Student Voice
Cranbourne East Primary School
Scott Duncan
This presentation was part of the 2011 DEECD Innovation Showcase on 13 May.
This podcast is brought to you by the Department of Education and Early Childhood
Development, Victoria.
Speaker 1:
Today we’re very fortunate to have Scott Duncan. Scott Duncan comes from
Cranbourne East Primary School.
Cranbourne East Primary School
[inaudible 0.20] southern region is a school that opened this year; this has
probably not got too much to do with Scott’s presentation but I think it’s an
amazing school. In fact it’s the only one I know that has opened with more
than 450 students on Day 1. Most new schools that open up are with maybe
around 100 students but on Day 1 they were at and above capacity, so pretty
amazing school, already started having to put portables on site to take the
number of students. Of course that’s increasing, so that’ll open. It’s also a
really interesting school, I’m told it’s something to do with facilities, and a
PPP school, which is a Public/Private Partnership school, so they’ve got an
onboard person who does, comes around and fixes everything up so it’s quite
good so if you get a chance, it’s worth going out there and seeing Scott.
Now I’m just going to read a little blurb here to introduce Scott. Scott Duncan
is the head of IPT and Student Voice at Cranbourne East Primary School and
in 2009 he became the President of the Victorian Institute of SRC Teachers
Advisors, an organisation aimed at supporting primary and secondary
teachers who support school councils. Scott has facilitated a number of
professional development sessions around improving student voice including
the Look Who’s Talking series, part of the 2010 Web Conference Leaders
Project. So just put your hands together and welcome Scott.
Speaker 2:
Thanks. Everyone can hear me down the back, yep? Brilliant. No worries.
Thanks for coming to today’s session. It’s great to see some new faces in
the audience and also some fellow colleagues who I follow on Twitter as well.
So student councils; the idea is not something that’s new or unfamiliar to us.
Most schools have got some form of student council, be it a student
representative council, a junior school council, a student voice, a student
parliament. The names for these organisations are varied but ultimately most
schools have got a group that exists to represent student voice within the
school but why is having this voice so important and what sort of things
should they be working on? I mean, most student councils do the token
fundraiser every now and again but how can we really pump up our student
councils and move them to that next level? I’m hoping that today in my
presentation I’ll be able to answer some of these questions.
By having a student council within your school you can draw upon the
knowledge of the student voice and ultimately produce better decisions. At a
global level, and it was touched on by our student MC’s this morning, this is
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recognized through the United Nations Conventions of the Rights of the Child
in Article 12, which states that a child should be given an opportunity to
express their view point and that age shouldn’t be a barrier to their
participation in matters that they have a degree of understanding and
comprehension over. But more locally, often there are things that students
just know about schools that teachers and parents don’t. By involving all key
stakeholders it ensures that all viewpoints are heard and in turn leads to
more informed decision-making.
By having a student council in your school, students will develop an
understanding of what it means to be an authentic citizen. By involving
students in how decisions are made, it provides them with an understanding
and point of reference when they want to be active citizens beyond the
context of our schools. Research also suggests that those who are involved
in decision-making will in turn have improvements in student learning
outcomes. By also having a student council, it can improve relationships and
connectedness between staff, students and the broader community.
But for me, the reasons behind student councils are somewhat personal. I’ve
been involved in student councils since I was in Grade 5 in 1993. I’ve
continued to be involved in my student council throughout my time at
secondary school and once commencing my career as a teacher, I quickly
took on the role of SRC Teacher Advisor. Had it not have been for some
great teachers who saw student councils as something that were important,
who gave their time freely and supported and coached me through the
process, I doubt that I would be the person that I am today. So it is my hope
that I can pave forward to some of the lessons that I’ve learnt to the students
that I work with.
So just what are student councils doing in the State of Victoria? If we were to
look at the research focusing on what they do, the issues they face, the
amount of money that’s raised by these organisations, the training that
students and teachers receive in taking on these roles, we’d be met with a
problem, and this problem is that to my knowledge there is little or no
research into this area. Now it’s something I’d love to be proven wrong
about, so if you do know of any research you can point me in the direction of,
that would be fantastic. So therefore the examples I’m going to share with
you are based on anecdotal conversations I’ve had with other teachers and
those working within the field.
