Tag: template

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Getting class council meetings to work

Involving the whole school

The key issue for school councils is how they involve the whole student body. Not just once a year when representatives are voted on, but on an on-going basis, throughout the year.

For me the core of the answer is in class meetings. Through these every student in the school can be listened to, given a chance to speak and become involved. Not all will want to, and many won’t very often, but the fact that it happens regularly, for everyone makes a huge difference. It is clear that the school (and the school council) are there for you when you need it, and is actively trying to involve you.

Transferring responsibility in secondaries

In secondary schools having these meetings is often seen to be harder than in primaries. The timetable is more prescribed, students move around and swap groups during the day, and so on. Last week when this issue arose at a training session I asked about the class meetings in the teacher’s school. He said that they had got rid of them because they couldn’t rely on the 72 form tutors to run them and pass on the messages. I’ve heard this from so many schools and it makes me sad to think about what this says to the students about how much their form tutors value their opinions. It raises questions of management too, but we’ll leave that to another time.

To me it seems that this is a problem that could be avoided. This shouldn’t be the teachers’ responsibility, it should be the class reps’.  They should each have a simple page to assist them to run a class meeting. It lists decisions made, questions to be asked and a space for raising new issues. This makes sure that every class in the school is involved in the discussions of the school council. All the teacher needs to do is ensure that every other Friday 15 minutes of form time is given over to the class rep (as stated in the school council policy).

So I suggested this to the delegates at the training event. They liked the idea and of course asked whether I had a template for this. “Of course,” I white-lied, “I’ll send it out to you all next week.” So this morning I transferred that template from my head to the computer.

Free template

You can download a PDF or a Word version below. There are instructions for the class rep on the sheet itself. Instructions on how to fill it out are at the bottom of this page.

[gview file=”http://involver.org.uk/dl/class-meeting-feedback-form.pdf” save=”0″]

[download id=”250″]

[download id=”251″]

Instructions for filling it out

I would suggest you take the Word version and then you can type directly in to it. This is how it needs to be filled out (I say ‘school council’ below but it could be any meeting that is being reported back from, such as a year or house council):

  1. In Section 1 you should put the decisions that were taken at the school council. Keep it succinct but clear, as the rep will just read this section out.
  2. You should just be able to copy the ‘Issue’ from your minutes.
  3. The ‘Action/Decision’ should also be from your minutes, so wherever possible it should be an action: WHO is going to do WHAT by WHEN.
  4. The ‘Reason’ is where you can add some explanation. For example, ‘There was general agreement on this from across the school’; ‘There isn’t the money to do this at this time’
  5. In Section 2 you should write the question that the school council wants to ask the whole school. Make the question clear and simple, so you are sure everyone across the school understands it as written.
  6. Depending on the question, you may find it useful to add some options for classes to select from.
  7. You should leave section 3 blank, this is where ideas from the classes are written down.

You then need a system for collecting and collating these sheets. It could be that they are all handed in to the office straight after form time to be collected by the school council secretary later.

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Quick minutes template

I knocked this up to use in our training sessions, when we don’t need to go back over old minutes, etc. but it actually works pretty well as a simple way to get down the most important information in any meeting: the actions.

It just lays out simply for everyone what decision was taken and WHO needs to do WHAT by WHEN.

Download the editable Word version: [download id=”241″]

Download the PDF version: [download id=”242″]

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Primary school council policy

The new headteacher of Welbourne Primary School in Tottenham – the school I’m a governor of – has asked me to help set up a new school council. My first step is to come up with a draft policy that I’ll use as the starting point for discussions with staff and pupils.

Download this sample policy to adapt and use: [download id=”240″]

I’m obviously trying to keep it short and simple so everyone can understand it. Here’s my first attempt. I’ll update it as the discussions progress. Do you have any comments or suggestions?

The 10 Commandments from flcikr/jbtaylor
Well, I couldn't quite get it down to 10, but it's what we're aiming for.

What is our school council for?

  • The school council is about:
    • Learning to work together
    • Learning about democracy
    • Learning how to play a positive role in our community
  • The school council’s job is to involve everyone, not do everything. It needs to get everyone:
    • Finding things they want to change
    • Coming up with ways to make them better
    • Putting those ideas in to action
    • Seeing what works (evaluating)

How does our class council work?

  • Our whole class has a meeting every 2 weeks on [day] at [time].
  • We decide what we’re going to talk about the day before the meeting, so everyone has time to think.
  • A different person runs the meeting each time (with help from the teacher if they need it).
  • A different person takes notes each time (with help from the teacher if they need it).
  • We choose two people from our class to go to a whole school council meeting.

What will the school council do for our class?

  • When you give your class representative an idea, she or he will:
    • Note it down
    • Take it to the next school council meeting
    • Tell you what is happening to your idea within two weeks
  • The school council will try to make your idea happen by getting:
    • Permission
    • Support
    • Money
    • Time
  • If they can’t they will tell you why not.
  • If they can, they will want your class to help make your idea happen.

What will teachers and TAs do for the school council?

  • Make sure meetings happen when they are supposed to.
  • Support pupils to run meetings.
  • The Headteacher will answer all the school council’s questions within 1 week.
  • If the Headteacher has to say ‘no’ to anything, she will explain why.

Now, this isn’t as short and snappy as I’d hoped, but I think it’s a good start. We’ll see what we can cut out as we go, without losing the essence of it. We’ll also be trying to create a pictorial version. I’m sure doing that will help us work out what’s really essential.

