Become Unloc’s first official social media influencer!
16 April 2024
. We’re looking for a passionate & creative young person aged 16-25 in the Portsmouth or London areas to become our first official social media
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Unloc has been championing Student Voice since our very first Student Forum back in 2012. Our forums act to help young people across a particular area identify and create action plans, encourage them to network and collaborate together to facilitate and generate more positive changes to their schools, colleges and institutions, and drive improvements in their communities, cities and counties.
Now in 2023, we’ve kickstarted three of our Student Forums: the Cambridgeshire Student Forum (CSF), the Council of Portsmouth Students (CoPS), and the Primary Council of Portsmouth Students (PCoPS). Each forum is bespoke to the area it takes place in, the institutions involved, and the student representatives from those institutions who wholly shape their Forum for the entire year of involvement.
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Up in Cambridgeshire, our Summit was hosted by Long Road Sixth Form College (Cambridge), and attended by students from Long Road as well as Abbey College (Cambridge), Cambridge Academy for Science and Technology, Comberton Village College (Comberton), Hills Road Sixth Form College , St Andrew’s College, and Thomas Clarkson Academy (Wisbech), equating to 40 participants from the 7 institutions.
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Down in Portsmouth, CoPS took place at Trafalgar School in Hilsea, and was attended by students from Trafalgar as well as Admiral Lord Nelson School (Copnor), Ark Charter Academy (Portsmouth), Mayfield School (North End), Mayville High School (Southsea), Miltoncross Academy (Milton), Park Community School (Havant), Portsmouth Grammar School, Priory School (Fratton), Springfield School (Drayton), and The Portsmouth Academy (Fratton), bringing 53 participants from the 11 institutions.
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It’s sister forum, PCoPS also met for the first time, with their Summit taking place within the University of Portsmouth’s Students Union, welcoming students from Cottage Grove Primary School (Southsea), Highbury Primary School (Cosham), King’s Academy College Park (Copnor), Mayville High School (Southsea), Medina Primary School (Cosham), Portsmouth Grammar School, The Flying Bull Academy (Buckland), and Wimborne Primary School (Southsea), with 58 participants from these 8 institutions.
Beacon View Primary Academy (Paulsgrove), Corpus Christi Catholic Primary School (North End), and Court Lane Junior Academy (Cosham) are also involved in PCoPS this year but were unable to attend the Summit and have had/will be having Summit Alternative sessions within their own schools.
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All of the forums were formally introduced to Student Voice, including the UN’s Conventions on the Rights of the Child and our focus on Article 12, ‘Respect for the Views of the Child’:
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“Every child has the right to express their views, feelings and wishes in all matters affecting them, and to have their views considered and taken seriously. This right applies at all times, for example during immigration proceedings, housing decisions or the child’s day-to-day home life” (Source: UNCRC Summary)
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There was dedicated time within all three Summits for the participants to share their thoughts and ideas on Student Voice, including each Institution Group at CSF and CoPS being invited to present to the rest of the group all things Student Voice at their institution, including examples of Student Voice where things had changed or altered in previous years, talking to their School Council, Link Teacher(s) and even their Head Teacher, as well as the consideration of change: what they wanted to change in their institution, community, city or county, and how to go about actioning it.
For PCoPS, in their Institution Groups, they began to formulate plans to bring about their change(s), using posters, flyers and letters to spread the message.
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In CSF and CoPS, the whole group split into Action Groups, a focus to guide them through the rest of their time in the Student Forum, divided by topics, including Business, Careers, Climate Change, Diversity, Eco-Friendly, Inclusion, Life Skills, Mental Health, Technology and Wellbeing. These groups will meet in 2024 to continue to plan their actions to bring about positive change!
To finish the year, each area will have a Student Voice Celebration (SVC) Day in 2024 to share and celebrate all of the (no doubt) amazing work everyone will have done over the course of the year; Cambridgeshire’s SVC Day will take place on Friday 24th May, kindly hosted by Abbey College in Cambridge, and Portsmouth’s SVC Day will be held on Thursday 13th June, bringing together both CoPS and PCoPS!
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For a taste of Student Voice Celebration Day 2023 – Portsmouth Edition click here!
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Interested in further updates?
