Recent legislation has placed a requirement upon local authorities to take account of young people's views in decisions that significantly affect them and has ensured that the views of the child now holds statutory significance in decisions about education. In a range of ways, local authorities are now supporting schools to increase the participation of young people in decision making and are developing authority-wide mechanisms to foster consultation and input from young people.

This happens on two levels:

	providing support to schools in setting up and developing structures such as pupil councils.
	consultation at Local Authority level through the South Lanarkshire Youth Council.

Within the authority, consultation has been carried out in the past on policy matters such as how class organisation could provide for different levels of ability, how young people felt about setting or streaming, on corporal punishment and on alternatives to exclusion. Now the Education Service is engaging in a process of mapping good practice in schools with a view to providing advice on how to involve pupils. Examples of involvement in fundamental aspects of school life such as how courses are taught and pupil involvement in development planning are emerging. Three South Lanarkshire schools recently contributed to the joint Ethos and Anti-Bullying Networks event in Dumfries. A snapshot of their work can be found in this newsletter. Some of the other examples of good practice within the authority can be found at Hunter High School in East Kilbride, where well established year-group councils are already involved in decision-making on a wide range of issues and at St Ninian's Primary in Hamilton, where a pupil council consisting of representatives from P4 - P7 meet each week to debate and discuss issues and report back to the rest of the pupils at school assemblies.

The authority-wide South Lanarkshire Youth Council has been in existence since 1997. Its principal aim is to give young people an opportunity to influence the services of the Council and other public agencies such as health and the police. Supported by the Youth Learning Services branch of South Lanarkshire's Education Resources Service, the Council has 100 members from the four Council areas, elected on the basis of youth population levels. Youth Learning Services have made approaches to young people in schools particularly in the Clydesdale area to get involved in the Youth Council and have run workshops in schools to encourage and develop skills in participation. Alasdair Offin of South Lanarkshire's Universal Connection says that while the platform offered to young people through the Youth Council primarily addresses concerns about local youth facilities, views and opinions have also been developed about bullying in schools and how this could be tackled.

Contact
Jim Duffin
South Lanarkshire Education Service
01698 454413
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Gus MacDonald of Inverlcyde Council's Support for Learning writes about their approach to an award for developing a positive ethos

While I, as Chairperson of the SSEN Advisory Group, was always convinced of the value of the national Ethos Award, I was always also struck by the fact that the award, like many others, was retrospective in nature. Might there not, I wondered, be value in having an award that supported innovation proactively rather than one which recognised successful innovation retrospectively? From this germ of an idea, and the very broad agreement in principle and philosophy between Inverclyde Education Services and the Ethos Network, came Inverclyde's own Ethos Award, which we ran for a year on a pilot basis. The aim of the award was to encourage and support innovative approaches to the creating of an Ethos of Achievement within the Education Services, and its establishments. Applications which could come from whole establishments, or departments or stages within an establishment, or from individual members of staff, were required to have certain features or characteristics. .

	a focus on the achievement of children and young people
	describe clearly how the award will be applied to raise pupil achievement
	include an evaluation strategy
	include innovation in, or development of, practice
	have the full support of all involved, including the Head of Establishment
	be able to be replicated

Given that the award was being made in response to a proposal that had not yet been undertaken, applicants had to agree to evaluate and report back on the work undertaken. The judges, in making their choice, were guided by criteria:

	the degree of innovation
	the likely effect on pupil achievement
	the theoretical and ethical soundness of the proposal
	the practicality of the proposal
	whether it could be applied in other situations or establishments
	the quality of the submission

.

In the event, seven schools applied, each bringing forward very interesting and creative ideas; the award was finally made to on of our Primary schools (see photo), which it used to develop a garden in a piece of ground which had lain unused within the school boundary for many years. This garden has now been the recipient of other awards, at national level, not only for its own intrinsic beauty and worth, but also for the very imaginative way it has been used within the curriculum. Without doubt, the pilot was a success - not one which we felt we could use every year due to the relatively small number of schools which we have, but one which we could use at other times to foster thinking and innovation in other areas where we wished to develop policy into practice, raising attainment, or inclusion or pupil participation - I think we'll have another very soon!

Contact
Inverclyde Council Education Services
01475 712824
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