Bolton Pastoral Network

For the past 5 years, the Bolton Pastoral Network has worked across schools and organisations locally and nationally to develop student leadership, and to help adults and communities communicate and learn from one another.

The Bolton Pastoral Network has funded and supported a number of initiatives and projects, including the following:

Student Councils

Student council forum: This forum developed after a group of students, who had been commissioned by the Bolton Pastoral Network to survey schools about their work with student councils, identified their wishes to share ideas and talk to other student councils in the borough. The forum is represented by both primary and secondary schools, who come together termly to share good practice and work on common agendas that can benefit all the schools in Bolton. A group of young people are currently looking into more effective ways in which the student council can be sustained, and how using this website can help them to do this. If you would like to add your comments, please follow the links via the forum page.

SCUK training: 4 professionals from Bolton (Connexions and Healthy Schools) have been trained by School Councils UK. They are working across primary and secondary schools to help raise the profiles of student councils in schools and develop the skills of the young leaders. This work is also currently being linked to the education for sustainable development team.

Research: A group of secondary school students designed a questionnaire about student councils and how they function within individual schools. The questionnaire was sent to primary and secondary schools in the borough, and the data was collated by the young people, who then presented this information to an audience at a pupil voice conference. The research is included in the pupil voice folder, which has been sent to all schools.

Student voice conferences

The Bolton Pastoral Network has supported 2 secondary school student voice conferences and 1 primary school student voice conference. All were held at the Reebok Stadium and were attended by more than 300 young people. These events have proven to be very popular with the young people, who are actively involved in facilitating and  organising the day.

North West Student Voice Conference:  In February 2005 Bolton Pastoral Network jointly sponsored the North West Student Conference with the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust.   Ruth Kelly was the keynote speaker.  The day provided an opportunity for students to share good practice from their schools/ authorities. Students had the opportunity to host their own workshops on various issues associated with student voice, as well as attend workshops run by professionals. The workshops included Ten top tips to preventing bullying in your school (Bully Free Zone), Recycling to Save the World, Massage in Schools, and many more.

Whole school conference: 2 secondary schools have organised their own whole school conferences based on those run by the Bolton Pastoral Network.

    

Star Factor

30 students, aged 11—15, from secondary schools across the borough participated in 4 twilight sessions at Bolton Arena, where they worked in a mock TV studio, with a production team, cameraman, TV presenter and floor manager from Granada TV to learn skills and techniques that would boost their self esteem and confidence. The students worked individually and in teams to develop their skills in various roles. While some students concentrated on researching their guests and devising questions behind the scenes, other students performed rap songs on stage and took on the roles of Parkinson and other celebrity presenters. For more information about the Star Factor, go to www.saxonvideo.co.uk

Development Education Project

For 2 years running, 20 Year 8 students have been working with

The Development Education Project, based at Manchester Metropolitan

University, on a school-to-school Peer Education and the Global Dimension programme.  The aim of the project is to enhance the capacity of schools to understand and engage with the global dimension, increase the use of participatory teaching methodologies and to develop the values, attitudes and understanding of participating pupils around global issues. The Year 8 peer educators have taken part in training days every half term, and delivered assemblies within their own school as well as local primary schools. A cohort of year 9 pupils act as mentors, and some Year 10 students are now developing a student action team to research how the project can be more sustainable.

Sharing Bolton’s Good Practice

Knots and Threads: The aim of this folder is to act as a knowledge pool around Bolton’s leadership, voice and participation, local and national initiatives, networking as well as other issues that concern professionals working in the local authority. The folder has been sent to all schools and organisations in Bolton. The contents of the folder will be updated termly.

Pupil voice folder: The aim of this folder is to bring together information around pupil voice and participation. The folder has been updated twice in the last year, and we will be sending out more updates before the end of the summer term. The folder has been distributed to every primary, secondary and special school in the area, as well as other organisations and services working with young people. We encourage anyone with examples of good practice to send their work to us, in order for it to be distributed.  The latest addition will include the Voice and Participation SEF toolkit.

If you have any information or examples of good practice that you would like to share with us we would be happy to include it in either of the folders.

Photovoice

Photovoice is an exciting way for people to develop and share their ‘voices’, their knowledge(s) and experiences. To do this people use a combination of their own photographs and words to create projects which address important aspects of their lives and particularly what they want to change.

Working with students: Ian Kaplan (Manchester University) worked with 7 students who were identified as being vulnerable, over the period of one term. The students used photography to highlight where they did and didn’t feel safe within their school. The students produced posters and power point presentations, which were shared with other students and members of staff.

Working with adults: Following the success of the student Photovoice project, Ian Kaplan worked with 16 adults over the course of 3 twilight sessions. The adults developed the techniques of participatory photography by working on their own mini projects, which they will then use with the children and young people in their schools and organisations.

Photovoice is now being developed as part of a “Cara” research project at Rivington and Blackrod High School

 

Kirkland Rowell surveys

Every secondary school in Bolton completed the Kirkland Rowell pupil

Survey. Questionnaires were distributed and pupils asked to assess their progress in schools, the curriculum and identify their top 10 priorities from a list of 20 and to choose their single top priority for improvement in their school. Each school received their own data and an anonymous composite of Bolton’s data.  This composite data will be merged with other on-going survey results and fed back to school leaders to inform future learning and collaborative working.

Anti Bullying

Bully Free Zone was commissioned by Bolton Pastoral Network to research the experiences and perceptions of bullying amongst Secondary School pupils throughout the Bolton Borough.  In addition to researching pupils’ perceptions and experiences of bullying, the questionnaire uncovered areas of good anti-bullying practice within each school.  Pupils were asked to make suggestions for further anti-bullying strategies within their school. A research report was provided, which analysed the overall results, looking at different ages, genders and areas.

Next steps: to discover what young people feel should be provided to deal with bullying within their locality area. Establish an anti bullying strategy group. Promote a generic policy and approach to anti-bullying.  Link closely to the strategic work on this issue.

Future Search: Fix the Task, Not the

People

Future Search is an interactive tool that enables all partners in a change process to

explore and action plan their common agenda based on the principle that you fix the

task and you don’t have to fix the people! For more information on Future Searches follow the link via Our Work

TASK: 2020 Every Child in Bolton Matters  Young people aged 9 – 19 engaged in helping a multi-service enquiry that will inform the children’s plan

TASK: What Type Of School Community Do We Want At Sharples?  Young people facilitated their own in-school activity bringing staff, parents, Governors, community, faith leaders, educational partners together

TASK: Our Children, Our People: Shaping Hayward’s Bright Future.  Stakeholders included young people 7yrs – 19 yrs working with Governors, Parents, Faith Leaders, Community and Educational Partners.  The mantra for the event was Getting it right and making it bright. 

TASK: 2020: Bolton’s Serious Approach to Children and Young People Young people who have been involved with previous search conferences helped to plan and facilitate the event. Adults and young people are now working on the issues that emerged through student action teams

Learning Walks

6 schools took part in the pupil learning walks, with an agreed focus: Can we improve the learning environment of our schools by the exchange of good practice? The topics covered were: structure of the school day, teaching and learning, school environment, rewards and sanctions and school uniform.

Following the success of the 1st cohort of learning walks, schools have carried out smaller scale learning walks within their localities.

Bolton Pastoral Network Learning Community has been successful in advancing Voice and Participation by tapping into other people’s agendas and resources both locally and nationally.    We will continue to build Bolton’s Professional Learning Community to ensure sustainability and build capacity to move voice and participation into community learning across Children’s Services, voluntary and community organisations. We are learning about how our work is building Bolton’s social capital as an assets rather than deficit model – and this seems to work!