- How to set up a school council

- Gaining pupil support

- Preparing to launch the new school council

- When the school council becomes active

How to set up a school council

1. Give it time – you should not expect instant success, and many successful councils struggled for several years before finding the right formula for their particular school. When things go wrong, the important thing is to find out why, and to get it right next time.

2. Provide training – meetings, discussions, planning events – these are not easy and pupils will need guidance and support. Just like with the school football team or orchestra – practice makes perfect.

3. Build from the bottom – by encouraging all classes to have short, weekly meetings you will be allowing all students to share their ideas, and when elections take place excitement will be high. This will also overcome the ‘elitist’ label that is attached to some school councils.

4. Start small – Building a new swimming pool is probably not the best project for a newly elected school council. Confidence and success will come through small achievements like a suggestion box, a noticeboard or a simple sponsored event.

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Gaining pupil support

The Primary and Secondary Resource Packs will help you to decide on the best way to introduce pupil councils into your school. Regular class/ form council meetings are the logical first stage. They help all pupils to develop the skills they need to play their own part in an effective school council system. They can be used to establish committee skills, and can be used for introductory pupil council training sessions.

The form/class meetings give everyone a chance to develop the confidence to take part in the school council activities. Involving all the pupils from the beginning will help to ensure that everyone has a chance to develop the skills and understanding required by citizenship education.

When the school is ready, move onto launching a whole school council and year councils.

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Preparing to launch the school council

You will need a group of people responsible for the launch of the school council. One of the objectives of having a school council is to involve pupils in improving the school and so it makes sense that pupils are involved in this group.

Set up a working party that involves a small number of pupils and the school council link teacher. The working party will be responsible for preparing for the school council elections, e.g.:-

• publicity, e.g. a poster count-down campaign, announcements in assembly, an election newsletter
• PSHE discussion about what a school council is and what it is for
• Arranging tutor time to explain the nomination and election process
• Arranging training for class representatives, and the school council executive (i.e. chairperson, vice chairperson, secretary and treasurer)

Involving pupils in the working party may mean that the process of setting up school and class councils takes a bit longer. However, pupils will make valuable contributions to the decision-making and it is best to begin as you mean to go on. The working party will also help to demonstrate to staff that pupils react with maturity when given responsibility.

The Primary and Secondary Resource Packs contain sessions for planning the whole process of setting up class and school councils, e.g. running elections, training class representatives. These packs also help you to make sure the school discusses all the issues that you need to address before setting up a school council.

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When the school council becomes active

Set up sub-committees that involve unelected pupils as well as school council representatives. This helps to involve more people in school council activities. These sub-committees can be involved in a variety of activities, e.g. researching an issue, finding out about pupils opinions on an issue, designing posters for a school disco, co-ordinating a peer mediation group. Mini-committees are normally accountable to the main council.

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