Tag: video

Categories
News

What law would you make?

Parliament’s Education Service wants young people to tell Parliament what new law they would make by producing either a 3 minute short film, a 200-500 word script or a 5–10 frame storyboard.

Anyone between the ages of 7 – 16yrs can enter the competition either individually or as part of a group. Prizes will include a cinema voucher, a video camera for the winner’s school, a behind the scenes tour of Parliament with a chance to meet Members and a special showcasing of the winning entries at the British Film Institute!

Last year’s winners proposed laws that would make it compulsory to wear helmets when cycling and that would lower the voting age to 16. You can see their inspiring films at https://www.makewav.es/story/485967/title/lightscameraparliament2013winners

This year’s website has just launched with lots of new tips and resources for young people – and regularly updated inspiration topics and blogs. Entries can be submitted from now until the 14th of February. Find out more by visiting www.makewav.es/lcp and http://www.parliament.uk/education/in-your-school/lights-camera-parliament/

Get creative and get your voice heard!

To receive competition updates, email lcp@parliament.uk

Categories
involver blog

How you can help teach about participatory budgeting

[iframe http://www.kisskissbankbank.com/en/projects/apprendre-a-compter/widget/ 232 330]

As regular readers of our website will know, we think participatory budgeting is a fantastic way to get your whole school involved in pupil voice. Loads of schools do it already through getting the whole school involved in deciding on new playground equipment or how a new building should be fitted out, but coming up with a good structure for it can transform student voice in your school.

This guy wants the chance to help schools across Europe learn about good ways to run participatory budgeting, but he needs your help. He’s asking for small donations (even just a couple of pounds) to fund the making and distribution of this series of interactive videos.

Watch the video he’s made explaining the idea and if you can pledge some money, please do (I have already).

If you can’t see the information about the project to the left, click this link to see the video, read more and pledge: http://www.kisskissbankbank.com/apprendre-a-compter

 

Categories
involver blog

Czech teachers telling us about their school councils

Here’s a few presentations from teachers telling us about their school councils.

NB. Some are in Czech.

Categories
involver blog Newsletters

Newsletter 10: How do you ‘do’ student voice? Here are some of our ideas


And we're back …

… with some new free school council resources

We've had so much going on recently we haven't had much time to send out newsletters, so we've rather stuffed this one with free resources by way of apology.

Resource: Quick tips for running meetings

4 simple ideas for different ways to run class and school council meetings if you're struggling (or just fancy a change):
http://involver.org.uk/?p=2973

Campaign: Hands Up Who's Bored?

With the changes to the curriculum there's a real threat to the one subject that really supports young people's participation, Citizenship. We've been helping lead Democratic Life to campaign to strengthen Citizenship for a while, but there's a new campaign aimed at young people being fronted by Danny Bartlet with Radio 1 DJ (and Rastamouse) Reggie Yates. Have a look:
Main website: http://whosbored.org/
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXgHjFSzbEQ

Resource: What's a school council for?

I created this school council policy for the school I'm a governor of. It places an emphasis on involving the whole school through class councils. Would it work in your school? What's missing? What would you add?
http://involver.org.uk/?p=2842

News: Walking the walk

involver's directors for the day show off their business cards
It was Takeover Day last month and we were really proud to take part and we got loads of great ideas from the four young people who became directors of involver for the day. This is what they thought of the experience:
http://involver.org.uk/?p=3005

Resource: Children's Commissioner's 'How to' guide on student voice

We carried out some research for the Children's Commissioner in to good practice around student voice, this two-page guide for staff is one of the things that came out of it. Have a look:
http://involver.org.uk/?p=2879

Hope to hear from you all soon,

Asher and Greg

Our new book: How to be a SMART school councillor

Our new book

How to be a SMART school councillor

Get a free copy: we've just written this little guide for primary (KS2) school councillors. To thank you for taking an interest in what we do, we'd like to give you a free copy. If you'd like one, email us your address: info@involver.org.uk
Get more than one copy: if you want more you can order them here: http://involver.org.uk/shop/
Greg in Donegal

On our travels

During the (English) half-term we were invited over to Ireland to train teachers and students from County Donegal's primary, post-primary and Youth Reach schools. It went so well that we're going back in March, after a trip to train up the school councils of Prague. We are living the life!
Although he's difficult to make out, that's Greg outside our first training venue, the Donegal Cultural Centre – the day did get sunnier.

Categories
involver blog

Riots, discipline and student voice

I was involved in a short debate on BBC WM’s breakfast show this Monday. I was put up against Nick Seaton from the Campaign for Real Education, who campaigns against progressive education.

Have a listen and see what you think:

As with any interview like this no one gets the time they want to put across all the points they’d like to, but I hope I managed to get across: you don’t change people’s behaviour by repeating the rule, you change behaviour by getting them to understand the reasoning behind it.

The detail of what I was trying to say is best expressed in my post from last week: Old fashioned discipline is not what rioters needed

Categories
Newsletters Resources

Newsletter 9: Weddings, MPs and Smart School Councils

Hello from involver – newsletter number 9

Sorry there was no newsletter last month but we got a bit distracted by Asher’s wedding. We promise it won’t happen again (at least until Greg gets married).

Resource: Get a politician in to your school
This free resource from the Hansard Society shows you how to get the most out of bringing an MP or Peer in to your school. There are also tips for how to get them there in the first place. Order your copy here:
http://www.hansardsociety.org.uk/blogs/citizenship_education/archive/2010/10/28/2779.aspx

Resource: Young people’s governance in schools
A new short guide from Participation Works that looks full of useful information for those involved in running schools. You can buy a copy here:
http://www.participationworks.org.uk/resources/how-to-involve-children-and-young-people-in-school-governance

Video: Challenging educational paradigms through student voice
Project REAL is the way in which this school in Australia is trying to reassess the way they teach and learn. These two videos from the students explain how they’re doing it and why they feel it’s important. Really worth a watch:
http://ihsprojectreal.wordpress.com/

Research: Student voice reading list
We met with ARK last week and they wanted us to persuade them that student voice should be central to the school’s they’re setting up in Uganda. We created this list of research on the subject for them. What have we missed?
http://involver.org.uk/2011/07/student-voice-reading-list/

Community: Smart School Councils help each other out
The Smart School Councils Community is a new charity we’re setting up along with students and teachers from 15 founder schools. It will be free for anyone to join and share good practice on how to involve your whole school in student voice. Watch this space:
http://www.smartschoolcouncils.org.uk

Awards: John Bercow awards best school council projects
Body image, anti-vandalism, LGBT sensitivity, classroom pets and Ecostars projects were selected by the Speaker of the House of Commons (and friends) as the winners of the Speaker’s School Council Awards 2011. We had a great time helping out at the ceremony:
http://involver.org.uk/2011/07/a-fun-day-at-the-speakers-school-council-awards/

And now we’re off to help judge Haringey Junior Citizens Debate, which should be great fun,

Greg and Asher

http://twitter.com/doingdemocracy
http://facebook.com/involver.org.uk