Pupil Participation Forum Report

Joan Mowat joined the Scottish Executive in 2004 on secondment for a term from her post as Depute Head of Vale of Leven Academy in West Dunbartonshire. She was tasked to work with education practitioners to reflect critically on progress made in Scottish schools in relation to pupils' participation in their own learning and in the wider life of the school. As Joan explains, 'Pupil participation is about how school staff engage with and give children choices every day, not just about special projects or activities'.

The Scottish Executive is now building on the good practice identified during Joan's secondment to produce a user-friendly briefing for school staff as part of the Practice for Positive Relationships series. This issue, called 'Positive About Pupil Participation' will be published during 2006, and featured on the Better Behaviour website.

The downloadable report (pdf document link on the right) consists of two discussion papers produced by Joan for a pupil participation forum involving a significant number of schools, local authority and other organisation representatives.

These papers cover a number of topics including:

Pupil Participation
• What is pupil participation and what form does it take?
• What might the barriers to effective pupil participation be?
• Pupil Councils and Other Participatory Forums
• Active Pupil Participation in Learning

Peer Support
• What is peer support and what forms does it take?
• Initiatives to Support Pupils’ Learning
• Initiatives to Support Pupils’ Social and Emotional Well-Being
• Initiatives to Support the Transition Process
• Guidance on training, on-going support and evaluation

The appendices include an evaluation of the forum discussions that took place and a list of useful sources.