So for many student councils this is where we’re at; just surviving. They’re
there; don’t really know what we should be doing, don’t really know what
we’re going to do, students and teachers don’t really know we exist and hey,
on the off-chance we come up with some great idea that’s going to move us
that extra little step forward, bang, knocked on the head by school leadership
often without any reason or justification of why. Moving on from this though,
are student councils that simply exist as money raising organisations.
Without research, again it’s difficult to say, but student councils anecdotally
have estimated that they raise millions and millions of dollars each year for
different charities.
Out of interest, is anyone in here the SRC Teacher Advisor at their school or
looks after their student council? Okay, a couple. So this should look familiar
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to you. At least familiar to your pigeonhole, which seems to become the
dumping ground for any fundraising correspondence that comes into your
school. Oh yes, the SRC can handle that, the SRC can handle that and
before you know it, your pigeonhole becomes quite full of correspondence
from these organisations. Now I’m not saying that there’s no merit in raising
money for organisations, but if this was the sole purpose for having your
student council then I’d definitely be asking some questions and looking at
what other opportunities the SRC could be involved with in terms of real
decision making at your school.
Taking this a step further, there are students that still do fundraising but
primarily focused on school based problems, so raising money for new
facilities, raising money for ICT equipment, sponsoring teams to travel and
the like. Again, I have no problem with students raising money, provided
they’re involved in the decision making behind raising the money. If we’re
going to go out and purchase new equipment for our students, are our
students involved in deciding what gets purchased?
Beyond that point, though, is where things start to get interesting. Involving
students in shared decision-making on real school matters, such as school
facilities, the creation and review of school policies, learning and teaching,
curriculum design, this is where real decision-making can take place, but so
few schools are operating in this area. This last box is the one that gets me
the most excited. There are student councils who have seen value in
establishing local networks or clusters to support each other in their work, to
share ideas and experiences.
Some go beyond this and establish
relationships with their local council and other non-government organisations
as a representative voice for young people. Again, a real example of
authentic action but so few are working in this realm.
Roger Hart is a researcher interested in looking at how young people are
involved in community development and environmental care. In 1992 he
developed a model encouraging other young…others to look at young people
and their involvement in activities. His model was referred to as the Ladder
of Participation.
The bottom three rungs of Hart’s ladder refer to
manipulation, decoration and tokenism, where young people are used to
generate support for a cause but without having a true understanding behind
it, where young people appear to be given a voice but really don’t have much
input into the decision-making process. Hart describes these bottom three
rungs as non-participation. Moving beyond this is where participation kicks
in. Be it that young people are assigned to roles to complete and informed
about why they are campaigning for a cause through to leading the action
and seeking adults to assist in its implementation.
What I’d now like to do is share with you some examples of projects that I’ve
been involved with and supported students in implementing that I believe
demonstrate these higher principles Hart is referring to. The first of these
being the new generation of a school logo and our new school uniform.
Oops. The journey in changing… I apologise for using the ‘journey’ word…
The journey in changing our uniform and logo began when I and our school
art teacher took members of our SRC on an excursion to hear a range of
motivational speakers. It was during the lunch break that one student
commented on the range and variety of uniforms worn by students present
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from other schools. Students made statements that our uniform looks crap
and we look “povo” (quote unquote). Other students joined in the
conversation and echoed her comments. Sitting nearby, as you do, the art
teacher and I overheard our students’ conversation, so, as good teachers do,
we asked questions to find out more and delve deeper into the issue.
What we learnt was that their uniform made them look and feel dirty. They
didn’t feel proud to be wearing it and didn’t want to connect it with our school.
The statements that were being made by our students went against
everything we were trying to achieve for them as their teachers. To provide
some context to the situation, the school that I work at is in an ex-housing
commission area. The majority of students come from single parent families
who work in low-income jobs or rely on welfare. Over 70% of our school
population receives EMA and many were living in third generational poverty.
The road network surrounding the estate in which I taught meant that it was
effectively boxed in by major roads. Many of them didn’t have access to
cars, so walked or relied on public transport, meaning that they rarely
ventured beyond the context of our local community. Here we were, a few
kilometres away from Port Philip Bay yet many of our students had not seen
the sand or the sea.
When I first started here, student outcomes were low, attendance was down
and teachers spent the majority of time dealing with student misbehaviour.
