Tag: Participation

Categories
involver blog

Participatory budgeting – the essence of student voice?

What’s your school’s ethos?

Most of the schools I meet use terms like ‘community’, ‘the school as a family’, ‘listening to and valuing all pupils’ and ’empowering learners’.

  • So how do you prove the ethos of your school?
  • Can you measure your school’s ethos?

Now those are a couple of tricky questions (not least grammatically). The answers I usually see are:

  • You could write it above the entrance as a motto/vision/mission statement.
  • Do a survey to feel if people feel ‘listened to/safe/happy/enlightened/self-actualised’ (okay, I haven’t actually heard either of the last two).
Participatory Budgeting toolkit by PB Unit
Participatory Budgeting toolkit by PB Unit

Yesterday Greg and I spent a fascinating few hours discussing something far more tangible, empowering and effective: participatory budgeting (now there’s a name to get the pulse racing!). We were at a meeting convened by the Participatory Budgeting Unit, Citizenship Foundation and ourselves and attended by several other organisations with a range of interests and experiences in the field.

The idea of participatory budgeting, as I see it, is simple:

You involve the people whose money is being spent in the decisions about how that money is spent. (Wikipedia goes into more detail, naturally)

So how does this relate to school ethos? Well, if you say you’re a school that listens to your pupils, how about listening to them on a proportion of your budget? Set a percentage, set some boundaries and a structure, listen and then act (even better, help them to act).

Like it or not money is essential to how a school works. If you really want to involve your whole school community in decision-making then that’s going to involve how money is spent. Make a statement. Involve the whole school in he process and let them see the outcomes.

This also gives you a yardstick by which to measure how you are progressing. The more trust grows between staff, students and governors; the more students learn about how the school runs; the more responsible they show themselves to be: the larger the percentage of the budget is that they help control.

Over the coming months we (the meeting organisers) intend to help produce tools and guidance to assist schools in involving all pupils in ‘PB’.

Categories
involver blog News Resources

Pupil interview panels – getting it right

Over the last couple of days a motion being discussed at the NASUWT (National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers) to strike over increasing student voice has sparked a number of alarmist articles across the press. (Click here for our formal response).

Essentially they pull out a few examples of bad or questionable practice of involving pupils in the interview process and from there draw the conclusion that pupils shouldn’t be listened to. So the NASUWT has found a few examples of where schools appear to have managed the process badly and so  want to ban the process completely.  I’m suggesting a different approach: get schools to manage the process well.

I’ve worked in many schools where they’ve found the process invaluable because pupils give them a different perspective on the candidates. Most of them use a process something like this:

  1. Governors decide on your interview process, how the day will be run and what role pupils will play in this (bearing in mind that any decision of who to employ is ultimately down to the governors).
  2. Write down the process and responsibilities and share with all involved, including pupils and prospective candidates (i.e. put it in the application pack).
  3. Get together a representative group of pupils, explain the process to them, including how much weight their views will be given. This maybe your school council or a group s/elected for this purpose, but here we’ll assume it’s the school council.
  4. Get the school council members to go to other classes in the school (how many depends on the role being applied for, for a Head you may want them to go to all classes):
    1. Discuss,  ‘what makes a good Head/Deputy/Teacher/etc.?’
    2. Each class should decide on the top 3 qualities/skills.
    3. These should be recorded by the school council representative.
  5. The school council should be given training on:
    1. Confidentiality
    2. Active listening
    3. Open v. Closed questions
    4. Leading questions
    5. Questions candidates might ask
  6. The school council then discusses:
    1. What the other pupils have said makes a good Head/Deputy/Teacher/etc.?
    2. They choose the most important of these.
    3. What questions would you ask to find out if someone had each of these?
    4. What sort of answers would be good or bad?
  7. This list of questions is then drawn up along with a marking sheet for each of the questions/qualities.
  8. Setting up the pupil panel:
    1. The pupil panel is separate to the adult panel (ideally there should be no other adults in the room, where safeguarding good practice allows).
    2. One student is nominated as the chair.
    3. The pupil panel is not a ‘weeding out’ stage.
    4. Candidates are encouraged to ask the pupil panel questions to ensure this is a two-way process.
  9. As in formal interviews each candidate is asked the same set of questions. Each member of the pupil panel writes comments and marks on their marking sheet. After each candidate has left pupils discuss them and come to a joint conclusion. These are written down and passed to the adult interview panel.
  10. The pupil panel meets with the adult interview panel so the adult panel can ask for clarification or explanation of the pupil panel’s findings.
  11. The adult interview panel makes the decision on who to appoint. Giving whatever weight to the pupil’s views they feel it merits. If they wish to they can question the pupil panel on how they arrived at their decision.
  12. The application process is evaluated so that it can be improved for next time:
    1. Discussion with school council about how it went: did they ask the right types of questions; did they get the kinds of answers they were expecting, etc.?
    2. Where possible, discussion with candidates about how they felt about the process.