Contact Jessi Wilson, Programme Facilitator for Leadership Skills and Student Voice at: jessi@unloc.org.uk
If you’re aged between 11 to 25 years old then there are two exciting new initiatives you can get involved with which will help us as an organisation to develop and grow. You’ll get to meet new people, make new friends, share your opinions on a whole host of topics – and best of all you’ll have tons of fun doing it!
For over 10 Years at Unloc we’ve facilitated a wide variety of dynamic and engaging programmes to enhance student voice across the many institutions and organisations we work with across the UK. As we continue to grow and expand our reach, young people more than ever need to be at the centre of those decisions.
We consider ourselves incredibly lucky that we get to work with over 15,000 young people every single year, we’re constantly surprised, impressed and amazed by the inspirational young changemakers we meet, so the question was posed ‘Why do we have to stop there?’
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From this, our Community Engagement & Development Strategy was created, in partnership itself with young people, which focuses on expanding our community outreach and by truly investing in them and their changemaker journey after engaging in one of our programmes.
This year we are delighted to be launching two exciting new programmes that will help shape and direct our direction as an organisation – our Youth Board & Unloc Ambassador programmes.
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The Unloc Youth Board
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Our Youth Board will be put at the organisation’s centre to consult and guide the Unloc team to focus on what matters to young people within our work. As youth board members, young people will make significant contributions to the organisation, co-produce our session content with our facilitators and have the opportunity to meet other young people with a heart and passion for developing and empowering young people as changemakers.
Our board will also be instrumental in supporting us with making our programmes more innovative and ensuring they are truly supporting the needs of young people.
Hayden Taylor, Unloc’s Managing Director, said:
“It’s essential that we put young people at the heart of what we do at Unloc. As we grow our reach to work with thousands more young people every year, our Youth Board will be able to properly steer the direction we follow and the decisions we make. I’m so excited to see what this group of amazing young people mean for our future as an organisation.”
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Unloc Ambassadors
We are also establishing our Unloc Ambassadors Programme. Our new young Ambassadors will get the chance to attend our programmes and sessions to help inspire other young people and share their experiences, plus attend exclusive events with our partners to showcase the impact they have made through their changemaker journey.
Both our Youth Board and Ambassadors will receive training and support throughout to develop their public speaking, communication, networking skills and more.
The 2 programmes will work in harmony by meeting for a joint development day in early 2024, and then meeting with the rest of the Unloc Community (any Young Person who has completed a programme with us before) in August for our first-ever Unloc Changemaker Conference.
Ben Dowling, Co-Founder of Unloc & Director of People & Resources said:
“As we grow the work we do, it’s only natural that the young people who engage in Unloc programmes should become advocates for the programmes that are empowering and engaging them in what matters most to them. Through our Ambassadors programme, we can make sure that genuine role modelling of young changemakers can be built into all the work we do, whilst also providing yet another leadership opportunity for young people across the Unloc Community.”
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Emiley Hinton, Unloc’s Community & Alumni Engagement Officer said:
“The community strategy is an amazing chance to grow the amount of young people who will get the chance to access experiences to grow their confidence through a variety of opportunities. This is such an exciting strategy and it’s only the beginning, can’t wait to see the impact this strategy and both programmes will have on the young people and Unloc itself!”
These opportunties not only help Unloc as an organisation continue to grow and best meet the needs of young people, they also provide unique opportunities for young people to develop themselves, network and meet like minded other people, and to grow their skills and empowerment to voice their opinions and take action on issues which are important to them. Don’t just take our word for it though, take it from someone who knows!
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Katie Reid
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Katie Reid took part in the Inspiring Change programme last year, and her group ‘See the difference’ created an awareness campaign about bullying and how to get help and support. This was inspired by their own personal experiences, and was a topic that they cared deeply about and wanted to take action on. Through the programme Katie and her team mate Sasha were invited to the House of Commons to speak about their impressive project at the PAC Parliamentary Event, Katie’s said:
“When I look back at who I was just over a year ago I can’t believe i’m the same person. I first got involved with Unloc through the Inspiring Change project in Summer 2022. The Unloc programme absolutely changed my life, it opened so many doors for me inside my own head, showing me that I have a voice, what I can be capable of, that I can speak up, I can speak passionately, I can come up with ideas of my own and actually create change around me in the world.“
“I feel a lot more confident in my future since completing the programme, and I think I’m more likely to be successful now too because I actually know what I am capable of. I’m not just abandoned by Unloc, I keep getting to do more and more with my future!“
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Click here to find out more about our Unloc Ambassadors programme
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Click here to find out more about the Unloc Youth Board!
