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Newsletter 12: Žákovské parlamenty, free school council posters & our School Council Masterclass


Student voice. It's an international thing. 

Žákovské parlamenty in Prague 


That means 'school council' by the way: We're just back from a great trip to Prague where we trained school council coordinators from across the Czech Republic (including those in traditional Moravian costume!). It turns out that many of the obstacles that Czech schools face are the same as over here. See more about what we learned and what we did here. 

Smart School Council Masterclass

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.

We'll be covering things like how to deal with a lack of time, too little staff support and students who find it tough to lead their own projects and meetings. 

If you're interested, you can see more details and book here. Or drop me an email at greg@involver.org.uk. 

Get a free poster!

Free school council poster: We've just got some new and very lovely primary school council posters made up. Since we're nice guys who don't mind giving stuff away for free, we'll send you one. Just sign up for our newsletter before 22/4/12 and I’ll pop one in the post to you: sign up. 

Student voice in Haringey?

Haringey seems to be something of an educational battleground at the moment. Children and young people are probably unaware of this; and they'll continue to be if they're not asked about what should happen. Here's Asher talking about the new commission to improve attainment in the Borough. 

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involver blog Newsletters

Newsletter 10: How do you ‘do’ student voice? Here are some of our ideas


And we're back …

… with some new free school council resources

We've had so much going on recently we haven't had much time to send out newsletters, so we've rather stuffed this one with free resources by way of apology.

Resource: Quick tips for running meetings

4 simple ideas for different ways to run class and school council meetings if you're struggling (or just fancy a change):
http://involver.org.uk/?p=2973

Campaign: Hands Up Who's Bored?

With the changes to the curriculum there's a real threat to the one subject that really supports young people's participation, Citizenship. We've been helping lead Democratic Life to campaign to strengthen Citizenship for a while, but there's a new campaign aimed at young people being fronted by Danny Bartlet with Radio 1 DJ (and Rastamouse) Reggie Yates. Have a look:
Main website: http://whosbored.org/
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXgHjFSzbEQ

Resource: What's a school council for?

I created this school council policy for the school I'm a governor of. It places an emphasis on involving the whole school through class councils. Would it work in your school? What's missing? What would you add?
http://involver.org.uk/?p=2842

News: Walking the walk

involver's directors for the day show off their business cards
It was Takeover Day last month and we were really proud to take part and we got loads of great ideas from the four young people who became directors of involver for the day. This is what they thought of the experience:
http://involver.org.uk/?p=3005

Resource: Children's Commissioner's 'How to' guide on student voice

We carried out some research for the Children's Commissioner in to good practice around student voice, this two-page guide for staff is one of the things that came out of it. Have a look:
http://involver.org.uk/?p=2879

Hope to hear from you all soon,

Asher and Greg

Our new book: How to be a SMART school councillor

Our new book

How to be a SMART school councillor

Get a free copy: we've just written this little guide for primary (KS2) school councillors. To thank you for taking an interest in what we do, we'd like to give you a free copy. If you'd like one, email us your address: info@involver.org.uk
Get more than one copy: if you want more you can order them here: http://involver.org.uk/shop/
Greg in Donegal

On our travels

During the (English) half-term we were invited over to Ireland to train teachers and students from County Donegal's primary, post-primary and Youth Reach schools. It went so well that we're going back in March, after a trip to train up the school councils of Prague. We are living the life!
Although he's difficult to make out, that's Greg outside our first training venue, the Donegal Cultural Centre – the day did get sunnier.

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Citizenship involver blog News

School council elections: compilation of free resources

It’s the beginning of the school term.

Loads of school council elections are taking place across the country, but many of them aren’t organised as well as they could be. 

Often this is perfectly understandable; running the election is sometimes thrust upon an unsuspecting teacher, so here’s a complication of the resources we’ve got to help you out!

1. A set of 15 minute short tutor time activities to help plan a school council election:

http://involver.org.uk/2011/03/school-council-election-tutor-form-time-activities

2. Practical steps on running a school council election, setting it up and questions about if you REALLY need to have one:

http://involver.org.uk/2010/08/school-council-elections-planning-for-success/

3. Our school council reps toolkit might help students understand what’s involved as a school councillor (sometimes if they’re not sure what’s involved, they won’t put themselves forward).

http://involver.org.uk/2010/10/school-council-reps-tookit/

4. It’s important to have a think about what type of school council model (and therefore election) you need to have:

http://involver.org.uk/2011/07/school-councils-and-democracy-pick-your-model-carefully/

5. Once you’ve got your reps, then use this ‘getting to know your reps’ game:

http://involver.org.uk/2009/09/getting-to-know-your-reps-game-template/

6. Try and avoid this!

http://involver.org.uk/2009/09/school-council-election-fraud-as-it-happens/

And remember, you can always email us if you want some help or advice. Or feel free to suggest a new election resource for us to write.

Greg