How can you get 9 times more students involved with your school council?
Some schools have even gone well beyond that. How? And how have they managed such a huge group? Well – with a little bit of blowing our own trumpet – they’ve been setting up Smart School Councils.
If the success of your school council is measured by how many students are actively involved in it (and we absolutely think it should be) then you need a model for your school council that has broad involvement as its starting point and wide-spread deep involvement as its ultimate aim. That’s how we’ve constructed the Smart School Council model.
We’ve been piloting it with around 100 schools over the last year and even we’ve been impressed with the impact it is having in many of those schools. On average schools had 21 students “directly involved in decisions/learning skills as part of your school council/student voice” before their school council co-ordinators were introduced to our new model; after a couple of months the average had gone up to 174.
St Paul’s Way Trust School in London went from 8 to 1,000 pupils directly involved; Hillview Primary (who hosted our Gloucester Masterclass) went from 12 to 250. Obviously some schools are taking it more slowly, but it’s interesting to see how quickly participation can expand. There are far more details in Greg’s report here.
Managing this process isn’t as scary as it might sound, we’re supporting these schools with tools and guides and a process that aims to minimise workload for school council co-ordinators.
The main way to adopt the Smart School Council model in your school is to join as a premium member and use the Smart School Council Manual. It has all of the guides, session plans and powerpoints that you need to implement the model, and includes support from school council experts.
You could also come along to a Smart School Councils Masterclass to kickstart your Smart School Councils:
Come along to one of our Masterclasses to find out more or
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