Now I could easily deliver a whole separate presentation on the dramatic
transformation our school went through to move from where we were then to
where we are now. Five years later, instead of focusing on behaviour, we’d
shifted the focus to quality teaching and learning. Our NAPLAN results were
showing that we were improving student outcomes beyond the expected level
of growth from Grade 3 to Grade 5. Our school had changed. However, our
uniform and the image we were presenting to our community remained the
same; it was connected to our past. We knew internally that we had changed:
the question was, did anyone else?
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Jump back to our excursion and our student discussion continued on. The
topic had shifted slightly and they were now discussing colours and uniform
items of different school and developing a bit of a list about what they liked
and didn’t like. The girl that started the conversation piped up once again,
“Mr Duncan, we need a new uniform at our school”.
Each year I run a training day for our SRC students. We look at topics like
what it means to be a leader, how to run meetings and more importantly, how
to turn an idea into action. At this point in time, I was able to refer back to our
training day and remind them of the need to develop a clear plan for action.
So at our next SRC meeting we went about developing that plan. Our SRC
members went about talking to other students to find out their views. In
addition to the SRC’s work, the art teacher and I sought out the opinions of
other staff and planted the idea of developing a new uniform. We recruited
another member of staff to the cause who had a background in marketing to
support what we were trying to achieve. Our research brought into light the
huge range and variation in the items that were considered or perceived to be
our school uniform. You can see the range there.
On top of this, we noticed that a number of different logos had been in
circulation on documents, uniform items and signage around our school.
Changes in our local demographic were affecting us also. Prep enrolments
were decreasing. We needed to promote ourselves beyond our immediate
area to draw attention and hopefully enrolments to our school. It was our
students’ lack of pride in themselves and need to increase enrolments, and a
desire to establish a new identity that led the SRC and a group of teachers to
create a submission to our school council to change our uniform and our
logo. School council suggested that we form a team to include parents and
research the issue further. We began by sharing students’ feedback about
our current uniform. They talked about how they liked the top that was worn
by our Grade 5 and 6 students, and in particular, made reference to a top
they saw on the excursion, which they referred to as “sick as”.
We heard from the parents about how easily our current uniform stains, about
the durability of buttons that needed to be sewed back on and about the
availability and ease of purchasing the items.
We worked about
consolidating everyone’s feedback and began to work through designs and
colours. We met regularly with the student council and involved them in this
process, keeping them informed as we went through. As the samples began
to roll in, the student council played a vital role in deciding the direction to
take. Feedback ranged from “It’s so warm” and “Do I really have to take it
off?” through to “It’s itchy” and “Can these shorts get any shorter?”
Throughout the process, students learnt about fabric quality, stitching, thread
count and the lengthy process it takes to get something manufactured. After
extensive discussion, consultation and feedback, we arrived at a design that
reflected everyone’s objectives. School council approved the design, the
costing and manufacturer. Our school council was also willing enough to
subsidise a percentage of the purchase price for the first polo top for every
student in our school. We were ready to take orders for our new uniform and
we needed to let the community know we were ready.
Our student council took on the task of organising a fashion parade at our
school assembly to promote our new uniform line. They selected the music
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for the event, worked with teachers in creating a blurb about each of the
items, and choreographed the routine for each of the models showcasing the
garments. With orders for our new uniform beginning to flow in, our art
teacher took on the task of developing our logo by incorporating it into her
lessons. She worked with students to brainstorm words about what
Aldercourt meant to them. Words and themes that kept reappearing were
success, respect and achievement. Using these words, she then asked the
students to think of images or pictures that could be used to represent these
words.
Excellence in education was viewed by the students as getting an A. The
letter A also fitted in nicely with the name of our school. Stars were identified
as a symbol of achievement with phrases such as “Be a shining star” and
“Reach for the stars” being thrown around. Sashes and ribbons were also
symbols of being a winner.
Using these words and images, every student in the school was given the
opportunity to design our new school logo. The SRC reviewed these logos
and shortlisted them down to 10 designs. The logo that was selected
happened to be by a boy, who was in my grade, by the name of Connor.
Connor was in Grade 6 for the second time and was quite disengaged with
school.
Connor’s talents didn’t lie in reading and maths but rather
skateboarding, motorbike riding and drawing. We involved Connor in the
process of working with our graphic designer about the change and
modifications that were made that led to our final design.
Our student council also worked together with staff to produce our uniform
guidebook that clearly explains to all what our uniform was about and more
importantly, what it wasn’t. So on the first day of school in 2010 our new
signage had been installed and students began to arrive for their first day in
their new uniform. It was agreed that we would allow a 12-month transition
period from our old uniform to our new one. Out of 200 students, we counted
12 on the first day who were not wearing our new uniform. Halfway through
the year, this figure reduced to none. Our students had made the shift.
