Tag: tips & tricks

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Free school council networking in London

Very often there’s just one member of staff in each school with responsibility for student voice and the school council (ideally it should be part of everyone’s role) so it can feel like you’re a bit unsupported. We’d like to set up some regular free events around London to get school council co-ordinators together to share ideas, resources (and tales of woe).

It’ll be something informal, Teachmeet-style, where we’d like to hear from anyone who is doing anything interesting in their school, or who is facing a particular challenge. We’ll be on hand to offer a school council surgery and we’ll see how it develops.

If you think you might be interested, fill out the form below:

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involver blog Resources

Ways to run school council meetings

These are a few ideas for how you can run discussions in your school or class council meetings. In fact you could use them in any meeting really.

Method Good for Be aware of
Yes/No/Maybe – designate a different area of the room for each answer. Ask the question and get people to stand in the area that represents their answer. Ask people to explain their reasoning and persuade others.

A more sophisticated version is an ‘opinion line’ where participants place themselves along a line to show how strongly they agree/disagree with something.

A further level of sophistication is to make a graph with 2 axes (e.g. difficulty vs importance or agree vs care).

 Getting people out of their seats.

Pushing people to explain their reasoning.

Getting different people talking.

Being a physical demonstration of changing opinion and persuasion.

 Peer pressure: people not wanting to stand on their own. You can often avoid this by starting with trivial questions and supporting and praising those who do stand on their own.
Passing the ‘conch’ – an object is passed around and only the person with that object can speak.

Different rules can be applied: e.g. when you have the ‘conch’ you have to speak; the ‘conch’ has to be passed round the circle; the ‘conch’ can be passed to anyone you like; the conch only goes to those demonstrating good listening.

 Stopping interrupting: it gives a very clear signal of who is supposed to be speaking.

Can help quieter people to speak, because they know they won’t be interrupted and/or they are required to.

 The ‘conch’ becoming a distraction.

Meetings becoming slow if there is no Chair to pass the ‘conch’ on.
Small groups – set the question and then split the class in to small groups (3-6). Ask them to discuss it and come up with one answer that they can all agree on. Have one person from each group give their group’s answer and reasoning. Allows everyone to have a say without taking too long.

Encourages compromise within the small group.

 One person dominating a small group.

If all the small groups come up with different answers coming to a conclusion may need further discussions.
Losing your marbles – give each person 3 marbles. When someone speaks they have to hand over a marble, so once they’ve contributed three times they need to stay quiet. You can also turn this round and say by the end of the meeting everyone needs to have lost all of their marbles. Making sure the meeting isn’t dominated by a few people.

Encouraging people to consider what is really important for them to contribute to.

Keeping track of who contributes and who doesn’t.

 Having everyone run out of marbles before the end – you need to make sure everyone knows what is coming up, so they can plan when to use a marble.

What methods do you use to liven up your meetings and ensure that everyone gets a say?

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Out of the toilet and in to the classroom

Working with primary school councils in Oldham and Haringey over the last two days I ran in to the same issue that so many schools and their councils struggle with: can we get beyond talking about the toilets?

The simple suggestion I gave to them is to split their School Council in to Action Teams. This ensures that their school councils look beyond the physical and start to deal with all the things that are going on in their schools. We find these Action Teams cover most aspects of what goes on in school:

Learning

 Learning
  • Helping everyone to enjoy learning
  • Trips
  • Bringing people in to the school
  • What happens in class

Relationships

 Relationships
  • Helping people have fun
  • Stopping bullying
  • Making school friendly

Fundraising & Events

 Fundraising
  • Finding out what needs money
  • Making money
  • Putting on competitions, shows and special days

Environment

 Environment
  • Saving energy
  • Recycling
  • Making sure the school looks good
  • Getting fun equipment

Communication

 Communication
  • Letting people know what’s going on
  • Getting ideas
  • Assemblies
  • Website
  • Noticeboard

If you just want to have four Action Teams you could miss out Communication, but then you need to make sure all other groups share responsibility for this and report back on their communication each time.

So all items brought up from class council meetings, suggestion boxes, from the school council blog, etc. get allocated to the most appropriate Action Team by the Chair and Secretary (with support from the Link Teacher if they need it). The Action Teams then need to meet to discuss those issues and figure out which ones they can take action on (if nothing has been suggested for an Action Team, they need to seek something out). These actions are then what is taken to the full School Council meeting for ratification. You could fit in this extra meeting by replacing every other School Council meeting with Action Team meetings or by having the Action Team meetings for the first third or half of the time allocated for the School Council meeting.

