The Italian school system is formed mainly by three bodies: Council of Class, Council of school and student provincial Council. They are very important bodies for our system that, by what resulted from a survey carried out among some classes in our school, is known only by 3/4 of the students.

In the Council of Class take part: the headmaster, the teachers, the pupils and the representatives of the parents of the classes and it is presided by the headmaster or a delegated teacher. The presence of the pupils in these assemblies is however scarce, sometimes completly about, because it is not considered of particular interest. The school counsiders the relationships with the families with attention offering meetings during all the school year to exchange information and reflections about the students. It is important that parents take part in it, because they are the first responsible of the educational and formative process of their sons. Sometimes parents' opinions do not coincide with the pupils' one. In our school, for example, a contradiction there has been because parents wanted half-term evaluation certificate in substitution of the informative booklet. The difference between the two is that the first one let parents be informed about their sons' behaviour approximately every two months, while the second inform them about all the work that the student get and allow to receive the school report only at half school year. The pupils would have preferred the last one in order to have more time to distribute their job. Parents can also participate directly to school bodies both for class' representetives (every year) and for the council of the School (every 3 years).
The representatives of the parents maintain the link between Council and all other parents of the class, which have the right to gather in class assembly, after having asked it to the headmaster, any time they wish.

This school body controls and coordinates the activity and the school life of the class, proposing initiatives on formatives aims, on the valutation criteria in function of the particular profile of the class. In our School 21% think, mistaking, that another function of the Council is to appoint the representatives of class of the pupils. The Council of Class gathers in the afternoon that doesn't coincide with the lessons and lasts approximately a school year.

Another important body is the Council of School, composed by the headmaster, the representatives of the parents, of the teacher, of the pupils and the secretarial staff. In our school people who knows effectively that these are the members that take part of it are only nearly the half of the students; from the survey 51%.

To this Council regards the decisions about the organisation and the school program including the adoption of the school calendar, the buying of school equipments, the program of extra school activities, cultural activities and sport, the promotion of contacts with other schools, the decisions on the self-financing shapes. This body is presided by one of its members elected with absolute majority, among the representatives of parents; if this majority it is not reached in the first voting, the President is elected to relative majority of voting. The Council elects in its inside an Executive Body, composed by two parents, a teacher, a student and one of secretariol staff. The headmaster presides it and he/she represents the school, and the Director of the Services Generates and Representatives, that carries out also the functions of secretary of the Committee. The Council and the Committee lasts for 3 years, the ones who in three years are discharged or lose requirements, not having more the attending sons the school, are replaced from the first of the not elect ones in the respective lists. The last important body of our system is Provincial school Council, an institutional body of student representation on Provincial base. It is composed by two students for every High School of the province.
The pupils are a lot, more of the half of the total, didn't know about the Council and they don't know what its function is.

The Council gathers in a center purposely equipped by the school Supervisor of Studies and has its own funds usable exclusively from the students who compose it in order to carry out several functions; the quote available must be at least 7% of the provincial ones given to schools for students' activities.

Every consults has its rules and gathers with regular frequency in order to program their own functions that are essentially to assure the comparison between the schools, to stipulate agreements with the agencies for the organisation of the job, to formulate the improvement of all the schools, to designate two students into the proposal and opinions provincial body a guarantee for the Charter of the students and finally to set up an informative shop for the students.
The Council elects a president and it is divided in territorial or thematic commission. The school Supervisor, moreover, gives a referring teacher in order to support the students' job. All the presidents of the Council gather periodically in the national conference, where they exchange information, devise plans, discuss common problems of the Council and meet with the minister of Public Education formulating opinions and proposals. All these bodies are very important but more information would have to be extended on these matters in order to let everyone know about it!

Written by Quattrocchi Sara (sara_kerry85@virgilio.it)
class 4^ P