Eco Council

We have a very active Eco Council who are responsible for raising awareness about environmental issues and helping us do our bit to protect the planet.

The Eco Council have involvement in regular environmental audits and the formulation of subsequent action plans, which  have seen us learn about our carbon footprint, be engaged in recycling, presenting information to the community cafe and involvement in Greening Tetbury initiatives.  We have also been involved in litter-picking in the local community. 

Dr Barley, one of our parents, has helped us build our understanding of the impact on the environment, giving talks in assembly and in classes. In July 2019, we held an Eco themed Enrichment Week where we produced a large sculpture of a wave made from plastic bottles in which we had written messages of environmental hope. The whole school performed an environmental dance to parents and we all produced works of art inspired by nature to sell at our summer fair, along with jams and chutneys made from locally sourced ingredients. In Forest School we created a sculpture from recycled plastic inspired by the gorgeous glass work of Dale Chihuly (his art gallery even liked a tweet of our sculpture!)

Our Eco Councillors visited the Avening Community Cafe where they gave a presentation on the impact of palm oil and helped the cafe choose palm oil free snacks to sell. We were even recorded by Radio Gloucestershire!

House Captains

At Avening Primary School we have four house teams: Mars, Neptune, Saturn and Jupiter. Leading each of our houses are our House Captains.

House Captains are responsible for a number of things including representing their houses in Celebration Assembly, when house points and attendance are celebrated. The winning House Captains love pinning up the house point totals on their display and tying their colour ribbon onto the House Cups at the end of each term!

House Captains also help support their team when the school splits into cross-phase house groups for special activities such as during World Book Day or Enrichment Week. 

The highlight of the year for House Captains is our annual Sports Day, when they carry their house banner and lead their team up to the field for a morning of friendly competition!

Playground Patrollers

In Year 6, all children take part in 'peer mediation training' which helps them to acquire assertiveness skills needed to support others to solve minor disagreements peacefully. Throughout the school we encourage children to develop peaceful conflict resolution skills and to use an 'I-statement' to solve their problems. Peer mediation training enhances these skills.

Once training is complete, the children are able to volunteer to become lunchtime 'Playground Patrollers'. We were delighted that all of our current Year 6 children volunteered for the position! The Playground Patrollers, on a rota basis, patrol the playground, supporting the younger children to have happy playtimes. They are trained to record any intervention on a clipboard and, if things get 'too hot to handle', they refer cases to one of our Play Team who takes over the mediation if necessary. Mrs  Boulton keeps a close eye on how things are going and checks in regularly with our Playground Patrollers to discuss any issues.

Pupil conferencing and pupil questionnaires highlight the good job Playground Patrollers are doing. Well done Year 6!

Sports Council

The Sports Council are responsible for encouraging children across our school to be active. They meet with Mr Wilkinson regularly to discuss the options for extra-curricular clubs, as well as to arrange sporting opportunities. They have a track record of success - with 100% of our Key Stage 2 children taking part in a sporting event pre-covid restrictions. You will find evidence of their work in the 'Enrichment' section of our website.