Tag: effective

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Improving learning through enhanced participation

The event was at Birmingham Botanical Gardens, a lovely venue, but I walked through this hothouse and so arrived with steamed up glasses, trying to avoid stumbling into people.

The event was at Birmingham Botanical Gardens, a lovely venue, but I walked through this hothouse and so arrived with steamed up glasses, trying to avoid stumbling into people.

I was at the GTCE‘s ‘Leading a dialogue on pupil participation‘ event today, which I’m sure was called ‘From pupil voice to pupil participation’ when I signed up but never mind, I’m just as happy leading a dialogue as I am moving from one thing to something better.

I must say I was really impressed with the GTCE’s approach to participation and education in general. Their slogan of ‘for children, through teachers’ really chimes in with my view of teaching. The address by Chief Exec, Keith Bartley, really laid out how they see pupil participation as essential to successful and effective learning and teaching. This isn’t just idealistic stuff either, they’re backing it up with research and the event today was partly a launch for their new research anthology ‘Improving pupil learning through enhancing participation‘. It looks like a really good and useful piece of work – I haven’t had a chance to read the whole thing yet, but it’s my bedtime reading for the rest of the week, it should be yours too. The research looks at variety of drivers and outcomes for participation and I think should be very useful for anyone looking to demonstrate the value to colleagues (or themselves) of this work, as well as giving many practical suggestions for how it can be applied and lots of links to further research.

Some great examples came out of the presentation of this work by Dr David Frost of Cambridge

Dr David Frost (just so you could be sure it wasnt the other one)
Dr David Frost (just so you could be sure it wasn’t the other one)

University/Leadership for Learning, one of the authors of the piece. One that particularly stood out for me was a primary school where Y6 pupils had been trained to run circle time and they facilitated this for groups that included pupils from all ages in the school – one can imagine what this might do for a primary school’s sense of community.

A later presentation by Tom Murphy, a new science teacher from a Hertfordshire secondary school, talked about the benefits for his pupils when he asked them to teach full lessons for one another. Not only did they understand the topics better in many cases, it also created a ‘buzz’ for him and students before each lesson, as they never knew how it would be delivered. I intend to follow this work up with him and share more of this here as soon as I can.

We also heard from the deputy head of a special school about how creative they had had to be in using a huge variety of communication methods to ensure that all of their pupils could express themselves and make choices about their school, learning and lives.

Well, it’s late and I realise I’m kind of just reporting the event now, rather than discussing or developing any of the ideas that came out of it further, so I’ll come back to this in the next few days and add another post with some further thoughts.

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involver blog

Is your school council counter-cultural?

The revolutionary school council? (They're supposed to be wearing berets :-))
The revolutionary school council? (They're supposed to be wearing berets :-))

Culture is a great thing, it gives us a sense of identity, place and often purpose too, but it doesn’t do much for progress. In many ways culture is the embedding of a certain way of doing things through unquestioning repetition.

All major changes in industry, science, religion, society and thought have come from people or ideas that went against the prevailing culture. For the purposes of this blog, I’m going to call this counter-culture; it sets out with one maxim:

  • We do not accept a view simply because it is stated by someone in a position of authority; it has to be proved to be of value to us.

Counter-culture is absolutely necessary for any society (or institution) that wants to learn and improve. Having assumptions challenged means the good ideas grow stronger and the poor ones are done away with. It recognises the need for constant re-evaluation (which is very different from constant change).

It seems to me that this is what should be at the heart of all education: working out from first principles what is valid, not basing our ideas on assumptions. So to what extent are our educational institutions counter-cultural? How do they inculcate this approach? I would argue that in most cases they don’t, they in fact do exactly the opposite.

In almost every school in the country there is a school/pupil/student council (or it may go by some other name on a similar theme). The aim of each of these is ‘to improve the school’, but how many really have the tools to do it? Most are given a narrow set of responsibilities and very limited scope in which to carry them out.  Will this ever excite, represent or challenge most of the students or staff? If not, why are we doing them in school?

A number of questions I have been asked or that I have had to ask myself over the last couple of weeks have really brought this into focus for me:

  • From secondary school pupils:
    • Should staff set the agenda for our school council meetings?
    • Should we (the school council) be allowed to talk about and make statements on whatever is important to pupils?
    • Should staff play a role in selecting school council members?
  • From other researchers/practitioners in the field:
    • Are school councils merely there to deal with issues as they arise or should they create policy to pre-empt issues?
    • Does the headteacher lead the pupils in a school or does s/he just manage the staff?
    • Is it better to have a ‘learning council’ than a ‘pupil council’? (The suggesting being it puts learning at the heart of what it does, but I ask, ‘why demote pupils from being at the heart of what it does?’)
  • From discussions with an ex-school student leader from Greece:
    • What can a school council do if it’s not listened to? (In Greece they go on strike or occupy the school)

When staff allow students space to challenge they are forced into a real debate and both ‘sides’ have to question their own assumptions. Where schools just get students to help them with the things staff want to do there will be positive change, but it will be limited, never revolutionary.

