Doing Democracy through PB in Craigentinney Primary School
Originally posted on PB Scotland’s website, Paul Nelis explores the work of the Ripple Project and Craigentinney Primary school where PB has been used by pupils to set their priorities over how to spend £3,000.
Supported and funded by The Ripple Project, a charity which aims to empower their community and tackle poverty and inequality in Restalrig, Lochend and Craigentinny, pupils at the school took control of a £3,000 budget and set about organising a very successful PB process called Craigentinney Youth Voice. The Ripple’s Community Action Worker and Youth Services Manager together with Teachers supported pupils over 7 weeks (1 hour per week) to understand PB, to plan the process and to manage all aspects of marketing, idea generation and voting.
Over the seven weeks (late October to December 2023), 40 P7 pupils from two classes developed the schools PB process, this involved developing marketing materials, creating posters to explain PB, and planning how they will present the ideas on voting day. All project ideas had to cost less than £1,000 so that at least 3 projects would be funded.
With the Head Teacher’s support, the whole school entered into the spirit of the PB process on voting day. 280 pupils from P1 to P7 filed along to the assembly for ‘voting hour’ where they navigated different presentation desks promoting each of the project ideas. Pupils were allowed to vote for two projects each.
Talking about the learning, Ripple Projects Community Action Worker Tristan Green said:
‘I hope that these young people will have learned that they can have a say in what their school spend money on and that they make the connection between PB and wider democratic participation.
PB offers a lot of important skills development opportunities for young people like planning, budget management and effective communication which are important skills which will empower these young people as they make their way in the world.’
Read the full article on the PB Scotland website
The teaching schedule and resources that supported the project can be downloaded here