Pupil participation @ Harlaw Academy Purposes meaningful voice in school improvements pupil involvement in school self-evaluation consult, inform and/or involve pupils in decisions promote participation and have issues addressed autonomy and budget to take and implement decisions pupil role in school governance alongside staff, parents, staff and community recognising and realising rights 1

Pupil participation @ Harlaw Academy Links to UNCRC: Article 12 – the right to have a say in matters affecting them and have their views taken seriously Article 13 – the right to seek and receive information Article 15 – the right to join groups Article 29 – the right to an education which develops their talents to the full Article 42 – the requirement to make the convention known to all children and adults 2

Pupil participation @ Harlaw Academy Structure: Every pupil is a member of the pupil forum Ideas hub, google group and/or pupil representative. Each form class has an elected pupil representative Pupil representatives meet in their 5 house groups – our house of representative meetings Each house of representative group has a house captain who serves on the pupil senate. All S4-S6 can serve as a prefect and in S6 they can apply for a head prefect post (up to 4 posts). House Captains and Head Prefects form the pupil senate. The senate link with other school governance groups and have responsibility for their devolved budget. 3

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Pupil participation @ Harlaw Academy Organisation Stage 1: Ideas prompted Stage 2: Meeting of the ‘house of representatives’ and pupil senate Stage 3: Initial feedback of decisions (see below) Stage 4: Feedback updated and focus for next cycle House of representatives and the senate can decide to: ‘reject’ (giving reason for the rejection) ‘defer’ (for further detail) ‘approve’ (with information on implementation) ‘escalate’ (pass on for further consideration/approval) 5

Pupil participation @ Harlaw Academy Pathways to participation Communication/interaction - all the pupil forum can participate through class discussion, google groups and/or the pupil ‘ideas hub’ Improvement/autonomy – discussions linked to our agreed school improvement priorities. Pupil senate allocate topics to a house/class or convene pupil focus groups discuss a topic and report back. At each level pupils are empowered to take decisions Leadership/partnership – The senate attend Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and Parent Council meetings. Harlaw also has a ‘governance group’ (of pupils, parents, staff and community reps) which meets twice a session to monitor and support school improvement 6