We’ve spent quite a big chunk of this year working on a youth engagement guide for social housing providers with Peabody, Home Group, CBHA and CDHT.
That’s a fancy way of saying that we’ve been collecting loads of good hints and tips to help young people who live in houses owned by the council or housing associations to get more involved in their community.
We’ve been working closely with the Our Say Our Way partners and visited lots of young tenants and staff on estates across the country. It’s been brilliant to work with young people outside of schools. Especially since it has helped us to learn about participation in a slightly different setting from what we’re used to.
Here’s the final case study in our series of school council case studies. A great example of how school councils can drive school improvement from Barming Primary in Kent.
Key benefits:
Better relationships between students, teachers and governors. There is a strong feeling that they are all working together and the school council helps the school to achieve this.
Every student wants to have a say in how the school runs and school councillors have a high profile.
Students are better prepared to understand and overcome difficult issues. They learn that that helping to improve the school is not always easy and quick, and that it is not just about moaning. For example, the school council are concerned about the relationship between students and the dinner ladies. They have organised a meeting to try to improve things.
Top advice:
Link the students with the governors. Put a standing item on the governing body’s agenda to look at the school council’s minutes and to hear from the children.
To strengthen this link, ask a member of the governing body to be responsible for going to school council meetings. It helps give everyone a rounded experience of the school by sharing different perspectives.
As headteacher, do not attend school council meetings. Students will be less frank and less willing to say what they feel. The headteacher at Barming Primary School meets after each school council meeting with the chair, secretary and treasurer to understand what was agreed and discussed.
Do not shy away from difficult issues, but use them as learning points for all.
Give the school council a budget. Even if it is small, it shows a commitment to the school council and their ability to make realistic choices.
Methods used:
School council
The school council meets regularly and plays an important role in the life of the school. School councillors have a high profile and feature on a prominent display in the school hall. The school council is very popular and the school councillors talk with pride when they discuss what they’ve been working on.
Recent projects include getting more signs in the school to help students know where they are going, mirrors in the school toilets and the relationship between students and the dinner ladies. The school also ran a very successful ‘Apple Day’ which celebrated local varieties of apples and invited the community into the school. The school council is leading on other fruit-themed days using local produce.
The school council has a budget of £50 a year, but the school has decided to raise this to £100.
Strong system of class councils
Class councils regularly talk about ideas and issues that they have in the school. For the school council meetings, they have to come up with their two most important ideas that they would like to be discussed. Two students from each class attend the school council meeting and describe their two ideas.
Regular circle time
Regular circle time helps to boost students’ confidence and ability to talk in front of a group. This strengthens the class councils and school council meetings.
Governor interaction
A governor attends the school council meetings, and there is a standing item on the agenda for all governors meetings to get an update on the school council, and to look at their minutes.
About the school:
Barming Primary School is larger than average. Several significant changes in staff have taken place in the past 18 months, including the headteacher. The school has more boys than girls. Most pupils are White British. The proportion of other minority ethnic heritages is below the national average and includes pupils from a variety of Asian or Black British or Black African heritages. A significant minority of these pupils speak more than one language but few are at the early stages of learning English as an additional language.
The proportion of pupils with special educational needs and/or learning disabilities is broadly average, as is the proportion with a statement of special educational needs. The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is below average. In the Early Years Foundation Stage, there are two Reception classes. The school has several awards reflecting its commitment to healthy lifestyles.
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 a student voice case study from Woodhouse College, a sixth-form college in Barnet.
It’s a slightly different setting from the other examples we’ve looked at. However, the underlying principles remain the same; student voice can influence the core work of the college, it’s flexible, and involves everyone. Importantly, practice is not imposed on staff, but they’re shown the benefits over time.
“We don’t want college to just be a set of A-levels, we want [students] to grow as people.”
Deputy principal
Key benefits
Student voice has been a powerful driver for improving the quality of the college. “Modernising the relationships” between staff and students has helped learning and teaching to improve.
