Lower KS2: Democracy- What Makes a Great School Council Member?

• British Values
• Primary Education

Introduction

Part of the British Values series. This lesson looks at Democracy within the context of a school council. Pupils will discuss some of the qualities needed within a school council member and create a campaign speech.

Instructions

We have designed our British Values lessons so that teachers can pick up and teach a topic to their class with confidence.

We have chosen to use a balance of interactive tools and 'unplugged' creative activities.

Lessons can be taught directly from the LessonUp slides but work best when children have access to the pupil app

Lessonup.app

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British Values

Democracy

Lower KS2: What makes a great school council member?

This lesson supports British Values. It can be used to compliment your existing schemes of learning or as an ad-hoc session.

It also links with the PSHE Association Programme of Study for KS2:

L1. to recognise reasons for rules and laws; consequences of not adhering to rules

and laws

L2. to recognise there are human rights, that are there to protect everyone

L3. about the relationship between rights and responsibilities

L4. the importance of having compassion towards others; shared responsibilities

we all have for caring for other people and living things; how to show care and

concern for others

L5. ways of carrying out shared responsibilities for protecting the environment

in school and at home; how everyday choices can affect the environment (e.g.

reducing, reusing, recycling; food choices)

In this lesson we will:

• Think about why we have laws
• Consider what the word 'democracy' means to us
• look at some of the qualities that our representatives need.

Key Vocabulary for this session:

Democracy

Human Rights

School Council

Representative

Same

Different

Qualities

Describe the sunflowers in this field

Pupils should be able to describe the sunflowers.

Draw out that the sunflowers are all very similar.

'We Are All Born Free' by Amnesty International ISBN 978-1847806635 has a wonderful illustration which can compliment this slide.

Describe the people in this slide.

All of these people are humans but all are different in so many ways. You can look at differences in their hair colour, eyes, skin tone, jobs, expressions. 

These ideas can be sorted and discussed as a whole group.

The sunflowers were virtually all the same but humans are all different in so many amazing ways.

EVERYONE has the right to be protected by the law.’

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948

This is a very famous photo of Elizabeth Roosevelt with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Please click the link for further information.

Think of some laws that you have to follow? Explain why we ALL need to follow this law.

Pupils can write or upload ideas into this slide for discussion.

You might ask your class to respond creatively to this question and then share responses.

Adults vote for the people they want to help us to make the laws.

Everyone has a say, even if the person we want isn't chosen. This is 'democracy'

Democracy

There are some really fantastic resources on the UK Parliament website including a short Introduction which is suitable for KS2 

You may wish to show this clip in the session or at another point.

We vote for the children who we think will represent us well.

What qualities should our representatives have?

In our school, the school council help to make our school better.

Qualities I'd like to see in my school council member

Not suitable

fair

assertive

stubborn

caring

trustworthy

insensitive

faithful

tolerant

Feel free to add or adapt these drag and drop boxes to suit your class or context.

We have a short how to guide here

Think of other qualities which might help or hold back our council.

You may wish to support children by having a class word bank.

Engage your more able by offering them a thesaurus to encourage them to consider a wider vocabulary.

Write a short speech or create a poster to explain why you (or maybe a fictional character) would make a great school council member. 

This activity will enable the pupils to explore some of the qualities that they wish to see in a school council member.

If they do not wish to join the council, then why not choose a fictional character (good or bad) and write a speech for them.

Ideas could be:

Harry Potter

Elsa from Frozen

Yoda

Groot

Lisa Simpson

SpiderMan

I can talk about the important qualities in a school council member

😒🙁😐🙂😃

This poll can give you a quick snapshot of the class and an insight into who may need to explore the issue in more detail. The results will be displayed anonymously but you can look into how each child has answered the poll in the assessment view.

There is a how to guide here.