This academic year at Warwick Academy, a few members of staff decided to create a school council.

The school council is a group of senior school students and teachers working together to make changes and improvements to the school.

It is a way for the students to be able to express their opinions on how the school can progress and become a better learning facility.

The school council consists of students in Years 7 through to 13, with a couple of teachers to monitor discussions. There are two representatives from each form group — one boy and one girl.

These representatives were chosen by a vote from the class, and the male and female with the most votes got to be a part of the school council.

Overall, there are seven students per year group, meaning that in total there are around forty students in the council.

Having this number of students with such a large range of age allows many different viewpoints and opinions, so that the school can have as many suggestions as possible.

How the council works, is that each form group talks about what they would like to change or develop, and these points are then taken to the next school council meeting.

There are a couple of council meetings in each term, and in between the meetings, points are taken to the upper levels of staff to be discussed, for changes to be made.

A wide range of topics have been discussed at the school council meetings.

Some of the main topics that have been brought up are discussions on uniform, fund-raising, how to make our school more eco-friendly, study periods, improved facilities and ways to raise money for charities.

These are all very important topics and changes are already in progress.

The school council has been a great help to Warwick Academy, and I believe that it was a fantastic idea to create the council. I believe that students' opinions are very important, as are teacher's viewpoints, which is why the school council is such an excellent addition to the school.

In addition, the school council has helped to bring our school together as a whole. Instead of having a 'students versus teachers' stereotype, the two sides can join.

We can use all of our opinions to have Warwick Academy ascending to the highest heights.

This is helping to raise the spirits of the school body, and the school council is bringing us together as a family.

I was chosen as the female representative for our form class in the school council. I ran for this role because I thought that the council was a great program to have in our school.

I feel that my form and all of the other forms and year groups give a great input during the meetings, and I am honoured to be able to represent my Year 9 form class in the Warwick Academy school council.