Borders College Students’ Association Developments in the Class Rep System Good Afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen welcome Borders Students Association presentation on our Developments in the Class Rep System. Firstly I would like to introduce myself, my name is David I am the Vice Student President for Education at Borders College. When I first attended Borders College it was only 3 years ago in an access course for people with acquired brain injuries where I was the class rep that’s how I started out with BCSA. From there I came back to study business, in that year an all student email came round looking for nominations for a Student Rep to the Board of Management. I put my name forward for this and got the role and this is something I really enjoy. This year I stood to be elected as vice president for education a role that was created by our current president and also means I get to sit on the board. In this role I get to work with the Lead Reps, Class Reps and College Management in this new Student Experience Model on how we the students can influence across the college. David Elder Student Vice - President (Education)

Summary of Presentation Reasons we made the change. How we made the change. How the system works. Impact of the change.

Reasons we made the change Faculty Councils: Declining attendance throughout the year. Declining staff engagement. No oversight of feedback brought to meetings. Attended 24 Faculty Council meetings per year. The faculty system was the system used to collect feedback on the student experience prior to the development of the current modle A faculty council is where each department of the college i.e Business, Art, Construction or Sport all held meetings per there area to identity issues within classes. Class rep within that area attended these meeting with the head of the faculty and BCSA to try and resolute these issues. We were seeing less students attending faculty council meetings as the year went on Staff were not attending the meetings as required so students were not seeing the change through the system Issues that were coming to meetings could have been dealt with before hand if we hand insight of the information first We were having to arrange 24 meetings per year and due to declining student attendance it was being to become apparent a change was needed

Reasons we made the change Increase student engagement with the process. Capturing relevant information. Increase responsibility of class reps. Aligning the system to HGIOC. Lead Reps working with us BCSA to put reports together for the SEC that go to the meeting and are sent to the AP and CLM of their portfolio area. We get a view of all feedback coming from all class reps and can sort out minor issues with CLM’s before they even need to go to the meeting With the training all class reps received they are able to hold in class meetings in such a manor they should be able to sort out simple problems themselves in their own class We wanted to also align the system with HGIOC so all the feedback was relevant to that and can be passed on further through the college.

Reasons we made the change Making efficiencies in the system. Accessible for all Access to Education students. Changing needs of the organisation due to middle management restructure. Increase staff engagement with the process. Now we only have 3 per meeting a year instead of the 24 I myself attend all the access department class meetings, for me they deserve as much of a voice across the college as a 2nd year HND business student does. With the reshuffle in our middle management announced in early 2018 we felt the need that it was necessary meet the changes of the organisation also With these changes we wanted to work with more of the middle management of the college and this was a perfect opportunity to do so.

What is the System Class Reps – Responsible for feeding back information from within their own class to BCSA Lead Reps - Collate feedback and produce departmental reports, supported by BCSA staff and officers Class Rep Conferences - Scheduled before each Student Experience Committee (SEC) - Opportunity for class reps to chat about their role/challenges Student Experience Committees - 3 per year - Attended by SLT - Learning and Teaching themes discussed - Chaired by Student President/Student Officers Before we go into the in’s and out’s of the system I want to give you some key terms of the system we use so you know what I am talking about

SLT Proposal (approved!) Co-designed with Assistant Principals Pitch to Principal SLT Proposal (approved!) Co-designed with Assistant Principals Worked with IT to design Moodle feedback tool Training delivered to Curriculum Learning Managers The initial raw idea with justifications was presented to our principal in the first instance We then put together a full proposal on how the system would work and what we aim to get out it to the Senior Leadership Team which was approved first time around Once we got approval we worked with the AP’s to design a timeline for implementation that worked around the need of the curriculum. The way the information is received from class reps was then designed along with IT so it can all be done on our VLE Tool Moodle BCSA attended a CPD afternoon with the CLM’s so they understood what their role would be in terms of engaging with lead and class reps in the system

How we made the change Lead Reps appointed via staff nomination Class Reps appointed Class Reps submit feedback via Moodle - VP Education provides support for Access reps to complete feedback Leads reps were identified by CLM or their course tutor to identify strong well spoken students Class reps appointed via in class nominations All classes have meeting with out tutors and answer set questions, the information is then automatically sent back to BCSA ready for the Lead rep to compile reports of the most relevant information that requires to be fed back Before every SEC we hold a class rep conference, this gives class reps a chance to come along and ask about things they are not sure about whether it be situations in class or things that are not covered in the questions on the SEC questionaire.

How the system works Themes of Question Asked Curriculum Learning and Teaching Approaches Attainment and Achievement Work Placement Services and Support Learning College Facilities IT Services Students Association Students Services College Library Using the Student Voice to Improve the College Equality & Inclusion What the VLE Moodle Tool looks like and how the students input there feedback back to BCSA As you can see we have several prompts for the students to think about when answering the question Also we have put in 4 categories of response so we can see if there is any trends forming in relation to these questions. Themes of Questions asked at each SEC, each department within the College receives there own report to go back on the main themes that arise through the Feedback

Who Attends an SEC? Vice Principal (Support & Curriculum) All Assistant Principals Director of Business Improvement Head of Facilities Head of IT Head of Student Support Library Manager Achievement Coach BCSA Support Staff BCSA President & Officers In the college we have 3 Achievement Coaches 1 per portfolio area. They are there to support students with issues around attendance and mental health issues, and non other curriculum issues

Impact of the change Increased Lead Rep engagement - increased accountability Better quality feedback (identification of most important/ widespread issues) Quicker response to issues as a result of increased SLT engagement. System is inclusive of all Access to Education Classes. Working with the Lead Reps they are responsible to meet the deadline of getting there area report ready to be sent to the AP’s and CLM’s. If this is not done the Feedback will not be taking forward to the SEC so they are accountable for the spokes person of that portfolio area With the AP’s and CLM’s seeing the reports before meetings it is often the case that some action is often in progress to resolute some situations

Impact of the change Less time intensive. Partnership working. - More SLT involvement. - CLM engagement (e.g. improvements to facilities) Feedback informs college self-evaluation (HGIOC). Feedback taken to college committees. Student President nominations increased. Less meetings to attend only 3 per year Information is fed back to Learning and Teaching Committee and the Bom Curriculum and Qualities Committee Because of more Student engagement we have seen an increase in nominations for Student President this year.

The Student Experience Committee at work

Any Questions?