If we look back at Roger Hart’s model from earlier, what had been created
was a child-initiated project where the decision making was shared amongst
our school community. It was students working with teachers, parents and
the wider community at an equal level. We’d engaged all students in the
process and connected strongly with one that may have slipped through the
cracks. By working together we’d restored our students pride in themselves,
in their appearance and in their school.
The next case study I’d like to share you with is our toilet upgrade. As I
mentioned earlier, one of the key components of our work is that I have an
annual SRC training day where we develop plans of action, as these plans
form the foundation of our work for the year ahead. And as part of our training
day we’re talking about the idea of representation, that once you’re elected to
our student council, that it’s not just your viewpoints you need to put forward,
you need to make sure that you’re representing the wider student body. This
sparked an idea with one of our students who decided that they were going to
take up the task of setting up an outside office for our SRC.
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The idea primarily focused on two SRC reps sitting outside in our yard at
lunchtime at a table and chair to collect ideas and feedback from the
students. They created posters and banners letting people know of their
existence and put announcements over our school PA system reminding they
were there. They brought out additional chairs for anyone waiting, so created
an outside waiting room and took out our SRC suggestion box with pencils
and paper for those who didn’t want to wait but still wanted their voice heard.
One piece of feedback focused on the condition of our student toilets. Toilets
were a hot topic at our school. Whole school assemblies on Friday afternoon
would involve the assistant principal standing before the school and going
“What do I talk about at every assembly?” and in true primary school singsong fashion they would reply “The toilets” and what would proceed would
then be an update from the AP about what had happened in the toilets this
week. It was all clean, I promise.
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So what our students wanted were toilets that were comparable with those
you would find in any major public shopping centre. They wanted doors with
locks that worked and that were lower to provide privacy. They wanted to
wash their hands with soap and be able to dry their hands with a dryer. They
wanted to feel comfortable that they could use our toilets rather than holding
on all day and waiting till they got home. The outside office team presented
this to our school leadership and initially the toilets were updated with a coat
of paint and the seats and locks were replaced.
Though not long after the initial update, the toilets returned to their previous
standard. The paint job was cheap and nasty and began peeling within a few
months. The students also helped the peeling process by pulling the paint off
the walls and the seats became loose and broken once again. While the
students had instigated the process of upgrading the toilets, the adults took
over from here. The upgrade had taken place but there’d been little mention
of the work that had been done. It was a band-aid solution to a problem that
needed further investigation.
Like most schools at the time, we were fortunate enough to receive funding
through the National Schools Pride Program to complete works around
school. This funding enabled us to take a more considered response to the
condition of our toilets. This time round, members of the SRC met with
school leadership and together worked on their actions for our toilet upgrade.
Coincidentally this was taking place at the same time of our uniform
redevelopment, so the colour scheme that was selected complemented our
new uniform and matched those used throughout our buildings.
It was decided that the flooring would also be sandblasted and skylights
installed to brighten the area. Money was also allocated for an art installation
with all students having the opportunity to contribute to its creation. An
additional mosaic mural featuring the word “Respect” was placed above the
taps in each of the toilets in what would hopefully be a deterrent to some
students who liked using the taps for water fights and filling up water
balloons. We also learnt that some of our shorter students would stand on
the toilet seat in order to reach the button, so small steps were purchased to
help them perform this task. Our school cleaner even jumped on board with
the initiative by sharing a suggestion she’d picked up that involved the
placement of target stickers to assist some of our younger male students with
their aim. In what was an interesting twist, additional items such as the door
locks, dryers and soap dispensers were installed over time. It was decided
that the students needed to demonstrate respect for the initial items before
the others were installed. Like dangling a carrot, the offer of better
encouraged them to look after what they’d had. The decision was also made
to close one of our toilet blocks in a bid to reduce maintenance costs and
through traffic. The increased traffic through the one toilet meant the
likelihood of being caught by another student misbehaving increased.
Rather than our assistant principal delivering the weekly toilet update,
members of our SRC presented at assembly on the toilets’ condition. Rather
than a top-down process, students were being spoken to by others at their
level. Rather than simply implementing change, the students were involved
and therefore took ownership of the change. They became possessive of the
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space they contributed to creating and wanted to ensure that it remained
protected.
