Bath & North East Somerset Primary Schools Parliament - 29th June 2010 & 2011
The second Primary Schools’ Parliament was held at Bath Spa University on Tuesday 29th June. This year the parliament was planned by 8 pupils from Chew Stoke Primary, Pensford Primary, Three Ways School and Weston All Saints Primary. The theme was choices and the intended outcome was to explore with children the decisions in which they most want to be involved.
Each of the 34 participating Primary Schools sent 2 pupils to the event with a poster to represent the sorts of choices and decisions in which their pupils would like to be more involved (The posters are summarised in the report below)
The children worked in small groups in the morning, sharing their posters and deciding on questions to put the adult panel after lunch. This panel included Councillors, Officers from the Children’s Service and representatives from the Police and the Children’s Society. The questions were varied and challenging covering issues such as classroom size, leading healthier lifestyles and improving access to play parks and sensory gardens (For a full list of questions see the report below)
What did children think of the day?
Feedback suggests that children learned a lot from the day, in particular that their views can make a difference. (A summary of what they learned can be found in the report below)
What are the decisions in which children want to be more involved?
The themes from all the posters are represented in the diagram below with text size denoting how many posters mentioned a particular topic. It was clear from the posters that children want more say about how they spend their free time, what they do in school time and the local environment, with the most frequently raised issue being playgrounds and parks.
Recommendations
Messages from the Primary School Parliament need to be considered alongside those emerging from both the Young Parliament and the Children Young People’s Plan consultation. These themes should inform the CYP Plan and also used to set the direction for future participation work.
Rosie Dill
Strategic Planning Officer
14.07.10