Case studies "Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council: Schools Election Pack"

Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council: Schools Election Pack

Summary of activity

A pack for primary schools/secondary schools to assist in organising and running their annual school council elections

Aims and objectives of the activity

1.  To provide teachers with resource materials to run an election. 2.  To provide all relevant materials necessary. 3.  To provide additional support and guidance for the election as required. 4.  To give pupils an understanding of the democratic process.

Description of activity

The introduction of the School Councils (Wales) Regulations 2005 has given pupils in Welsh primary and secondary schools the opportunity to stand for their school council.  As Wales is the first country to ensure this through legislation it was felt that it was important for Electoral Services to support schools in conducting their first elections. To facilitate this an election resource pack was developed to assist teachers in conducting a poll. Included in this pack are the materials required to run an election (ballot papers, poll cards etc.) and everything a teacher would need to both run and explain the election process. The pack has been used by numerous schools in the County Borough since 2007.  In the first instance, Electoral Services Staff will attend the school to assist in the running of the election.  It is then agreed that the school will run future elections with off-site support from Electoral Services.

What went well?

Due to work and time constraints Electoral Services staff  are limited in the amount of time they can spend on participation work within schools. As such the introduction of the school election pack was a way of allowing useful and accurate guidance material to be circulated to assist teachers in a much wider range of schools throughout the County Borough. Since introducing the pack the number of schools requesting ballot boxes and polling screens to run their own school elections has also increased.

What didnt go so well?

The project has been a positive exercise and we have received nothing but positive feedback from pupils and staff alike.

How was the activity evaluated?

Each pack comes with an evaluation form for the teachers to complete and return.

To what extent were the aims and objectives achieved?

1. All teachers can now access the pack, either via the internet or by contacting Electoral Services. 2. Teachers are aware that they can contact Electoral Services for any support, such as attending the election to deliver a talk on elections or giving advice prior to the election. 3. The pack aims to give young people an insight into the democratic process.  As school council elections are held every year during a pupils school life, pupils should become familiar with the process and feel comfortable in voting in local and parliamentary elections once they turn 18.

Timeline

As the pack has now been developed the timeline is determined by the schools themselves.  Obviously any developments within electoral practices will be updated within the pack and will therefore take approximately 2 days a year to do this.

Overall budget

Printing Costs - £200. Staff Time in kind contribution

Number of people working on the activity