Between 2004 and 2007 the London Secondary Schools Action Research Project worked with a group of eight comprehensive schools to develop their school councils and research the process and results of this intervention. Lois Canessa was appointed the manager and sole project worker, and her work was assessed by the Centre for International Education and Research (CIER) at Birmingham University.
At the beginning and end of the project, students were asked to fill in questionnaires covering a number of different areas. Were they happy in school? Did they feel safe? Did they feel able to approach teachers when they had problems with their learning? Did they feel that their views were given a fair hearing? And so on.
At the end of the project, in only one school did the survey responses show consistent improvement in all areas. In one other school there was a major increase (from a very low base) in student happiness, but in the other six there was little change, and in some instances a deterioration. This may have been due to the fact that different groups of children responded to the initial and final surveys. (Another reason may have been that having seen what was possible, the children had understood what they were missing.)
The staff were also invited to answer a different questionnaire, and of the small proportion who did so 40% felt there had been either some improvement or a lot of improvement, compared with 60% who thought there had been little or none. These figures, however, carry little weight because so few of the staff in some of the schools were involved in the research, or indeed even aware that it was going on; in one school only two adults responded to the questionnaire.
The CIER, however, was so impressed by what success there was in some areas in some schools that it was able to say, The view of the research team is that this has been a highly successful project. . . . The schools that moved into the more tricky areas of student involvement, such as teaching and learning, have shown that not only is it not too threatening but that it is very beneficial. Similarly, those that trusted the young people to take some control of behaviour of peers, to organise conferences, or to dispense funds, found that this trust paid off. This project has demonstrated some important possibilities and we think quite radically new potentials for school council work and for changing school climate.
And a little later:
Our overall conclusions are that if the building blocks are there, and if a maximalist view of their role and breadth is taken, then school councils can make a difference and can improve a school and the lives of the people in it. This is because there is an ongoing and combined logic:
Every student has an opportunity to understand how the school functions and why and how decisions are made; they hear the views of teachers on management, not just on their individual performance or behaviour.
Every student has an opportunity to give a view, individually or collectively, on these functions, and feels that this view is heard and understood.
Therefore, students have a sense that they are part of an organisation which is there for them, because of them and through them, rather than being just recipients or targets of some far-off and long-forgotten policy which made education compulsory and structured in a particular way.
When students are treated as adults, they behave like adults, more or less. School council work gives the message to both staff and students that students can take responsibility.
Students know as much as teachers about teaching and learning. They just know different things. Working together on this can be complementary.
Students know as much as teachers about behaviour. They probably know more. Again, working together creates a symbiosis which tackles behaviour issues.
Students who participate learn a whole new set of skills and competences which spill over into their academic performance.
If the building blocks are there, they say, and if a maximalist view of their role and breadth is taken. In far too many schools the only rational reaction from the children is, If only.
School Councils School Improvement by Lynn Davies and Hiromi Yamashita, is available from School Councils UK, 3 rd Floor, 108-110 Camden High Street, London NW1 0LU, or CIER, University of Birmingham,Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, and online at www.schoolcouncils.org or www.education.bham.ac.uk/research/cier/
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