Download this sample policy to adapt and use: [download id=”240″]

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Resources

A whole bloomin’ class council scheme of work!

This is brilliant: our first resource shared by a teacher and it’s an absolute corker! Chloe Doherty gave us this scheme of work she wrote for her year team last year.  She wanted to get class councils off the ground as she recognised without them the school and year councils didn’t really mean much.

This resource has a series of lesson/session plans and a bundle of resources to go with them. Any resources not included in the download below (such as the Boundaries Cards) can be downloaded from involver.org.uk.

As this is a resource written by a teacher and used in her school, I’ve left it just as she gave it to me, other than putting it all in to one document and adding a contents page.

Print or download (’save’) this resource using the ‘More’ button.

Tutorial Activities Class Council SoW

Chloe wrote this last year when she was Head of Drama at Kingsmead School and a Year 8 form tutor. She’s now Head of Drama at Southgate School.  She’s also my fiancée, so all my banging on about student voice and class councils obviously wore her down as she wrote and ran this without any help from me. She sent it to us through the ‘Upload‘ page and it was honestly the first time I’d seen it! I could get all gooey about how she constantly amazes me, but I’ll spare you that.

Kingsmead
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involver blog Resources

Getting to know your reps game template

This is a template I’ve been working on following up on a resource I produced a couple of weeks ago, Making it fun: getting to know your reps.

Now it’s easy to create your own cards.  Just add in names, pictures and vital statistics.  Make them fun but make sure you check with people first before you write anything about them.

I’ve created the template in Word 2003 (.doc) format.  If this doesn’t work for you let me know and I’ll try to make other formats available.

Click here to download the file: [download id=”74″ format=”3″]

Update – here is a Word 2007 (.docx) version: [download id=”75″ format=”3″]

You can just fill in all the blanks or change the titles too if you want.
You can just fill in all the blanks or change the titles too if you want.

If you do change anything around or make your own, why not upload them here so everyone can see and share:

Upload resources to involver

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Resources

Detailed School Council Action Planning Form

This detailed template will help you ask all the questions you need to when planning a project.

Write the answers on to the sheet as use it as your guide throughout your project.

If you try to run a project without sitting down to plan it first, you’re setting yourself up to fail.

Spend 20 minutes with your team going through this and you’re getting yourself off to a great start.

Created by Asher Jacobsberg at School Councils UK.

Print or download (‘save’) this resource using the ‘More’ button.
Detailed School Council Action Planning Form

School Councils UK Training Please feel free to reproduce this resource with acknowledgement (non-commercial use only). © School Councils UK 2007. MAKING A DIFFERENCE – these sheets will help you plan your project. Don’t lose them! Action Notes Example Write your answers here 1. GETTING STARTED Names of Group Members and date of meeting So you remember who you are working with! Names: Date: The title of your project Reduce, reuse, recycle Name of issue Who does this issue affect? All the people who are affected directly (or indirectly) Pupils, teachers, teaching assistants, admin staff (the whole world) What is our main goal, and why is it important? This is your goal so everyone knows what you are working for We want to reduce the amount of paper that gets thrown away in class by 50% School Councils UK, 3 Floor 108-110 Camden High Street, London NW1 0LU Tel 0845 456 9428 Fax 0845 456 9429 Email info@schoolcouncils.org www.schoolcouncils.org rd School Councils UK Training Please feel free to reproduce this resource with acknowledgement (non-commercial use only). © School Councils UK 2007. Action Notes Example Write your answers here 2. GETTING INFORMED What do you already know about this issue? What information and help do we need? What do you still need to know? This could be factual information or peoples opinions. It could also be funding, or equipment. Who do you need to talk to? What method will you use for finding information? There are lots of How will we get it? different methods. We know roughly how much paper is thrown away in our own classes, but we need to find out exactly how much is thrown away across the school. We need to find out if we can get money for recycling bins. Ask the caretaker if we can weigh the waste paper at the end of each day all of next week. Talk to the bursar and the council about money. Research on the internet how much could be saved by reducing paper use and how much extra bins, etc. would cost. School Councils UK, 3 Floor 108-110 Camden High Street, London NW1 0LU Tel 0845 456 9428 Fax 0845 456 9429 Email info@schoolcouncils.org www.schoolcouncils.org rd School Councils UK Training Please feel free to reproduce this resource with acknowledgement (non-commercial use only). © School Councils UK 2007. Action Notes Example Write your answers here 3. GETTING ORGANISED These are all the things you need to get done to achieve your goal. What needs to happen? • • • • • Any details which will explain how these tasks will get done. These are the action points. If the action points need money, you should include it in this section. • • • • • Research into current use and what we could do instead Agree a plan with the school Get new equipment, write guidance Publicise what is going on and why Get staff and students to follow guidance Weigh current waste Research alternatives Arrange meetings with caretaker and bursar Write guidance Produce posters Action Name (initials) Date How will we get it done? Who will do it? When should it be done by? When are we next meeting? Make sure you have names by all the action points. There could be more than one name for each task. Put a date by each action point so you know when it should be completed. This is important, so you know when you are meeting back together to see how it’s going. You might need to change some of the action points or timeline if new issues arise. School Councils UK, 3 Floor 108-110 Camden High Street, London NW1 0LU Tel 0845 456 9428 Fax 0845 456 9429 Email info@schoolcouncils.org www.schoolcouncils.org rd