Wolverhampton Grammar School's Student Council
Bernard Trafford, Head
WGS first held elections for a Student Council in 1991. It’s a long time ago now and, although the first six years of development provided fascinating material for research, it’s really not worth charting all that early history now. If you do want to read about it, you can click on the attached document, WGS Student Council: the beginnings 1991 - 1997.
If you’re really keen, you can find in the school library the book from which that document is taken, and even the PhD research thesis that I wrote up in 1996. You can also download the entire thesis from my website:
http://www.bernardtrafford.com/writingandspeaking.html
But you’d have to be very keen to do all that.
In the early days of the Student Council, there were plenty of big battles to fight. This made some of the meetings and discussions somewhat stressful and combative, but there were big and visible prizes at stake. The school was in the early stages of becoming co-educational, so there were many issues of equity and equality. There was a major campaign to get a good-sized locker for every student: we might take that for granted nowadays, but in the early 1990s it wasn’t so much a question of finding the money for the lockers as for finding (and, in the case of the sixth form, building) the considerable amount of space needed to house them. It takes time to find the big solutions for big problems.
Actually, I really should urge you to read that history of the first six years, because understanding all the battles that were fought might help you to understand just how much the presence of an active and effective Student Council has contributed to the development of the uniquely co-operative, friendly, democratic atmosphere that we prize so much at WGS. It doesn’t happen by accident. Even now, 16 years later, the mere existence of the Council demonstrates the right of students to a significant voice in the way the school is run: so it remains both a powerful symbol of the respect given to students and a formidable protection for it. So please don’t ever take the Council for granted! Vote for representatives from your form, and demand that they both take your ideas and complaints to the Council and report back information to you. In fact, the Council is not going to be much use at all unless there is a vibrant, lively and critical debate within forms and tutor groups to feed the deliberations of the full Council.
Students are by and large very happy here. We have a strongly democratic ethos in which there is an easy relationship between teachers and students (and students and students) in which all respect one another and treat each other decently and courteously. As a result the council sometimes goes through periods when it doesn’t seem to have much to do. Maybe all the big battles have been won? Or maybe we are all becoming a bit complacent and, because we’re pretty comfortable, we can’t be bothered to push any further. It is as hard for me to judge, as head, as it is for students or parents.
But I am still quite certain of the continuing importance of the Student Council as the symbol and guardian of the rights and the voice of our students.
I write a lot about both school councils and the bigger picture of creating and maintaining a democratic ethos within schools: although I’ve read and researched a great amount, most of what I’ve learnt actually comes from my experience of working with generations of students and of Student Councillors at WGS. So I’m going to finish this article by borrowing things I’ve written elsewhere to describe two aspects of schools that have developed that special, democratic atmosphere within them: there is no better example than Wolverhampton Grammar School .
1. Features of schools that could be described as “democratic”
Ethos, the free sharing of information and ideas, the involvement of all stakeholders as far as possible in analysis and review, in identifying problems and planning and implementing solutions, and the formal structure of a school (or student) council: these are the outstanding characteristics of a democratic school. Other features are also likely to be present. Briefly these might include:
- A constant process of self-review and improvement within the School/Student Council.
- Increased breadth and quality of school activities both within and outside the classroom, with significant student leadership of them.
- Regular/routine use of democratic techniques (such as Circle Time) as learning and pastoral/social strategies in the classroom, often feeding (from class council through year council) to the over-arching school council.
- A student-run school newspaper (or, increasingly, a digital equivalent).
student-run peer support/counselling and mediation. - Increased levels of inclusion.
- Reduced feelings of alienation, tension and conflict.
- Increased engagement in the community.
- Effective and readily supported discipline structures (with significant student input).
- Students involved in teacher appointment procedures.
(mostly drawn from Bernard Trafford , School councils, school democracy, school improvement: why, what, how Secondary Heads Association 2003).
We used to have a flourishing school newspaper, but continued success of such ventures always relies on finding the right kind of (fairly workaholic) editor, usually a student who wants to go into journalism. I’d love to see a successor to the WGS Express - or maybe some kind of news page or blog online? Maybe that's the 2007 answer.
2. School Councils and School Effectiveness
Government departments and researchers spend an unbelievable amount of time and money trying to find out what makes schools more effective. More and more evidence is emerging to demonstrate that democratic schools, where the atmosphere is co-operative and students are ready participants, are more effective schools. Look at this list of features below: I reckon WGS measures up pretty well.
- Relationships are better between students and teachers
- Young people are willing to take and exercise responsibility
- Standards of attainment rise
- Discipline is improved
- Alienation is reduced
- Truancy and exclusions are reduced
- Inclusion is increased
- Motivation is increased
- Confidence and self-esteem are raised
- Challenge is readily accepted
- High expectations are the norm
- Schools become more effective
(from Bernard Trafford , Raising the student voice: a framework for effective School Councils Association of School and College Leaders 2005: 60-61)