Training and Resources

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Practical Resources, Tools and Guides

These links will take to you to other free downloadable resources and tools that you will find of use in lessons, meetings and running an effective school council.

Top Tips for Running School Council Elections

It is vital to get the school council of to a good start.  Involving the whole school in the election process will ensure that everyone is supportive of the council and fully understands what it is there for.

This download will give some essential tips to making sure your school council elections are run without a hitch.

Top Tips for Running School Council Elections (101kb) >>>

Post-16 Boundary Cards 

Post-16: Involving Learners in Decision Making
By September 2007, all learning providers for post-16 education will be required to have a ‘Learner Involvement Strategy’

Boundary Cards: Use these cards to facilitate discussion about the issues in which the student council should be involved. This can help you to see where there is a difference of opinion between staff and students. This may also help you to identify areas where progress may be easier and obstacles for you to watch out for.

Cut the cards up: (the blank cards are for you to add your own activities; the last four are heading cards)

  • Split into groups of 4 to 6 with a set of cards per group
  •  Place the issues under the relevant heading to show how much student involvement there is in current decision making
  •  Once this has been agreed, move the cards to how you would like it to  be
  •  Prioritize the ones you want to focus on and discuss how you would go about making it happen

This activity can be used by the student executive and/ or staff but ideally would be done in a group with representatives from the students, staff and management. Use it as a negotiating tool or as a resource to help you action plan.
- Download Post-16 Boundary Cards >>>

- School Council Boundary cards >>>


SMART Targets

Every project needs a set of aims, but the difficult thing is setting aims that mean something.  Aims that mean something let you know when you have finished your project and the help you to understand what went right and what went wrong so you can learn for next time.

One of the best ways of setting aims that mean something is with SMART targets.  The form below explains what they are , gives and example and some space for you to write your own (the left-hand column is a list of non-SMART aims you might try to SMARTen up, but you can cross them out and put anything in there).
- SMART matrix (PDF, 53KB) >>>

Once you've set your SMART targets try out the project planning guide from the 'Action planning, tips and templates' section.

For an interactive project planning tool, including SMART targets you could go to www.myabodo.com/tools and select the 'Project planner' link at the top of the page.


Action Planning, tips and templates

These downloads will be useful whenever you have a project or event to plan. No matter how small an action seems, if it's got an end it's a project.  Remember to always put in to your minutes:

Who is going to do What by When.

- Action Planning Tips (PDF, 66KB) >>>
- Action Planning Template (PDF, 82KB) >>>
- Event Planning Guide (PDF, 70KB) >>>
- Event Budget Form (PDF, 73KB) >>>
- Detailed project planning guide (PDF, 71KB) >>>

When you're planning any project you need to make sure that you set clear targets for yourself, one of the best way to do this is with SMART targets, find out how to write them above.

For an interactive project planning tool, including SMART targets you could go to www.myabodo.com/tools and select the 'Project planner' link at the top of the page.


School Council Ofsted letter

According to the draft of the Ofsted ‘Framework for Inspecting Schools in England from September 2005’ following an inspection Ofsted will be writing directly to the school council with their findings and asking for their support in addressing the problems within the school.

For an example of what the letter might look like click  Ofsted sample letter and use it to run a hypothetical discussion on how the school council may react to the feedback received.

School council meeting agenda and minutes template

Click here (.dot 1MB). Save this MS Word document template in your My Templates folder and you can easily create a new agenda and minutes document for each meeting - you can either type stright into them or print them off and fill it out by hand.

Add in your school or council logo and the name of your meeting (e.g. 'Year 9 Council Meeting') at the top of the agenda and minutes pages.  Fill in the blanks about who will be taking notes, chairing, helping out, etc. and you're ready to go.

Remember to get the agenda out a week or so before the meeting so everyone can prepare and turns up on time.

Don't try to write down everything when you take the minutes, just what question is being discussed, any big problems there might be and what action you decide on (remember to include who is responsible and on what date they need to report back).

There's more about minutes and agendas in the Primary and Secondary School Council Toolkits.

Skills Audit Forms

Use this form to evaluate the skills that individuals have within your school council.

- Primary School Council Skills Audit (PDF, 80KB) >>>
- Secondary School Council Skills Audit (PDF, 22KB) >>>

Every Child Matters

The Every Child Matters agenda has an impact on all services for children and young people, not least schools. School councils are an excellent way to contribute to achieving the Every Child Matters aims for your school and for the individuals involved. These two documents go highlight exactly how. The summary just takes each of the five 'outcomes' and shows how school councils contribute towards them:

  • Be healthy
  • Stay safe
  • Enjoy and achieve
  • Make a positive contribution
  • Achieve economic well-being

The more detailed version takes each of the government's individual 'aims' that make up the 'outcomes' and does the same.

- School Councils and Every Child Matters - Summary (PDF, 70KB)>>>
- School Councils and Every Child Matters - Detail (PDF, 102KB) >>>

Enterprise Education

School councils are an excellent tool for giving pupils a chance to develop their enterprise skills.

Being enterprising essentially constitutes three steps:

  • Identifying a problem
  • Designing a carrying out a solution
  • Evaluating your success

Any effective school council will be doing all of these on a regular basis.

This download shows how one school put this in to practice and outlines all the elements of the Enterprise Education that cross over with good school council practice.
- School Councils and Enterprise Education (PDF, 43KB) >>>