Unloc has been championing Student Voice since our first Student Forum back in 2012. Our forums are for young people across an area to collaboratively work together to drive school improvement in their community.
The forums celebrate and share good examples of where students can facilitate a positive change to their educational environment. They also act to help young people identify and create an action plan to generate more positive changes in their school, college or institution.
Unloc’s very own Jessi Wilson, Programme Facilitator for Leadership Skills & Student Voice wanted to share her experience at the two recent summits which welcomes young people from across the area:
“The Council of Portsmouth Students (CoPS) and its’ sister forum the Primary Council of Portsmouth Students (PCoPS) are just two of the Student Forums Unloc facilitates in Portsmouth. Each forum is bespoke to the area, the institutions involved, and the student representatives who wholly shape their Forum for the entire year.
This term, both forums have had their first Summit, with all the student participants coming together in person!
The Council of Portsmouth Students Summit
The CoPS Summit took place on Thursday 10th November, kindly hosted by Portsmouth Grammar School at their Playing Fields in Hilsea.
CoPS is proud to have 57 participants from 10 institutions involved in this academic year:
The Primary Council of Portsmouth Students Summit
The PCoPS Summit took place on Thursday 24th November, and was hosted at our Changemaker Studios: Portsmouth space within the Portsmouth Guildhall.
PCoPS is proud to have over 100 participants from 14 institutions involved in this academic year:
Both forums were formally introduced to Student Voice, including the UN’s Conventions on the Rights of the Child and our focus on Article 12: “Respect for the Views of the Child”.
We observed how CoPS and PCoPS has evolved over the years and discussed what to expect from this year ahead and the responsibilities of all of the forum members in their involvement in their respective groups.
There was dedicated time at both Summits for the participants to consider change – what they wanted to change in their institution, community or city, and how to go about actioning that: for CoPS, they formed into five Action Groups:
For PCoPS, they began formulate plans to bring about their change(s), using posters, flyers and letters to spread the message.
For CoPS, the Action Groups will meet up several times over the coming year to work together to bring about their desired changes and improve the city for themselves and other young people. There will also be two more Summits for everyone to come together.
Both CoPS and PCoPS will come together at the end of the academic year for Student Voice Celebration (SVC) day 2023 – a city-wide celebratory event in June to share and celebrate all of the (no doubt) amazing work everyone had done over the course of the year!
Each institution group involved in CoPS/PCoPS for 2022/2023 has been presented a framed certificate to show they are a proud participant and to display this within their institution.
Thank you to everyone who attended these days and made our Summits such a success! I thoroughly enjoyed meeting everyone and am looking forward to working together over the next academic year and making real changes in our institutions, communities and the city of Portsmouth!”
Jessi Wilson, Programme Facilitator – Leadership Skills & Student Voice
We recently held our amazingly successful annual Festival of Student Governance event in partnership with the Association of Colleges, and supported by the Blagrave Trust. Each year we welcome young people from colleges across the country to our bespoke training event as part of the country’s largest further education event.
This year’s event was bigger and better than ever and we met some truly amazing and inspiring young people who are making positive change in their colleges up and down the country.
We spoke with some of the delegates to get their impressions of the event and will be releasing some feature articles in the coming days to share their insight.
Today we hear all about Joseph Rowlstone’s experience
“Hey there! My name is Joseph Rowlstone, I’m a third year catering student and Student Governor of the East Kent Colleges Group, and recently I had the honour of being involved in the Festival of Student Governance 2022, hosted by Unloc during the Association of Colleges Annual Conference in Birmingham.
In the lead up to the event, I didn’t quite know what to expect. Still new to the Student Governor role, and fresh from the Student Governance Induction program that the Education Training Foundation offer in association with Unloc, I arrived in Birmingham open to whatever the experience would bring! And I have to say my expectations were surpassed.
