On Friday I visited the Academy of St Nicholas in Garston to present their newly-elected School Council with their school council badges and to see some of the great work being done around the school.

Last year’s School Council came up with some brilliant improvements in the school, which has helped see their attendance rise from 83% post-covid to 92% now. These improvements include a plastic recycling programme incorporating a fish designed and built by some of the pupils with the help of a local artist (which you can see below) that helped illustrate how much plastic was being used in school and their Friday lunchtime bingo for pupils who have attended all week that sees the winner take home a gift card. Each pupil has also been given a refillable water bottle with juice points around the school for refills that have replaced single-use plastic water bottles. The school have also opened a new textile studio which has gone down fantastically with students.

The School Council have already identified a number of improvements for this coming year and I look forward to hearing how they get on delivering their campaign promises.