So what I’ve shared with you is some examples of how students have driven
change within my school. As I touched on each of these examples, there are
many elements operating behind the scenes that assisted the students in
driving this change. It also led to the student council at my school becoming
a professional, respected organisation.
What I’d like to do now is share with you now some of the tips and tricks that
I’ve picked up and will hopefully help you take your student council to that
next level. Imagine being a student arriving at school for your first day only to
discover that you haven’t been put in a grade, your books and stationery
haven’t arrived and I haven’t really thought about who’s going to be your
teacher. Sounds a bit crazy but this is exactly what we do with our student
councils. We return, but the idea of a student council isn’t often considered
until about Week 3, Term 1. If you run your election successfully it normally
takes you through to about Week 6 and by the time you announce the
students, Term 1 is over and you practically haven’t done a thing.
Let me walk you through the process that I’ve used to get our student council
up and running on Day 1. The first thing to consider is, what is your student
council going to look like? How many students do you need? What year
levels are going to be represented? Will your student council consist of sub
committees or portfolios that oversee particular projects or areas of interest?
There is no right model for a student council. After all, each school is unique
and each school has got different needs.
No one’s allowed to be from OH&S with regards to that photo. With your
model now generated, the next step is to decide how your students are going
to be appointed to positions. While some schools believe in selecting
students, I’m a firm believer that any students who meets the criteria should
be able to submit a nomination and stand for election. First thing I do is let
students know that the election is open, and I make sure I do this at the
previous year at the start of Term 4. I advertise this by speaking at our whole
school assembly, through displays I make around the school, notices in our
newsletter and links on our school website.
I’ve also gone about creating job descriptions for the various positions we
have available, as these positions help a student to decide if taking on that
role is something they really wish to pursue. Another advantage, it is in the
event that I do need to deal with disciplinary matters, dealing with an SRC
member’s performance. This gives both of us a document to refer back to.
Lines like “Oh, I didn’t know I had to do that” don’t cut it when it’s been clearly
stated in the job description and in the role they applied for. Once
nominations have been declared open and students made aware of their
positions, those wishing to stand for election need to complete a nomination
form. Ensuring that the form is signed by the parents also gives them an
opportunity to engage in a discussion about the positions that they’re
applying for. It also means that parents are aware of the task required and
the level of commitment involved. With nominations received, I then meet
with the students who’ve submitted applications. At this meeting, I go about
reinforcing the commitment and expand further on the tasks. I’d also remind
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students of the need to prepare a speech for the day of the election, and offer
my support in helping them prepare it or practise with them. On occasions,
I’ve also used this meeting as an opportunity to conduct a ballot draw to
determine the order of the candidates on the ballot paper.
In the lead-up to the elections, students are encouraged to campaign for the
positions that they wish to stand for, be it through the creation of posters,
events that they wish to run around school or activities within the yard. One
year, though, a girl I taught by the name of Caitlin decided that she’d take on
a campaigning activity at lunchtime. What I found out later was that Caitlin’s
mum just happened to work at the local bowling alley and supplied her with a
collection of passes for 2 free games. This incident was what led to the
creation of campaigning guidelines. These guidelines assist students in the
preparation of their campaigning materials and activities. It states where in
the school they’re allowed to display posters and conduct their activities. It
also just happens to make mention about the use of gifts and bribes. These
are just some of the samples of the students’ campaigning posters.
One of the best and most under-utilised resources out there to help you run
elections is the Victorian Electoral Commission. Your local returning officer in
your district will be able to help you in holding your elections by creating the
ballot papers, speaking to your students about voting and bringing out all of
the official polling material, such as ballot booths and boxes that would be
used at a standard State or Federal election. They even help you count the
results at the end and at the moment this is currently still a free service.
On the day of the election I have each of the candidates present their election
speeches. Over the years I’ve heard many an entertaining speech made by
students, however, a standout would have to be this year’s speech by a boy
called Billy who presented this.
Video playing:
Student 1:
Some of you know my name is Billy. I’m running for student representative
council. Firstly I would like to show you a little demonstration of what I can do
on the SRC. As kindly as possible, could everyone please shuffle one place
to their left? And now twice to your right. Now shuffle back to where you
originally were. Now what have I shown you? I’ve just cleaned the floor in a
couple of seconds; imagine what I can do in a whole school year!”
