As you might expect, as someone really interested in education, schools and community I’m a school governor. One of the things I’m doing in that role currently is thinking about how we make new governors feel supported and able to play a constructive role as soon as possible. So I’ve started re-writing our governor induction pack – this is basically a welcome pack for new governors. It’s lead me on to thinking about not just what information we give to new governors, but what mentoring and training we need to give them and what we need them to do to make the most of it.
You need to create a guide for your school on how new school councillors can do a great job representing their peers and making things happen. You might want to include one of these for some ideas on your roles, collecting ideas and running meetings. Please excuse the shameless plug ;)
It occurred to me that new school councillors could do with a similar sort of pack and that getting current school councillors to write it would be really useful to get your new school council off to a flying start next year.
Below is the process we are going through and how I think it could work for a school council.
Get together a small group of current school councillors – ideally some who have been on the council for a while and some who are new.
Write down a list of all the things you wish you had known when you became a school councillor.
Write down a list of all the support that you have found useful in your role as a school councillor.
Add in any support that you would have liked but didn’t receive.
Write a short document (no more than a page) that will be the cover of your induction pack. This should tell new school councillors what support they will get and list all the useful information that you will put in the welcome pack. We have organised under these headings, they might work for you too:
What we’ll do to support you (the new school councillor)
What we need you to do
The documents attached (that will help you to understand your role and how our school and school council works)
Useful websites (or other sources of information)
Now you’ve got to collect all that information together and work out whatever training, mentoring, etc. you have said you will provide.
Do you already have a school council welcome pack? What is in it or what would you put in it if you had one?
I got a lovely email today from one of the schools we’ve been working with this year. They’re thinking about how their school council elections will run next year and wanted some advice. It reminded me that I’d written this resource a while ago but not posted it for some reason.
It contains:
A recommended timeline for setting up a school council election.
2 lesson plans for how to prepare classes across the school for taking part.
A manifesto worksheet for pupils to use to recommend themselves.
Have a look and let us know if you find it useful and how you’ve improved on it.
You can download a PDF here (keeps all the formatting and fonts): [download id=”248″]
Or a Word file here (if you want to edit and adapt it): [download id=”249″]
I also gave the teacher who emailed some other tips:
Get in touch with Haringey Democratic Services: http://www.haringey.gov.uk/index/council/voting.htm#contact – they should be able to lend you proper ballot boxes and booths, they may even send someone to talk to the school about how elections are run (of course you’d want to check that they were used to speaking to young children).
Have children as the returning officers: counting votes and announcing the results – they need a little training, especially on confidentiality, but it tends to work very well – make sure they only announce the winner, not how many votes each person got as that can be embarrassing and upsetting. If you didn’t want to get children from the school to do it, members of Haringey Youth Council may be able to (if we could get them out of school), they are keen to develop relationships with primary schools.
Make sure you do some prep with all the classes before the nominations, hustings and elections, so people know why they should stand, what they should put in their manifestos and why they should vote for someone (who isn’t their friend). The attached document has a suggested process and some sessions that teachers could run with their classes (of course please feel free to adapt them to your situation).
Obviously if you’re not in Haringey you’ll want to talk to your local Democratic Services and Youth Council, not ours, but you get the idea.
And just because it’s so great to get feedback like this, this is the email that prompted it:
Hi Asher,
Just wanted to say thank you for all your help with the School Council this year- it has really improved a lot! I now meet with my School Council members every week, and there are class council meetings every other week when children give their opinions on a range of important issues. They’ve seen lots of changes take place and are beginning to understand the power of pupil voice. Every classroom has a display and space for children to make suggestions.
Now everyone wants to be in School Council next year! We are going to have manifestos, speeches, and a proper election with ballot boxes voting cards in September. If you can give any advice on how to develop this idea further, that would be greatly appreciated.
With all the chat around curriculum and assessment reform, I thought it timely to blog about something that’s been irking me for a while.
Far too often, politicians and commentators are guilty of an over-reliance on their own experience of school. It’s the whole ‘I did XYZ assessment/exam, and IT DIDN’T DO ME ANY HARM’. Despite being simplistic, I think politicians see it as a useful device to come across as passionate, experienced and in touch with ‘normal people’ since it’s harder to argue with someone’s personal experience. That’s all fair enough, but what about those that aren’t heard?
I mean I don’t think that your view of education should be entirely isolated from your immediate experience of it. But that it needs to be balanced with evidence (not cherry-picked international evidence) and strong input from practitioners and students.
Of course, the latest example of this is Gove’s plan to scrap GCSEs that came out yesterday. Gove went school and he had a pretty difficult background. But he did O Levels, and he got good grades. That means that O Levels work, right?
But what about those that aren’t heard?
