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On Wednesday, 10th June, I went to a conference hosted by the Ashden Awards  at the Imperial College, London. The  Ashden Awards for sustainable energy are to reward those making advances in local solutions to climate change. The purpose of the day was to give the Ashden Awards finalists the opportunity to talk about their achievements and successes.

I was at the conference primarily in order to meet with Ashley Primary School whose pupils were remarkable in both their enthusiasm and bravery in addressing so many people. First we viewed a short film outlining how following an expedition to the Antarctic Richard Dunne, headteacher, was inspired to create a sustainable energy school. Then four pupils from Ashley Primary, Aaron, Megan, Joshua and Ellie, spoke about how they have accomplished reducing their use of electricity throughout the whole school by more than half in the last year.

It was a really enjoyable day and it was obvious from listening to the children that they really knew what they were talking about and loved being involved with the project. The buzz that was created throughout the audience proves what an exciting and fundamental change that has been started by Ashley School. Having met with Richard Dunne there is no doubt in my mind that the success is largely due to his enthusiasm and dedication and I only hope that the inspiration he evokes can be carried forward to schools nationwide.

Daisy

I read this article about Dundee City Council banning a primary school having a cake sale due to health and safety and couldn’t believe it.

Read the story here

We have also just put a poll on our website asking you what you think the best ways to raise money are, a cake sale is one of the options. This to me begs the question are you prevented from acheiveing things on your school council, or in your school in general due to silly rules?

Daisy

Hansard Society are holding a forum to discuss what contribution should under-18s be making to politics?

Speakers at this event will include Jo Swinson MP, Emily Benn PPC and a member of the UK Youth Parliament. There will also be the opportunity for an open discussion with the audience.

The event is to be held, Wednesday 10 June, 6.45pm, Portcullis House, Westminster

To find out more and to attend this event visit www.hansardsociety.org.uk

This guy contacted us about training last week, and I though his role was really interesting, so I asked him to write a blog post for us. Here it is.

Vicky

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Stepping back four years ago at Hirst High School Technology College, it would certainly seem like a different school. With a planned student strike against the new senior leadership team which had just taken up their posts amid a range of rumours about various cancelations on student activities it was clear that implementing student voice needed to take place sooner rather than later.

I was determined to really hammer home the messages of my fellow peers in the school, so I became head boy in my senior year. I undertook my responsibility to represent the student body by chairing school council meetings, attending open senior leadership meetings and governor’s termly meetings. To ensure the students were properly represented I made sure that events and student activities are now organised by the students, and they are extremely well organised. The student motto of “doing it for the students by the students” was actually working for the first time in the schools history.
School leaders were keen to continue the positive impact that student voice had made on the whole school community by making my role as student leader a paid position in the school. I am currently working in this position whilst on a ‘gap’ year before university. A clear focus for student leadership has meant I am high profile in the school and students know exactly who I am and what I do. It is beneficial for students to have a central person in school that is close to them in age who they can relate to and available to contact and communicate with throughout the day.  Having visited other schools to talk about my role the position has received wide acclaim with many schools wishing to adopt the idea.

Our school council has transformed from a team that “formed” for recruitment purposes to a large group of keen students across all year groups and with all abilities who meet fortnightly to discuss key issues in their school community.
The results have been outstanding: seeing an increase at all levels in students who are actively involved in student participation at all levels. Our most senior students form the voice of the whole school and lead their own leadership team which has a direct match to that of the staff model. By using all the resources available from the School Councils UK website I have made a pack for training everyone on the school council and I’m always referring back to it.

I created and implemented the role of student subject leaders who act as student Heads of Department (HODs) in all subjects. They discuss and record issues under a series of headings which include curriculum issues and coursework support. All students have been issued with a log book which they can use throughout the year and which I designed to aid and develop student roles throughout the school. The leaders are now being used to develop teaching and learning on a whole school level.

It is simply impossible to speak about everything Hirst High School Technology College has to offer in terms of its student voice in this one single article and I am constantly looking at improving the service for the students including a partnership with our link schools to form an overall school council. I also hope to be taking part in the School Councils UK Experts course in November. Five years back seems like a century ago when you see the major improvements we have made to ensure students know their views are being heard. One thing however is certain, our student voice is now far greater than the tokenistic school councils some schools seem to have.

James Leslie,  Hirst High School Technology College

Over the last couple of weeks whilst searching the internet for news on school councils I have noticed a number of stories celebrating the positive praise school councils are receiving through their inspection reports. I have picked out a few examples to share with you.

Shilbottle First School celebrated receiving Ofsted’s outstanding rating for the third time last month. Ofsted were extremely impressed with how the school valued its pupils and offered the opportunities in contributing to the school community through the school council.

http://www.northumberlandgazette.co.uk/news/Northumberland-school-is-top-of.5221622.jp

Pupils take on responsibilities to contribute to the school seriously, which is evident in the work of the school council

is what Ofsted had to say about St John’s School in Bromsgrove. The inspectors spent a long time interviewing the Learning Council and described them as  ‘exemplary’ and pupil voice as a real strength of the school.

http://www.bromsgroveadvertiser.co.u/news/4318207.School_celebrates_its_superb_report/

It’s not only Ofsted who are taking note of the changes school councils can produce within a school Estyn are paying particular attention to them as well. In the inspection report of Birchgrove Primary School it was highlighted that when the pupils were given the formal responsibility of being school councilors they excelled as enthusiastic learners. Estyn said that an outstanding feature of the school was the pride evoked in the pupils through their involvment in the decision making process.

We are pleased that these schools are being recognised for the hard work they do through their school councils to make their schools great.

Daisy

I was reading through Gordon Brown’s big speech on education yesterday: http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page19209 (I was a little surprised at the lack of full stops, but that’s not the main point of this post) I really liked the main thrust of his argument: that we get out of recession by making education better and fairer rather than cutting back on spending.  That said, I think he really misunderstands who schools are there to serve.  Well, maybe ‘misunderstands’ is a bit strong, but he does neglect the key group: pupils.

It’s amazing, compared to parents they’re hardly mentioned at all, and especially not as stakeholders in their own education. ‘Pupil’, ‘student’ or ‘young person’ features 20 times, ‘parent’ 48; more than twice as often.  Now, don’t get me wrong, the more parents are involved in education and schools the better, but this speech puts a huge amount of weight in what parents, school leaders and teachers can do to improve schools, but completely overlooks the fact that schools will only really improve when they engage their pupils in school improvement.  Alongside school staff, who has the best view of how a school is doing, and how it needs to improve?  Pupils.

Gordon says that he doesn’t want to just advantage the educated, able parents; but a system that relies on parents and excludes pupils will do just that.  It will be just those parents who lobby the school and LA in an effective way.  If we train up all young people to use their critical faculties in a constructive, collaborative and sensible way, then we can have a universal view of schools from a pupil’s perspective.

This would also lead to far more praise of the good work schools do, not just criticism where they get things wrong.  Ask any teachers you know how often a parent has rung up to tell them what a great job they’re doing, and then ask them to compare how many times they speak to parents with complaints.  Pupils, having a full picture of life in school can reflect on the positive and the negative, not just focus on the one time Jimmy comes home crying.

Well, anyway, rant over.  Hopefully Gordon Brown’s office are reading this post and writing his next speech without this big black hole in.  Now the rant’s really over.

Asher