Although the school council is doing a lot people don’t know about it.
The suggestion
Whenever the school council does anything make a plaque and stick it up in a relevant place – or as relevant a place as you can find. You want to have the school covered in them.
Plaques could just be laminated card, but the better they look the more important the school council will be seen to be.
The outcome
People are always reminded of the ability of the school council to make change; therefore they are more likely to involve the school council when they want to change something.
It becomes obvious where the school council has not managed to have an impact yet.
Additional ideas
You could develop a logo for the school council to put on these plaques and to help identify the school council.
This is just one way of promoting the school council. The most important thing is to have a strong, regular structure of class meetings and feedback so everyone in the school knows how they are involved in making changes in the school.
The previous two ideas have suggested a couple of ways to improve how meetings are chaired and broaden the scope of issues that meetings cover. But how do you involve the youngest children in your school? Sitting them in a meeting, no matter how well run, can be difficult. Here’s a way to get them involved and learning how to participate.
The issue
Including Reception and KS1 (children aged 4-7) in school council meetings is difficult for them and everyone else.
The suggestion
Rather than having children of this age in meetings ask teachers in their classes to set aside 15-20 minutes per week when members of the school council can come and ask them a question. This is how it would then work:
School council decides on one question to ask Reception and KS1 on an issue that directly involves them. This same question will be asked to all Reception and KS1 classes.
Just before the allotted time Reception and KS1 teachers should organise their classes into groups of 3-5.
Two members of the school council go to each Reception and KS1 class to introduce the question and record responses. This is what they should do in each class:
Introduce themselves. (30 seconds)
Remind the class what question they were asked last time. (1 min)
Explain what has happened as a result of their views from last week. (2 mins)
Explain this week’s question. (1 min)
Get all groups to discuss the question and come up with an answer they all agree on. (5 mins)
Get one person from each group to stand up and explain the decision they came to. (5 mins)
This should be written down or recorded by the school council reps – the easiest way to do this is by video camera or voice recorder.
Thank the class and explain when they will be back. (30 seconds)
The school council reps go over the views of class and summarise them in a couple of sentences.
These summarised views are reported back to the school council to form the basis of their decision, or to feed in to it.
The outcome
Young children have the opportunity to genuinely input in to decisions that affect them.
They start to practice skills of: expressing opinions, compromise, taking turns, reporting back and chairing.
Additional ideas
You could create a more direct democratic structure by asking everyone to vote after their little discussions, and recording these votes and aggregating them across the school.
It is very helpful for the school council reps to have a script to follow. This gives them confidence and ensures that each class is being treated uniformly.
You can also start introducing the concept of a chair person, whose job it is to make sure everyone gets a chance to speak.
Try to make sure that a different person from each small group feeds back each week so all have a chance to practice this. The same should be done with chairing. This can be achieved by having children in the same small groups each week. Within each group people should be numbered. In week 1, all the 1s report back, in week 2, the 2s report back, and so on.
The last little idea I posted was about how to improve chairing of meetings. This one will help to ensure that your meetings cover the range of things they need to.
The issue
Meetings get stuck on a certain issue or type of issue, which results in one or more of the following problems:
The work of the council only deals with one area (e.g. fundraising events) rather than addressing the whole of school life.
The council spends all its time on projects so provides no forum for raising issues.
The council spends all its time raising issues, so takes no action.
The council only discusses issues suggested by the headteacher and doesn’t have time to deal with its own ideas.
The suggestion
Split your meeting in to sections that will remain the same every meeting. Examples:
Issues to be passed on (no discussion needed), Issues that may need discussion, Project updates.
Quick win issues and projects, Longer-term issues and projects
Issues from headteacher, Issues from classes
Allocate an amount of time you will spend on each section. This doesn’t need to be an equal spilt, it should reflect the importance and complexity of each issue.
When drawing up the agenda things need to fit in to one of these sections.
When people are proposing items for the agenda they need to say which section they feel their issue fits under.
This should be done transparently so that people can see why there isn’t time for their item on the agenda.
The outcome
More projects on the go at any one time.
Meetings that have scope for teacher-led consultation, student-identified issues and student-led projects.
Additional ideas
If you are facing more than one of the issues above, you can split each section in to sub-sections, for example by having ‘New issues’ and ‘Project updates’ under each of the project type headings (‘Fundraising & Events’, etc.).
Using the project type headings you could split your council into sub-committees so you have named people working on a variety of issues.
Evaluate regularly: is the split you’ve decided upon creating the mix of discussion you were aiming for? If not propose how it might be changed.
