Starting Early showcases the advantages of introducing school councils at nursery and infant level.
Farnborough Grange Infant and Nursery School explain why they set the scheme up, how it works, what the problems are, how they have overcome them, the effect it has had on the pupils and show actuality of the council at work.
All 220 pupils, aged between three and seven, play their part in the running of the school, which was one of the first in England to introduce a school council for infants. Each class has representatives on the council, where they use coloured hats to help keep them focused during discussions, for example red for policy, blue for pupil request, green for environment. They are also helped to understand the democratic process by Cheeky Monkey, a puppet to whom pupils explain what and why certain decisions have been made.