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A whole bloomin’ class council scheme of work!

This is brilliant: our first resource shared by a teacher and it’s an absolute corker! Chloe Doherty gave us this scheme of work she wrote for her year team last year.  She wanted to get class councils off the ground as she recognised without them the school and year councils didn’t really mean much.

This resource has a series of lesson/session plans and a bundle of resources to go with them. Any resources not included in the download below (such as the Boundaries Cards) can be downloaded from involver.org.uk.

As this is a resource written by a teacher and used in her school, I’ve left it just as she gave it to me, other than putting it all in to one document and adding a contents page.

Print or download (’save’) this resource using the ‘More’ button.

Tutorial Activities Class Council SoW

Chloe wrote this last year when she was Head of Drama at Kingsmead School and a Year 8 form tutor. She’s now Head of Drama at Southgate School.  She’s also my fiancée, so all my banging on about student voice and class councils obviously wore her down as she wrote and ran this without any help from me. She sent it to us through the ‘Upload‘ page and it was honestly the first time I’d seen it! I could get all gooey about how she constantly amazes me, but I’ll spare you that.

Kingsmead
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Detailed School Council Action Planning Form

This detailed template will help you ask all the questions you need to when planning a project.

Write the answers on to the sheet as use it as your guide throughout your project.

If you try to run a project without sitting down to plan it first, you’re setting yourself up to fail.

Spend 20 minutes with your team going through this and you’re getting yourself off to a great start.

Created by Asher Jacobsberg at School Councils UK.

Print or download (‘save’) this resource using the ‘More’ button.
Detailed School Council Action Planning Form

School Councils UK Training Please feel free to reproduce this resource with acknowledgement (non-commercial use only). © School Councils UK 2007. MAKING A DIFFERENCE – these sheets will help you plan your project. Don’t lose them! Action Notes Example Write your answers here 1. GETTING STARTED Names of Group Members and date of meeting So you remember who you are working with! Names: Date: The title of your project Reduce, reuse, recycle Name of issue Who does this issue affect? All the people who are affected directly (or indirectly) Pupils, teachers, teaching assistants, admin staff (the whole world) What is our main goal, and why is it important? This is your goal so everyone knows what you are working for We want to reduce the amount of paper that gets thrown away in class by 50% School Councils UK, 3 Floor 108-110 Camden High Street, London NW1 0LU Tel 0845 456 9428 Fax 0845 456 9429 Email info@schoolcouncils.org www.schoolcouncils.org rd School Councils UK Training Please feel free to reproduce this resource with acknowledgement (non-commercial use only). © School Councils UK 2007. Action Notes Example Write your answers here 2. GETTING INFORMED What do you already know about this issue? What information and help do we need? What do you still need to know? This could be factual information or peoples opinions. It could also be funding, or equipment. Who do you need to talk to? What method will you use for finding information? There are lots of How will we get it? different methods. We know roughly how much paper is thrown away in our own classes, but we need to find out exactly how much is thrown away across the school. We need to find out if we can get money for recycling bins. Ask the caretaker if we can weigh the waste paper at the end of each day all of next week. Talk to the bursar and the council about money. Research on the internet how much could be saved by reducing paper use and how much extra bins, etc. would cost. School Councils UK, 3 Floor 108-110 Camden High Street, London NW1 0LU Tel 0845 456 9428 Fax 0845 456 9429 Email info@schoolcouncils.org www.schoolcouncils.org rd School Councils UK Training Please feel free to reproduce this resource with acknowledgement (non-commercial use only). © School Councils UK 2007. Action Notes Example Write your answers here 3. GETTING ORGANISED These are all the things you need to get done to achieve your goal. What needs to happen? • • • • • Any details which will explain how these tasks will get done. These are the action points. If the action points need money, you should include it in this section. • • • • • Research into current use and what we could do instead Agree a plan with the school Get new equipment, write guidance Publicise what is going on and why Get staff and students to follow guidance Weigh current waste Research alternatives Arrange meetings with caretaker and bursar Write guidance Produce posters Action Name (initials) Date How will we get it done? Who will do it? When should it be done by? When are we next meeting? Make sure you have names by all the action points. There could be more than one name for each task. Put a date by each action point so you know when it should be completed. This is important, so you know when you are meeting back together to see how it’s going. You might need to change some of the action points or timeline if new issues arise. School Councils UK, 3 Floor 108-110 Camden High Street, London NW1 0LU Tel 0845 456 9428 Fax 0845 456 9429 Email info@schoolcouncils.org www.schoolcouncils.org rd
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Resources

Minutes and Agendas Template (Word)

Use this .doc (Word) template to help create detailed minutes and agendas for your school council (or other) meetings.

