. What can you do to support us in our mission? (Archie) 
15. In a few words, please sum up why the constituents of Northfield should vote for you? (Elizabeth) 

We really enjoyed the surgery and thank Gary Sambrook for taking the time to talk to us about these important issues.

Mrs Nash, Mrs Goodes, Mrs Clifford, Mrs Horton, Mrs Russell, Mrs Holmes, and Mrs Perry were joined by some of our class MPs, pupils from year 4 & 5, and Mrs Chandra from CHAPS for a sleepover in our school hall. The children enjoyed playing outside in the sunshine and watching a film whilst eating popcorn and cookies and drinking hot chocolate. Father Cecil even joined the children and staff for a night-time prayer! Then, the children slept soundly until morning. We are so proud of the children as not only were they so well behaved and a pleasure to be with, but they raised well over £1000 for Birmingham Children's Hospital and our prayer garden in school. 

Some pupils from Years 5 and 6 have enjoyed taking part in Bikeability, a national cycle programme, this week. Well done children, we are all very proud of you!

We have been extremely busy consulting with our constituents about break times in Key Stage 2. On Monday 23^rd May, we hand delivered a Green Paper, with our proposals,  to Mrs Chapman. Mrs Chapman agreed to add this to the agenda at the next SLT meeting and feedback to us in due course.

School Parliament.

On Monday 7^th March, members of our School Parlaiment set off for London as we had been invited to visit the Houses of Parliament by our local MP, Gary Sambrook.

We started our tour by visiting Westminster Hall which is the oldest building on the Parliamentary estate. We were truly amazed at the size of this hall and the magnificence of its roof. 

After that, we walked through to St Stephen's Chapel and discovered that this was built in the 19^th century as the original chapel was destroyed by the fire of 1834.

Next, we walked into the lobby of the House of Commons and found four bronze statues. These, we discovered,  were statues of previous prime ministers including David Llyod George, Winston Churchill, Clement Attlee, and Margaret Thatcher. Our tour guide told us that when Margaret Thatcher's statue was unveiled, she was very disappointed as she wanted her statue to be made of iron seeing as she was known as 'The Iron Lady'.

Then, we went into the House of Commons. We recognised this chamber from the television, and we talked about the role of the speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, who was elected in November 2019.

We weren't allowed to sit on the green benches because these are reserved for Members of Parliament only.

Mrs Perry tried to argue that we were Class MPs so should be allowed to sit but our tour guide and Gary Sambrook just laughed at her! We were allowed to walk around the chamber, and we had the opportunity to stand where the current Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, stands during Prime Minister's question time. We imagined he was there with us and thought of questions we might ask him. Mrs Parker enjoyed shouting 'Order!'

We then visited the House of Lords. This is very like the House of Commons; except the benches are red and there is a throne in this chamber for the Queen! In this house the Lords examine bills, question government action, and investigate public policy.

We then walked through to the Royal Apartments and stood in the Robing Room. This is where the Queen puts on the Imperial State Crown and her ceremonial robes before making her way to the House of Lords. We could not believe the grandeur of this room! The fireplace was designed by Edward Barry and is made of marble of different colours from the Bristish Isles and contains brass statuettes depicting St George fighting the dragon and St Michael overcoming the devil.

We had such a fantastic day and loved every moment of our tour. 

Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photographs inside the Houses of Parliament, so we found time to photograph a few landmarks outside before setting off for home.

We really hope to visit again next year!

Thanks to your kindness and generosity, £247.57 was raised in the School Parliament Toy Sale and this has now been donated to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

Furthermore, we were able to donate a large selection of toys and games to Birmingham Children’s Hospital. 

Thank you for helping us to help others.

Thanks to your kindness and generosity, the school Parliament delivered 126 shoeboxes to Starbucks this week.
Your generous gifts will bring so much joy to so many children around the world. Thank you so much!

EXCITING NEWS!

During Autumn 1, we would like all our current school councillors from 2020-21 to remain in post. During the term we will be launching our new 'School Parliament.'   Whilst this is in operation, we will need our current school councillors support and for them to be active in their roles.

During the half term, we will be looking for an MP from each class. Their class will be their constituency which they will need to look after and represent. During the first part of the Autumn term, the pupils who wish to be an MP can canvas for votes and in KS2 can deliver a speech stating their intentions and actions if they are elected as class MP. Current school councillors may apply for the role of MP. This is a very exciting role and we look forward to seeing children put themselves forward as an MP. 