The point is that we rarely hear from those that the system has failed. What about those who it did actually do some harm to?
They’re not the ones in Sanctuary Buildings, on the benches of the Commons, or shooting the s*@t with Portillo on This Week.
I’m keen to hear more about Gove’s plan, the substance behind it and the link with the Singaporean model. But let’s take personal experience for what it is, the view of the (very successful and influential) individual and not more than that. Sadly, that may be all that counts.
BTW – like the one exam board idea. Professor Frank Coffield was laying into the exam board industry at a recent NUS event I was presenting at. Interesting how Gove’s idea on this is kind of ‘anti-market’.
We’re just back from a week in Prague helping to train school councils link teachers from schools across the Czech Republic. The words “Žákovské parlamenty” are very important to us now :)
We worked with a GREAT organisation called CEDU who support school councils over there. Having showed Kamila and Tomas from CEDU school councils from around London a couple of years ago, it was lovely to do the return trip.
CEDU have been supporting a number of schools across the Czech Republic to set up and maintain effective school councils.
They had put on a three day course for teachers from 13 schools across the whole country. Three teachers came from each school, including a head teacher – great commitment from the staff. Our contribution was to give a one-hour presentation on how school councils work in the UK, and to deliver a couple of training sessions for the 40ish teachers (number not age).
Things I learnt in Prague:
The obstacles that school councils face in the Czech Republic are remarkably similar to the ones that we face in the UK.
Training through a translator is difficult but a good challenge.
Prague is an amazing city and rabbit hearts taste really good.
Jackets from Top Man don’t keep you warm in -20 degrees temperatures.
If a teacher offers you a green drink with cream on the top in a Czech bar, don’t drink it.
Things we did:
Anyway, we started the trip with a visit to a local primary and secondary school called Táborská. After a lovely tour of the school (which you can see here, we sat in on a school council meeting which was translated brilliantly by one of the students, Max. Their school councils is called ‘3 Oko’ which means ‘Third Eye’.
The school council were talking about having a bigger role in supporting learning for younger students and working closely with teachers. It was a really useful start to see a school council meeting.
The next day was the first day of the conference. We had the amazing Honza as our official translator for the training – he was quick, concise and knew his stuff on participation. The whole week was a lot easier because of Honza – thanks!
After some warm up exercises, and three of the teacher participants turning up in traditional Moravian dress (plus shots of slivovitz for everyone!), Tomas gave an update on the programme. We then gave a speech (through Honza) on school councils in the UK. You can see this below; though the fonts are a bit messed up.
It became clear that the obstacles to effective school councils were very familiar to the Czech teachers. Around half of them had been involved in the CEDU programme for two years. They were also very interested in the students being excluded in UK schools, which doesn’t seem to be as common in the Czech Republic.
To give us a flavour of some of the student voice work they’ve been doing, the teachers each gave a short presentation on what their students have been up to. Here’s one of the presentations (you can see a few more here):
The next day we delivered two workshops to the teachers aimed at helping them to overcome some of the difficulties they were having with their school councils. Asher sensibly suggested that the workshops should be in Czech so that the teachers could share ideas, with Honza translating things back to us. This worked out well, and there was a sigh of relief from the teachers when they didn’t have to hear everything in English.
It was a really interesting day, and many of the teachers had made really good progress. We helped them to support one another, and chipped in with our own advice too. I found it difficult not to be able to support the teachers once they were in small groups though, due to the language barrier – often that’s when you can go into more detail and give some tailored support. We did out best though, and the teachers seemed to get a lot out of it.
After a lovely end-of course celebration, and some exciting discussions about future collaboration, our trip to Prague came to an end. I also did a short interview on Prague radio. If you can’t speak Czech, it’s probably not worth clicking :)
So we’d like to say a big thank you to the CEDU team: Tomas, Kamila, Karel, Filip, Honza, Jaroslav and Eliska. You were amazing hosts and we’re very grateful. A massive thank you to all the teachers we worked with too!
Here’s a student voice case study from one of involver’s favourite schools, Little Heath School in Reading.
You can see more from their amazing student voice conference here , here and here.
Key quote:
“There’s lots of students that aren’t very sure, or are less confident to have a voice. We say that everyone has a voice. Even the shy pupils have a voice and can talk to anybody, can talk with teachers, try and get into the STARS group, and can really make a difference.”
School council member, Year 8
Key benefits:
Improved relationships between students and teaching staff. Teachers genuinely want to hear what students think, run with their ideas, and realise that good participation is often a step into the unknown. Students respond to this and like being taken seriously.
A school that meets the needs and learning styles of Little Heath students. Students who are keen to get involved in shaping important aspects of the school, and teachers who encourage and support them to do so.
Involving students in school life helps to turn around badly behaved students. Students realise that acting badly or being naughty are not the only ways to get noticed, and that they can get involved in student voice and try to improve the school.