It broadens and deepens the range of experience that students gain from being at the college. They do not leave with just academic qualifications but with skills of interaction, enquiry and representation.
Students have been able to have an impact on all aspects of the college, from the buildings to rules and learning and teaching.
Top advice:
Do not impose practice on staff. See where there is good practice and share this through staff meetings and INSET.
Get every department to plan targets for developing student voice within their subject area.
Create structures that enable students to form and run their own groups based on interest (eg faith groups, sporting and gaming groups, lesbian and gay groups).
Methods used:
Form reps and college council
Each form group elects a representative who becomes their contact to feed back on whole college issues or raise points for improving the college. Form representatives run weekly meetings with their classes which can be just an open forum or may revolve around specific questions that the whole college is discussing. The form representatives meet regularly together with the student support manager and/or deputy principal to collate responses and decide on action plans.
There is also a whole college election for the college council; this means that friendship groups that might be split across form groups – and so be unable to elect one of their number as a representative in any one form – can elect someone who they feel represents them. The college council has its own budget and runs many of the whole college activities. It also works closely with the student support manager and deputy principal and the form reps.
The split between the roles of the form representatives and the college council is not always completely clear, but the form reps are primarily tasked with representing and collecting the views of the whole college and the college council is about creating new opportunities for people to be involved in the life of the college. They are currently working to better define their areas of responsibility and the relationship between them.
Subject focus groups
Certain subject area are very keen to find out how they are serving the learning needs of its students so there are regular surveys and focus groups to draw out this feedback. As this is not uniform across the college those departments that have been getting the most out of it have been encouraged by management to share their experiences in staff meetings and training. By demonstrating the benefits and tried and tested methods of engaging the students’ voices other departments are encouraged to follow suit.
Student-led interest groups
Students in the college are encouraged and supported to set up their own interest groups, clubs and societies. One of the roles of the student support manager is to be positive towards and enable students to create opportunities like this for others. In this way the student experience is deepened for all. Those students who want to set things up develop skills and a sense of agency and those who just want to be part of these groups have far more to choose from.
In this way the college is directly responding to the needs of students. For example, some students wanted a lesbian and gay group, so they were supported to set one up. This is then something they run in the way they feel comfortable with, rather than something which needs to conform to staff expectations of how such a group might run or look.
Volunteering through Envision
Further opportunities for student action and engagement are provided through volunteering projects with the support of the charity Envision. These do not get students to simply help out on someone else’s project, but be entrepreneurial in their own right.
About the college:
Woodhouse College is a sixth form college operating from a single site on the eastern side of the London Borough of Barnet. The college caters for just over 1000 learners. Nearly all 16 to 18 enrolments were on GCE AS/A level courses. A significant proportion of learners travel from other boroughs, particularly Haringey and Enfield.
The catchment area is economically mixed and diverse in terms of social and ethnic backgrounds. In 2005, about half of the learners were from minority ethnic groups, and 56% were female. At age 16, educational achievement is above average in Barnet, but well below average in Haringey and Enfield.
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
Wildern School in Southampton approaches student voice through UNICEF’s Rights Respecting Schools model. It’s a great example of how this approach can achieve whole-school improvements. You can read more student voice case studies here.
Key benefits:
A school that is well-suited to the needs of students and the way they want to learn. Students realise that they can (and have) changed major policies and decisions in the school. This helps them to feel engaged in the school.
Better behaviour. The “rights, respect and responsibility” ethos (drawn from the UNICEF’s Rights Respecting Schools Award) gives teachers and students consistent language and expectations across the school. It helps students to understand what right and wrong is.
A proactive and positive student body that improves the school in many ways. Students feel confident to suggest ideas because they are encouraged, supported and trusted to do so.
“It’s good knowing that you can come to school and know that you’re not going to be talked at all day.”
Student council member, Year 9
Top advice
Link everything to the school’s core values, in this case ‘rights, respect and responsibilities’. Links should be made at every relevant opportunity– from schemes of work in the curriculum, to school improvement groups, assemblies, theme days and parental engagement.