It’s colour-coded to show you which bits to delete and where to add your own text.

Created by Asher Jacobsberg at School Councils UK.

Print or download (‘save’) this resource using the ‘More’ button.
Minutes and Agendas Template (Word)

School Councils UK Resources – Agenda and Minutes Template Please feel free to reproduce this resource with acknowledgement (non-commercial use only). © School Councils UK 2009. Delete the text in light blue and put in the real information for your meeting to create an agenda. To create your minutes you should first remove the names of any one who could not come from the list below. Next you should delete the text in green and replace it with the real information from your meeting. If you need to add another line: • Click into the line above where you want the new, blank line to be. • Open the ‘Table’ menu. • Select ‘Insert’ > ‘Rows below’. Name of meeting Location To do before meeting To bring to meeting Role Chair Write whether it is a class council, year council, sub-committee, or school council meeting here Write in which room your meeting will be here. Date Time Write on what day and date you meeting will be here. Write the start and finish times of your meeting here. Write anything that people should do or read before the meeting here. Write anything people need to remember to bring with them to the meeting here. Name The name of the person who will run the meeting. Representing In this column you should write who each of these people represents: the people who chose or elected them. Initials Use initials in your minutes rather than writing full names. Put them in this column as a reference. Secretary Teacher Time-keeper Representative The name of the person taking notes. For some meetings people are just representing themselves, so you can leave this column blank Write the names of all the people who should come to the meeting in this column. You might need to add more lines. School Councils UK, 3rd Floor 108-110 Camden High Street, London NW1 0LU Tel 0845 456 9428 Fax 0845 456 9429 Email info@schoolcouncils.org www.schoolcouncils.org School Councils UK Resources – Agenda and Minutes Template Please feel free to reproduce this resource with acknowledgement (non-commercial use only). © School Councils UK 2009. Time 1 3 How much time is allow ed for each item? Item Apologies Approval of last minutes Write what the issue is. Person Sec. Sec. Who is bringing it up? Discussion Who could not make the meeting and why. Any mistakes made in minutes from last meeting. Action Who When Matters arising from last minutes In the area below, people report back on things that should have been done by the time the meeting happens. Write all proposals here and how the decision was made in this column. You can also write any major objections people brought up. Write the action plan for each thing you discuss in this column. Who will take charge? When will they report back? Agenda items The area below is where all the new things to discuss go. Write what the issue is. Who is bringing it up? Any other business Any urgent issues that have come up since the agenda was sent out go in the area below. Write what the issue is. Who brought it up? 1 Date of next meeting Chair School Councils UK, 3rd Floor 108-110 Camden High Street, London NW1 0LU Tel 0845 456 9428 Fax 0845 456 9429 Email info@schoolcouncils.org www.schoolcouncils.org
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Resources

Action Planning Form

A simple form to help you plan your project and then make sure it’s running smoothly.

Once you’ve set your aims using the SMART Matrix, write down each of the tasks that will make up your project.
Who is going to be responsible for each one?
When does it need to be done by?
What help will you need?

Created by Asher Jacobsberg at School Councils UK.

Use the ‘More’ button to print or download (‘save’) this resource.
Action Planning Form

School Councils UK Training Please feel free to reproduce this resource with acknowledgement (non-commercial use only). © School Councils UK 2007. Action Planning Form Name of project What needs to be done? (page 1) Date project ends Who will do it? What help/materials/information is needed? When should it be done by? Tick when done E.g. Book school council training School Council Co-ordinator Find out dates on www.schoolcouncils.org, get approval from school, book by email or fax. Next week (add in today’s date!) School Councils UK, 3 Floor 108-110 Camden High Street, London NW1 0LU Tel 0845 456 9428 Fax 0845 456 9429 Email info@schoolcouncils.org www.schoolcouncils.org rd School Councils UK Training Please feel free to reproduce this resource with acknowledgement (non-commercial use only). © School Councils UK 2007. Action Planning Form What needs to be done? (page ___ ) Who will do it? What help/materials/information is needed? When should it be done by? Tick when done School Councils UK, 3 Floor 108-110 Camden High Street, London NW1 0LU Tel 0845 456 9428 Fax 0845 456 9429 Email info@schoolcouncils.org www.schoolcouncils.org rd