PB in Schools: Doing Democracy in Craigentinney Primary School

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In this article, PB Scotland’s Paul Nelis explores the work of the Ripple Project and Craigentinney Primary school where PB has been used by pupils to set their priorities.

It seems that the news today is consumed by turmoil and threats to democratic participation, see the rise of dictators around the world, the war in Ukraine and increasing inequality at home.  Against this background it has never been more important to involve and educate young people about the value of democratic participation. 

Participatory Budgeting (PB) is increasingly being used by schools in Scotland to promote learning about democratic participation.  PB engages young people in a fun way to identify priorities, make decisions, plan events and manage budgets.  

Want to carry out PB in schools? This tool sets out a week-by-week schedule, highlighting key learning and resources for you to use. Download here.

Empowering pupils

A great example of the use of PB in schools is the approach of one partnership in Edinburgh where the Ripple Project and Craigentinney Primary School set out to use PB to empower pupils and encourage an understanding of how to make difficult decisions about competing priorities in a democratic and engaging way.

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.

Planning out the process

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.  The list of potential projects included:

  • Lego Club

  • Sanitary Product Group

  • Art Group

  • Prayer Room

  • Board Game Group

  • Tennis Equipment

  • Gymnastics Group 

  • PE equipment

  • Girls Football team

  • Apple Pencils

  • Dance Group

The results

The successful projects which received the most votes to secure up to £1,000 were: the Lego Club, Board Game Group and Gymnastic Group. The P7 pupils were also involved in counting and collating the ballot papers.

The young people involved in the planning and delivery of PB clearly enjoyed the various aspects of the process saying:

‘I enjoyed making the presentation and showing them in the assembly’

‘I enjoyed working with other people, doing research and having fun thinking of ideas’

‘I enjoyed presenting, making posters and the voting’

‘Enjoyed that you could choose what you want to do.’

The Teachers involved said that they weren’t aware of PB at the beginning but found the process really enjoyable and beneficial to the learning and confidence of the P7 pupils.

Next steps

The Ripple Project are now planning their PB support for the next academic year.  Following on from the success of Craigentinney Youth Voice they hope to do something similar next year and take the lessons learned from the process into next year’s work. 

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.’

 To find out more about Craigentinney Youth Voice see the new learning resource. This tool sets out a week-by-week schedule, highlighting key learning and resources for you to use. Download here.

Downloads

For more information about the PB process contact: Tristan Green, Community Action Worker, The Ripple Project