Speaker 2:
So that was Billy. With our students now elected to office, we make sure that
we celebrate and promote them within our school community. I arrange for
our SRC reps to be presented with their badges at our major school
assembly. This is then followed by an afternoon tea where we invite their
parents up to join us. Again, all schools are different, but choosing a way to
celebrating and promoting your SRC is important and you need to choose
one that works for you.
For many students, the role of an SRC member will be new and one that they
will require some training in. For most, a one-off training day will be sufficient
in getting you started, however I do know of schools that run or extend their
training over a few days through to those that go away for a residential camp.
I’ve found that these days work best when you have an external facilitator.
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This prevents you as the SRC teacher from having to wear multiple hats, and
you can float and provide advice about school operations while the facilitator
can challenge and extend the students’ thinking. In terms of what to cover on
your training day, the possibilities are endless. I’ve always made our focus
within my training days to focus on action planning and meeting procedure,
but again you need to select the topics that meet the needs of your student
council.
Developing a constitution or a policy for your SRC is a worthwhile exercise as
it clearly outlines what the SRC is responsible for doing. For example, how
often are you going to meet? How are you going to deal with SRC members
who don’t turn up to meetings? What process is the SRC going to use to
make their decisions? These are just some of the questions that as the SRC
Teacher Advisor you’ll need to address with your SRC throughout the year.
Establishing a constitution or a policy will provide you with a point of
reference in dealing with these matters. It’ll make others aware of what the
SRC is responsible for but more importantly what the SRC is not responsible
for. When it comes to writing your constitution, things to consider would be
the name of your organisation, what you’re about, your mission, your aims
and your objectives, the process you go through for nominations, elections
and selecting SRC members, what positions you then may have on your
SRC. Will you have a president, a secretary or a treasurer? A section
focusing on a code of conduct and disciplinary action, a section that outlines
your meeting procedures, a section focusing on operations, so how will your
SRC funds be managed? Can work for the SRC be used as credit for other
curriculum areas within the school?
What awards will you offer SRC
students or their members and what are the criteria in awarding them, and
finally what changes or modifications can be made to the constitution?
When it comes to running meetings as the SRC Teacher Advisor, the less
that I say means that I’m doing my job properly. I’m a firm believer in using
formal meeting procedure. Words and phrases such as agenda, minutes,
moving motions, seconding, points of order are all known by the SRC reps
that I work with. By explicitly teaching these students this vocabulary it not
only enables them to participate fully in our meeting but in any meeting.
Developing a plan of action at the beginning of the year will help keep your
student council on task and focus for the year ahead. The size and the skill
set of your students will determine what projects you can take on. Having
worked with about 10 SRC reps in Grade 5 and 6, I’ve found that we can
probably manage one major project and two minor projects a term. Get
feedback from the student body about the events or projects that they’d like
to see the student council operate. Determine what projects and tasks you’re
going to look at for the year and plot these based on other major events that
happen throughout the year at your school. Work with your student council to
develop a plan for action. This can be a useful tool to help students map out
what else is happening and make sure that all requirements have been
considered.
A well-resourced student council indicates to its members and the student
body that the SRC is seen as a worthwhile organisation within the school.
Resourcing your SRC also helps determine its success throughout the year.
Hopefully your school will provide the student council with some sort of core
funding from the global budget at the beginning of the school year. If not,
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then you’ll need to consider fundraising or grant applications to assist you in
purchasing resources that will assist in the operation of the student council.
On top of funding, you need to consider the physical resources your student
council has got access to. Do you have a room to meet in? Do you have an
office or location that students can work from? Do the students have access
to a phone, fax or email facilities? Do your SRC members have a place to
store their correspondence, minutes, agendas and other important
documents? Consider also, how is your student council communicating with
others? Access to a pigeonhole and a person who checks it will allow for
others to pass information on. A photocopier will help in distributing
documentation as well as the creation of posters to promote your events.
Some schools produce an SRC newsletter while others use email, websites
and run radio stations over the school’s PA system to communicate and
promote their work.
As I touched on earlier, something that so few student councils do is work
together. By establishing an SRC cluster in your local network, you can
share work, discuss common ideas, seek out new ways of operating and take
on projects that extend beyond the school gate. Another way of keeping in
touch with developments in student participation is by subscribing to Connect
magazine. Published by Roger Holdsworth since 1979, Connect aims to
document different approaches and initiatives in student participation across
Australia and throughout the world. In a recent development, Connect, with
the exception of the past 12 months, can now be accessed free online thanks
to the Australian Council of Educational Research.
