Issue - meetings

This is the third year the Primary and Young Parliaments have been convened, they give children and young people the valuable opportunity to meet and debate a chosen theme, present their workshop discussions to the assembly and vote on the presentations, the theme chosen for the  Parliaments was ‘Me, Myself, My School’.

The Strategic Commissioning Officer introduced this item to the Panel. She explained that this year the theme for the event was Me, Myself, My School and that there had been a very good representation from schools across B&NES, 34 Infant, Junior and Primary schools attended as did one independent school, bringing with them a total of 116 pupils and 11 Secondary schools were represented by 55 pupils.

She informed the Panel of the key points from the event.

Key Stage 1:

• More opportunities for Year 6 Pupils to work with Key Stage 1 pupils, reading to reception, coming into classes  to help, supporting in the playground.
• Better playtimes.

Key Stage 2:

• More outdoor learning opportunities.
• Pupils and teachers to collaborate more in planning.
• Pupils to be given and take more responsibility.
• Introduction of a Traffic Lights system for pupils to mark their work before handing it in. Red / Amber / Green to indicate to teachers how well pupils have understood or enjoyed a lesson or activity.
• To have more opportunity to be active.
• Accepting yourself for who you are.

Young Parliament:

• MYP to visit School Leadership Teams early in the Autumn Term to discuss how pupils could be more involved in the running of schools.
• PSHE to be more reflective of well-being and next steps in life post 16.

The Drug & PSHE Consultant addressed the Panel. She explained that St Mark’s School, Bath was chosen as the host school for this year’s Young Parliament and that a core group of pupils from St Mark’s, under the direction of Ms Stella Pakeman, Student Leadership, helped with the coordination and running of the day.

She said that the reports from both Parliaments would be sent to all schools to inform them of the outcomes.

She added that the matter of safety was mentioned in the Key Stage 1 discussions and that the work of the Equalities Teams within school could be utilised.

She said that pupils that took part in the Young Parliament wanted to become more involved in the work of the school, including recruitment and attending leadership meetings. They also wanted to see a wider range of pupils involved in this work.

The Chair commented that the students will see the true worth of the event when their recommendations are implemented. She added that future reports on this subject should give details on the effects of the previous year’s recommendations.

Councillor Dine Romero suggested that pupils could be invited to attend a future meeting of the Panel to discuss any changes that have occurred as a result of the Parliaments.

Councillor Alan Hale commented that as fear / safety was mentioned in both reports does the policing level of the area need to be looked at.

The Chair said that she would feed those comments back through her role on the Police & Crime Panel.

The Drug & PSHE Consultant commented that the results of the SHEU (Schools Health Education Unit) survey would show further information in relation to pupils  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20