Remind people about these values, and how they relate to student-led change. Put posters up around the school and in classrooms, get on the school TVs, and remind staff and students in person.
Trust students. It is their school, and teachers are there to help them learn in an exciting and challenging way.
Set up systems so that students do not have to wait ages to get permission from teachers to move forward. The school has a senior leadership team (SLT) e-proposal form that any student can fill in to email to the SLT. Students have to fully consider an idea or suggestion and can get a quick permission to continue.
Get the right staff member to support it:
“Good student voice doesn’t cost anything. Put the right member of staff to facilitate it, give them time to do it, and start listening to all.”
Deputy headteacher
Start small and take the ‘sowing seeds’ approach. Do not expect to transform participation in school overnight, but start with a small-scale and focused project that you can demonstrate clear results from.
Help reluctant members of staff to see the importance in student voice by asking students to show them the value of student-led projects. They will start to see that students’ ideas are realistic and considered, and that it is not a ‘top-down’ trend from SLT.
Methods used:
Rights Respecting Schools Award
In 2007, students worked on a diversity project with a local school. As part of this, they became aware of UNICEF’s Rights Respecting Schools Award and the three R’s (rights, respect and responsibilities). Students were keen to bring this ethos to Wildern, and successfully encouraged the school to begin a specific project with new Year 7s.
A few years later, this ethos has really taken hold in the school. As the headteacher puts it, the three Rs are “the philosophy of the school” and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child forms “the foundation” of everything they do.
The school have since received their Level 2 Rights Respecting Schools Award and are an excellent example of what can be done with Rights Respecting Schools.
Range of ways for students to get their voice heard
There a wide range of ways for students to have a say in their learning and their school. These are all linked to, and supported by, Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. These different projects include the school council, Voting Voice, school focus groups, student evaluators, department student voice meetings, virtual learning environment (VLE) forums, and class discussions.
Voting Voice
All students can have a direct impact on school issues through the Voting Voice system. An issue is picked that all tutor groups discuss at the same time. Views and votes are collected and collated from across the whole school.
This is a great way to encourage whole-school involvement in big projects, but also small issues in the school too.
School improvement groups
One of the successful ways that students get involved in school improvement is through a range of school improvement groups (SIGs).
These student-led groups that work on particular areas in the school. They include groups like Wildern TV, Community Cohesion, Creative Partnership, Learning to Learn and Developing PLTS (personal learning and thinking skills) in the classroom.
About the school:
Wildern School is a very large and heavily oversubscribed 11–16 comprehensive school serving the Hedge End, West End and Eastleigh areas of Southampton. As a community school it is open seven days a week providing a range of facilities and activities for local adults and young people. The school has been awarded specialist status in Performing Arts and is designated as a High Performing Specialist School Raising Achievement and Transforming Learning. It is also a Leading Edge school.
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
Community-minded and socially aware students who want to take an active role in the school and local area.
Highly politically-literate students who are driven and keen to manage their own projects.
Improved relationships between students, staff and students, and the community in general.
Improved results in the school; students with five A* to C GCSEs has increased by 31 per cent in the last four years.
An ethos built around social justice and the principles of the Co-operative that helps everyone to get along and resolve arguments.
“It’s about changing the world.”
Co-operative Champion, Year 10
Top advice
Provide a wide range of ways for students to get involved in school life – only having a school council is not enough. If you can do this, a wide range of pupils will become involved.
‘Hooks’ to get students involved do not just have to centre around content areas (for example the environment or economics), but students with a particular skill (like photography or design) should be encouraged to participate too.
Schools should approach everyone to get involved, do not discriminate. Although you cannot force students to get involved, you can remind them and keep approaching them – you never know when they would like to do something.
Use something like the Co-operative’s values to involve everyone in a simple and accessible ethos. Student voice and participation becomes far easier when important values are embedded and understood across the school and between students, teachers and governors.
