Do the Right Thing: children's rights progress report

7 Participation of children and young people in schools

What the Committee said:

"The Committee recommends that the State party, in accordance with article 12 of the Convention … promote, facilitate and implement, in legislation as well as in practice, within the family, schools, and the community as well as in institutions and in administrative and judicial proceedings, the principle of respect for the views of the child.

The Committee recommends that the State party… strengthen children's participation in all matters of school, classroom and learning which affect them."

Progress to date

• Education Scotland have worked with the Scottish Youth Parliament to develop a training resource - V3 Vote, Voice, Valued - aimed at maximising the potential of pupil councils in schools. The resource helps support the delivery of Curriculum for Excellence, and aims to encourage young people's participation in pupil councils and in having a direct influence on matters that personally affect them.
• Education Scotland ran a professional development event in March 2012, at which teachers heard from schools already exhibiting effective practice in pupil voice for global citizenship education. The Children's Commissioner delivered a keynote address.
• The GIRFEC core components will also apply to staff working in schools. Coupled with Curriculum for Excellence the GIRFEC approach when implemented will help ensure that each child has opportunities both to express views and have them listened to.

Next steps

• Education Scotland will continue their small-scale funding to local authorities for peer-support teacher exchange.
• The Scottish Government provides funding to Keep Scotland Beautiful to run the Eco-Schools programme. Pupil participation is central to the success of the programme, with over 40 per cent of Scottish schools achieving a Green Flag, the highest award level.
• The Scottish Government has provided funding to Children in Scotland and the Scottish Youth Parliament to create BeXcellent, a web-based, interactive resource to support children and young people's understanding of, and participation in, Curriculum for Excellence. The resource will be made available in May 2012.
• The Scottish Government is currently joint-funding (with Midlothian Council) the 'Putting Learner Voice at the Heart of Learning and Teaching: Developing a Pathfinder Approach for Local Authorities' project. Teachers, children and young people talk together and share experiences. They explore new ways for the children and young people to shape Curriculum for Excellence and change classroom dynamics.