CACOT Trust Children’s Forum

On Thursday 19 May 2022 our Y4 and Y6 school council reps attended CACoT Trust Children’s Forum at Swalecliffe Primary School.

The event was hosted by Ben Cooper, Executive Headteacher of Swalecliffe Primary School and all CACoT schools were represented. This involved children from Y2, Y4 and Y6 supported by Y7 and Y8 students from Herne Bay High School.

The topic of conversation was the current cost of living crisis.

The aim of the event was to get children involved in contributing to the CACoT Trust Board’s future plans by sharing their ideas for how all our schools can work together to support the local community in Whitstable and Herne Bay in these difficult times.

There were 3 outside speakers, Chris Cornell-  Councillor for Whitstable and a governor at Swalecliffe Primary School and Peter and Liam from Canterbury food bank.

The council reps were informed about a number of local schemes and organisations who are working to support families affected by this crisis, such as Riverside community Church, Canterbury Food Bank and Clothing bank, The Magic wardrobe, Whitstable cafes supporting a ‘Pay it Forward’ scheme and the Warm Spaces programme.

There were then 2 discussion sessions held whereby the council reps worked with peers from other schools to put forward questions to the speakers and then ultimately vote on ideas generated to support our local community further.

One powerful piece of information gained yesterday was that there is a food bank App- Food Bank Central. We were amazed to hear it helps you locate places that hold food banks as well as notify you which items are in short supply each time you enter a shop.

At the end of the morning, 3 school council reps were selected at random to attend the next Head Teacher meeting in January 2023 in order to report back on the event and announce the idea voted for.

Amelia Hills (Y6) will be one of the 3 representatives at that meeting.