Upon arriving at the Ibis Hotel, I was greeted by the absolutely lovely Unloc staff: Tony, Ryan, Hayden, Ben, Katie and Stacey. They were all welcoming, accommodating, constantly helpful and made the whole event incredibly interactive, which was absolutely essential as conferences such as this can be incredibly daunting from an outside perspective, which they handled brilliantly.
On the first night we started with multiple different networking activities: going around a room of around 60 fellow Student Governors and filling in a sheet of achievements with as many different names as possible, getting to know everyone we could!
It was also fascinating to see the lengths people had travelled for the conference! We had students from up in Newcastle, to students from down in Cornwall (who travelled 6 hours!), everyone that I met that night was eager to learn, excited to meet new people, and most importantly; everyone wanted to make a difference.
This passion for changemaking was supported and encouraged by the guest speakers that evening: hearing from Hayden Taylor, who had been in the exact position we were all sitting in and had turned his time as a Student Governor into a career that is now thriving; hearing from Steve Frampton MBE- who spoke with such passion about the importance of student voice; both inspired and empowered us and our voices, both so passionate and genuine.
On our second day, we arrived bright and early at the AoC Conference (well, rainy and early that day!). Being a part of that conference was an incredible opportunity, I think all of us felt quite privileged to be there, representing student voices- the most imperative voice when it comes to governance and running colleges as a whole, so within that privilege was a fair bit of pressure too!
From dazzling opening performances to our own isolated meetings specified to being student governors, it was a very fulfilling learning opportunity. During our sessions we covered how to ask effective questions, how to get the most out of meetings, how to fight back the imposter syndrome you get when first joining board meetings and replicating a meeting environment to put those skills into use.
We also partook in live debates with each other to practice our debating skills, with topics ranging from Cats vs Dogs, to whether Matt Hancock should be allowed in the jungle- it made us think on the spot, think decisively, and listen to arguments of others with respect.
I also joined a breakout session regarding “Good practice in youth social action”, which I left feeling incredibly inspired. Hearing from college students, turned social action apprentices, was the most inspirational session I’d been to, hearing how much of a difference they had made not only within their colleges, but their wider community too was just awesome.
I want to thank those students for sharing their passion and their achievements, as that’s something I’m going to take with me and work towards within my own college environment.
Since the conference, I’ve been incredibly inspired! Meeting other student governors with such impressive and inventive ideas of how to improve their colleges, students who have so much pride in their colleges, yet see the flaws, and want to help improve on those issues- fully embracing the Critical Friend ideals of governing without even realising it. I am so excited to see the changes they make and the joy and passion they all bring to their governing roles!
I can confidently say I’ve come away inspired, more knowledgeable and confident in regards to governing and being present in meetings than I was before, and have also come away with new friends and contacts.
It was an absolute honour to attend, thank you to Unloc and to the AoC for making it such a helpful, informative and worthwhile event.
Speak up. Be the change you want to see. Student Voice Matters!“
There was an excited buzz in the air recently as our annual Portsmouth Student Voice Celebration (USVC) Day for 2022 took place at the University of Portsmouth’s Portland Building. It’s a great opportunity each year for young people from across the area to come together and celebrate having a voice in society, and the impact and positive change that voice can create.
This year the institutions involved in this year’s Council of Portsmouth Students (CoPS) and Primary Council of Portsmouth Students (PCoPS) were invited to attend, along with Admiral Lord Nelson School, Ark Charter Academy, Corpus Christi Catholic Primary School, Cottage Grove Primary School, Mayville High School, Miltoncross Academy, Priory School, St John’s College Secondary, The Portsmouth Academy, and Trafalgar School sending participants to the event!
Our Unloc Facilitator Jessi Wilson was kind enough to talk us through the day and explain all the fun and diverse opportunities the young people engaged with on the day.
“Each year we bring together so many young people from institutions across the city, and there’s always such an excited buzz in the air for this event. To kickstart the day this year, our Managing Director Hayden Taylor spoke about ‘Standing up for what you believe in’, which really got everyone ready for the day ahead.
This was followed by a speech from the Lord Mayor of Portsmouth, Councillor Hugh Mason.
“The world is changing fast, and it keeps on changing; the city is changing, and you are part of changing it – you are the people who choose the direction. I want to live in a vibrant city – you are the people to do it.”