Get students involved at the heart of the community, not in isolation of it. The resources and challenges of the local community present real – not simulated – educational opportunities for student voice and action, but also help young people with certain qualifications.
Methods used:
Co-operative Champions
The school originally trained seven students as Co-operative Champions, who have now successfully trained more than 60 students across the school. The Co-operative ethos has helped to inspire students who do not usually get involved to do so.
Co-operative Champions have a jumper with a special logo on so they are recognisable around the school. They get involved in a wide range of events and projects and see their role as “making the world a better place”. They are also working on several partnerships with other schools across the world, like Reddish Vale’s sister school in Kiafeng, China.
ROC Cafe
ROC Cafe takes place every Friday night after school and gives students a safe space to relax, meet new people, and finish the week off on a positive note. ROC stands for “Redeeming Our Communities”, and the cafe opened in April 2010. Over 70 students attend most weeks, and students have had a strong role in planning and running the cafe. As one school council member put it:
“ROC Cafe has been a great success. Students have a good time and leave their troubles at the door.”
School council member, Year 9
School council
The school also has a traditional school council model, with year councils. This has an important role in school improvement and influence school decisions. This model tends to attract students who are more interested in parliamentary-style school improvement.
Ethiopian Coffee Collective
An example of one of many student-led co-operative projects: The school buys coffee directly from a coffee producer in Ethiopia, and sells it in the school. Students are learning important marketing and co-operation skills from this project, and are working hard to see it go from strength to strength.
Community engagement
The school works closely with, and for, the community in Reddish. This improves education opportunities for students, as well as the community itself. The school is also an important resource forthe community – Reddish is an area of high socio-economic deprivation, and young people are involved with around 100 of the local areas 150 small businesses.
About the school
Reddish Vale Technology College is a larger than average mixed comprehensive school serving an area of relative disadvantage. The college has had specialist technology status since 1995 and has been a full service extended school since 2005. The majority of the college population are of White British heritage and few students are at the early stages of learning English.
The percentage of pupils eligible for free school meals is higher than the national average, as is the percentage of those with learning difficulties and/or disabilities. The population of the college is stable, with relatively few students joining or leaving the college after entering in Year 7. Attendance is in line with the national average and better than many similar schools.
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 another great student voice case study. This time it’s from Lark Rise Academy, who use POW WOW sessions to get everyone involved in school decision making. Inspiring!
“If you do this now, at this age and you get this empathy it can only make them better citizens.”
Headteacher
Key benefits
Improved confidence, decision-making skills, empathy and entrepreneurialism in children across the school, not just a small group.
Greater and deeper understanding of what is improving learning in the school.
Improved engagement of parents with the school.
Top advice
Create a process that regularly and systematically gathers the views of everyone in the school and feeds back on progress.
Try out and evaluate new models of engagement. Always assess what you are doing.
Ensure that staff are empowered at the same time as pupils. Pupil voice is not an add-on, it is part of creating distributed leadership throughout the school, so the whole-school community needs to be heard.
Make sure that the issues discussed are important to the pupils. These tend to be things that are local and where they can see immediate impact. What happens in their classrooms and the playground fit the bill very well.
Methods used
POW WOW sessions
Pupils were finding that although the school council was effective by some measures, it was not genuinely representing all pupils. They were keen to find a new structure that would allow all pupils to be involved in decision-making about what was going on in the school. They decided to hold weekly class meetings, which they call POW WOWs. These 30-minute meetings are facilitated by the class teacher and minuted by the teaching assistant. Every class in the school will discuss the same questions, which are generally set by the headteacher. These questions tend to focus on the curriculum. This gives pupils real input into the core business of the school, learning and teaching and gives the school great information on which to evaluate what is going on in classrooms across the school.
Sometimes these are questions where the outcome will be a whole-school change, but often they are to do with what each class has been learning, how their classroom will be laid out, etc. The issues that most animate the pupils are those that affect their lives in the classroom or the playground.
