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!“
Portsmouth: A Young Changemakers City is Unloc’s exciting new project funded by the Ellis Campbell Foundation. This innovative new programme seeks to better embed democracy and democratic practices within schools, and inspire and empower young people to become changemakers in their own right.
The plan is to develop the project further and roll out the Young Changemaker Cities project to schools across the country in the future. As the city where it all started for Unloc, Portsmouth is the location for our launch of the project, and provides an exciting new innovation for Portsmouth schools and the young people that attend them.
The Project
The Young Changemaker Cities project has 4 key strands to it.
Firstly, we create a localised toolkit of resources which schools can use across tutorials and the curriculum. This bespoke toolkit is specifically designed for purpose, and has been co-produced with teachers and young people themselves.
Secondly, we host in-school Democracy Days – which allows our Unloc Facilitators to bring democracy to life with young people in an interactive, high-energised delivery style that’s both fun and rewarding. It takes the topic of democracy and makes it engaging and interesting in a way that appeals more to young minds.
Thirdly, we are delivering an incubation programme which is open access for young people who show a deeper interest in democracy. This engagement opens up channels of thought that they may not have accessed before, and allows us to empower them to become changemakers themselves.
Young people will get the chance to experience 4 weekend-long experiences which provides them with the chance to boost their democracy and leadership skills.
Finally, we provide ongoing support to schools to help better imbed democracy into the culture of the school.
This is an extremely exciting project that allows schools to really connect with their students around democracy and work together to ensure best practice is followed in the school.
Portsmouth: A Young Changemakers City launches
Recently, we delivered our first Changemaker Democracy Day at Admiral Lord Nelson School in Portsmouth. As part of the day, we had fifty enthusiastic students from all year groups who are keen to ensure democracy is a common theme within their school life.
They had the chance to explore what makes a ‘changemaker’ and what they would do to make a difference both in their local community and beyond.
Each student got the chance to pitch to their peers about what they would do ‘If they were prime minister for the day’, and how they would rally support for their manifesto with a democratic fashion.
The students were also lucky enough to hear inspiring talks from Destiny Kennedy, the Member of Youth Parliament in Portsmouth, and Cllr Suzy Horton, Deputy Leader for Portsmouth City Council, and Cabinet Member for Children, Families and Education.
Finally, the students were also given a safe space to actively discuss democracy in their school, their experience of it and what they would like to see improved in their learning environment.
The day was a huge success and we heard some really inspiring ideas from young people about how they would like to make positive differences in their local communities.
Admiral Lord Nelson School students commented:
’I have gained the knowledge of how I can make change today ‘
and
‘We have gained the knowledge to be motivational and self-confident’
Unloc Facilitator Steve Baker commented:
“The Portsmouth: A Young Changemaker Cities project is important to enhance the pupil voice across the area. Giving young people the practical skills and knowledge they need to make the change they wish to see in their schools, as well as in the wider communities in which they live”
Fellow Unloc Facilitator Clair Martin added:
“The Young Changemakers Cities project is an essential tool to spark creative thinking and doing to help bring about social change. The project gives young people the confidence to ask for change and to feel confident change will happen.”
The initial launch of the Young Changemaker Cities project in Portsmouth will allow our team to develop the programme even further, refining and developing it with young people themselves so that it benefits young people across the UK in the future.
To find out more about the Ellis Campbell Foundation and the fantastic work they do simply click here.
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