ABSTRACT
School councils1 are often mentioned as a vehicle for promoting and practising student participation in decision making at school. Although it is not compulsory to have a school council in England, unlike in other countries such as Germany, the Netherlands (Davies and Kirkpatrick 2000), Japan (Yamashita and Williams 2002) and, most recently, Wales (Crowley and Skeels, this volume), setting one up is often highly recommended, both by the government and by various charitable organisations, as well as by movements promoting citizenship education or the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (Davies et al. 2006). School inspections have also started to make more detailed notes on student participation activities at school and often use as their starting point the activity of the school council.