The benefits you’ll get from involving pupils in the interview process:

  • A wider variety of perspectives on candidates.
  • Candidates get a different view on the school.
  • Pupils learn something about what makes a good teacher (and how hard it is to be one).
  • You might learn something about what pupils value in a good teacher (I’ve never once seen the answer, ‘a pushover’).
  • Pupils learn about how interviews work, useful knowledge when entering the work force.
  • A good starting point for relationships between pupils and a new teacher.
  • It says that your school has pupils as its focus and that’s what you expect of your staff too.

And here are a few other people’s views on the benefits of pupils’ involvement in the interview process:

From staff and pupils: BBC News

From another governor (I mean other than me): Jaynehowarth’s Weblog

From Headteachers and another teaching union: ASCL (Association of School and College Leaders)

So, please don’t throw the baby out with the bath water, just improve the processes and training around involving pupils.

Categories
involver blog

What’s the NASUWT’s problem with student voice?

The NASUWT is concerned by increasing reports that student voice activities are being abused by some schools and resulting in practices which privilege pupils in a way which is undermining, disempowering and deprofessionalising teachers. These activities include using pupils to observe teachers teaching, involving pupils in the recruitment of staff, including on interview panels, and pupil questionnaires which are for management rather than educational purposes.

This is the opening line to an email sent out to the members of ‘the largest UK-wide teachers’ union’, the NASUWT, this week (one of whom sent it on to me).  Just a couple of the things that are troubling about this letter and the assumptions it makes:

  • Every time a teacher teaches, pupils observe them and pass judgement, that’s what happens in lessons. The judgement is communicated through engagement or disengagement. Wouldn’t it be better to capture this experience in a structured, focussed way so that teachers could use it for their professional development and improve student learning? Isn’t it clear that giving students a greater understanding of the teaching process improves learning, engagement and attainment (the General Teaching Council definitely thinks so, based on it’s research carried out by Cambridge University:
    Improving pupil learning through enhancing participation)
  • If this concern is coming from “increased reports”, why send out a letter saying, “The Union urgently needs case studies of teachers’ experiences of the abuse of student voice in schools”? Why not just use all the reports that are giving rise to concern?

One thing that I find particularly concerning is the timing of this letter and what this implies about its use. Responses need to be in by the end of the week, presumably so they can be used for a response to the DCSF’s consultation on ‘Considering pupils views’, which is on governors’ new duties regarding pupil voice. Now it’s right and proper that the NASUWT responds to this consultation, it wouldn’t be serving its members if it didn’t, but the things it’s asking for don’t relate to the questions being asked, which are:

  1. Do you feel it is appropriate for schools to invite and consider pupils’ views before revising equality policies or schemes in the area of race, disability and gender equality?
  2. Do you feel it is appropriate for schools to invite and consider pupils’ views before making changes to the times of school sessions?
  3. Do you feel it is appropriate for schools to invite and consider pupils’ views before agreeing their curriculum policy?

Nothing to do with lesson observations, interview panels and the like.  So is the union intending to launch a broadside on pupil voice generally to get in the way of allowing pupils to have more of a say in how their school is run? (The letter asks for people who are willing to be interviewed by the media.)

I really hope they would take a more measured approach, but this hasn’t been the NASUWT’s tactic so far with regards to student voice.  Chris Keates has consistently used the argument that because something is being done poorly in a few schools it should be stopped everywhere.  It’s exactly this kind of thinking that has paralysed so many schools with regards to school trips: poor practice and accidents can’t be completely prevented so we’re better off just not doing any, irrespective of the impact this may have on the quality of students’ experience and learning.

