"There is a growing evidence base to suggest that attendance, attainment and behaviour improves if students have a real say in matters which affect them."

These words were spoken by Lord Andrew Adonis, the Parliamentary Under Secretary for Schools and Learners at the launch event for two significant pieces of research on schools councils.

    
One report was commissioned by School Councils UK, 'School Councils - School Improvement' and the other by the Department for Children, Schools and Families, 'Real Decision Making? School Councils in Action'. You can read more information and download the School Councils UK report and summary for free here.

The launch received a considerable amount of press coverage including:

Teachers TV News (click here to view)

The Times Education Supplement (click here to read)

Children and Young People Now (click here to read)

The event at Forest Gate Community School in East London brought together major figures in education and politics, including Barry Sheerman (Chair of the Education and Skills Select Committee), Professor Al Aynsley-Green (Children's Commissioner for England), Geoff Whitty (Director of the Institutue of Education), John Bangs (Assistant Secretary of the NUT), plus many teachers and school councillors.

Both reports showed compelling evidence that effective school councils can be hugely beneficial for a school. The DCSF report found that over 90% of schools in the UK now have some form of school council, and 62% of all teachers believe that school councils should become statutory in England.

Both research findings called for the Government to
introduce legislation to make school councils a statutory requirement, but this was clearly an area of some controversy and Andrew Adonis refused to be drawn. Stating, 'The Department will be reveiwing the existing evidence base on this at a Government seminar next month.....The event will inform future policy.'