More confident students who are willing to plan, organise and evaluate large events and influence major areas of school life.
Top advice
Give staff the time to support student voice. Student voice needs staff to make it work, who have the time and resources to be able to do it well. In Little Heath’s case, there is a passionate student voice coordinator with dedicated time in the week to support student voice. He is supported by an ex-pupil who has just finished Year 13, and is spending the year as a paid member of staff supporting student voice.
Hold dedicated events like a conference that allow you to get lots done with student voice projects.
Encourage students to get other students involved. Students having an influence and having fun at the same time are the best selling points to get others who are less interested involved.
You can help to get a wide range of students taking part when there is a wide range of ways to be involved. Hooks might be skills-based (like design or campaigning skills) or content based (like environment issues or politics).
Student involvement should not be an add on to the core work of the school. Students should be involved in helping to improve areas like teaching and learning – it will benefit everyone if they do. They just need to be organised in an appropriate way.
Have a central coordinating body for all student voice work – in Little Heath’s case this is the school council. It helps to avoid duplication and keep track of everything that is going on.
Methods used:
Student voice conference
Every year Little Heath holds a student voice conference in a local hotel in Reading. Several hundred pupils from the school come along and spend a focused day on student voice work. It is an exciting event for the students, who enjoy being able to concentrate on the different projects. This dedicated time helps the school to get lots done in a short space of time.
The student voice conference is a student-led project from start to finish, and it is an impressive example of how young people can run an amazing event.
As well as time for work on projects, there is a panel discussion in the afternoon so that students can ask questions to teachers, senior staff, local politicians and other organisations that have worked in the school.
Some of the work on the day, and throughout the school year, includes:
STARS project (students as researchers)
Students take a lead on researching and trying to improve certain aspects of school life. For example, one group in the STARS team had looked at ‘How students prefer to learn, and which ways are most effective’. They had looked at three specific subjects; English, History and ICT in Year 7 and 8. Their findings were presented to governors and the headteacher, and also in a booklet which is available to students.
Another group had looked at how popular homework is in Year 7, and the types of homework they enjoy. These projects have flourished since the conference, and one group’s look into the co-construction of learning is helping teachers to plan their lessons.
The student voice leaders are older students in the school who take a lead on the conference and facilitate the different sessions. They are a reminder that student voice is taken seriously in the school and getting involved in student voice can be a progression throughout school.
School council
A school council sits alongside the different student voice groups. This also has as an important role in school improvement. It has representatives from each year group and meets every week.
Recent topics for discussion include homework, praise and reward and students’ rights and responsibilities. It is the central forum for student voice in the school, and all other groups feed into the school council.
About the school:
Little Heath School is a larger than average oversubscribed comprehensive school with a large sixth form. It has specialist college status in mathematics and science and in 2008 gained a second specialism as a high performing specialist school for ‘raising achievement transforming learning’.
The proportion of students eligible for a free school meal is low. The proportion of students from minority ethnic groups or who speak English as an additional language is below average. The proportion of students with a learning difficulty and/or disability is slightly below average and there are fewer students with statements of special educational needs than nationally.
Involver conducted these case studies for the Office of the Children’s Commissioner in 2011, as part of a project to encourage schools to involve their students in decision making
Here’s the first in our great school council and student voice case studies that we did for the Children’s Commissioner.
It’s from Wroxham School in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire. Great stuff!
Key quote:
What the teachers had in common were the principles of:
Trust – that we trusted children and that the children felt that they could trust us;
A sense of co-agency – so not only was it important that you listen to the child, but that the child listen to you, that together you can take something much further forward than if you were just in a passive mode, listening:
The ethic of everybody – ie that it’s not just the people that are easy to engage that matter, it’s everybody.
The school was in special measures, it was turned around not by a headteacher telling everyone what to do, but by creating a culture where everyone is listened to and is asking the question ‘how could we improve?’
Students are eloquent and keen to talk about their learning, when they join secondary school they perform well because they understand how to learn and are eager to do so.
Top advice
Student voice is not about structures it is about ethos, vision and values.
Do not think ‘voice’ is just about what people say. The way students behave reflects how they feel, it is a way they express themselves and give feedback. Pay attention to it and try to understand where it comes from.
Participation is about whole-school culture. Ensure that staff are listened to as well as students.
Create a culture of trust, not judgement so you enable everyone to learn. Do not give out grades, support people to self-assess. They become more aware of their learning and challenge themselves to learn more.
Do not force staff in to a way of teaching or running their classrooms, engage them in conversation: ask them whether what they do in class allows children to surprise them.
