At the beginning of every school year, various pupils are elected by their peers to gather and represent their voice on specific matters, and to make a positive contribution to the life of the school.

School Councils

The Secondary School Council have been meeting on a fortnightly basis to discuss any concerns, issues or initiatives from their year group.

During their last meetings, the students expressed their interest for:

• More dedicated spaces for revision and more regular use of the cubes
• Whole school hoodies
• A vending machine or tuck shop
• Microwaves to heat their own packed lunches
• A talent show

We look forward to seeing how those initiatives are materialised in the near future!

Our Primary School Council (pictured above) so far this year have been discussing a number of topics:

• The Reward Shop : where the children can trade stars/stickers for prizes, in line with GES Secondary
• Ways for hot and packed lunch children to sit together
• New equipment for the playground and digging area
• Fundraising in general

Food Committee

Our Food Committee is reviewing the weekly menus according to the tastes of the majority (and with the knowledge of what a good, nutritious meal looks like). If they think that a particular course is not popular, they will ask our caterer Kidelis to change the menu.

The group also continuously think about new ways of improving the children’s lunch break experience.

Eco-Schools Committee

Since 2018, the school has had two Green Flags awards for making a huge effort on waste and litter reduction and focusing on sustainable food.

This year’s focus is on biodiversity. The Eco-School Committee across both campuses has, therefore, been busy sharing the results from the whole school’s biodiversity audits (children and adults). After explaining what biodiversity is, the Eco team have been asking how we could improve biodiversity at GES. Once feedback from staff and students is collated, the Eco Committee will set out to design an action plan for improvement in the upcoming months.

House captains

House Captains for Primary are elected annually from the Year 6 cohort, with one boy and one girl per house elected to act as role models and leaders for their house for the entire academic year.

As part of their responsibilities, House Captains contribute to the life of the school community through a weekly duty in the dining hall and as play leaders in the playground. Inter-house competitions throughout the year are an opportunity for House captains to demonstrate leadership and autonomy by running warmups and supporting their younger peers.

Subject ambassadors

Subject Ambassadors are chosen by the Heads of Departments following an application process. They must show a certain passion and enthusiasm for their subject. Currently, we have ambassadors in the following disciplines:

English, Maths, Science, Humanities, French, Reading/Library.

Subject Ambassadors are eager to learn new things and solve problems. They always want to share their understanding with others and enjoy rising to new challenges.

Here are just a few examples of how subject ambassadors make their and other students’ voices count.

Maths Ambassadors have been working on a questionnaire for the whole school:

• What do the students enjoy/dislike about Maths?
• Are we using enough Maths resources?
• Should we implement Maths mornings or more Outdoor Maths?
• What do we need to change to establish a love of Maths?

The current Science ambassadors coordinated a STEAM morning (November 2021) for Year 1 to Year 6 children with Mrs Cesmat, Head of Primary Science.

Throughout the year, they develop and complete projects to raise the profile of Science, communicate with other students about Science and represent other students’ views to the Head of Primary Science.

The French ambassadors, under the guidance of Mme Durey, Head of Primary French, have come up with lots of ideas to spread French around the school this year:

• French posters in the classrooms
• French book day
• French movie/quiz night
• French bake sale…

Languages Ambassadors at Secondary

NEW THIS SPRING TERM 2022

We have just launched a Languages Ambassador scheme at Secondary, aiming to help and enrich our Modern Foreign Languages lessons and experiences.

In addition to English, French, Spanish and German, our 7 ambassadors speak various languages: Portuguese, Greek, Yoruba, Arabic, Finnish and Korean are just a few of them.

No doubt we will hear about their amazing ideas in the near future to promote linguistic diversity and multilingualism.