Sample agenda
This is how an agenda drawn up in this way might look
Item
Person
Time
1. Apologies
Secretary
1 min
2. Approval of last minutes
Chair
1 min
3. New issues from classes (max 20 min)
3A. Ensuring homework is returned on time
Jeremy
5 mins
3B. Making water fountains accessible
Asha
5 mins
3C. Late, urgent issues
Chair
4. Project updates (max 20 mins)
4A. Learning survey
Orla
5 mins
4B. Creating a new travel plan
Danny
5 mins
4C. End of term party
Sandra
10 mins
5. Any other urgent project updates
Chair
6. Date of next meeting
Secretary
1 min
You may not always have enough to discuss to fill the maximum time in each section, that’s fine. Don’t allocate the time to other things, finish the meeting early. You decided on the split for a reason based on importance. It should slowly encourage people in to bringing up the kinds of issues that are important.
When we were running training for teachers in the Czech Republic in May I suggested a number of simple ideas that our hosts asked me to write up. It’s taken me a while, but this is the first of them. We’ll be posting the rest over the coming days.
The issue
Students don’t have the skills to run meetings themselves.
The suggestion
Finish all your meetings 2 minutes early.
In this time ask one question to all of the participants:
What did the chairperson do well?
Write all the answers on a large piece of paper.
Put this up where the chairperson can see it at every meeting.
At the end of each meeting ask the question again and add new responses.
The outcome
You have a growing list of tips for chairpeople, so more people feel confident to chair meetings.
Reflecting on what made the meeting go well ensures that the meeting is a learning experience.
Additional ideas
Once you feel you have a good list about chairing you could change the question and start coming up with new lists of tips:
What did the adults in our meeting do well?
What did we do well to solve problems?
What did people do well to represent their classes?
I’ve just got back from a fantastic couple of days in Warsaw presenting at an event hosted by Fundacja Civis Polonus. I wanted to quickly note down a few things that came up whilst I was there.
As with our experiences in the Czech Repulbic and Ireland, I found that many of the issues are similar to those we face in the UK and there are things we can learn from how they are dealing with them.
The law
In England, Scotland and Northern Ireland there is no requirement to have a school council, although there is a lot of guidance that pushes schools towards them. Wales does require schools to have a school council but the way their law is framed is quite different to the approach Poland has taken.
In Poland since the fall of Communism schools have been required to have a school council. Their law also specifies which areas of school life the school council should be involved in and that all students need to be involved. This sounds great to me and much more useful than a law that specifies structures (numbers of meetings, electoral processes, etc.) but not areas of influence.
Despite this, the issues are around the law not being enforced, or at least the important aspects of it are not. Whilst just about every school has a school council they are not widely involved in school life and they involve very few people. The consensus amongst those at the event was that they tended to focus on just raising money for charity and organising parties. One of the other presenters, Michal from Centrum Edukacji Obywatelskiej (CEO), showed research that suggested that over 40% of students hadn’t even voted in a school council election, let alone been more deeply involved.
So the law in itself isn’t enough, there needs to be support for students and schools to understand what they could and should be doing and help them to do it. That’s the aim of Funacja Civis Polonus, CEO and their partners. We’ll be doing what we can to support them and also to learn what we can from them to support schools in the UK.
The bright coloured text apparently means 'Small Government' Michael Gove would be proud.
Ideas from a Warsaw school council co-ordinator
On Tuesday I visited a primary school in the suburbs of Warsaw (which has students up to the age of about 14) and met with the school council co-ordinator who explained how their school council works. There was lots of good stuff happening but three things jumped out at me as possibly of interest to UK schools:
There is a teacher with responsibility for children’s rights. This is an advocate for the children in the school. It seems to me that it might be good to have a governor with this responsibility.
The school council co-ordinator is elected by students. Teachers who are willing nominate themselves and commit to the job. I imagine they may have to produce a manifesto and/or campaign. Students then elect the person they think will support them best. I wonder how this would work in UK schools? Would it raise the profile of student voice amongst staff and students?
The school council are allowed to use the Tannoy to keep people up to date with what they are doing and to remind the student body of what they need to discuss or do to support student voice. I don’t know how many schools have public address systems like this, but where they exist it could be a useful tool.
“It’s their [the pupils’] school, not my school. Adults need to work in partnership with children.”
Headteacher
Key benefits:
Raised profile of and pride in the school.
The school is now leading and assisting others to improve their practice.
Virtually eliminated vandalism.
Greatly improved behaviour and relationships between students, students and teachers and students and parents. Everyone takes responsibility for their own behaviour.
Reduced absenteeism.
Creates confident learners who have constructive relationships with each other.
Improved attainment (SATs scores).
Top advice
Create a culture of equal respect, rights and responsibilities. Everything flows from this. It allows staff and students to see themselves as part of a community with shared values and goals.
Examine your core purpose. Realise that school is about getting every child to develop as a person, not SATs or pleasing Ofsted. The headteacher’s role is to act as a ‘gatekeeper’ to ensure staff and students are free to get on with those things that address the core purpose.
Involve all students in evaluating and writing your school development plan (SDP). Create something everyone can understand, make it very public and ensure everyone refers back to it throughout the year.
