School councils
Pupil participation is a vital element of a Healthy School
One of the best ways of encouraging pupil participation is to set up a School Council or Pupil Parliament. We have some useful information about setting up a school council, contact us, and there is further information and material to download at the School Councils UK website. Learning and Teaching Scotland, together with Save the Children, wrote Participation and learning and has also produced this Pupil participation checklist.
UNICEF UK's Rights-Respecting Schools Award
UNICEF UK offers an award enabling schools to work within the principles of the Convention of the Rights of the Child. Schools that have worked for this award find that pupils are happy to engage and talk about the rights of the child and can explain the importance of respecting each other's rights. Aspects of the work towards the award are included in a range of subjects but also form the core of whole-school themes in citizenship. It takes about eighteen months for a primary school to attain Level 1 of the award, for a secondary school, longer. To find out more, download this briefing paper and go to the UNICEF website. Trewirgie Infants' School chose to work on this for Healthy Schools Plus, read the case study.
Young people's guide to rights and responsibilities
This guide simplifies the issues in the Green Paper and encourages young people to contribute to the debate. Go to the Ministry of Justice website to read more and download the guide.
Learning for wellbeing: children and young people's charter
This charter, Learning for wellbeing, was developed by Young NCB with children and young people in Cornwall, Croydon and York. It is designed to stimulate discussion around learning for wellbeing in schools and other settings in the context of the Every Child Matters outcomes. It asks us to consider carefully what these children and young people say they now expect from PSHE education in the curriculum in order to help them develop some of the knowledge, skills and capabilities they need to lead flourishing lives. The development of this charter was funded by the DCSF.
Parliament's Education Service
The UK Parliament's Education Service website has lots of online resources such as games, videos, whiteboard resources, lesson plans and printed resources. Schools can also book visits to Parliament through the website. The Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, is giving awards to school councils who have completed great projects, read more.
