The jobs that eat your time
Running a school council usually lands on one person, on top of a full timetable. You told us the planning and the paperwork were the heaviest bits, so most of this year went on taking them off you.
Borrow from 10,000 school council topics
Type a topic and pick a question, most with pictures for younger classes and many with a short film or a debate pack. You never start from a blank page.
Pick one, send it to every class, about a minute.
School council meetings genuinely led by pupils
Your school council meetings are now fully prepped for your pupils to lead themselves, from the launch meeting to every single one after that. They link up with your class meeting tool as well.
Nothing to prepare, and you can walk through it on your own first.
Minutes you did not have to write
Your pupil team's meetings are written up as you run them. Who was there, what they talked about, what they decided, who is doing what next. Every meeting filed by year, ready to print, download or email.
A governor asking what the school council did last spring becomes a thirty second answer.
Picking your team, without the faff
A guided, step by step run through your election or application process, with every printable you need along the way. Posters, an application form, a script for the pupil making the announcement, ballot papers, a count sheet, interview cards and certificates, all already carrying your school's name.
Everything you need to make it run smoothly, and the launch assembly presents straight from the screen.
The proof you get asked for
Ofsted, governors and your improvement plan all expect pupil voice, and the evidence is usually patchy and pulled together the night before. These three turn it into something you print, not something you scramble for.
If you forward one part of this page to your head, make it this part.
Your inspection evidence, written as you go
Everything your pupils say is sorted under the headings inspectors ask about, with the pupils' own words underneath. When someone asks, the full pack is ready to print or hand over.
This covers state schools in England today. The other inspectorates and independent settings are next, and your dashboard shows where we are up to.
Your improvement plan, in your pupils' words
Upload your SIP, SEF, SDP or Standards and Quality Report. We pull out your priorities and turn each one into questions your pupils can genuinely lead on, spread across the year.
So when governors ask what pupils think about your priority on behaviour, you have already asked them.
Two minutes to know what your whole school thinks
Every response from every class, read and summarised for you. What keeps coming up, what has shifted since last term, what the quieter classes are saying. Every idea is tagged by theme, so you can open one and read every pupil voice behind it.
Short enough to forward to your head before a meeting.
The children the old way missed
The old school council reached the same few elected children, and their ideas quietly fizzled out. A Smart School Council involves more voices, not just the small group. These two make sure nobody slips through.
See which classes have actually met
One page showing every class, how many meetings each has run and how many ideas came out of them.
You can see who is flying and who has not started without opening anything or asking anyone.
Put the change where the whole school can see it
"You said, we did" turns the changes your school council made into a timeline you can print for a display. And the progress board is a live version you can drop straight into your own school website, which fills up as your pupils record what has changed.
School councils fizzle out when pupils stop believing anything happens. This is the fix for that.
Call your team what your school calls it
Plenty of schools do not say school council. Tell us it is the Voice Squad and your dashboard, your posters and your certificates all say Voice Squad.
One name, set once, used throughout.
Communities launching 26/27
We are setting up groups of schools who want to compare notes. Scottish schools, Welsh schools, independent schools, special schools, and schools starting from scratch this year. Ask the same question, see what pupils elsewhere said, borrow what works.
These are forming rather than open. Save your spot on the Communities page and we will bring you in as each one launches.
Running pupil voice, made easier for 26/27
You are not being asked to do more this year. Most of the above exists to make the same job take less of you, and to make what your pupils say easier to show to the people who ask for it. Your refresher CPD is included.
Open the new siteSee what training is on
Greg, Founder @ Smart School Councils