Promoting pupils’ and young people’s participation

Participation is the active involvement of children and young people in the decision-making process. Schools are increasingly developing pupils’ skills of active participation. A school culture that values pupils’ views will be one that is enriched by creative ideas and solutions. Adults will be better able to understand children’s needs if time is made to listen to them and opportunities created for their insights to inform practice.

The 2002 Education Act requires local authorities, governing bodies and schools to have regard to DfES guidance, Working Together: Giving Children and Young People a Say on considering the views of children and young people and involving them in decisions that affect them. The National Healthy School Standard(NHSS) and the citizenship curriculum also provide this.

‘Making a positive contribution’ is also a key outcome of Every Child Matters: Change for Children .

New Arrivals Excellence Programme: Primary and Secondary National Strategies (NAEP)

NAEP website
The website offers guidance, provides answers to frequently asked questions and provides links to other useful websites. The guidance can be downloaded from the website. 

The promoting children’s participation includes:

• Having a voice and being listened to
• Being active participants in their own learning
• Collaborating with and supporting peers

NAEP resources

New Arrivals Excellence Programme: DVD and case studies - a resource to support the development of induction procedures for new arrivals. The DVD is available on request.

Good practice

By promoting children and young people’s participation and their active involvement, schools will benefit from pupils’ skills and talents.

Include all pupils

Pupils from all backgrounds, including refugee pupils, should have opportunities to be involved in decision-making. Schools should monitor pupils’ participation in activities to ensure that refugee pupils are represented.

The duty to promote race equality: A guide for Schools (.PDF)

This guide supports the Code of Practice on the Duty to Promote Race Equality and has been written mainly for the governing bodies of maintained schools and other educational institutions maintained by local authorities (LAs), which are also bound by the duty.

The benefits of involving refugee children

Make all staff aware of the benefits of having refugee pupils involved in decision-making. It is important that school staff see refugee pupils as creative and resourceful. Avoid regarding refugee pupils as passive and as being purely recipients of support because of their challenging experiences. Refugee pupils should be made aware that their opinions and contributions are valued.

Brighter Futures is a network of self-advocacy groups working to give young refugees a voice. It is run by Save the Children England Programme. Young people in the Brighter Futures groups have designed a website for other young refugees.

Learn about rights and responsibilities

Ensure that refugee pupils know about and understand decision-making processes. Learning about having a voice, democracy, rights and responsibilities, prepares all pupils for life in a diverse society.

The Citizenship Foundation’s Young Citizen’s Passport explains, as simply as possible, ‘those parts of the law that have most relevance to the everyday life of young people in England and Wales’. A teachers' resource is also available.

Further Teaching resources to promote an understanding of rights and entitlements have been developed by organisations concerned about international development, human rights and poverty. Some of these teaching materials can connect directly with some refugee pupils’ experiences.

Partners in Rights is a Save the Children initiative, supported by the Community Fund. It aims to increase children's understanding of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child through the creative arts and through cultural exchanges between young people. The Education Pack grew out of this creative exchange. It contains practical ideas for the classroom with full-colour photocards, a poster and a book of activities. It has been translated into Spanish, Portuguese and Welsh and is available on the Partners in Rights website. The activities are designed for 7-14 year olds to fit with Citizenship and Personal, Social and Health Education. They can also be used across a number of curriculum subjects.

National Youth Agency website provides information about their programmes and campaigns to promote young people’s participation in democracy and decision-making.

Children’s Rights Alliance for England website is another valuable resource.

Make sure that teaching materials connect directly with some refugee students’ experiences. When teaching about decision-making processes in the UK, compare these with other countries. Websites such as the Home Office’s Country Reports and BBC News’ Country Profiles can be useful resources.

Human rights organisations, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch can also provide information about the restriction or curtailment of rights in certain countries.

Promote volunteering

Volunteering is an enjoyable way for refugees to improve their English, meet new people, gain work experience and contribute to school life. Schools can link up with community organisations, including refugee organisations, to develop volunteering projects. The Community Service Volunteers Community Partners website is designed to help universities, colleges and schools develop opportunities for citizenship education through community involvement. It provides access to organisations interested in community partnership work, with case studies of some successful projects.

Active global citizenship in the curriculum

There is a range of teaching resources that encourage young people’s participation through promoting active global citizenship. Developing active global citizenship in the curriculum can teach pupils their rights and lead to responsible action. It can also engage refugee pupils’ prior knowledge so they can contribute to the learning of their peers.

Get Global! Is a project funded by the Department for International Development and is run jointly by Save the Children, Oxfam, Christian Aid, CAFOD and ActionAid. Get Global! is a teachers' guide on how to facilitate and assess active global citizenship. Its participative approach provides a structure for pupils to manage their own learning and allows them to move from thinking about issues that are important to them, to planning and participating in action, and reflecting on their performance.

The Catholic Agency for Overseas Development ( CAFOD) produces resources for teachers looking for current ideas and themes to integrate the global dimension into their curriculum. Materials are developed to deliver the global citizenship agenda through the schemes of work of other subjects.

The Development Education Association (DEA) is a national network of some 250 member organisations that share a commitment to development education.

Innovative and creative approaches

Consider innovative and creative ways to involve refugee children. For ideas look at:

Participation: Spice it up! practical tools for engaging children and young people in planning and consultations a Save the Children publication . 

Connexions has published guidance on ways to involve young people. These can be downloaded from the publications area of their website. Useful guidance includes:

Involving Hard to Reach Young People in the Connexions Service - Guidance for Connexions Partnerships and Other Partners

Involving Hard to Reach Young People in the Connexions Service - Why involve the hard to reach?

The Active Involvement of Young People in the Connexions Service: A Practitioners Guide

Encourage involvement in school councils

Refugee students may be unused to the idea of student councils and need extra encouragement to participate. National organisations promote representation and involvement.

Schools Councils UK produces a range of resources: practical toolkits, videos, posters and badges, to help you set-up, maintain and improve your pupil councils.

Some s chools have also encouraged refugee pupils to become involved with the UK Youth Parliament (UKYP). Some local UKYPs have been involved in raising awareness about refugees and campaigning on their behalf.

Reward refugee pupils’ involvement

Taking part, for example, in a consultation activity or helping to plan a project that contributes to citizenship education can be rewarded. This can be recorded in a pupils’ record of achievement or Progress File Achievement Planner. Nominating refugee pupils for public awards can give their work further recognition and raise the profile of their contribution amongst the local community. Young refugees have, for example, had their contributions to the community recognised by the Diana, Princess of Wales, Memorial Award for Young People, which ‘ celebrates inspirational qualities of young people aged 12 to 18 by recognising the contribution that they make to their schools, families, friends or communities’ .

Assess and monitor what has been achieved

Case study

The Young Refugee/Asylum Seeker Endeavour Award (.PDF)

Young refugees in the London Borough of Hillingdon received special awards to recognise their achievement, motivation and determination to overcome hardship. The case study describes how the LEA and social services worked in partnership with a charity to recognise the positive contribution that refugee children and young people made to their schools.