Tag: KS2 (P3-P4-P5-P6)

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Project planning and evaluation videos for school councils

We helped make this series of six videos for Parliament’s Education Service. As well as encouraging schools to enter the Speaker’s School Council Award they contain loads of great tips from MPs and school councillors of all ages on how to make any project a success.

If your school council or project team is getting a bit stuck have a watch of some of these, they might just give you a few ideas.

Why enter the Speaker’s School Council Award

Getting ideas and choosing a project

Planning your project

Keeping your team on track

Keeping people informed and involved

Evaluating your project

These videos were all shot, directed and edited by the fantastic Kwame Lestrade of Franklyn Lane Films.

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Strengthen Citizenship in the National Curriculum – a personal response

So today is the last day to respond to the National Curriculum Review Consultation.

involver’s primary interest in this is the threat to Citizenship. To this end we’ve been founding members of Democratic Life and I’ve just used their excellent form to submit a personal response to the consultation (we’re submitting an organisational one too).

Please do go and give your own response too (Democratic Life have even filled out some answers for you too if you just want to adapt them): http://www.democraticlife.org.uk/curriculum-review/curriculum-review-response-form/

I thought I’d put it up here in case it might serve as inspiration to anyone.

If you are responding as an individual, please describe yourself

I am a primary school governor and a parent with a child starting primary school in September. I am also an educational consultant with an interest in promoting political and active democratic education in schools.

Should citizenship be a National Curriculum subject, and if so at what key stages?

Yes, I believe there is a place for citizenship at all levels of schooling. A functioning democracy needs citizens who understand the political system, how they can use it to effect change and how they can change the system.

We do not become citizens at 18, we are citizens from birth.

What does citizenship education bring to the National Curriculum?

State education is about ensuring that everyone can play an active part in the society, this needs to cover the political and social spheres as well as economic and cultural.

Unfortunately most families do not understand well enough the links and boundaries between parish, local, regional, national and European branches of government to explain them to an adult, let alone a child. How many letters do MPs get every week about pot-holes? Formal education has a key role to play here in renewing our democracy.

Whilst the specific ins and outs of the town hall, Westminster and Brussels may be too much for a 7 year-old, learning the underlying principles is not. Most (over 90%) will have a school council, but could any of them tell you if it was democratic? Now, pull that forward, how many 27 year-olds can explain to you which is more democratic, ‘First Past the Post’ or the ‘Alternative Vote’?

What areas of knowledge does the citizenship curriculum cover?

Citizenship teaches how our current political structures work. Those things that have a direct impact on the schools the pupils go to, the services they use and the streets they live on.

It teaches them their rights are how these are linked to responsibilities.

It places British society in an international context; explaining the rights and privileges that we enjoy and making people aware that these are not enjoyed universally.

Furthermore it encourages deep learning of all of these by getting pupils to apply them in a real-world context. This adds skills and agency to the knowledge.

How is citizenship education best delivered in schools?

Whilst any good school will have the principles and values of citizenship embedded in everything it does, it is incredibly difficult to teach the knowledge in this way.

For this reason I believe it should be a discrete subject.

It also needs properly trained and motivated teachers who have graduated in politics or a related subject. Many of the best citizenship teachers have spent time in other professions before entering teaching and so bring additional skills and knowledge to the classroom. This is to be encouraged.

In many cases where citizenship is being poorly delivered it is because it has been given to a non-specialist as an ‘add-on’ responsibility. Encouraging pupils to get a qualification as part of the course seems to help schools to put more weight in to the teaching of the subject.

I believe these views are all backed up by Ofsted’s findings.

What is citizenship education’s international standing? How do English pupils compare internationally in their civic and citizenship knowledge?

I think Democratic Life have summed this up very well:

Citizenship education is an internationally recognised and respected subject. The recent IEA International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) shows that 20 out of 38 countries surveyed include a specific subject for civic or citizenship education in their national curricula. Finland, the country who tops the international comparison tables for reading and science in PISA 2009, also had the highest country civic knowledge scores (along with Denmark). England was 13th in the ICCS civic knowledge country scores and 24th (or last) amongst European countries in civic knowledge of the European Union, its institutions, laws and policies. England needs a world class National Curriculum, that includes robust citizenship education and high quality citizenship teaching to ensure our students can compete with the best in the world.

