Child Parliament 2015

www.childreach.org.uk

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Childreach International

Childreach International works in partnership with local communities in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Tanzania and the UK, unlocking the potential of some of the world’s most mar-ginalised children helping them to secure their most basic rights. By breaking down the barriers preventing them from living as children should, we provide thousands of children every year with the chance to transform their lives. We focus on improving children’s access to education, healthcare and child protection, restoring children’s rights and empowering children to create positive change through community based solutions.

My School My Voice

My School My Voice (MSMV) is a UK programme that creates a safe space for children to learn and talk about their rights and teaches skills to research social issues. Throughout these workshops, Childreach International has collaborated with schools, focusing on the ‘right to participate in decisions that a0ect me’ and the ‘right to protection from abuse’. Together, we investigated issues that can a0ect children in the UK; not feeling safe online, being discriminated against, feeling like their family has a lot less money than other people’s families and not feeling safe at home.

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The objective of the Child Parliament 2015 is to empower children to

fully participate in decision making in their schools.

This year, 167 children from eight UK schools thought about and voted on the issue that they felt most a0ected them or children they know. The process of the Child Parliament allowed children to share these issues, and motivated them to suggest solutions and engage with decision makers in their school and local community. It also

empowered them to ask direct questions to decision makers present.

The Child Parliament 2015 ran in one UK school, and was attended by the school’s pupils aged eight to eleven. The 12 member of the School Council investigated possible solutions to issues and voted for: not feeling safe online and feeling like my family has a lot less money than other people’s families as being the biggest concerns. These were presented during the parliament.

The Panel (from left to right)

Alan Brown (Head Teacher), Sal Jarvis (Dean of the School of Education, University of Hertfordshire),

Cllr Dr Linda Radford (The Worshipful The Mayor of Hertford), Ben Pirt (School Governor) Amy Smith (School Governor)

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Solutions identi�ed for online

safety:

• Never share your password

• Make sure your password isn’t easy to

guess

• Don’t talk to strangers

• Tell your parents, carers or teachers if you are worried about being safe online

Solutions identi�ed for ‘feeling

like my family has a lot less

money than others’:

• Life has its ups and downs

• You can be rich in di0erent ways

• To try and think about why you might feel

like this

• It doesn’t matter how much money you have when you are at school

Questions raised to the panel

included:

We are really interested to learn more

about our local MP. Could you tell us more

about how the local MP a$ects our lives and

our school? Is there anything that we could

do next year to contact our local MP

directly?

Alan Brown explained who a local MP was and who their local MP is (Mark Prisk). He then asked “What would you like to contact your local MP about?”

Children in the audience replied:

“About P.E at school and doing more of it”

Some agreed they’d like more spaces to play in their community.

We have really enjoyed participating in

decisions that a$ect our lives at school this

year. Is there anything that we could do with

the governors to help to make decisions

with you as well?

Amy Smith spoke about how it’s important to make sure that children know how to get in touch with them. “We have a governor’s email address that you can use and we can let you know when our meetings are so we can add things that you want us to talk about or that are important to you to our agenda.”

Ben Pirt added “I want to know when the School Council meetings are because it means that if there are things that we want your opinion on, we could come along or send questions”.

What can we do to make sure that all adults

know about children’s rights and why they

are important?

Sal Jarvis talked about how she teaches teachers’ about children’s rights and children’s participation. She said “After hearing you talk about it, and hearing your question, I like how you have used the word ‘we’. I think we need to remember that if you know all about your rights, then if you see children or adults that don’t know about them, you need to take on the job of telling them about their rights. I would like to invite the School Council to help me spread this message with teachers I teach by recording a message or coming to visit so they can spread the message.”

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We know children’s rights are really

important. We found that other children

that we know don’t know very much about

their rights. Is there anything that you can

do as Mayor to increase all children’s

understanding of their rights?

The Worshipful the Mayor of Hertford, Cllr Dr Linda Radford explained how she became Mayor “I visit as many organisations as possible to learn from them. I visit and speak to people and children, visit projects and help

to spread the word. What’s good about being here today is that now I know about the programme (My School My Voice) so I can spread the word about it. I think I can help your work my spreading the word of children’s rights. Also, now you all know that if you would like to get in touch with me, or would like me to visit, you can get in touch with my secretary and if I can help you, I will!

What’s next?

All of the questions and responses raised during the parliament will be shared with the school, as will all of the results from the research that children at the school took part in. The parliament raised awareness of the issues discussed and reFected on potential change for the future. The panel were extremely positive in their feedback, and the School Council will work together with the rest of the decision makers in their school and community to implement these changes.

Children who have participated in the My School My Voice child clubs this year have become young leaders within their schools, spreading their messages more widely to their peers after each workshop and later on a larger scale during their child parliament. In future years, these children will help to train and develop other children’s knowledge of their rights and become peer mentors.

In the future, the My School My Voice programme aims to facilitate child led research across some of the most deprived areas of London. This will enable children themselves to inform policy and practice through campaigns and training, collaborating with school management, Members of Parliament and the Children’s Commissioner’s oGce, ensuring children’s voices are heard at the highest levels.

We are hoping to build on the success of this Child Parliament, making this an annual event bringing together children from across London.

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