1946-1996: Council Meetings at Kilquhanity School

Council meetings were a fundamental part of community life for pupils and staff

 
1964 meeting in progress a few years before my time  - John Aitkenhead second from left

In November 1946, the Scottish Sunday Express published an article on the School that mentions its Council.

Once a week pupils and staff hold a Council Meeting to work out together the     management of the school and decide on a fitting punishment  for any pupil who has abused his liberty to the point where it interferes with others . . .

During 1968 to 1970 when I was a pupil at Kilquhanity, Council Meetings were held on a Thursday afternoon every week of the school term and everyone – staff and pupils– were obliged to attend unless there was a very good reason for their absence. 

Traditionally at the time, the only regular weekday television that we were allowed to watch was Top of the Pops, whereas almost every other day of the week, pupils were allowed to watch what they wanted. Also, as the school cooks regularly attended these meetins, the evening meal on Thursdays tended to be somewhat different to that of the rest of the week - pie and beans – a choice of bridie, scotch pie or sausage roll with baked beans. 

All this, together with the events of the meetings themselves, made Thursdays quite a memorable day of the week in Kilquhanity.

The Meetings
The format was that everyone would gather in the dining room with chairs and table positioned around the periphery so that everyone could see the table where the Chair and the Scribe would sit, set in front of the window overlooking the front lawn. Folk could bring items in with them like knitting, and youngest pupils sometimes brought paper and crayons. 

The Chairperson
The Chair - as they were still known as  then - was always a pupil, usually, an older senior pupil or one who had experience of time at Kilquhanity and knew the format of the meeting. Prospective Chairs would be given opportunities to experience the role on occasion to develop the necessary skills. 


Djunga - a pupil who was often designated Chair

Over the years the Council Meetings developed a format and a routine which the Chair would follow. Points to be raised were discussed with Chair in advance of the meeting and on occasion the Chairs might not include a point if it was one that they  knew would result in a known outcome from previous meetings. The Chair also had to ensure a time limit allocation. 

The skills involved in being a Council meeting chair included acknowledging who wanted to speak and giving every point raised in the meeting ample time to be discussed fully before a majority agreement was reached or a vote taken. Everyone – staff or pupil  – had a vote and the outcome of the vote was binding; although quite often a subject voted on one week would return in subsequent weeks for revue and modification or change. 

The Chairs job also entailed managing the behaviour of the meeting as often debate would become heated and emotions could boil-over into outbursts of foul language and physicality as an individual’s commitment to a point was so strong.

Rarely but on occasions, meetings would be brought to a close  in time for supper by consensus  but usually with an agreement to return the next morning. The points to be discussed being considered of more importance than the next day's lessons.

The Scribe
The Scribe’s job was to record the minutes of the meeting. These were hand-written and  were later typed. The typed versions were bound annually or bianually into books in chronological order. 


Back cover of the minutes taken during 1982-1983

The Minutes of the Council Meetings


Minutes for the Council Meeting dated 23.11.1962 which appeared on Broadsheet 8

The above is the oldest record for Council Meeting Minutes. It is bound within book covers for other similar newer books held by the archives. 

Whether the creation of these Councils occurred around 1962 is not known but it appears unlikely. The start date of 1940 of the title is pure guess work. The fact that the actual minutes were always written by hand means that these were were only eventually typewritten using stencils so that they could be published on the School's Broadsheet.


 My ex-wife Joyce possibly copying the Minutes of the Meeting in 1969 in which she acted as Scribe and I was the Chair.

Like new Chairs,  there were always a few candidates-in-waiting who watched and learned how to take over the roleRecord-keeping was important as decisions made at previous meeting sometimes needed to be referred during the following meeting.

These minutes only recorded outcomes and decisions. They did not reflect or record the length time spent discussing an issue or the passions which some pupils or staff put into a point. Sometimes a particular point could take 10 or 20 minutes to find an acceptable resolution.

