Involver
We’ve been up and running just over a year now, so we thought we’d have a party to say thanks to all the people who’ve helped us.
If you have and we’ve forgotten to invite you, please leave a comment or drop us an email and we’ll add you to the guest list.
Location: downstairs at Bar Kick, 127 Shoreditch High Street, Londo, E1 6JE
Map: Bar Kick on Google Places
Time: 6 ’till late
Date: 25/11/10
Speeches: No
Table football: Yes
Hello from involver: Newsletter number 3!
The summer break is almost upon us (or already here, depending on where in the UK you are), so we hope you’ve had a great year!
Here’s a round up of what we’ve been up to over the last month:
Blog: School councils and student voice: why bother?
Greg says, ‘I’m working from Scotland for most of this week, which meant a very long eight hour train journey! After a double espresso, I was feeling a bit reflective about some of the things that we’re doing with involver and why we’ve been doing them.’ Here are his thoughts:
http://involver.org.uk/2010/07/school-councils-and-student-voice-why-bother/
Training: Making your school council READY!
Lots of schools are thinking about how they can improve their school council or student voice next year – we can help you make it READY (yes, that’s an acronym, have a look here if you want to know what for):
http://involver.org.uk/2010/07/school-council-training-get-in-touch/
Resource: Great set of student voice resources from Australia
Asher came across this series of presentations and supporting resources, which was created by Nick Rate, a trainer from Australia. He’s recorded it all so the people he supports in far flung places down under can access them, but of course it means we all can, we love the internet:
http://www.jogtheweb.com/run/AlhYPd3PMcUd/Student-Voice
Video: Make Your Voice Heard: Discover Democratic Education
A great video from the States about why ‘doing democracy’ in schools is so important. It is included in the set above, but worth a special mention:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_LbZ3XcfK4
Project: Speaker’s School Council Awards 2011
After a hugely successful opening year, you can now register your interest in the Speakers School Council Awards 2011. It’s a great way to get your achievements recognised, so to get involved, hop over to:
http://www.speakersschoolcouncil.org
Evaluation: Student voice/school council progress this year?
How have you been getting on with student voice, this year? It’s not easy to get right, and it still takes work and support even when it’s a success. We’ve built a very short audit tool to help you reflect. Fill it out and we’ll even provide you with personalised feedback and ideas if you want us to:
http://involver.org.uk/participate/simple-student-voice-audit/
Network: A new Student Voice and School council Linkedin group
For those of you that use Linkedin (for those who don’t: it’s kind of like a professional Facebook), we’ve set up a group to connect and inform people about student voice and school councils. We’re still finding our way around LinkedIn, but our teacher friends tell us it’s very useful. So take a look, and join at: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?mostPopular=&gid=3089339
Networking-fun: Fantasy Democraball!
We’ve set up a fantasy football mini-league for our friends, colleagues and contacts, so please join and invite oithers. You don’t need to know anything about football, just how to add up to £100,000,000. It’s a head-to-head league, so each game you’ll be playing against another person from the citizenship/student voice/youth democracy world (your skill in beating them will be a good ice-breaker topic for when you next meet them at a conference). It’s free to sign up. Once you’ve picked your team use this code to join the ‘Democraball!’ league: 116742-35727
http://fantasy.premierleague.com
So have a great summer!
And remember, if you want to get in touch about anything we’re up to, then please email us at info@involver.org.uk. We’re also always keen to hear about and share good practice, new resources or developments in student voice.
Greg and Asher @ involver
I’m a little bit excited today, well actually I have been all week, because tomorrow we’re off to a very swanky awards ceremony at the Hilton in Park Lane, where Greg has won an award!
So, we’ve both bought our outfits and arranged a very select group of colleagues and friends to join us (sorry if you didn’t get an invitation!). In facts it’s rather got in the way of us actually doing anything productive, which is a bit ironic as that’s what Greg’s getting this award for: the huge strides he’s made since setting up involver.
It’s made us think a bit about what we have managed to achieve over the last few months and realise that actually it’s quite impressive. From both of us being on the dole 6 months ago, we’ve managed to do all this:
– Completed research for DCSF and SSAT
– Presented at an international student voice conference in Slovakia
– Written a CPD module for ACT on student voice and Citizenship
– Set up a national school council awards scheme for Parliament
– Created and and ran a training course for school council trainers from the Czech Republic
– Run loads of training courses for school students and school council co-ordinators including for ASCL and NCSL
– Worked with LAs from across the country to support their training, including Tower Hamlets, Wolverhampton and Salford
– Written new resources for schools on how to improve school councils
– Started to set up partnerships with Changemakers, Centre for Democratic Education, Citizenship Foundation and User Voice
So that’s why Greg’s getting the Square Mile 30under30 London Talent Award. Which I think is a pretty good set of reasons.
But Greg could be up for a special category award too, so please do wish him luck and have us in your thoughts as you’re at work and we’re being wined and dined at one of London’s fanciest hotels ;)
We’re starting up a friendly, monthly five-aside game in Old Street for anyone working in the youth and citizenship fields:
bit of fun, bit of sweat, bit of networking
It’s going to be on the second Thursday of every month at 5.50 at Old Street Power Leage. The first one is on the 11th of March. The first 8 people to reply to our email each month get to play so if you want us to email you again next month, let us know even if you don’t want to play this time.
This really is just a fun game, Asher and Greg are both rubbish at football and out of shape, so anyone who fancies it should drop us an email and come. We’ll mix teams up every month.
Please pass this on to everyone else in your office (there’s a flyer attached you could stick up on your noticeboard/in your toilet), or other related orgs who might be up for it.
Email us if you want to play this month or in the future: info@involver.org.uk
Update: We’ve now created a Facebook Group for Democraball! We’ll be doing sign-ups through this from now on, so join: http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=897#!/group.php?gid=127543770612104
So, I’ve just been in to Shoreditch to sign the contract for our new office space, well desks in an office. We’re going to be based at Sustain (www.wearesustain.com) which is an eco office space. We’re very happy about that as it fits in with the way we want to work.
If I’m honest we’re also a bit excited about this place because it’s pretty ‘scene’ (as Greg would say). We’re sharing with graffiti artists, charities, eco social enterprises , ‘experience designers’ and all kinds of other cool people. This place even has a club in the basement, where Hadouken filmed their latest video.
These are some of the people based at Sustain, hopefully we’ll be able to share experiences and a drink with them soon:
Care Matters Partnership http://www.carematterspartnership.co.uk/
Carbon Retirement http://www.carbonretirement.com/
Debate Wise http://debatewise.com/
EQ2 http://eq2.eu.com/index.html
Bash http://www.bashcreations.com/about_us/
Sancho Plan http://www.thesanchoplan.com/index.html
Ket Lai http://www.ketlai.co.uk/projects
Cable Street Collective http://www.cablestreet.co.uk/
Really Interesting Group http://reallyinterestinggroup.com/
Schulze & Webb now Berg http://berglondon.com/
Vulture House http://www.vulturemagazine.com/vulturemagazine/index.html
Once we actually move in in the New Year we’ll be inviting you all over for mince pies and meetings round the massive table, leave a comment if you want an invitation!
Scientists have warned of an impending economic catastrophe, warning that the UK is reaching a possible ‘Social Media Event Event Horizon’. More on this blog
mj
extract: “Environmental campaigners also supported the warning at the Conference, which was also liveblogged, Tweeted, streamed on YouTube and moblogged on Qik. Green Web activist Greena McGreen pointed out that the noise pollution caused by large groups of geeks, gathering in a single place and spouting incessant bollocks about Web 2.0, was damaging to wildlife over a wide area.” :o)