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Category: Newsletters
School council training for primary teachers: We're running a one-day CPD training looking at the best ways to overcome the obstacles that school council coordinators come up against.
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Hello from involver – newsletter number 9
Sorry there was no newsletter last month but we got a bit distracted by Asher’s wedding. We promise it won’t happen again (at least until Greg gets married).
Resource: Get a politician in to your school
This free resource from the Hansard Society shows you how to get the most out of bringing an MP or Peer in to your school. There are also tips for how to get them there in the first place. Order your copy here:
http://www.hansardsociety.org.uk/blogs/citizenship_education/archive/2010/10/28/2779.aspx
Resource: Young people’s governance in schools
A new short guide from Participation Works that looks full of useful information for those involved in running schools. You can buy a copy here:
http://www.participationworks.org.uk/resources/how-to-involve-children-and-young-people-in-school-governance
Video: Challenging educational paradigms through student voice
Project REAL is the way in which this school in Australia is trying to reassess the way they teach and learn. These two videos from the students explain how they’re doing it and why they feel it’s important. Really worth a watch:
http://ihsprojectreal.wordpress.com/
Research: Student voice reading list
We met with ARK last week and they wanted us to persuade them that student voice should be central to the school’s they’re setting up in Uganda. We created this list of research on the subject for them. What have we missed?
http://involver.org.uk/2011/07/student-voice-reading-list/
Community: Smart School Councils help each other out
The Smart School Councils Community is a new charity we’re setting up along with students and teachers from 15 founder schools. It will be free for anyone to join and share good practice on how to involve your whole school in student voice. Watch this space:
http://www.smartschoolcouncils.org.uk
Awards: John Bercow awards best school council projects
Body image, anti-vandalism, LGBT sensitivity, classroom pets and Ecostars projects were selected by the Speaker of the House of Commons (and friends) as the winners of the Speaker’s School Council Awards 2011. We had a great time helping out at the ceremony:
http://involver.org.uk/2011/07/a-fun-day-at-the-speakers-school-council-awards/
And now we’re off to help judge Haringey Junior Citizens Debate, which should be great fun,
Greg and Asher
http://twitter.com/doingdemocracy
http://facebook.com/involver.org.uk
Hello from involver – newsletter number 8
We hope all your chocolate eggs haven’t melted in the sunshine.
Resource: Setting targets and planning a project
These free downloads are something we created for Parliament’s Education Service (PES) to help schools prepare for entering the Speaker’s School Council Award. It’s the second in a series of four sessions to help school councils run projects. The download is in three parts, one at the bottom of this page and the next two on page two:
http://speakersschoolcouncil.org/resources
Video: MPs’ and school councillors’ tips on project planning
We’ve also made these six videos for PES to help schools think about why school councils are important and how to plan and run projects. There are loads of great tips and inspiration for any school council or action team. Watch them all here:
http://involver.org.uk/2011/04/project-planning-and-evaluation-videos-for-school-councils/
Competition: Winner of free half-day of training
Welcome to all our new subscribers who signed up over the last couple of months. The winner of the half-day training is Morgan from Warwickshire, congratulations to them and commiserations to everyone else. Here’s what you could have won:
http://involver.org.uk/school-council-training-and-student-voice-support/
Article: How running your school like a factory can make it more creative
A lot has been said about how schools are too much like factories to be effective, but one school we’ve come across recently is using the ideas of industrialist, W. Edwards Deming to make their school more responsive to student voice. Here are our thoughts:
http://involver.org.uk/2011/04/how-running-a-school-like-a-factory-can-improve-student-voice/
Research: Student voice good practice
We came across the school above as part of the mad rush around the country we’ve been on over the last month to complete research for the Office of the Children’s Commissioner (OCC) in to good practice in student voice. We’ve seen some exciting and inspiring stuff, and it’s all written up now. We’ll be sure to share it with you as soon as the OCC publish it. See more of the OCC’s work:
http://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/
News: School council chair runs AV debate
Soon Britain will be deciding on whether it wants a new voting system. We think this is a great opportunity for schools to look at how democracy works in their school. This school council has taken up this challenge and is hosting a debate between two local MPs on the Alternative Vote (AV) vs First Past the Post (FPTP):
http://www.getwokingham.co.uk/news/s/2091605_av_debate_at_ranelagh_school
Resources on AV/FPTP to use in your school: http://www.ycsay.co.uk/freeresources.html
Resource: Pilot the Student voice-o-meter
We’ve created a new online tool to help students research student voice in their school, understand who it’s working for and who it’s not. We’re looking for a few schools to pilot it. Let us know if you’re interested by emailing info@involver.org.uk. Find out more here:
http://www.studentvoiceometer.org.uk
Campaign: Every1counts participatory budgeting in schools
We believe that if schools really value student voice they need to involve students in how the school spends its money, so we’ve teamed up with the Participatory Budgeting Unit and the Citizenship Foundation to support schools to involve the whole school in this process. We are currently seeking funding from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation to enable us to create training and resources. Find out more and sign-up to be considered for the pilot:
http://www.every1counts.org.uk
Hope you have fun over the extra long weekend!
Greg and Asher
P.S. Greg was very keen for us to put in an egg-related joke. I hope you’ll agree that I showed eggscelent taste in resisting the temptation to do so.
http://twitter.com/doingdemocracy
http://facebook.com/involver.org.uk
Hello from involver – newsletter number 7
Welcome to all our new friends and we hope all our old ones are keeping well.
Resource: 5 Tutor time activities to prepare for an election
This is a series of short activities to help get the whole school up to speed for an election. They’ll introduce key concepts about what democracy is, what the school council is for and why people should stand. As well as clear instructions, there are PowerPoints and handouts to enable every form tutor in the school to run them. Have a look:
http://involver.org.uk/2011/03/school-council-election-tutor-form-time-activities/
Campaign: Keep Citizenship strong
As I’m sure you’re aware there’s a curriculum review going on. This means both that there’s a threat to Citizenship in the secondary curriculum and an opportunity to strengthen it in the primary curriculum. We need you to add your voice, sign up to www.democraticlife.org.uk, but most importantly respond to the review formally. There is some advice here:
http://www.democraticlife.org.uk/curriculum-review/
Articles: The life of a gap-year student voice assistant
Over the last few months we’ve been lucky to have Little Heath School’s student voice assistant, Alison, writing a regular blog for us. Her latest post is on how to get more people involved in your student voice, really worth a read:
http://involver.org.uk/2011/02/how-can-you-encourage-more-people-to-get-involved-in-your-student-voice/
Training: Free teacher training from Amnesty
If you’re interested in finding out about what an Amnesty Youth Group could do for your school, there’s training in Manchester on the 21st of May.
www.amnesty.org.uk/teachertraining
Research: Student voice good practice
We’ve been commissioned by the Office of the Children’s Commissioner (they know about commissioning) to collect good practice on student voice from across England. It’s great fun, but we’re having to work our socks off to get it done within the timeframe. We’ve been seeing some amazing things so far, and we’re sure there’s more to come. If you follow us on Twitter we’ll keep you informed of the best little things we see:
http://twitter.com/doingdemocracy
Resource: Coming up with ideas (for the Speaker’s School Council Award)
The Speaker’s School Council Award is a great scheme to celebrate what you’ve been doing with your school council. If you’re not quite sure what project you should enter, we’re creating a series of resources for Parliament to help you create a project, carry it out, keep people informed and evaluate it. The first one is here:
http://speakersschoolcouncil.org/resources
Thanks for reading!
Greg and Asher