This animation shows a secondary age student, Sal, who's effected by a school ban on girls wearing trousers. She is elected to the school council so she will have an opportunity to express her opinions on the issue and contribute to student decision-making. The story introduces local democracy and covers the QCA Scheme of Work Unit 0.7 Local Democracy.

As students work their way through the four parts of the story, give guidance for recording what they learn in their books. These questions may help:

1. For part 1: Why is Sal sent home for wearing trousers? (school rules). What rules would you have for school uniform?



2. For part 2: What is the 'right to protest'? Do you agree that everyone should have this right? Should there be any limits to this right?



3. For part 3: How does Sal set about persuading her school council rep to change her mind about uniform? Do you think Jo Dobbs is a good rep?



4. For part 4: Name the groups that need to be persuaded to have the uniform changed. How does Sal set about doing this? Does she win in the end? What do you think might be the next 'battle' she takes on in the school?

The story images can be used to develop students' awareness of school councils and how effective they can be.

Pictures of Sal can be used to create drama activities, for example simulating a school council debate on an issue of permitted school uniform - or any other issue currently concerning students.

Ways of doing this include: retelling Sal's story round the class or in small groups, acting out the story or making placard-type notices to reinforce the learning points from the story.

Ask students to write a story called '"The Election', set in their own school. Use the storyline to bring out main points they have learned from the animation, including using petitions and standing on a single issue.

Encourage students to explore active citizenship with the 'Get Involved' section. Here, there are examples of Citizenship Action by other schools.

Students can Go off on a tangent! with audio and video clips, find out more on Get the lowdown or test themselves with the Being a Citizen Quiz.

Students who finish early can add their own ideas about rights and responsibilities on the messageboard.

Divide the class into different groups that will work in rotation. While one group follows the online activities using the School democracy animation, the others are given a series of related tasks:

1. List current issues in the school you'd like the school council to deal with.
2. Create two imaginary characters to represent your class. Hold a vote and report on who was chosen and why.
3. Make a diagram showing where decision-making power lies in the school. Use this to relate governors, head teacher, teachers and students.

When every group has done every activity, give additional written tasks to build on these inputs:

1. What does the phrase 'school democracy' mean to you?
2. Describe what would have happened if Sal had not been elected onto the school council.

Adapt the suggestions for using the 'School democracy' animation, so that it is shown as a series of scenes.

Between each scene, give time to build up pair work as role-plays based on the action just seen. Use the whiteboard to go back and highlight particular points from the scene just explored.

Print out selected scenes from the school council story. Photocopy these as group sets. Give each group one scene at a time so that they build up the story for themselves and anticipate possible endings.

1. Print out and project the scene where Sal is holding her protest placard outside the school: Why is she protesting? Do you think this will change anything?



2. Ask students to share in pairs or small groups their own ideas and experiences about protests: What were you trying to change? Were you successful?



3. Tell them the story of Sal’s protest and its outcome: Do you identify with Sal and what she did? what else might have happened in this situation?



4. Recap on what has been learned about school democracy from this activity. Make notes on the board and in books about school councils, petitions, protests and democratic decisions.

1. Is a small school likely to be more democratic than a large school? Is size a key factor or do other things influence the effectiveness students' participation in decision-making?
2. Are the most popular people always elected?

1. Propose a number of ways of challenging or changing a school representative if you do not agree with her/him.
2. Enquire about school councils in schools near you. Make a table to compare their effectiveness, showing issues taken up and what the outcomes were.