Rating: +1
I guess 'points of reference' could mean two different things:
- The range of issues a school council may/is expected to deal with.
- A guide to see how well your school council is doing.
Both exist in some form.
For 1, what I'd suggest is that you create a constitution for your school council (and probably also a student voice policy for your school). In our Short Toolkit for School Council Co-ordinators (a free download), pages 17-21 will help you and your students write these.
As far as 2 is concerned, that's a little bit more complicated, you could use something like the Hart's Ladder of Participation. A key element when trying to figure out how effective your school council is (whether you use the Ladder or another method) to ask the students in your school. Work out what the aims are of the school council and survey all or a cross-section of students to find out whether they feel it is meeting those aims. We're just developing an online tool to assist with this, but in the meantime you might find this (also free) Simple Student Voice Audit helps in your thinking.