Every pupil in the school is involved in POW WOW sessions, including the three-year-olds in nursery. All of their answers are listened to and noted down. This is not simply a matter of expressing preference though. Children throughout the school are asked to think about and justify their answers. This justification is very important as it enables deeper thinking about learning and forms the basis of genuine discussion. It is essential to all age groups that once the information is collated that feedback is given to them so they can see the effect of their discussions.
“Both my children needed prompting to speak, but they’re all asked their opinion and never made to think that what they say is silly.” Parent
“Everyone is given value and made to feel important. It’s helped my daughter to develop her own voice.” Parent
Community ambassadors/Play leaders/Eco-warriors
Through the POW WOW session pupils have established a number of roles whereby some pupils can take on extra responsibility:
The community ambassadors are an elected group of pupils who fulfil the roles that might be associated with a school council, but are not covered in the POW WOW sessions: interviewing prospective staff, giving guests tours of the school, representing the school at local and national events. They meet with a member of staff every Friday to share ideas for how the school can improve and decide who will get the Kindness and Caring Cups. The Community Ambassadors make their decision without knowing the name of the nominees, just what they have been nominated for.
“Ambassadors make our education better and the school funner.” Year Ambassador
Play leaders look out for pupils in the playground who do not have anyone to play with. They also teach new games to any children who want to learn.
Eco-warriors is a club open to anyone with an interest in improving the environment. One of the methods they use is ‘Freddy the Frog’. Freddy is stuck in various places around the school where things need to change to improve the environment. This focuses attention and starts debate.
Leadership programme across the school
To ensure that all pupils can develop their leadership skills, not just those involved in the groups above, a new scheme has been started to provide recognition for pupils taking a leadership role. Pupils earn stamps for designing and carrying out a small leadership project. Collecting these stamps allows them to take on a special title in the class. These vary across the school to reflect the level of leadership activity the pupils are expected to take on at different ages:
Nursery: Teacher’s Helper
Reception: Class Leader
Key Stage 1: School Leader
Key Stage 2: Community Leader
It is totally voluntary and pupils can do almost anything that sees them taking a lead – there are some suggested activities for those who want to take part but are not sure what to do. One pupil made an Easter basket at home and then showed other children how to do it, so they could take Easter baskets home for their families. This kind of activity would have been run by a teaching assistant, so with more people leading activities there are also more activities for those who do not want to lead to be involved in. This is part of an action research project for a member of staff (see below) and the POW WOWs have deeply influenced how it looks. They discussed these questions before the scheme was set up:
What are you going to do to get stamps?
Would you like to take part?
What would you like the names of the roles to be?
The scheme is already proving to be very popular. It helps pupils to understand that leadership is not necessarily top-down, it can just as well be bottom-up. It also gives pupils entrepreneurial and decision-making skills and experience of working with groups and speaking to an audience.
Action research
Many staff in the school, from the headteacher down, have been or are carrying out formal action research around pupil voice and engagement. This has encouraged them to really examine what is working in their school and to try new things. It also gives them a rigorous framework within which to experiment and assess what they are doing.
In all cases the views of the pupils form a core part of the data. So pupils have yet another avenue through which to feed in to the school’s policy and practices. As well as giving all staff deeper insight into their practice this research forms part of additional qualifications for those staff carrying it out.
About the school:
Lark Rise Academy is one of the first schools to convert to academy status under the new rules.
It is average in size. Pupils come from a wide range of backgrounds, although the percentage known to be entitled to free school meals is below average. Children begin school with standards that are broadly in line with those expected for their age. The percentage of pupils coming from minority ethnic backgrounds is below average, and of these, very few speak English as an additional language. The percentage of pupils with learning difficulties is below average. However, the percentage with statements of special educational need is higher than usually found.
The school has a number of awards.
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’ve spent quite a big chunk of this year working on a youth engagement guide for social housing providers with Peabody, Home Group, CBHA and CDHT.
