Tag: Funding

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involver blog Resources

‘How to’ guide on student voice

Here’s the first part of our findings from a brilliant research project that we worked on for the Children’s Commissioner.

It’s all about best practice in student voice, and here’s a short ‘How to’ guide with as much advice as we could possibly fit onto two pages. Feel free to download and share.

You can download here: [download id=”237″]

The research came from in-depth research in 16 schools across England who have great student voice, and looking at the values, principles and practices that underpin their success. Great to see so many and varied benefits that schools are seeing. There’s a full report to be issued in a few weeks.

Thank you to the schools that took part, and for the Children’s Commissioner for getting us in to do such a great project!

Greg

Categories
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

Categories
involver blog News

The Fun Theory

I just came across this video (thanks to@hellostanley for pointing it out):

And it seems to me that this is exactly what school councils should be about: making things fun, but in a way that improves other things too.

There are two more excellent, funny videos on thefuntheory.com website as well as a competition.  If you can come up with an idea for how you could change people’s behaviour in a fun way, you could get a €2,500 (£2,250) grant to make it happen!

So watch the videos, get some ideas and get your entry in quick, it closes on the 14th November.

Let us know what you’re doing to make things fun.

I know this might be seen as me giving free advertising for VW, but when it’s a good idea, it’s a good idea! That’s the beauty of making things fun. You can’t argue with it, you just want to spread it around. Your school council needs to make use of this!

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SchoolCouncilsUK-archive

Towards a Centre for Radical State Education and other developments

Something we need to track?  Details are here, and there is also the FutureLab conference with a useful list of contacts

mj

Categories
Citizenship SchoolCouncilsUK-archive

Youth Citizenship Commission

One of the articles I found on Voice It1 (see previous post), written by one of the student ‘journalists’ was about the newly created position of Chair of the Youth Citizenship Commission.  This commission will:

  • Examine what citizenship means to young people.
  • Consider how to increase young people’s participation in politics; the development of citizenship among disadvantaged groups; how active citizenship can be promoted through volunteering and community engagement.
  • Lead a consultation on whether the voting age should be lowered to 16.

It has a small budget attached (£6m).  I think we should try to get a meeting with him and see whether he will support the Standard (and maybe more).
Full article >>

Categories
SchoolCouncilsUK-archive

£6M for young leaders

29 February 2008
The Government wants to unlock the talent of young leaders so that more young people are able to champion local and national issues and to become positive role models for their communities.

Launching the vision today the Government is encouraging more young people to become leaders, and committing to help more young people develop and use their leadership skills to help bring about change.

Recognising that today’s young people have enormous leadership potential, the Government has pledged £6million over the next three years to work with dynamic and innovative youth leadership organisations to:

• develop and promote internships with local councillors
• increase opportunities for young people to act as leaders within their communities
• to help young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to overcome the barriers that prevent them from fulfilling their potential
• launch a national campaign to celebrate achievements of young people who have championed causes
• to encourage and support schools to increase leadership opportunities
• advise and challenge Government on involving young people in decision-making at the highest level

Mark Link