job interview presentation tomorrow - help!

[DimpledThighs]

I have to do a ten minute presentation - the title of which is:

"What do you understand by participation and consultation."

My intial response is nothing - anyone any ideas to make my presentation a bit longer!!!

in the context of what job?

would mean different things in say teaching than an office

teaching and children based rather tahn office based - thanks for clarifying!

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Lordy, let me bump while i think...

ok, have a quick hunt on the internet for definitions first, lets see what someone else thinks

by 'participation' are they referring to ensuring you include all the children in whatever it is you are doing eg: being aware of their different strengths and weaknesses?

It's a bit tricky to comment without knowing more about the role and the management structure eg: consultation could be with the other staff, the parents etc.

thank you that is very helpful - I think the consultation and participation refers to the children - sorry to be so vague but the job description takes quite a bit of reading between the lines too!

I really appreciate your input.

well give us a clue, what is the job?

i think i would go along the lines of how important participation is, how we achieve it for all and we can encourage additional participation from the children

consultation i would take as how you could interact with the children to find out what they want, how this could then improve participation

so...consultation could mean talking to the children throughout whatever activity you are doing, in order to ensure they are understanding it, and also to listen to their ideas and comments in order to adapt the activity as you go along.
You could consult them by talking, asking them to write down their ideas, draw them, get into small groups and then present their ideas to you etc.
Participation could be adapted to allow each child to contribute eg: the confident ones could speak to the group, others could tell you what they think and then you could present it, others could make a flow chart or a storyboard.

Blimey, I can waffle for England!

thank you to all who commented - has proved to be very useful.

Participation: key word at schools these days seems to be 'inclusion' - they'll all have an inclusion policy so I'd probably mention it. All children get to participate in all activities, regardless of gender, age, disability, ethnicity, religious belief etc.etc. Don't forget participation and inclusion also apply to children's parents, carers, all school staff. So viewpoints on any changes of policy for example should be taken from all - children (in whatever way appropriate for their age), their parents/carers, staff, even local community.

Consultation: similar, but to me implies something you do when you've got an idea, or change to the current situation, and you want to consult before you implement it - to make sure it's what everyone wants/needs/likes etc. So, you would consult with the children, their parents/carers etc.etc. if you were going to change the school uniform policy, or what they had for a snack or something. This could be done via the Governing body, or parent/teacher association if there was one, or more informally via questionnaires, feedback forms sent home with children etc.

Good luck!! A 10 minute presentation probably means you need about 3 - 4 big headings, with 2 - 3 small points to be made under each - by the time you've gone over each one you'll have easily used up 10 minutes.

thank you so much dotty dot - so helpful!