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Attendees at this meeting: 16 out of 31 attended

Cormac Brady, Cavan; Shane Quinn, Clare; Jiang O’Neill, Cork City; Alicia O’Sullivan, Cork

County; Ross Beatty, DLR; Rachel Brennan, Dublin South; Luana Romila, Fingal; Aaron

Hackett, Kildare; Dylan Gordon, Kilkenny; Cian Mac Gearailt, Laois; Scot Ferns, Leitrim;

Alex Ní Riain, Limerick; Rhiannon Keady, Mayo; Laura McInerney, Meath; Kenneth

Bracken, Offaly; Michael Lough, Roscommon

Notes from 15th Meeting of

National Executive 2018-19

13th April 2019

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Focus of this meeting:

• Updates and quick review of progress to date on improving student voice in schools

• Key upcoming dates for the National Executive

• Meeting and introductions with teacher and students from St Joseph’s Secondary School in Rush

• Session with John: work on building the toolkit

• Feedback from review and nomination of a sub group to progress the design and build work with Ger and John

Meeting and introductions with teacher and students from St Joseph’s Secondary School in Rush

Their journey, what worked well, what didn’t and what our toolkit can offer to support other schools in taking on something similar

• This is an example of a ‘lighthouse school’ – a pilot school who have put Student Voice at the core of their ethos and culture.

• Teacher Darren Byrne is a member of the National Executive Steering Committee and has been key to the success of this pilot in their school.

• Students from the school Sadhbh, Rachel, Lauren & Daniel accompanied Darren and spoke to the group about their experiences of being in a school that has student voice at the heart of its culture from the moment they walk in the door until the moment they leave.

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Key comments from the four students about life in their school:

• Students in school are consulted with on all aspects of school life.

• Leadership model in their school changed from prefects and student councils to class reps

• Redefined the student council – instead have a leadership team which is more rele-vant to their school. Each class has a representative and invites 4 people who want to be part of the leadership team.

• School is more than academic ability - wellbeing is a very important element in their school

• Lunchtime and after-school meetings are held weekly to discuss issues of importance to the students such as wellbeing and having a say in school. Meetings are arranged, run and led by students. There is no pressure to attend, no invite and no specific age groups – it’s open to all and is optional.

• Weekly meetings had a hugely positive impact for students involved. All spoke about an increase in confidence and a willingness to get involved in other things.

• All spoke about how positive their experience of school is.

• Enshrined student voice rights are printed in every students’ journal – this means they are aware when it’s not happening in any given situation

• Redesign of the induction programme for First years. Teachers facilitated this and students delivered it two days before school starts.

• Wellbeing week – anti-bullying lessons. Student Voice module is delivered by stu-dents. Peer to peer workshops.

• Every year they look at new ways to engage students

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Questions from the National Executive to the group:

• Do you think the weekly meetings work best as they are optional?

Response – Yes as everyone there wants to be there. Developed as a response to students’ needs.

• What made you, as a teacher, want to implement this?

Response – felt it was a way to address issue of young people’s lack of engagement with school and the problem of early-school leavers. If students feel engaged, listened to and valued, the school environment naturally becomes one they want to stay in.

• What advice would you give us to get schools on board?

Response – small, gradual steps work better than dramatic large-scale changes. It needs to be framed in a positive way and it is essential to get teachers on board.

• Was there any resistance in your school?

Response - Yes, in some instances at the beginning. There will always be small- scale resistance to change in any situation. Now almost every teacher is involved in some form of extra-curricular programme and mindsets have changed from seeing visible results.

• What do we need to think about in relation to our toolkit?

Response – get a supportive staff member on board. Someone will have to take responsibility for taking it on and rolling it out. Start with the likes of the art teacher and PE teacher. Include things like lesson workshops, ice-breakers and exercise prompters for schools to try out.

• If you compare your school experience with your friends, what’s the difference?

Response – relationships with teachers are much improved and the school environment is a positive and more relaxed one. The fear factor is gone – the freedom to speak up is absent in other schools. Subjects are not streamed until after 3rd year and most subjects are taught through project work.

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Some students in the school have produced videos, one of which documents what student voice was made a reality in their school, e.g.

‘Student Voice: it lets you communicate, share ideas & make a difference. And that's just the start of it’.

Student Voice at St. Joseph's Rush — click on the screen below to view...

RESPONSES BY THE NATIONAL EXECUTIVE TO THEIR PRESENTATION

• Good relationships between students and teachers make for a better learning environment

• The system increased the confidence of students

• The approach requires teachers and staff to be willing to listen

• They have a lot of student-led initiatives

• It’s a collaborative effort between students, teachers and everyone

• Communication between students and teachers is key

• Rush School is ahead of its time.