So if you’re an NASUWT member who is aware of the benefits of student voice, why not email your union (judy.stokes@mail.nasuwt.org.uk – she’s collecting the case studies) and see whether they’re willing to represent your views?

Categories
involver blog

Democra-citizen-educata-participata-ball!

Democra-ball! flyer

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

Categories
involver blog

Ashley School – using school councils to teach Citizenship

Ashley School Council's great slogan
Ashley School Council's great slogan

Yesterday Greg and I went to Ashley School in Widnes to do some testing for a big project we’re doing with the Parliament Education Service (PES).

It’s such a great school to visit because they really seem to get the links between the school council, Citizenship and the happiness of everyone in the school.

How do they do this:

  • Ensure everyone who wants to participate can. There are elected councils but also groups people can volunteer for.
  • There are groups that reflect a variety of interests to engage different students, to name just a few: Sports, Eco, Anne Frank (community and human rights).
  • All staff take responsibility and get involved with groups and committees that interest them: the PE teacher runs the Sports Committee, the Science teacher runs the Eco group, etc.
  • The school council is structured with a purpose, they decided to reflect the Houses of Parliament and use this as a teaching tool to help students understand the wider political system.
  • Pride of place is given to the pupils’ various councils and groups. They have their own committee room and displays in the reception area.
  • The school council is designed to be completely inclusive. Although there are no pupils with physical disabilities as Ashley School their committee room is designed to be accessible and usable by all, it includes a whole range of assistive technologies. There is even a CCTV system to meetings can be viewed all over the school.

Anyway, here’s a little video of their council chamber. Obviously we couldn’t get the kids in because of child safety issues, but you get the idea.

This is no new thing to Ashley School, they’ve been doing this work for years as this great article in the Guardian testifies: Friends, pupils, citizens

Categories
involver blog Resources

Creating a communication plan for whole-school involvement

Thinking about communication, it's not just assemblies and noticeboards.
Thinking about communication, it's not just assemblies and noticeboards.

The Albion High School in Salford (Manchester) had a problem with its school council, as in many schools it was seen as ineffective and so became very unpopular with students.  Staff and governors set improving pupil voice as a key priority for the school. With help from Creative Partnerships they have rebranded and reconstituted the school council, which is now known as REGENERATE.  It has a significant budget (£30,000) and members of the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) provide direct support.

Having trained a number of Salford school council co-ordinators the other week I was invited to help run REGENERATE’s training yesterday – I was even billed as “Asher Jacobsberg: National Leader on Student Voice and Involvement” which was a bit of an ego massage! The day was opened by the Chair of Governors and the Headteacher, which I feel was really important for them and the students, really creating a link between the key decision-making bodies in the school. My role for the day, as well as running ice-breakers and rounding the day off, was to help the students decide on a strategy for getting the whole-school involved with REGENERATE. For me this always comes down to communication. The best way to start to pique people’s interest is to tell them about what you’re already doing, and encourage them to tell you what they think. Once that’s working, then they’re much more likely to want to move in to taking an active role.

As well as training, the day was used for making some structural decisions and voting in the Chair.
As well as training, the day was used for making some structural decisions and voting in the Chair.

So this is the session I ran with them, and we came up with a really solid communication plan at the end of it. Very importantly each element had someone who would be responsible for it, and a regular date on which it would happen.  Some of the ideas that the students came up with and will be taking forward:

  • Visit primary schools to tell them about REGENERATE, show they will be listened to at The Albion and find out what they want The Albion to be like when they get there.
  • Use social networking sites to spread the word about what REGENERATE is up to.
  • Create a REGENERATE jingle for the radio show that they will be recording.
  • Make sure that the REGENERATE noticeboards are updated after every meeting, that they are in places where everyone in the school will see them and that they are funny and interesting to look at!

Download the session plan as a Word 2007 .docx file (192 KB)

Download the session plan as a Word 2003 .doc file (225 KB)

To download as a PDF use the link in the Scribd window below.