Cynghorau Ysgol Cymru School Council Wales. Guidance: running an election

Transcription

1 Cynghorau Ysgol Cymru School Council Wales Guidance: running an election December 2016

2 Cynghorau Ysgol Cymru School Council Wales Running an election Guidance This document is available in Welsh on request School Council Wales

3 Summary In Wales, school councils have been a statutory requirement since 1 st November Estyn, Her Majesty s Inspectorate of Training and Education in Wales inspects schools on their implementation of the Regulations and effectiveness of pupil participation. School Council Wales is a voluntary group of education professionals across Wales who believe in pupil participation and want to ensure that consistency is applied to all schools in Wales. Elections Each school council setup should only consist of elected members, these are registered pupils who have been elected via secret ballot or where a school council is to involve every student then elections may not be completed. Membership 4. (1) The membership of the school council must consist solely of registered pupils at the school. (2) The governing body of a school and the head teacher must make arrangements for at least one registered pupil of each year group, from Year 3 and above, to be elected to membership of the school council. (3) A person who is not a registered pupil at the school for which a school council is established is disqualified from membership of that council. (4) The governing body and the head teacher of any school which has a special educational needs resource base, must make arrangements for at least one registered pupil from that special educational needs resource base to be elected to membership of the school council. Elections 6. (1) Subject to paragraph (2), appointment to the school council must be by election in a secret ballot in which all registered pupils are entitled to vote for candidates (if any) in their year group or within their special educational needs resource base. (2) Paragraph (1) does not apply where arrangements are made for all registered pupils to be members of the school council. Regulations 4 and 6 of the The School Councils (Wales) Regulations 2005

4 Running an election Making sure that elections comply with the regulations is the main part of the job of any election co-ordinator for school council elections. Here are a few helpful tips to help you get started. Give enough time for students to come forward to put themselves on the ballot paper. Ensure there is enough ballot papers which are designed using easy to read fonts and not too confusing in layout. Ensure the counting process is as transparent as possible. Finding some students to put on the ballot Elections can t take place without some people to vote for! Finding students who want to put themselves forward can be frustrating at times, ensure there is enough time for students to put themselves forward. Some tips; Speak in assemblies about the role of the school council and what it did the previous year, Ask students who have previously been on the council/other pupil groups, Allow for time to be spent at break time or lunchtime in a central spot to ensure students can talk to you about the council and the role of the school councillor if they were to be elected. Most schools in Wales operate a system where boys and girls are elected separately (the highest polling girl and boy are elected to the council) so ensure you have more than one of each gender on the ballot paper.

5 Arranging hustings and events Pupils can t be expected to vote for people they don t know or are unsure of what that person will bring to the table if elected to ensure that pupils know what their candidates are standing for, arrange a hustings event at break/lunch or in assemblies and give pupils the opportunity to ask questions to their candidates. You may want to also allow candidates to put up posters and make videos to encourage their peers to vote for them. Ballot papers For pupils to cast their vote, they need to mark their vote using secret ballot. This means all ballot papers are anonymous and cannot be traced back to the person who voted. Ballot papers have to be used by all students from a range of learning abilities so ensure that ballot papers are easy to read and understand. We have produced some examples at the end of this document. Organise the arrangements for casting the ballot Ensure that there is ample opportunity for pupils to cast their ballots on voting day(s). You may want to split these days into year groups with all members of Year 9 voting on a particular day. You may also want to hold the election on one day to create an election atmosphere in your school. Your local authority might have ballot boxes and voting booths that you can borrow if they are not being used - get in touch with your (Acting) Returning Officer for your parliamentary or assembly constituency. The voting day The big day has arrived and pupils are casting their votes, ensure that pupils know what a secret ballot is and that their vote is their vote and it is personal to them. Some schools even chose to let pupils run the voting process with pupils being electoral officers ensuring that pupils only vote once.

6 Counting the results The voting has finished and you are surrounded by hundreds of bits of paper! First thing is to work out a process for counting the votes, you might find using a tally next to a name easier or a spreadsheet to be of beneficial to you. If you have a combined ballot paper, sort these into piles first and then count afterwards. Make sure that the counting process is as transparent as possible to give pupils an understanding of integrity in your election process. Announcing the results Once the ballots have been counted it is time to announce the winners. You can do this by using noticeboards, staff briefings, assemblies or holding an announcement ceremony. It is important that all students know who has been elected to represent them. What happens next? That s it for another year (you hope), it might be worthwhile to keep the ballot papers for a period of one year to ensure that any claims of electoral fraud can be countered against. Next thing to arrange now is your first meeting. Consistency Lots of schools in Wales will want to run elections in their own way and this is fine! Just ensure you keep to the secret ballot conditions. You can be as creative as you want with the election, some schools in Wales use digital voting to cast ballots and count them electronically as long as these comply with secret ballot conditions then this is fine. If you want further assistance with elections or you have any questions, please get in touch we would love to help you. mike.trailer@schoolcouncil.wales or admin@schoolcouncil.wales