In many other schools a child would take a complaint to a teacher or playground supervisor. At Kilquhanity pupils would, most often, be directed to bring up a grievance at the council meeting, where everyone on the community would become aware of the grievance and contribute to a solution. It indirectly forced pupils to realise that it was in the interests of the everybody in the school to be able to live amicably with each other.

Another lesson learned would be that justice meted out by ‘you’ at one meeting well might be the same justice applied to ‘you’ at the next meeting. The body of the meeting learned about the importance of why someone may feel aggrieved and that the best solution was often to support both parties involved. Tolerance and understanding became important ways of living together rather than severe punishment or alienation.

Intervention by adults
The Council at Kilquhanity, was a good example of democracy in action – everyone had a vote – and in theory that vote would not be overruled by the adults. At any rate, that is what John Aitkenhead would have insisted.

I do remember very rare occasions when John might intervene with the words ‘it is strictly taboo for . . . ‘, when an item being discussed might lead to illegality or direct offence to our neighbouring farmers the McTaggarts.

The fact that the pupils outnumbered the adults and majority voting was adhered to, meant that the pupils could theoretically vote for whatever they wished for. Educationalists and others have therefore often worried that such a system could lend itself to some sort of anarchical mayhem.  

Kilquhanity has always been  a small school which started with only a handful of pupils back in 1940. This style of community living within a democracy can evolve and develop over time through the input of its members irrespective of age or role. Both children and adults can see and feel the benefits of everyone engaging in discussion about issues - small, like the breaking of a plate or large, like bullying or theft. The evolution of the Council Meeting over time allowed new members and existing members of this community to feel safe, to feel valued and to be required to engage; if only through the voting process.

John Aitkenhead, and with agreement from staff ,could choose which children, age and sex would be allowed to join the school but it should be remembered that the school always had a significant number of children referred by agencies such as Education, Social and Psychiatric services. The majority of these children found the Council Meeting to be a place where there 'voice' could be heard and listened to.

The Council Meeting was not only a forum for sanctions but it was the place where decisions about forward planning of activities, celebrations, and events were taken.

And there is no doubt that for some school teachers this often was, and continues to be,  a difficult topic to understand as they often perceive themselves to tbe he voice of authority simply because they are adults. And yet, as far as I can make out, council decisions never caused the school - nor John - any real problems in this direction. 

For example, when a pupil wanted to vote to remove or push back a time for going to bed -  something that would periodically appear as a point brought up by new pupils - it rarely won the vote as most pupils realised that a good nights sleep prepared them much better for whatever activities they would be doing in daytime which they would invariably enjoy. It also meant that generally the routines and traditions of the school were rarely challenged. 

My memory of another particular meeting was a complaint raised by the older girls who lived in the Lodge house in one corner of the estate, It involve the toilet paper used by the school which at that time was an old-fashioned hard tissue – like a thinner version of modern greaseproof paper – by the trade name of Izal. The girls were advocating the purchase, by the school, of a newer type of toilet tissue – Andrex, for example. 

The discussion and debate raised many a laugh and some serious protestations. Eventually Morag as school bursar explained that cost would be factor and that fees would need to be adjusted accordingly. Eventually the point was passed in favour of the Lodge girls and we all had more comfortable bums at our parents’ expense. 

In the above cases the council solved a problem that involved the way in which the school was administered which was perceived by the pupils as interfering with their everyday life.

But perhaps more importantly, the Council meetings often became what I would call. a general forum for justice. You did not take your complaints to a teacher, a deputy headmaster or playground supervisor - you made your point at the council and obtained a decision from your peers. 

The kind of "Freedom" system as put into practice in Kilquhanity House School may have theoretically have left itself open to "anarchy" in some of its general principles - but its decades long use of its School Council was certainly not one of them,.

Another Council meeting - Photographs donated by Lois Aitkenhead for use in the Jubilee Booklet collection


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