Voting will take place before the end of the half term and MPs will be announced on Wednesday 20th October! Good luck! 

Welcome to our School Council page, we are very proud of all the hard work our councillors do. We hope that you visit our page regularly and find the minutes of our meetings useful.

Meet the team!

Operation Christmas Child

This year we had the privilege to support the Operation Christmas Child project, led by the Samaritans. The School Council and Mini Vinnies were keen to get involved and showed a mature attitude as they learnt more about the project during their visit to Starbucks. They met with Mary, who volunteers and dedicates a lot of her time to the project. She was fortunate enough to go to Malawi last year to deliver the shoe boxes that had been filled with beautiful gifts.

Members of the School Council eagerly helped Mrs Perry load her car to the brim with shoe boxes that had been sent in and delivered them to St Mary's Catholic Church.  

The School Council and Mini Vinnies would like to say a huge thank you to all of our families that kindly donated to a deserving charity.

The School Councillors and Eco Warriors joined together to lead the whole school in Waste Week. The children had lots of fun creating three murals using recycled crisps packets. Thank you to the CHAPS for all your help!

It has been a very busy week selling cakes and collecting shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child. The School Councillors would like to thank all those who supported the project. We collected 55 shoe boxes and raised £56.00 – Fantastic!

Operation Christmas Child project has officially begun!

The School Councillors invited some guest speakers, from the charity, to tell the rest of the school all about this project.

The School Councillors had a lovely time at Starbucks this week learning all about Operation Christmas Child. They are really looking forward to launching the project after half term.

During our school council meeting this week, the first item on the agenda was biscuits. All children voted in favour! We then looked through the suggestion boxes and discussed any future projects.

Well done to our new school councillors, we know that you will be an asset to our school!

To celebrate the end of their year and to recognise all their hard work, the 2017-2018 school councillors were invited to the Council House in Birmingham by Local Councillor Olly Armstrong.

Our 2018-2019 School Council Elections have taken place this week, good luck to all our candidates!

The school council have decided to take part in the ‘Send My Friend to School’ campaign and have called on the rest of the school to join them.

This project brings together thousands of children across the UK to speak up for the right to education, and remind world leaders of their promise that all children should get the chance to go to school. We have been making safety signs that we will be passing onto the Prime Minister via our local MP Richard Burden.

At our meeting today we have been sharing all your ideas from the suggestion boxes. Our next project will be presented in class next week, we hope you’re excited!

Representatives from the School Council served refreshments to the Parishioners after Mass and welcomed them to our St Patrick’s Day Parade. 

The School councillors have been hard at work once again, collaborating with Mrs Goodes on important Science business. They agreed on the new Teaching and Learning Principles within Science to make our lessons even better!

We teamed up with Global Gang and Northfield Eco Centre to discuss how we can benefit from the 3 R’s - Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. This informative workshop has made us think twice when making our packed lunches!.

This week, representatives from the school council have been busy raising money to support Hannah Perry, who has been accepted on a University led 2 week placement, in summer 2018 to Laos in South Asia. During the two weeks, Hannah will be working in a local village school teaching English and of an evening will be caring for elephants at a Conservation Camp. The school council have been selling tickets to raffle off this large stuffed elephant.

Raffle tickets will be sold during break time in Miss Skerrett’s classroom.

50p a Ticket!

Biggest Brightest Selfie Competition

Congratulations to our School Councillors who won a scooter pod for our school.

A big thank you to Mandi Slater from the Road Safety Team at Birmingham City Council who presented us with our prize during Praise Assembly on 29^th January 2016.

Brake Giant Walk

As planned all the children from Reception to Year 6 took part in this annual event on 10th June 2015. This was a very successful event which all the children and adults enjoyed. We set off at 10am with everyone chanting for safer roads around all schools. We would like to thank everyone who raised money which came to a total of raised £430.14. Well done!

School Council Protest – 4th June 2015
Thank you to everyone who supported our protest for a reduction in the speed limit outside our school. We were delighted that our local councillor Steve Booton, and Teresa Deakin from our MP Richard Burden’s office joined us on the day. Others who lent their support which we very much appreciated were Trish Jones, Sue Robertson, John Robertson and Anna O’Driscoll, and all the parents/cares who took the time to sign our petition. Hopefully we will be presenting this petition at the Council House in the near future.

Road Safety Petition.
Well done to those School Councillors who have braved the elements to gather as many signatures as possible on our ‘Road Safety Petition’. There are plans to hold a protest on 18th May 2015 as we continue our campaign to reduce the speed limit outside our school.