Tag: communication

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involver blog Resources

A short toolkit for school council co-ordinators

I created this short toolkit for the Salford School Council Co-ordinators Network.  As with everything we’re doing at involver when we create something we want to give it away for schools to use, play around with and share (that’s why we release everything under a Creative Commons licence). So have a look at this, I think there’s some really useful stuff in there, but it’s not supposed to cover everything, so if there are things you’d like us to add, just drop us an email and we’ll keep expanding it.  This is what’s in there now:

  • Ice breakers (4 school council-related games)
  • Boundaries and possibilities (2 different types of activity to explore what these might be)
  • School Councils are the end, not the beginning (presentation – hopefully it makes sense)
  • (Updated – April 2010) Planning elections
  • Key lines of communication (a worksheet for planning communication)
  • School policy on pupil participation (an essential document for any school that’s serious about pupil well-being – this is a guide to creating one)
  • School council constitution (you can’t really have pupil representation without one – although many try – some scenarios to set you on your way)
  • Tips for great meetings (guides to help you through preparing for a successful meeting, the meeting itself and ground rules to avoid pitfalls)

All three of these downloads have exactly the same stuff in:

[download id=”2″] 2.4MB
You can’t really edit it, but it will look just right with our nice fonts and things.

[download id=”93″] 1.3MB
Best if you might want to edit things and have a newer version of Word:

[download id=”92″] 2.9MB
Use this if you want to edit the file and can’t open newer Word files:

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involver blog

Slovakian adventure!

I’m back in London, via Vienna, after an amazing time in Kosice, Slovakia. It was a very inspiring and interesting three days.

slovakian flag

Great to hear about the challenges, successes and stories of people in other countries who are broadly trying to do the same things as us in the UK. Great to meet so many motivated, passionate young people. Great to visit Slovakia for the first time – it is a beautiful country!

After the first day of the meeting, with a visit to the school (See pic) , the rest of the trip focused on evaluating the ‘It’s your choice, use your voice’ project.

school

It was down to business in the amazing venue in Kyask – a beautiful old Soviet recreation centre for young people, set in the hills outside Kosice. A perfect place to work and think! The project had linked and compared school councils and youth democracy across Slovakia and Italy. It included training, conferences, seminars, youth exchanges, and supporting school councils to link with each other, and with regional councils.

A number of common obstacles were identified:

  • problems with elections
  • lack of youth motivation
  • lack of joined up thinking from local government
  • adults who are too willing to lead instead of facilitate

It was useful to provide my point of view on these obstacles as we went along, making clear how familiar they are to us, and discussing how best to overcome them.

Their main idea is to present the evaluation of the project in a way that will convince other young people to get involved. To pass on their learning to others, to help motivate young people – to make them ‘involvers’ I guess. Together, everyone put together a clear plan on the publication to convince other young people, which I’m sure will be a success – using some very eye-catching design. It will be translated into English, Slovakian and Italian, so I hope we can put it up on the involver site when it is done.

Italian group presenting their ideas
Italian group presenting their ideas

There were also lots of ideas for further cooperation that we hope to get involved with. I gave information on what Asher and I are up to with involver, and signposted resources and ideas which could help everyone in the future.

I think I’ll be going back in November – hopefully with Asher this time – to do some training, which is very exciting. The Kosice region is setting up their first regional school council.

Democratic youth voice on this scale has never happened before, so it’s amazing to be involved. There is also a possibility of some training in Turin to help with their regional school council in February next year – we would love to be involved in this too.

Both opportunities are very exciting – especially because it would give
me the chance to catch up with my new friends. Sooooo cheesy (sorry).

So thank you Michal and Erika for inviting me to take part, and thank you to all the young people who took part (especially for the Slovakian ‘mineral water’/ and the (many) Italian songs from Napoli). A great experience.

Over the course of the three days, I took short videos of some of the young people present asking them why student voice and school councils are important to them. I’ll put up a new one every day for the next week or so. Thank you to those who took part in this – your English is great! Here is Veronica from Slovakia telling us about her role in her school in Kosice:

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involver blog Resources

Leadership, codes of conduct and lovely honey

LOVE + HONEY - Lemon Verbena Salt Scrub 400g - Hand-made from 100% natural ingredients - £7.50 - Contact Golden Co for Salt Scrub pre-orders
LOVE + HONEY - Lemon Verbena Salt Scrub 400g - Hand-made from 100% natural ingredients - £7.50 - Contact Golden Co for Salt Scrub pre-orders

I ran a training session for the Golden Company on Saturday. They’re an amazing little social enterprise getting inner-city kids into keeping bees. I guess they’re really trying to address two problems: lack of constructive things for young people to do and the decline of the bee population in England (and World-wide). Anyway, they were great to work with and I thought I’d share the session I ran with them, with you.