The school council meeting becomes a way to co-ordinate all the pupil-led activities and to check that no actions will adversely affect any pupils. So it has a standing agenda of:

Item Person Time
1 Apologies (from people who can’t make the meeting) Secretary 1 min
2 Check last meeting’s minutes (to make sure they’re correct) Chair 2 mins
3 Learning Action Team

  • Report on actions from last time (matters arising)
  • What we are going to do this time (for agreement)
 LAT Chair 5 mins
4 Relationships Action Team

  • Report on actions from last time (matters arising)
  • What we are going to do this time (for agreement)
 RAT Chair 5 mins
5 Fundraising and Events Action Team

  • Report on actions from last time (matters arising)
  • What we are going to do this time (for agreement)
 FaEAT Chair 5 mins
6 Environment Action Team

  • Report on actions from last time (matters arising)
  • What we are going to do this time (for agreement)
 EAT Chair 5 mins
7 Communication Action Team

  • Report on actions from last time (matters arising)
  • What we are going to do this time (for agreement)
 CAT Chair 5 mins
8 Any other business (A.O.B.) Chair 2 mins
9 Date of next meeting Secretary 1 min

This way the meetings should be focussed on action, should discuss more than just what colour to paint the toilets and be quicker – as the reports are not for in-depth discussion, just for ratification.

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School council interview questions

Feet of a student and a teacher in an interview
Photo by http://www.sxc.hu/profile/maiapedro

If you’re a teacher who’s about to be interviewed for a new job by a school council or other group of students it can be daunting to prepare for. Below is a list of questions that school councils we’ve worked with have asked and some general advice.

Questions the school council might ask you

  • What activities should we have in our school and why?
  • How would you make our school better?
  • What would you do if there was a pupil who is angry with his/her friend?
  • How do you help children have fun?
  • What would someone have to do to get sent home?
  • What does bravery mean to you?
  • Why do you like teaching?
  • What did you enjoy most when you were at school?
  • What’s the best lesson you ever taught?
  • If you weren’t a teacher, what would you be doing?
  • Who do you most admire?
  • How would describe your teaching style?
  • What’s your favourite subject (other than the one you teach)?
  • What do you think about homework?

What the school council might be looking for

A teacher who:

  • Is fair (particularly in terms of being even-handed)
  • Runs a classroom in such a way that everyone can learn
  • Is enthusiastic about her/his subject/teaching
  • Likes young people
  • Will challenge them
  • Will challenge bullying
  • Has a sense of humour
  • Is a problem-solver
  • Is an expert
  • Is a professional
  • Is caring
  • Is ‘strict in a polite way’ (i.e. doesn’t scream and shout to create discipline)
  • Is fun (i.e. likes to have fun and help others have fun)
  • Can make learning fun
  • Acts the same with pupils and teachers

General advice for interviews with a school council

  • Talk to the students – If there’s an adult in the room (there should be) remember that she/he is just there to support the students, your interview is with the students, so direct your answers to them.
  • Ask them questions – ‘Does that happen in your school?’; ‘What do you think needs changing?’. This shows that you would listen to them if you came to the school. It’s also a great way for you to find out more about the school. You can even use their answers in your interview with the adult interview panel: ‘When I was talking to your school council, they said that …, which I would try to address by …’
  • Use concrete examples – ‘In my current school …’; ‘When I was at school …, so now I …’
  • Relax – Difficult in an interview, but you’re in front of young people all the time, right? The students might not be as understanding of your tension as adults, never having been in a job interview, but remember these students just offer a recommendation to the full interview panel, they don’t make the decision.
  • Be yourself – The school council will be frustrated if they think you’re trying to spin them a line. They want to respect you and get on with you: none of you will be able to tell if that can happen if you’re not being yourself. If you do get on with them then great, if not, maybe it’s not the school you want to be at anyway.
  • Be honest – This will be respected far more than you making something up on the spot.
  • Take time to think – Just as in any interview, they’re looking for a considered answer, not a quick one. As students they appreciate time to think about their answers: if you show that you understand that and sympathise, they’ll warm to you.

If you want advice on how to set up school council interviews, have a look here: Pupil interview panels – getting it right

What questions have you asked or been asked in interviews with a school council or other students? Do you have any tips for people facing a school council interview panel?

