Cranfold Confederation

confederation school councils visit waverley borough council

CONFEDERATION SCHOOL COUNCILS VISIT WAVERLEY BOROUGH COUNCIL CHAMBER

Seventy school council representatives, aged 4 - 16, from eight schools in the Confederation visited Waverley Borough Council to see at first hand how the Council works and put their questions to Councillors and officers.

The visit was organised jointly by the Cranfold Confederation of Schools and Waverley Borough Council. The young people asked searching questions on issues from problems with footpaths to facilities for young people, recycling and speeding traffic near schools. The question time event was chaired by the Deputy Mayor of Waverley, Cllr Pat Frost who said ’it is great to see young people participating in the democratic process. We have promised to look into the issues the children raised and we will be looking at new ways to continue the dialogue with all young people in the borough.’

The event was organised during national 'anti-bullying week' and for the second part of the mornng the young people took part in small discussion groups to look at the sensitive issue of bullying at school and discuss ways that it could be tackled.  The basis of these discussions will be used to help establish anti-bullying strategies across the schools. Cllr Carole King, Portfolio Holder for Youth, Children and Young People said ‘it is so important for us as Councillors at Waverley to listen to what our young people think and need – we have all learnt a lot from the morning’s visit and will build on it with future events. The young people had clearly put a lot of effort into their questions and we are grateful for their schools for helping raise a number of important issues.’

Feedback from the students has been very positive and the school council representatives would like to meet regularly to look at community focussed issues.