Lord Mayor of Portsmouth Cllr Hugh Mason
The Vice-Chairperson of CoPS, Tegan, then read a statement from Luke, the Chairperson, and then her own speech, saying that “Student voice is so important to have within schools, allowing students to express their voice is so important to allow a positive atmosphere and can easily help to make easy but big improvements around our city and our schools.”
Lastly, we heard from Jack from Corpus Christi Catholic Primary School, who was invited to speak on behalf of Primary CoPS. Jack spoke about “when we work together our voices get stronger and louder and we have the power to make changes happen.”
Each group from PCoPS and CoPS gave a presentation – an opportunity for the groups to share their successes over the academic year! Read the USVC Day 2022: A Report/Summary for more details by clicking here.
It was brilliant to see a summary of all the amazing work each group has completed during our time together over the past 12 months, and to celebrate their successes! I am immensely proud of all of the CoPS and PCoPS students.
An ‘In Conversation With…’ segment, with the focus on ‘the importance of Student Voice’, had a panel made up of current MYPs Destiny Kenney and Ella Reilly, and member of the MYP Working Group (and CoPS Diversity and Inclusion Action Group Leader) Sakura, with questions facilitated by Joseph, who was on Work Experience at Unloc and had been a member of CoPS last year!
Portsmouth City Council ran several consultations throughout the day, providing the participants with the opportunity to give their thoughts and opinions on issues, policies and plans that are /or will affect where they live and study in the future. These sessions included:
‘Waste & Recycling in Portsmouth’
Led by Celine, the group were told about all the new initiatives that Portsmouth City Council have and are introducing in the city to make recycling and getting rid of household waste more accessible for residents.
‘Schools for Everyone’
A sesion led by Caiomhe and Amanda, which discussed ‘what do we do in schools already to make it inclusive?’, and ‘how do we become more inclusive?’. An important topic to make sure that inclusion and diversity is always a priority in schools.
’The Future of Portsmouth City Centre’
Led by Sara and Guy, this session was a great opportunity for the young people to learn about the improvements currently being made to Portsmouth and the future plans to redevelop the city centre and provide an exciting destination for residents and tourism alike.
‘Play & Youth Holiday Activities’ consultation
Attended by the PCoPS students and led by Marshada, Nicola and their team. The participants were asked to consider happy and positive memories they had and created graffiti tables. These were linked to what they like to do in holidays and what they were aware of as opportunities in Portsmouth, such as play areas and activities.
The CoPS students then attended one of three workshops available, based on the Action Group they had been involved in throughout the year:
‘An Introduction to Kooth’
Led by Alice, this was a very valuable session for the young people; they had an introduction to Kooth, a totally free online mental wellbeing community, and were given a guide on how to use the website and get support.
For more information on Kooth click here.
A Workshop led by Emily and colleagues from LGBTQ+ Team Portsmouth was also held for older students, where the session started with representatives introducing themselves and the service they provide from within Portsmouth City Council. For more information on the support they offer click here.
‘Team Wilder’
Led by Andy Ames from Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust – this session involved an open discussion with the whole group on how to connect people emotionally with nature and the wildlife around them.
For more information Team Wilder click here.
It has been a genuine pleasure to work with all of the students in CoPS and PCoPS this year! I am so looking forward to continuing to develop both forums and enhance students’ experience and journey within Student Voice in Portsmouth.”
To find out more about this year’s event, click here to read our 2022: A Report/Summary
. We’re looking for a passionate & creative young person aged 16-25 in the Portsmouth or London areas to become our first official social media
This year’s 2024 Young Entrepreneurs Challenge was extra special as we launched an all new category for young people with the initial sparks of an idea! Meet our three Ignite winners!
It’s Worldwide Autism Acceptance Week 2024, and our very own Facilitator Jessi has been kind enough to let us interview her and share her diagnosis and experience!
Huge congratulations to Maheep Kaur for winning the 2024 Member of Youth Parliament (MYP) elections. Click here to read the full story!
. We’re looking for a passionate & creative young person aged 16-25 in the Portsmouth or London areas to become our first official social media
This year’s 2024 Young Entrepreneurs Challenge was extra special as we launched an all new category for young people with the initial sparks of an idea! Meet our three Ignite winners!
It’s Worldwide Autism Acceptance Week 2024, and our very own Facilitator Jessi has been kind enough to let us interview her and share her diagnosis and experience!
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