The Smart School Council Proposal

The Smart School Council Involves ALL pupils in developing skills Directly addresses Ofsted requirements on British Values/SMSC & Prevent Tracks data on involvement Is easier to run than the current school council Is different to a traditional school council.

Three clear elements Class meetings: Short, regular, structured and pupil-led meetings in every class across the school. Action teams: Any pupil can set up an action team based on an idea or issue that they have. Communication team: Brings the whole model together, facilitates wide involvement and tracks it.

What impact does it have? More pupils are involved: It increases the average percentage of all pupils directly involved in developing skills and learning as part of their school council Encourages quieter pupils to get involved:

SMSC/British Values All schools must show how well their pupils develop in SMSC (spiritual, moral, social and cultural). ‘All schools must promote the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils and, within this, ‘fundamental British values’. Schools should … encourage respect for democracy and support for participation in the democratic processes, including respect for basis on which the law is made and applied in England’ The Smart School Council model enables all pupils to become involved in democracy, helping them to participate and understand democracy first hand.

Prevent Duty The Department for Education’s Prevent Duty (June 2015) states The Government’s Prevent Duty guidance recommends building pupils’ resilience to radicalisation by…. Providing a safe environment for debating controversial issues. Helping them to understand how they can participate in decision-making. The Smart School Councils model will involve ALL of pupils in regular and meaningful decision making. It’s an inclusive system that gives the structure for pupils to discuss the issues that are important to them, and be involved in decision-making.

Class Council Meetings They involve everyone. They are short, regular and have an identical format each time. This is based around a question of the week. They’re pupil-led, and everyone should get the chance to lead one. They’re not about action Voting is based on focused discussions in small groups and NOT individual votes. Pupils are supported to run them using the Class Meeting Tool on the Interactive White Board. Once pupils are used to the format, staff shouldn’t have to do anything.

5. It’s important that a different pupil leads 5. It’s important that a different pupil leads and takes notes each meeting. In that way, more pupils have the opportunity to develop skills. 6. People have a chance to raise other issues and ideas that they need help with. 7. Once the format and structure becomes familiar, each class should be aiming to involve quieter, less- confident pupils in taking on these roles. 8. For all pupils to be involved meetings should take place weekly and last 15 minutes (first one may take longer to allow pupils to familiarise themselves with the structure).

What happens after the class meeting? After each meeting, the Communications Team – will receive results from across the whole school. They will: Analyse the results and see which option is the most popular. Look at what action should be taken – is it setting up an action team? Is there an action team already who could lead on the action? Is it a quick decision that doesn’t involve an action team? Check up on any classes who haven’t done their class meeting – the Class Meeting Tool will show this so they can easily identify these classes.

What are Action Teams? Action Teams are activities, clubs, events or projects that are run by pupils. They don’t have to be major projects, but can also be smaller activities that are done in the playground or in a supervised area. Any pupil can set up an Action Team. To set up an Action Team, the pupil has to propose key information and supporters to get it agreed. Action Teams are pupil-led by supported by a staff sponsor.

Action Teams cont… Any pupil can join an Action Team, though it is a good idea to limit the number of Action Teams that they can join. Action Teams are given time at lunchtime to work on their projects. Action Teams could be permanent or temporary. Action Teams should be able to succeed and fail. Action Teams are led by Action Team Leaders Actions and attendance at Action Teams should be recorded to analyse involvement

The Communications Team They are a small group of pupils who facilitate the Smart School Councils Model They can be picked in one of three ways: lottery, election or application. The don’t act like a traditional school council. Their job involves three clear areas; managing the system so that it is pupil-led and working well, encouraging as many pupils to get involved and tracking progress. Within these three areas, they will have a variety of roles based on their skills and interests.

Small group of students A typical Communications Team might include 10-20 students. The Communication Team will help to set up the Class Meeting Tool and question of the week., encourage all the classes to do it, and follow up with any that didn’t and analyse the results and track how many pupils/classes were involved. They will also encourage as many pupils to get involved as possible through Action Teams. Ideally these will be pupils who are great communicators with their peers and have the confidence to stand up and update a whole year group/school on progress. They should also have a good grasp of IT.