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Debate 1: What’s going on in your school?

From June 08 to July 30

We are holding monthly debates on different themes. Our first theme is EDUCATION.

Here’s something to get you started!

A new law has come into force (the Education and Inspections Act 2006) that says schools must ask children and young people their views on how to encourage good behaviour and deal with poor behaviour. The Government has given advice to schools on things like praising and rewarding good behaviour, using detentions (including at weekends), removing property from children and young people and making decisions about school uniform. It says punishments should never degrade or humiliate children and young people.

What’s going on in your school? Are you getting a say on the school rules? Do you have a school council that can make real decisions? Have you been told how you can complain if you need to?

On Monday, June 11, 2007 Charley said:

At our school we have a school council that decide what can be done to make the school a better place. I think it was started because children see things differently to adults. To improve behavior some children have a card, at the end of each day they go to the teachers that have taught them. They put down how good they have been. They get a reward if they do well. I think behavior is handled well at my school…

On Tuesday, June 12, 2007 Laura-Liz said:

I am the Member of youth parliament in my area so with my best mate we are trying to boost the awareness of young people haveing their say and being listened to within schools, we are doing this in many different ways, like publising it in assemblies, making posters getting people involved with decision making (in their tutor groups) and much more!

I think it is a good idea to punish studtents who chose to mis behave and cause loads of problems for teachers but I really dislike this idea that if you do something tiny like not do your all your homework and have a valid reason for it you can still get a detention on a weekend!
As a whole my school doesn’t get a say on anything however the school council which is a very small group of about 20 people do have as say but they can’t cover what everybody in the school’s opinions because there is near to 2000 students there!

The year 10 council did listen to the students last year because as chairperson, i sent a survey to every tutor group asking them what they wanted doing, i then took action, over 78% wanted new stools in the science blocks it took a lot of time (8months) and hard work but we got them. This made the students happy in many ways, they felt listened to, valued, and were more willing to work because they had new stools which they all helped to get.

If there is a problem in school many people don’t know how, who or where to go to seek help or advice, personally if there is a problem in school i go and talk to a teacher i trust and ask for her help, and 9 times out of ten she points me in the right direction but not everybody has a teacher they trust, and the school council isn’t well known so people wont got to them, instead most people suffer in silence, which has got to change!

Good luck with this project! MAKE change for the future generations!

On Tuesday, June 12, 2007 Rachael said:

In my school we dont get to have a say about school rules apart from classroom rules in your class and we have a school council but we dont make big decisons because there is only 4 people on the school council and we have not been told how you can complain
if you need to.
R

On Wednesday, June 13, 2007 Lauren said:

I am not sure how many schools have student councils, but ours does, and it has really made a difference since it started. We even have our own budget, which we use to contribute to things the students ask for. The rest of the students in my school tend to value these things more, because they were bought with “their” money. The problem that our school council may have is a lack of awareness.. not everybody in school knows who their representatives are, and this sometimes causes confusion. But I think that, generally, our student council does make a difference to our school.. we even help to interview for important posts like headmaster!