Rights Respecting Schools: Workshop Series

Workshop 3 Meaningful Student Participation

Five-Minute Reflection INSTRUCTIONS Welcome! Fill in the opinion scale for each of the statements on the Self Assessment Handout. Please consider all of your relationships with children – at school and at home.

Workshop 3: Meaningful Student Participation AGENDA Activity 1: Five-Minute Reflection Activity 2: Defining Meaningful Student Participation Activity 2: Debate It! A Little or A Lot? Activity 3: Tools to Gauge and Plan Student Participation Activity 4: Good Practices for Meaningful Student Participation

Defining Meaningful Student Participation What do you think is meant by meaningful student participation? What makes the participation meaningful? MEANINGFUL STUDENT PARTICIPATION

Defining Meaningful Student Participation Meaningful Student Participation is engaging students as partners in educational planning, research, teaching, evaluating, decision-making, advocacy and more. ~SoundOut: Promoting Student Voice in School soundout.org

Articles Outlining Rights to Participation Article 5: The State must respect the rights and responsibilities of parents to provide guidance for the child that is appropriate to her or his evolving capacities Article 9: non-separation of children from families without the right to make their views known Article 12: the right to be listened to and taken seriously Article 13: the right to freedom of expression Article 14: the right to freedom of conscience, thought and religion

Articles Outlining Rights to Participation (Continued) Article 16: the right to privacy Article 17: the right to information Article 29: the right to education that promotes respect for human rights and democracy

Student Participation in Rights Respecting Schools Benchmark 8 The school has an active student council that is democratically elected. Chartwell Elementary School – British Columbia

Student Participation in Rights Respecting Schools Benchmark 9 School committees and decision-making processes include student representation and the active participation of students.

Student Participation in Rights Respecting Schools Benchmark 10 Students are consulted and help make decisions on a regular basis in the classroom and in the wider school environment. Our Ideal School Activity at Westmount Park Elementary School - Québec

Student Participation in Rights Respecting Schools Benchmark 11 The school has an elected student council whose members act as ambassadors for the Convention and the Rights Respecting Schools initiative. St. Gabriel Catholic School - Ontario

Student Participation in Rights Respecting Schools Benchmark 12 Students are provided with opportunities to support the rights of others locally, nationally and globally.

Debate It - A little or a lot? To what extent should students have the opportunity to participate in decision-making processes in schools concerning both: curricular programming (formal, informal, extra) and administrative programming (budget allocations, assessment and evaluation, staff meetings, etc.)?

Hart’s Ladder of Participation

RRS Action Plan: Our Roadmap What is being done? What do we need to do next? CRT completes RRS Action Plan Our school has a roadmap for our future

Good Practices for Meaningful Student Participation Work together as a group to determine which strategies would work best to meet your assigned benchmark. Create this 3-columned chart StrategyResourcesTimeline Activities the school will undertake. People resource, budget and materials needed to undertake activities. Timing of year, duration of time needed to accomplish the activities.

Take Away Resource – For Everyone 50 Ways Adults Can Support Student Voice Describes 50 ideas adults can use to create meaningful opportunities for students to participate Printed handout

Take Away Resource – For Staff/Students Student Councils in Elementary Schools Outlines a clear process for developing a democratically elected and envisioned student council Available for download on rightsrespectingschools.ca

Take Away Resource – For Staff/Students Student Participation Assessments This guide includes fun and engaging activities for encouraging input, ideas, and feedback from children. Suitable for use inside and outside the classroom. Available for download on rightsrespectingschools.ca’

Take Away Resource – For Parents What Adults Can Learn from Kids Adora Svitak, prolific short story writer and blogger since age seven, challenges adults to listen to and learn from children. Available for download at ted.com/talks/adora_svitak.html

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