How can the Government improve pupils’ civic and citizenship knowledge and their attitudes towards participation in society?

By having citizenship as a discrete subject at secondary school and as a strand in the curriculum at primary.

By ensuring that citizenship education combines knowledge of civics with active application of that knowledge to develop the skills and passion for civic participation.

By ensuring that those teaching or leading the teaching of citizenship are well-trained experts in the subject.

Again, please do go and give your own response too: http://www.democraticlife.org.uk/curriculum-review/curriculum-review-response-form/

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Student voice-o-meter is born!

Happy friday everyone,

For the last few months, we’ve been working on an exciting new student voice/school council tool called the Student Voice-o-Meter. We’ve worked closely with two very talented people, Robert Johnson doing the amazing illustration, and Derek Winton pulling all the database and code stuff together. We’re extremely grateful for their help, ideas and talent in making the voice-o-meter come alive.

Put simply, it’s a student-led tool that helps schools to look at what’s good and bad about student voice or their school council. And how it can be improved. Here’s a wee preview:

Involver : Student voice-o-meter from bitsOfBobs on Vimeo.

The Student Voice-o-Meter is very young at the moment, and needs to work with some friendly schools to help him to grow. It’s really hungry and would love some data from your school.

That means we’re looking for three or four schools to give it a trial, get some support from us, and tell us what they think. When it’s up and running, we’ll give those schools free access to the tool. Forever.

So if you’re a teacher or a student, we’d love to hear from you.

Take a look at www.studentvoiceometer.org.uk and if you’re interested, then get in touch with us at info@involver.org.uk.

You can also follow the Student Voice-o-meter on twitter..

Make sure to follow Bits of Bobs on twitter too. You can hear all about his illustration and sandwich adventures.

Greg

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How can you encourage more people to get involved in your Student Voice?

This is a question that I am sure many schools struggle with, and I’d be lying if I said Little Heath hadn’t faced this problem over the years as well. The answer to this question can be the key to success in student voice.

It might be that the attendance at your school council is dwindling, or the uptake for your new peer mentoring scheme is low, or maybe you are struggling to keep your student voice “cool”. I don’t claim to have a definitive answer but I hope to offer some practical advice that you may find useful.

Publicise it! Ensure that the students know what is going on, what your plans are and how they can be involved. Go into assemblies once every half term, produce a mini newsletter, create posters and display boards around school, go into their tutor times, send letters home. You name it, it’s possible. But most crucially get out and speak to them. Chat with them about what student voice is, what activities are available, get them to share their thoughts with you, get their advice.

Be inclusive. Don’t hand pick the good students or reject the more challenging ones when they volunteer. Each one has something to offer. It is important to go out to your students as well as expecting them to come to you. At Little Heath, our Student Voice Leaders (a small group of senior students who each take a lead on an area of Student Voice) regularly go into tutor groups to chat informally to students about their lessons and other areas of school life, but also to share with them what is going on in the student voice world.

One of the greatest, and most effective, outcomes of student voice is that students feel valued. Ensure that everyone knows that your school council, for example, is there, not just because you have to have one but because you want to hear what your students have to say. Show them that their work has impact, that it makes a difference and that it can be rewarding. This gives students a sense of ownership and that their school council is their school council.

Informal structure as well as formal structure can work. Elections are great but don’t always work for everyone. Having an informal place where suggestions can be made and students can show an interest is also really helpful. This can either be a place that allows students to drop in and share ideas with you or it might even be a suggestion box that is checked regularly.

These are just a few ideas but I hope that in some way they are helpful to you.

Alison,
Student Voice Coordinator
Little Heath School

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Making a great Student Voice conference even better – Part 1

Another year, another amazing Student Voice Conference at Little Heath School in Reading.

I thought I’d write a blog that reflected on what we saw and learnt last year. It’s split into two parts because I took LOADS of videos.