They’d asked me to come in to help them create a code of conduct. We had agreed that this would entail looking at leadership as well. How we relate to other people is my favourite thing to train on, I guess because it’s the area in which I’d most like to make a difference. Ultimately what all of this is about is getting people to treat one another well. If that happens then all the other good stuff will just flow.

So for me the most important ideas to get across were:

  • Leadership is about a group, not an individual. One leads only because the others follow.
  • So, everyone in the group has to think about how they’re acting as they might become the leader at any moment,and not necessarily by choice.
  • Those who lead by example will lead better and for longer.

Part of the session was based on pictures I’d pulled from that day’s newspapers and magazines.  So reasonably at random I’d got the Pope, Hitler, the Chinese Army, Obama, Michael Jordan, Cesc Fabregas, David Cameron, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Dreda Say Mitchell, Ferris Lindsay, Craig Bellamy, Spike Lee, Muhammad Ali, Dame Mary Perkins and Nicole Richie.  There were several others too, that I can’t recall right now.

Much of our discussion though focussed on Craig Bellamy. He’s currently the Captain of Wales (at football) as well as playing up front for the Manchester City, the richest football club in the world. He’s arguably the best footballer Wales have (as Ryan Giggs has retired from international football). He’s also set up a charitable foundation in Sierra Leone with a considerable amount of his own money. He has what is often described as a ‘chequered past’ though, having hit an opposition fan, clashed with a Wales fan, allegedly attacked a team mate with a golf club and had several run ins with the police.  How does he fit as a leader, which of these things are relevant? My opinion is that they all are.

If you use this session, I’d love to hear which people you have the most interesting discussions around and what code of conduct you come up with in the end.

Use the ‘More’ button to Download (‘Save’) or Print the session out.

Leadership & Code of Conduct Training Session

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involver blog Resources

Some cool tools from the BBC

Choose from four different visual tools on the BBC's Pinball site
Choose from four different visual tools on the BBC's Pinball site

A teacher on Twitter (@dannynic) pointed this out today:

bbc.co.uk/pinball

It’s four great little tools for decision-making and coming up with creative ideas:

  • Firing out ideas
  • Making quick decisions
  • Mixing up ideas
  • Playing with images

I just had a little play with them and it seems to me they could be great tools to use in your school council meeting or action group, especially if you’ve got an interactive whiteboard.

Have a go!

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involver blog Resources

Getting to know your reps game template

This is a template I’ve been working on following up on a resource I produced a couple of weeks ago, Making it fun: getting to know your reps.

Now it’s easy to create your own cards.  Just add in names, pictures and vital statistics.  Make them fun but make sure you check with people first before you write anything about them.

I’ve created the template in Word 2003 (.doc) format.  If this doesn’t work for you let me know and I’ll try to make other formats available.

Click here to download the file: [download id=”74″ format=”3″]

Update – here is a Word 2007 (.docx) version: [download id=”75″ format=”3″]

You can just fill in all the blanks or change the titles too if you want.
You can just fill in all the blanks or change the titles too if you want.

If you do change anything around or make your own, why not upload them here so everyone can see and share:

Upload resources to involver

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Resources

Getting Your Point Across

At some point your school council will need to go and talk to adults. You might be proposing a project or event, asking them for help, or making a complaint.

You need to do this in a professional way. This guide will help you prepare what you need to say.

It includes a guide for a 10-minute pitch.

Created by Asher Jacobsberg for School Councils UK.

