Developing a school council in a large comprehensive

The Bryn Celynnog Model. (1400 roll)

The first step is the motivation of youngsters throughout the school to get involved within a whole school structure. Each year group has developed it’s own Year Council, access to which, is completely open. Any willing activist with a positive attitude is encouraged to get involved. Students are elected from these councils to sit on the Whole School Council.

Each year council decides on a positive target for the term and /or year, which is monitored by the main council.

At Year Council level students get involved in community projects e.g. ‘Help a South Wales Child’, The Lifeboat Association, the Pakistan Earthquake Appeal. This could be more school centred depending on the need e.g. taking ownership of an area, which students then improve and take advantage of the developed facilities.

A month before the Easter break the School Council Election process begins.

1. At least 6, and at the most 8, nominations from each Year Council are submitted to the organising body. (This includes a staff member plus the senior student team.) This is done by selection by the individual year councils.
2. Each selected candidate is published to the student body and a week is set aside for a hustings to take place. Assemblies are a good vehicle for this but candidates are allowed to canvass their campaign as they wish as long it is passed as fair by the organising body.
3. 4 students are elected to serve on the school council for one year. There is a countdown to Election Day. Each student is given a ballot paper with the names of the candidates from a specific year. They are asked to put a tick next to the 4 candidates of their choice.
4. The organising body counts the ballot papers so that all students can see that the process is fair.

This year the result of the elections surprised everyone when two stalwart councillors from previous years failed to get re-elected. The council themselves decided that the expertise which these individuals had gained should not be lost, thus they have been awarded the office of School Ambassador. They attend as many meetings as they wish but do not have voting rights. In so doing the council has the benefit of their experience before any vote takes place. Their services have been extremely beneficial to the school and they have gained in peer respect.

What about year 7 students? This year we are going to ask those students who served on their councils in year 6 to remain in office until Easter elections. Part of our programme for 2007 is to develop such students into Transition Councillors in order to help the Transition process run smoothly.

The Whole School Council has met weekly and has gained tremendous momentum from doing so. Officers include a Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, Treasurer and Publicists. These have not been senior students however who have found themselves to be too committed to academic studies. Issues covered in the last year include:

• Conferences run by RCT and The Welsh Assembly.
• School Nutrition.
• Sustainable Development.
• Global Citizenship.
• Charity Fund Raising.
• Selection of new staff to the school.
• School Transport.
• The School Rewards System.
• Managing Student Social Area Changes from Year 9 into Year 10.
• Teaching Awards.

After some time now of working as a whole school team it is now necessary to evolve into focus groups or sub committees on a variety of issues. These are likely to be those mentioned in bold above, perhaps meeting every two weeks, with the main council meeting once a month. Thus our council is evolving from a simple talking shop to an active body, which gets regular feedback from the senior management team. This most important of points is gaining the students within the school council system peer respect. With this concept firmly embedded and reinforced at all opportunities the Council rightfully boasts it can get results.

Contact Details:

Name: K. Zdzieblo, School Community Cordinator