Methods used:
Rights Respecting Schools Award
When the current headteacher took over the school had been without a permanent headteacher for 5 years, morale was low and the school was not well thought of in the area. The new headteacher started conversations with all staff about what they saw as the core purpose of the school. Together the staff and pupils started to take ownership of the school and refocus it. A governor discovered the Rights Respecting Schools Award scheme and saw that it fitted in well with the direction the school was moving in. It has since become central to everything the school does. The linking of rights and responsibilities has improved relationships across the school and externally.
Some parents initially expressed reservations as they felt that children “already know their rights”, but as the firm link between rights and responsibilities has been learned parents see how they can use this with their children. They have found this to be empowering and it has meant that where previously there may have been conflict now conversations can take place. An example given by the headteacher was of parents and children discussing parents’ responsibility to ensure children get enough sleep so that they can take advantage of their right to education. Without the language of rights and responsibilities this may have been a shouting match.
The headteacher has become an evangelist for Rights Respecting Schools because of the impact she has seen it have on her school and pupils. It does not just deal with rules, behaviour and relationships, but feeds in to every aspect of the school day. Lessons, environmental issues and food are all spoken about in the framework of rights and responsibilities.
The culture of listening and discussion has built great self-confidence in the pupils as well as giving them an understanding of their role in the school community. Pupils who moved up to the secondary school were reporting that, “secondary school treats us like babies; they do not let us make any decisions.” So the headteacher from the local high school visited St James’ and was so impressed with the understanding and maturity demonstrated in the discussions the pupils were having that the schools are now working together to improve involvement of students at the secondary school.
“If children are respecting adults, then adults should respect the children. It has to work both ways.”
Year 6 pupil
School principles, not rules
With the new found self-confidence of the pupils, a challenge was laid down to the new headteacher by one of the Year 5 pupils who was often getting in to trouble:
Year 5 pupil: “I want to talk to you about school, and you. You keep telling us that school’s about real life, well you’re wrong it’s not. And school rules, they’re rubbish. Rules aren’t about real life, rules are about control. And the reason we have rules in school are not to do with real life they’re to do with adults controlling children. And rules are nothing to do with real life, they’re place-specific (this is the phrase she used). When was the last time you went to Morrison’s and put your hand up at the deli counter to get some cheese? You don’t, do you? You wait your turn and you ask nicely.”
Headteacher: “But if you don’t have rules it’s called anarchy.”
Year 5 pupil: “No, you’re not listening to me. What I’m saying is, it shouldn’t be about control and it shouldn’t be place-specific, it should be about responsibility that people accept. So what we need are principles that go underneath everything we do and then it won’t matter who we are or where we are. And I’ve thought it through, we need three:
Be respectful,
be responsible and
be ready to learn.
If we do that it sums everything up. If we respect ourselves, other people and our world and we’re responsible for everything we think, say and do; we take responsibility for our actions towards other people and we take responsibility for our actions in the world and if we’re ready to learn here and now and there and then it won’t matter whether there are rules or not, because everybody would get on. So they should be our principles, Miss.”
This idea was taken to the school council and then to the governors and has become school policy. It has meant that people are responsible for the own behaviour and think about how their behaviour impacts on others, rather than just whether their behaviour will get them in to trouble. It means that there is one set of principles for the whole-school, not rules for teachers and rules for pupils.
Two tier council structure: school council and committees
Each class elects six representatives, two to each of three committees:
Eco-schools
Healthy Schools
Rights Respecting
Each of these has specific areas of responsibility that they discuss with their class in class meetings and then meet together to work on. Members of these committees then stand to be on the school council. This means that all the pupil-led work of the school can be co-ordinated by the school council but more people are involved in carrying it out.
After pupils are elected they are trained to run their committees, and they then do so with no staff support, so the projects and voices coming through are not tempered by staff. The school council meets every Friday and then meets with the governors every half-term to get their support for what the pupils are doing.
Student involvement with the school development plan (SDP)
As with any school, the SDP lays out what the school is aiming to achieve over the next year or more. The difference at St James’ is that rather than being a document referred to (rarely) only by the governors and the senior managers, the SDP has pride of place on its own noticeboard in the school’s entrance. The whole SDP is only two pages long and is written in language that everyone in the school can understand. It is surrounded by the evaluation of last year’s plan in the form of pictures and quotations from pupils, staff and parents.
The SDP is evaluated and written on a yearly cycle. After a new school council has been elected they consult with the whole-school on how well they feel all the targets set out in the previous year’s SDP have been met. They also ask every class, “what do the grown-ups in the school need to do to make you better learners?” The results of these consultations are brought together with the views of staff, governors and parents to form the new SDP. Everything the school does then flows from this plan, and it is there to be referred to by anyone involved with the school.
About the school:
St James is a school of average size serving the village of Wardle. It is situated in an area of some social disadvantage. The proportion of pupils entitled to free school meals is above average.
Almost all pupils are of White British backgrounds and none are learning English as an additional language. The proportion of pupils with learning difficulties and/or disabilities is average although the percentage with a statement of special educational need is above average. The school holds the Activemark and Healthy Schools awards and the United Nations Rights Respecting School award.
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
