The Leaflet

The leaflet set out the aims of the School Council:

	to enable a two way process of consultation to take place between pupils and staff (see Picture A on previous page)
	to provide a formal mechanism for issues to be raised by pupils
	to consult pupils on major issues
	to assist in raising pupil morale and ethos of the school

Areas of the Council's remit were specified to include the curriculum, social areas, property issues, House activities and support for pupils including anti-bullying support. To ensure wider representation than before there would be House Committees with elected pupil representatives (see Pictures C and D) from each year, House Captains, a Guidance or other teacher or community worker and the Head of House. The House Committees feed into the School Council via the House Captains and other representatives as appropriate to the issues raised. Other School Council members consist of the School Captains, Rector and one other SMT member, the Pupil Council Officer (senior pupil) and a Youth Worker with, again, additional representations as appropriate.

Procedures were also established and set out in the leaflet to offer a sustainable structure:

	meetings to be fixed in advance with at least one meeting per term
	additional meetings to be called as needs arose
	requests for agenda items to be made at social education classes (a tear-off pro-forma was provided)
	one social education class per term to have some time devoted to pupils' issues (note to be kept by SE teacher)
	minutes of meetings to be displayed outside the guidance base, in the staffroom and they would also be distributed to SMT and guidance staff
	regular reports by pupil council members to be given at assemblies, School Board meetings and in school newsletters
	Year representatives to be nominated and voted for at start of session
	Pupil Council Officer to be nominated from the previous year's Council

Raising the profile of pupil representation

Earlier this session, pupil representatives on the School Council met with their MSP as part of the 'Put it to your MSP' campaign (see Picture E). This gave the pupil representatives recognition as an important group as well as allowing their views and concerns to be raised with a national representative. One area of discussion was the Education Maintenance Allowance. The school is part of a pilot scheme for giving S5/S6 an EMA and this was an opportunity for pupils to influence the future of the scheme. The pupils also received a lot of advice on how to be more effective by concentrating on one or two achievable targets and on making involvement in the Council more fun. It is planned to make this consultation an annual event and to extend it by also inviting local Councillors.

The pupil representatives on the School Council are also represented on the Dundee Citywide Pupil Council, an initiative to promote consultation with pupils. This has been very effective as a link between the school and EA. The Citywide Council has been consulted by the Education Director on issues such as summer access school, use of school premises for out-of-school clubs, provision of sexual health information, bullying, bus fares and the introduction of Public Private Partnership schemes. Also, through the Citywide Council, the pupil members of our School Council have taken part in the Scottish Youth Parliament and debated whether young people needed a Youth Commissioner directly accountable to the Scottish Executive. Members are also represented at the School Board and have worked with the Parent Teacher Association in organising a Spring Fayre. Their networking has been effective and their status rightly enhanced by all these activities.

Successes of the new system

The new council has only operated for eight months and so is still very much in its infancy. Some aspects have yet to be put into place such as Council discussions in relation to the social education programme of work and reporting at assemblies.

Regular meetings have taken place, pupils have been involved in decision making and some pupil-requested issues have been successfully addressed:

	there are now lockers for seniors and benches around the school
	discos for Halloween and Valentines are being planned for next session
	pupils have also been consulted on spending plans for school improvements and the spending of additional resources from the Scottish Executive
	pupil views have been sought on the organisation of a new servery at school dinners
	pupil representatives have been engaged in EA and national consultation