Methods used:
Whole school approach to democracy
Everything the school does is about including the whole-school community in decision-making and getting everyone to work out ‘the answers’ together. Efforts are made in the staff team as well as with students to ensure that everyone feels equally able to contribute. The hierarchy is minimal so democracy can be seen as a real choice: it is worth saying something because you have as much chance to be listened to as everyone else. In this way democracy is not something that fits uneasily (or pretends to fit) within the strict hierarchy of the school.
Another aspect of this is the school’s refusal to give out grades or stream its pupils. It is seen to be incompatible with a view that everyone and their opinions are equally valued. Instead, an approach of co-construction and co-agency is fostered, where staff and pupils work together to understand how learning can best happen for each child.
Mixed age circle groups led by Y6
The circle groups led by Year 6 pupils demonstrate the whole-school democracy approach. Each circle group will have pupils of all ages involved as well as adults, who take part as equal members. The Year 6 pupils have been given the leadership role rather than the member of staff. This helps to ensure that the views that come from these groups are authentically from the pupils, not mediated by staff. That is not to say staff cannot have an input, but they are there as participants – participants with different levels of experience and knowledge – they are not controlling the discussions.
These meetings follow a standard format to give those running them confidence that they can do it. An agenda is worked out across the whole-school that all of the circle groups follow. To begin each meeting the Year 6 leaders run a game and share news about what has been happening across the school. They then discuss the agenda that has been agreed. This has built mutual understanding across the age ranges in the school and makes the older children more tolerant and aware of the needs and wants of the younger children.
Having these meetings weekly means that the younger pupils quickly become used to them and find their voices. It also ensures that most issues are small ones; issues are spotted early and ‘nipped in the bud’.
Student self-evaluation
In place of teachers grading pupils, students are expected to self-evaluate. This gives them a much greater sense of what they are learning, how they are learning and what they would like to improve upon. The headteacher says it has created a culture where is it “cool to challenge yourself”. As there is no judgement of ‘failure’ there is trust between pupils and between pupils and staff. Pupils can choose to redo things to challenge themselves further and learn more.
Writing their own reports
Students are given reminders of the topics they have covered and asked to write down what they learned (their ‘successes’) and what they struggled with (their ‘challenges’). Younger children are buddied with older ones who type up the reports for them. They can add photographs and drawings to demonstrate their learning. This information is then shared and discussed with the teacher who responds to the points made by the pupil and adds in any other successes or challenges she feels the pupil has overlooked. There is a meaningful dialogue between pupil and teacher, which creates a meaningful dialogue between pupil and parent about learning. All of this is done without grading or putting the pupil down, so pupils can fully understand where they are succeeding and what they can doto improve.
Pupil-led parent evenings
Parents evenings run in a way that supports this process. Pupils create a short presentation for their parents about what they have been doing, their successes and challenges. They present this to their parents and their teacher; the headteacher sits in, makes notes and contributes. They can then discuss this all together and revisit what was discussed at previous meetings. In this way everyone is kept up to date with progress and they actually understand what has been going on in the classroom. Furthermore the child has ownership over her own learning and takes responsibility for her successes and sees the challenges as just that, rather than failings.
“Children talk comprehensively and passionately about their own learning.”
Headteacher
Students deciding on the curriculum
“Even the curriculum here [is influenced by students]. They give us all the ideas of what they want to learn about. They’re just so much more engaged.”
Year 5 Teacher
Having rigorous structures of evaluation and monitoring that are not based on standardised grades or tests creates the freedom for pupils and classroom staff to make important decisions about the curriculum. It allows classes to respond to sudden interests of the children, maybe sparked by current world or local events – so the week after the March 2011 tsunami in Japan a Year 5 class was studying earthquakes and tsunamis at the request of the pupils.
Topics are discussed with pupils and their areas of interest form the key areas of study for the scheme.
About the school
The Wroxham School is average in size. It is popular and heavily oversubscribed. The majority of pupils are White British although there are pupils from a wide range of ethnic heritage. English is an additional language for a few pupils. The proportion of pupils with learning difficulties and/or disabilities is below average as is the proportion of pupils with statements detailing their educational needs. The number of pupils eligible for free school meals is below average.
Fewer pupils join or leave the school throughout the school year than is generally seen. The Early Years Foundation Stage includes a nursery, which operates a flexible provision. Attainment on entry to the nursery draws on a full range of abilities but overall is generally typical for this age of children. The school has gained national and international recognition for aspects of its work. It has gained awards for Investors in People and Financial Management in schools. It has also been awarded Healthy School status. The school provides a breakfast and after school club.
Involver conducted these case studies for the Office of the Children’s Commissioner in 2011, as part of a project to encourage schools to involve their students in decision making
We’re just back from a week in Prague helping to train school councils link teachers from schools across the Czech Republic. The words “Žákovské parlamenty” are very important to us now :)