• Their staff is forward-thinking

• The student body are open-minded and committed

• Optional meetings are a good idea – no voting and all interested can participate

• Trial and error, depending on the diversity of school, numbers, geography etc… Ac-knowledging their shortcomings and recognising room for improvement

• Willing teachers and open management

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Session with John: work on building the toolkit

Recap:

Purpose of the guidelines

creating an effective partnership between the student body, teachers and school management

providing equal opportunity for individual student voices to be heard and recognised

sustaining and embedding a fairly elected student council.

Moving towards…

A culture of valuing young people’s voice

Authentic listening leading to action

An awareness of opportunities

Sample idea for toolkit – a webspace with the following areas

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What’s behind each button?

Button 1: Student Voice: research and thinking

Sample ideas: Things like Lundy Model, models of Participation like Hart’s Ladder, videos, research articles, policy documents like National Strategy for Children and Young People’s Participation in decision-making, and reports like So, how was school today? etc… Research articles are very important to include – if you want to persuade people, then you need to reference evidence-based research.

Consider including exercises like ‘five different activities you could use to work with ….. report’.

Button 2: Getting started in your classroom

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What to include:

Reflective exercises

Peer assessment tools – to be made available to teachers to use

Student surveys – it’s easy to gather data but what’s important is what you do with it. Use questions based on the kinds of questions from SSE (School Self-Evaluations) Most important thing is to ask the right questions. Samples as separate attachments.

Button 3: working with groups in your school

Student Councils – there is a lot of material out there already and a good set of guidelines

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Website review: looking at three sample websites for ideas and comments

Student voice hub Victoria - https://studentvoicehub.org.au/

JCT.ie - https://www.jct.ie/home/home.php

Youth Parliament Wales - https://www.youthparliament.wales/

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Our reactions to the websites:

• Three things you like about this site

• One thing that would make it better

• Home page: What idea(s) would you borrow for our work?

Youth Parliament Wales - https://www.youthparliament.wales/

Good things:

• Concise call to action.

• Includes a video.

• Colourful and fresh

What we’d like to change

• To much info on the home page

What ideas from the home page we’d like to borrow

• Slogan.

• Tabs make for accessibility

• Links to social media

Suggestion for our website:

• Include Irish version of website

• Have a fresh design / aesthetic

• Slogan

• Tabs for accessibility

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Student voice hub Victoria - https://studentvoicehub.org.au/

Three things you like about this site

• They have a picture of their group on the front page

• Immediate access to participation

• You can get results of polls

• They have a good aesthetic / colour scheme

One thing that would make it better

• Meet the Team has a lot of writing

What could we learn?

• Keep it simple, easy and intuitive to use

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

JCT.ie - https://www.jct.ie/home/home.php

Three things you like about this site

• PDF and video is good.

• Immediate access to participation

• You can get results of polls

• They have a good aesthetic / colour scheme

One thing that would make it better

• No social media, calendar or announcements on front page

• Tabs on sides or top / bottom, not more than one

• Make text bigger on last page

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UPCOMING IMPORTANT DATES:

Sub group to progress the toolkit design and build – to work with Ger and John

NAMES CHOSEN

Luana

Jiang

Ross

Michael

Rhiannon

Three reserves are Scot, Cian and Cormac . Date to be confirmed asap.

2. Meeting with Minister Zappone, Thursday 30th May, Leinster House

Prep session for four presenters, Wed. 22nd May in DCYA, 12-3

As discussed at the last meeting, we have set up a meeting with Minister Zappone to brief her on your work to date and to formally ask her to support you in this work. The date of the meeting will be Thursday 30th May at 2:30pm in Leinster House. 8 people will attend the meeting – 4 to present and 4 to accompany and to answer questions afterwards. The four presenters only are required to come to a prep session in DCYA on Wed. 22nd May from 12-3.

NAMES CHOSEN

Presenters

Cormac

Ross

Scot

Luana

Accompanying

Jiang

Shane

Michael

Dylan

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3. Presentation at the annual information and networking day for the organisers of Comhairle

Monday 20th May, Hilton Hotel, Kilmainham, Dublin, near Heuston Station.

Presenters

Shane Quinn

Cian Mac Gearailt

Reserve – Cormac Brady

Prep session will take place at the next National Executive meeting

Next meeting will be Sat. 11th May 2019

11:30—15:30