So the ‘building blocks’ for success in Little Heath are still the same and still very apparent. Pupils feel open – and are supported by teachers and other pupils – to suggest ideas (good or bad!), there’s a variety of ways for students to get involved, and the support from staff is strong. In terms of staff support, the school has managed to build on what they provided last year.

Mr Linz (Student Voice Coordinator) is now expertly supported by Alison, the new Student Voice Assistant. Last year, Alison was a pupil at the school, but this year she’s a paid member of staff. It’s her job to support Mr Linz, and use her experience as a student to get lots of people involved and improve the school.

She’s very kindly writing a blog for us which you can read here and here. It’s really clear from how the students describe them that they make a great team and helps the school to build on the success that they’ve had. Well done!

As usual, I took some videos of some of the work that the school is doing. You’ll have to excuse my video skills.

First off, we have Bailey,  a year 8 student who I’d talked to last year. This year Bailey was really clear on the role that the school’s strong student voice ethos had played in helping him and others. He’s got some great advice on helping shy pupils to get involved. This is something that sits at the heart of what we’re trying to do as an organisation, and it’s great to see Bailey describe this in such a powerful way:

Some great stuff from Jack in Year 11 telling us about the day, and the skills he learnt as a Student Voice Leader. He also stresses the role of a passionate student voice coordinator to support everyone:

Here’s Dalton, from Year 12. He’s got a rather fetching shirt, and is on the buildings committee and helps out on travel to and from school. Back in year 9, he was part of the selection panel to appoint a new head teacher. Key quote ‘being a student voice leader is not all plain-sailing‘. Here his thoughts below:

It’s also important to look at the role of other staff supporting student voice, here’s Ms. Broadhead and Mr. Naylor – a Teaching Assistant at the school – talking about their experience. As a NQT, Ms. Broadhead’s got some interesting reflections on the lip service that many schools pay to student voice:

Here’s Lucy and Daniela talking about the support that older pupils give to year sevens. It’s called the SMILE group, and shows how peer mentoring is important to the school:

Finally for part 1, here’s a short video of Tom working with a group of year 8s. We saw Tom last year explaining what was happening at the conference. I’m sure he won’t mind me saying he was a bit nervous! This year, he’s expertly leading a group on the importance of courage as a leader, and what that means. Great stuff!

In part two, I’ll be talking to more of the younger pupils at the school. Stay tuned and thanks again to Little Heath for inviting me along.

Greg

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Student Voice Conference by Alison, Student Voice Assistant

Here’s Alison’s second blog, about the amazing Student Voice Conference at Little Heath! I’ve got a few videos from the day too, which I’ll upload soon.

It’s been an exciting couple of weeks!

Wednesday 2nd February was our annual Student Voice Conference at Little Heath. If I’m being honest I can’t believe it is over for another year! But there is still lots of work to keep us busy.

The conference was a real success.

Alok Sharma, MP for Reading West opened the day and encouraged the students in the importance of youth participation. The three workshops that took place were really thought provoking. Some really interesting ideas have come up as new projects for the STARS (Students As Researchers) to research. A particular favourite of mine is the idea of students having influence in teachers planning and having a say in the content of their lessons and the way it is taught.

The second workshop on student leadership got students thinking about the things that they want to be recognised for and how this can fit into a framework. For example, how the framework could be based around bronze, silver and gold levels. There were so many ways that students would like to be recognised for leadership, not just in Student Voice. They came up with ideas like Duke of Edinburgh, leading reading clubs and doing community service. It is exciting that the content and design for this framework is going to come completely from the students.

The third workshop looked at student Rights and Responsibilities. This linked into behaviour and how students want to feel safe. In addition, they looked at what helps them in the classroom to have a more effective learning experience. The students were also really forthcoming with ideas and how to refresh the schools Code of Conduct document into something more student friendly.

A question panel in the afternoon was a good chance for the students to ask questions to some of the staff. Questions about what they think makes a good learning environment, curriculum developments, advice for pathways after leaving Little Heath and also views on learning from former students.

Overall, the day was a credit to the enthusiasm of the students and their eagerness to be influential in their own education.