PUPIL VOICE

The children’s voices are central to setting the culture and standards at St Andrew’s.

Pupil-led committees

Overseen by staff, pupil voice is heard through a number of channels: the School Council, our Charity and Eco Committees, as well as RIDE (Respect, Inclusion, Diversity, Equality) and Mind Your Heads, a group of senior pupils who look to promote wellbeing throughout the school.

Our School Councils

There are two School Councils; one for Pre-Prep (Years 1 – 2) and one for Prep (Years 3 – 8). Recent items on the agenda have included more mixed sport, the introduction of black bench coats and tri-suits on the uniform list, more Science equipment, additional library books for Pre-Prep, and more movement between lessons.

Our Food Committee

The pupil Food Committee meets regularly to discuss the dining options at School. This can range from meal options to portion size, food miles or the variety of healthy snacks on offer. This is then passed on to the Head Chef for consideration. There is also a book in the Dining Room that children are encouraged to add their comments to, whether it’s good or bad.

Our Charity Committee

Whilst a spirit of compassion is fostered throughout the School, encouraging support for local charities, relationships have continued with The Grace School in South Africa and St Peter’s in Uganda. In 2022, the Ukraine crisis became a priority for our children, seeing Year 7 children swimming over 1,800 lengths of our indoor pool, the equivalent of the English Channel, raising £2,000 for the British Red Cross to support its efforts in Ukraine.

Our Eco Committee

Our Eco Committee was awarded the prestigious Eco School's Green Flag with Distinction in 2024 for a variety of topic-driven campaigns and initiatives. These included:

The Big Clothes, Shoes and Accessories Swap to raise awareness of sustainable fashion, the importance of recycling and to support local charity The Cow Shed;
The seed-to-sunflower poster design and growing competition to learn about the importance of biodiversity; and
The Hedgehog Food Sale that Pre-Prep organised in the morning, followed by The Big Hedgehog Hunt, when 11 Prep School staff (and Head Master) dressed up as hedgehogs and hid in the grounds to be found by over 200 Prep School pupils. Both initiatives helped to raise much-needed funds for Thatcham-based rescue clinic, Hedgehog Bottom.

This year, the Eco Committee have continued their quest to educate peers, family, and friends about important enviro-projects, and inspired community litter picks, and a whole-school rivers, seas and ocean protection campaign during weekly swimming lessons called 'Pool against pollution'.

Our ‘RIDE’ Committee

“Gender should never be a barrier to potential”

Commonwealth champion Stacey Copeland

RIDE is a committee comprised of Year 8 pupils who look to educate all pupils across the school on a range of issues such as: race, gender, equality, sexuality, disability, age and poverty. Other areas RIDE has highlighted include body image and neurodiversity.

The pupils themselves decide which specific area to focus on; one of its first initiatives saw former Commonwealth boxing champion, Stacey Copeland, address the whole school, concentrating on her own passion – gender equality.

At the start of each academic year, RIDE stages a “sleepout” where pupils sleep on cardboard boxes in their sleeping bags on the South Terrace in aid of Launchpad, its chosen charity for the homeless in Reading.