Ofsted have just produced a report on successful strategies for taking schools out of special measures, it contains some strong words about pupil participation:
Pupils and students’ greater engagement in school life had a significant influence on improving outcomes in almost all of the schools surveyed.
…
Establishing and keeping high profile a school council, an open forum
or a house system were all successful approaches to giving expression to the
pupils’ voice.…
Increasing levels of participation had measurable benefits in all the schools.
It then goes on to specify what those measurable gains were, very useful stuff. The full report is here: http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/publications/070221
Asher