Add them in the comments and I’ll update the list above.

 

Find more great school council resources at the Smart School Councils Community.

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involver blog Resources

Pupil voice, creativity and learning detectives

A couple of great pupil voice resources found their way in to my inbox yesterday (thanks to Google Alerts) that I think are really worth sharing.

The first is from the amazing Wroxham School (@wroxhamschool). It outlines some of the ways Wroxham has been using pupil voice to enhance creativity in their curriculum.
If you haven’t used Prezi before, just click the play button to move from ‘slide’ to ‘slide’:

Whole Education – Creativity and Pupil Voice on Prezi

I really wish there was a way I could remove that last image.

I visited Wroxham School as part of our research for the Office of the Children’s Commissioner and they really do do some inspiring stuff.

The next resource is a write-up from a Archbishop Benson CE VA Primary School in Cornwall of how they set up a ‘Learning Detectives’ scheme to give pupils more control of their learning. I really love the way they’ve matched up the animals with different aspects of being a good learner.

[gview file=”http://www.campaign-for-learning.org.uk/cfl/assets/documents/CaseStudies/Archbishop_Benson2%5B1%5D.pdf”]

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involver blog Newsletters

Newsletter 8: Planning projects, factory schools and student voice good practice

Hello from involver – newsletter number 8

We hope all your chocolate eggs haven’t melted in the sunshine.

Resource: Setting targets and planning a project

These free downloads are something we created for Parliament’s Education Service (PES) to help schools prepare for entering the Speaker’s School Council Award. It’s the second in a series of four sessions to help school councils run projects. The download is in three parts, one at the bottom of this page and the next two on page two:
http://speakersschoolcouncil.org/resources

Video: MPs’ and school councillors’ tips on project planning

We’ve also made these six videos for PES to help schools think about why school councils are important and how to plan and run projects. There are loads of great tips and inspiration for any school council or action team. Watch them all here:
http://involver.org.uk/2011/04/project-planning-and-evaluation-videos-for-school-councils/

Competition: Winner of free half-day of training

Welcome to all our new subscribers who signed up over the last couple of months. The winner of the half-day training is Morgan from Warwickshire, congratulations to them and commiserations to everyone else. Here’s what you could have won:
http://involver.org.uk/school-council-training-and-student-voice-support/

Article: How running your school like a factory can make it more creative

A lot has been said about how schools are too much like factories to be effective, but one school we’ve come across recently is using the ideas of industrialist, W. Edwards Deming to make their school more responsive to student voice. Here are our thoughts:
http://involver.org.uk/2011/04/how-running-a-school-like-a-factory-can-improve-student-voice/

Research: Student voice good practice

We came across the school above as part of the mad rush around the country we’ve been on over the last month to complete research for the Office of the Children’s Commissioner (OCC) in to good practice in student voice. We’ve seen some exciting and inspiring stuff, and it’s all written up now. We’ll be sure to share it with you as soon as the OCC publish it. See more of the OCC’s work:
http://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/

News: School council chair runs AV debate

Soon Britain will be deciding on whether it wants a new voting system. We think this is a great opportunity for schools to look at how democracy works in their school. This school council has taken up this challenge and is hosting a debate between two local MPs on the Alternative Vote (AV) vs First Past the Post (FPTP):
http://www.getwokingham.co.uk/news/s/2091605_av_debate_at_ranelagh_school
Resources on AV/FPTP to use in your school: http://www.ycsay.co.uk/freeresources.html

Resource: Pilot the Student voice-o-meter

We’ve created a new online tool to help students research student voice in their school, understand who it’s working for and who it’s not. We’re looking for a few schools to pilot it. Let us know if you’re interested by emailing info@involver.org.uk. Find out more here:
http://www.studentvoiceometer.org.uk

Campaign: Every1counts participatory budgeting in schools

We believe that if schools really value student voice they need to involve students in  how the school spends its money, so we’ve teamed up with the Participatory Budgeting Unit and the Citizenship Foundation to support schools to involve the whole school in this process. We are currently seeking funding from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation to enable us to create training and resources. Find out more and sign-up to be considered for the pilot:
http://www.every1counts.org.uk

Hope you have fun over the extra long weekend!

Greg and Asher

P.S. Greg was very keen for us to put in an egg-related joke. I hope you’ll agree that I showed eggscelent taste in resisting the temptation to do so.

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