Agenda item

Secondary & Primary School Parliament Days

This is the fifth year the Primary and Secondary Parliaments have taken place. They give children and young people from across B&NES the valuable opportunity to meet and debate a chosen theme, and present their workshop discussions.

Minutes:

The PSHE & Drug Education Co-ordinator introduced this item to the Panel. She explained that the B&NES Secondary Parliament had taken place at Norton Hill School on February 2nd 2017. She said that the theme for the day was Get Inspired Get Involved and that over 100 young people attended from 12 different secondary schools, one special school and from a range of settings including Mentoring Plus, the Youth Forum, Senior In Care Council and Off the Record.

 

She highlighted that the event in 2018 would take place on February 8th at Hayesfield School.

 

Jasmin Miller, MYP for B&NES commented that it had been a really good day and that there were a lot of achievements made to be proud of.

 

The Strategic Commissioning Officer addressed the Panel in relation to the Primary Parliament. She explained that the report should be ready in the next week and that she would circulate it to them. She requested that the Panel at their September meeting notes that they have received and read the report so it can be recorded in the minutes.

 

She informed the Panel that children from 24 Primary Schools had attended this years’ event and that they had received presentations from Equalities Teams, Castle Primary School and St. John’s Primary School. She said that the pupils of Roundhill Primary School hosted the event which took place at Somerdale, Keynsham.

 

She said that a number of workshops took place during the day on the following topics.

 

KS1: Go For It, Get Creative – Pupils were asked in the workshop to describe what makes them feel good on the inside and good on the outside. The pupils decided to follow up this work by talking to their teachers when back in school about the use of creative activities in the classroom.

 

KS2: Go For It, Get Going – As the title suggests this workshop was all about exercise. The children said that they would follow up by looking at how to make activities more accessible and to take part in more exercise with their families.

 

KS2: Go For It, Get involved in Equalities – The young people from this group highlighted the importance of the right to be equal and to celebrate difference.

 

KS2: Go For It, Make a Change – This workshop discussed how young people can help each other to feel supported and included through the work of E-teams and playground buddies. They also talked about how to be safe online and the effects of cyber bullying.

 

Councillor Liz Hardman asked what information schools retain regarding volunteering.

 

The PSHE & Drug Education Co-ordinator replied that she was aware that a number of schools take part in the Duke of Edinburgh Awards. She added that she could send a list to schools of groups or individuals that could speak to young people in assemblies.

 

Councillor Liz Hardman spoke of how important these days were for the young people involved and recalled that the Gem Project was created at a previous day and that this had been very successful in helping with the emotions of young people.

 

The Chair on behalf of the Panel thanked all involved for taking part in and organising both events.

 

The Panel RESOLVED to note the report from the Secondary Parliament 2017 held in the academic year 2016/2017 and that they looked forward to receiving the Primary Parliament 2017 report in due course.

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