Getting Your Point Across

School Councils UK Activity Guide

03 Getting your point across to adults in school

School Councils UK 108-110 Camden High Street, London NW1 0LU 0845 456 9428 [email protected] wwwww.schoolcouncils.org

Who do you want to get your point across to? As a school council, effective communication is crucial and you’ll need to get yourselves heard by many different people. This activity guide deals with one group that can be particularly difficult and daunting – Adults. There are many groups of adults who can help your school council to achieve its aims, and some of these are:

• • • •

Senior Management Team School Governors/School Board PTA/Friends Staff teams (including nonteaching/site staff)

Why are these people important? Whilst it’s great to be getting things done on your own, the more people you can get involved, the more resources you will have access to. The people mentioned above may have valuable experience or advice to give and will generally be very willing to help, if you let them know what you are doing!

How do we create a good relationship with other groups?

Find out when the deadline is for things to be put on the agenda for other people’s meetings. Make sure you send an update to the chair a week or so before this date, then she or he can decide to put on the agenda ideas you have brought up. Try to arrange a regular time when the school council makes a general, introductory presentation at one of their meetings. This may only be once a year, but it will make sure that all your partners are aware of the hard work that the school council is putting in. Then when you come to ask them for something they see you as a serious, hard-working body, not just a group making demands out of the blue. Invite people from the other committees to your meetings occasionally. Make sure they come to meetings (or parts of meetings) that are relevant to them; don’t have them just sit in the corner. For instance, if you were discussing what to do with the school council’s money, you might invite the treasurer of the governors for advice, or to explain to him or her how you intend to raise some money for the school; you may invite the pastoral care sub-committee to a meeting where you will be discussing a new scheme to address bullying.

Set up an agreed process for keeping them informed. If they know that you are being active they will look to you for support and will seek to support you. If they don’t know what you’re doing, they can’t be helpful or impressed. The process you set up should include people whose responsibility it is to be the contact for each group. This may be the school council chair or secretary, or it may be someone whose role is ‘governor liaison’/’local council liaison’, etc. There needs to be a set time when written communication goes out. This may be after every school council meeting or once a term, you need to find a balance between keeping people informed and bombarding them with information.

© School Councils UK 2005. Please feel free to reproduce this resource with acknowledgement (non-commercial use only)

School Councils UK Activity Guide

How do we go about making a Proposal? Your proposals should be ‘SMART’: Specific – Rather than saying ‘we’re a bit bored at lunch times and so we want some better stuff’ it should be ‘because there is nothing to do at lunch times people mess around and it creates an unpleasant atmosphere. We have done a survey to find out what would entertain people. The top suggestions were common room, access to the football pitch, and some new sports equipment.’ Measurable – how are you going to know if it is a success? This isn’t just saying whether the thing was completed (‘we got new sports equipment’), but if the whole project was a success (‘since we got new sports equipment 60% of people have used it, 85% of people feel the playground is a better area to be in.

Realistic – can it really be done? if you know the school is strapped for cash, but you think you really need some new sports equipment, rather than arguing for a swimming pool, you might better spend the time putting the case for some new netballs and football goals. Time-limited – set deadlines, so you can see whether progress is being made. Who is going to do what by when? ‘Someone is going to find out what year 9 think about the GCSEs available’ will not get done, ‘By next meeting Hassan is going to find out what year 9 think about the GCSEs available’ will do, or Hassan’s in trouble come next meeting. Here’s an example of a presentation:

Action-oriented – ‘We are going to do a survey; hold a disco; speak to the head; etc.’ rather than ‘we think something should be done about...’ If Section

Content Suggestions

Time

Introduction

• •

Thank you for sparing the time to see us. Our names are… and we are… We want to ask for your support in building an effective school council.

1 min

Background

We have been discussing why an effective school council is a good idea and we think…

2 min

What do we want and why do we want it?

In order for the council to succeed, we would like you to ensure the following elements are in place (e.g.): • References to the council in school documentation such as the School Development Plan and prospectus • Time made available in tutor groups/classes and assemblies for feedback and discussion about school council issues • Opportunities to be involved in a range of school issues such as behaviour, lessons, community links…etc • A budget made available for school council administration and training

3 min

When do we want it?

We hope to launch the form/year councils on … and we would like to know everything is in place before this

4 min

What are the benefits?

As well as forming a key part of our citizenship education, school councils can make a real difference to many parts of school life. We feel we can help to improve lessons, behaviour and facilities by creating a forum for students to express their views. Research has also shown that where pupils are actively participating in the life of the school, it can have a positive impact on academic attainment and exclusions.

5 min

Conclusion

To summarise… Thank you for your time…Do you have any questions?

6 min

School Councils UK 108-110 Camden High Street, London NW1 0LU 0845 456 9428 [email protected] wwwww.schoolcouncils.org

you aren’t specific about what is going to happen, or what needs to be done, nothing will.

© School Councils UK 2005. Please feel free to reproduce this resource with acknowledgement (non-commercial use only)