For secondary students, there’s the Victorian Student Representative Council
as the state’s peak body. Each year, the VicSRC holds its annual congress.
Over 3 days, students learn about the workings of the VicSRC and have the
opportunity to put forward and debate motions in a parliamentary-style
Congress. At Congress, students also have the opportunity to be elected to
the SRC executive to implement the motions put forward for the year ahead.
In addition to Congress, the VicSRC has published a range of resources
including an Environmental Design Kit, A Principal’s Guide to Student
Councils and a guide for creating local clusters in your area. All of these
resources can be accessed via the VicSRC website.
One resource I would like to touch on, though, is Represent, which is the
most comprehensive resource I’ve seen in supporting the work of student
councils. Distributed to all secondary schools this resource gives you some
great tips and tricks to use with your student councils. For those of you
working in primary schools this resource can also be downloaded from the
VicSRC website or from the Department’s FUSE site as well. In terms of the
SRC teacher, there’s VISTA which is the states professional association for
teachers working with student councils. VISTA also hosts regular wine and
cheese nights that are hosted in Kew and provides free resources to those
who attend. VISTA membership also entitles you to discounts for SRC
training and also provides you with a free subscription to Connect. VISTA is
managed by volunteers and receives no additional funding for its programs,
so memberships are essential for our organisation’s success and survival.
One project that VISTA is looking at establishing is a statewide student
council for primary schools. Whilst this project is still under development, it is
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anticipated that the use of Web 2.0 technologies will enable primary school
students to connect and work together from around the state. If this is
something that is of interest to you, I’d encourage you to check out the VISTA
website.
I’d like to finish today with a story that over time has transformed itself into a
legend, and I must give credit to a colleague of mine, David Mould, who
shared this story with me. Located in the leafy eastern suburbs of Melbourne
was a primary school just like most others. At this point in time the SRC only
contained representatives from Grade 3 to 6 as it was assumed that students
in lower levels didn’t have the maturity to participate and know what was
going on. The president of the junior school council was a boy in Grade 6 by
the name of James. He was described by the SRC members as a tyrant and
a bully, but only when he wasn’t listening. He’d go about ordering the SRC
members around and would never let them get a word in edgeways; even the
SRC teacher was scared of James and sat quietly in the corner and did as
she was told. However, during one SRC meeting a somewhat vertically
challenged preppie by the name of Sophie walked into the meeting. James
replied, “You are in the wrong room. This is the SRC meeting. Get out.” To
which Sophie replied “Ah no, I’ve come to speak to the student council and
I’ve been speaking to all of the preppies and they’ve decided what we want
more than anything in the world is a pink elephant.”
“It would be just the preppies and we would wash it and clean it and look after
it and clean up after it, well maybe not clean up after it, and we’re going to
call it Fluffy and it needs to be pink”. Silence filled the SRC room’s meeting.
The members looked to James wondering what on earth he was going to do
next. “Get out.” “Oh okay.” You’re meant to go “Oh” now. At that point in
time, though, a girl by the name of Alexis in Grade 3 jumped up and said
“That is a fantastic idea” to which James said “Well, you can get out, too.”
Alexis and Sophie skipped down the corridor and assembled in their school’s
library. Sophie had a bit of a chat with Alexis. She could see great value in
the idea of a pink elephant but there were just a few small problems. Pink
elephants are kind of big and they might squash some of our smaller prep
kids. Pink elephants also eat lots of food; where’s that going to come from?
And there’s no fence at most schools that would keep in a pink elephant.
Sophie got a bit concerned and thought her idea was kind of stupid but Alexis
reassured her that there was a way that it could work. At one said leafy
primary school located in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne they now have a
different SRC and you’ll notice one difference when you drive past. Flying on
a flag outside the prep building is a gigantic pink elephant by the name of
Fluffy. The SRC got drawings from the student body and used them in
determining the flag. Even James saw merit in this idea as it involved the
entire school body.
I’ll leave you with the thought about how you can involve students in decision
making processes and how you can work to turn what may seem a crazy
idea into a reality because after all every idea has pink elephant potential.
Thank you.
End of presentation.
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For more information about the topics discussed in this podcast please visit
the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development's website –
education.vic.gov.au
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