Use the ‘More’ button to print or download (‘save’) this resource.
Getting Your Point Across

03 Getting your point across to adults in school School Councils UK Activity Guide Who do you want to get your point across to? As a school council, effective communication is crucial and you’ll need to get yourselves heard by many different people. This activity guide deals with one group that can be particularly difficult and daunting – Adults. There are many groups of adults who can help your school council to achieve its aims, and some of these are: Find out when the deadline is for things to be put on the agenda for other people’s meetings. Make sure you send an update to the chair a week or so before this date, then she or he can decide to put on the agenda ideas you have brought up. Try to arrange a regular time when the school council makes a general, introductory presentation at one of their meetings. This may only be once a year, but it will make sure that all your partners are aware of the hard work that the school council is putting in. Then when you come to ask them for something they see you as a serious, hard-working body, not just a group making demands out of the blue. Invite people from the other committees to your meetings occasionally. Make sure they come to meetings (or parts of meetings) that are relevant to them; don’t have them just sit in the corner. For instance, if you were discussing what to do with the school council’s money, you might invite the treasurer of the governors for advice, or to explain to him or her how you intend to raise some money for the school; you may invite the pastoral care sub-committee to a meeting where you will be discussing a new scheme to address bullying. • • • • Senior Management Team School Governors/School Board PTA/Friends Staff teams (including nonteaching/site staff) Why are these people important? Whilst it’s great to be getting things done on your own, the more people you can get involved, the more resources you will have access to. The people mentioned above may have valuable experience or advice to give and will generally be very willing to help, if you let them know what you are doing! How do we create a good relationship with other groups? Set up an agreed process for keeping them informed. If they know that you are being active they will look to you for support and will seek to support you. If they don’t know what you’re doing, they can’t be helpful or impressed. The process you set up should include people whose responsibility it is to be the contact for each group. This may be the school council chair or secretary, or it may be someone whose role is ‘governor liaison’/’local council liaison’, etc. There needs to be a set time when written communication goes out. This may be after every school council meeting or once a term, you need to find a balance between keeping people informed and bombarding them with information. School Councils UK 108-110 Camden High Street, London NW1 0LU 0845 456 9428 info@schoolcouncils.org wwwww.schoolcouncils.org © School Councils UK 2005. Please feel free to reproduce this resource with acknowledgement (non-commercial use only) School Councils UK Activity Guide How do we go about making a Proposal? Your proposals should be ‘SMART’: Specific – Rather than saying ‘we’re a bit bored at lunch times and so we want some better stuff’ it should be ‘because there is nothing to do at lunch times people mess around and it creates an unpleasant atmosphere. We have done a survey to find out what would entertain people. The top suggestions were common room, access to the football pitch, and some new sports equipment.’ Measurable – how are you going to know if it is a success? This isn’t just saying whether the thing was completed (‘we got new sports equipment’), but if the whole project was a success (‘since we got new sports equipment 60% of people have used it, 85% of people feel the playground is a better area to be in. Action-oriented – ‘We are going to do a survey; hold a disco; speak to the head; etc.’ rather than ‘we think something should be done about…’ If Section Introduction Background What do we want and why do we want it? Content Suggestions • • you aren’t specific about what is going to happen, or what needs to be done, nothing will. Realistic – can it really be done? if you know the school is strapped for cash, but you think you really need some new sports equipment, rather than arguing for a swimming pool, you might better spend the time putting the case for some new netballs and football goals. Time-limited – set deadlines, so you can see whether progress is being made. Who is going to do what by when? ‘Someone is going to find out what year 9 think about the GCSEs available’ will not get done, ‘By next meeting Hassan is going to find out what year 9 think about the GCSEs available’ will do, or Hassan’s in trouble come next meeting. Here’s an example of a presentation: Time 1 min 2 min 3 min Thank you for sparing the time to see us. Our names are… and we are… We want to ask for your support in building an effective school council. We have been discussing why an effective school council is a good idea and we think… In order for the council to succeed, we would like you to ensure the following elements are in place (e.g.): • References to the council in school documentation such as the School Development Plan and prospectus • Time made available in tutor groups/classes and assemblies for feedback and discussion about school council issues • Opportunities to be involved in a range of school issues such as behaviour, lessons, community links…etc • A budget made available for school council administration and training We hope to launch the form/year councils on … and we would like to know everything is in place before this As well as forming a key part of our citizenship education, school councils can make a real difference to many parts of school life. We feel we can help to improve lessons, behaviour and facilities by creating a forum for students to express their views. Research has also shown that where pupils are actively participating in the life of the school, it can have a positive impact on academic attainment and exclusions. To summarise… Thank you for your time…Do you have any questions? School Councils UK 108-110 Camden High Street, London NW1 0LU 0845 456 9428 info@schoolcouncils.org wwwww.schoolcouncils.org When do we want it? What are the benefits? 4 min 5 min Conclusion 6 min © School Councils UK 2005. Please feel free to reproduce this resource with acknowledgement (non-commercial use only)