School participation council: the renewed InfoWMS website is live.

School participation council: the renewed InfoWMS website is live.

Within the project strengthening school participation council II, collaboration took place on the renewed website www.InfoWMS.nl. The website remains the place for information about the law on school participation council, but has been renewed to better meet the needs of school participation councils, school governing bodies, internal supervisors, parents, students and staff, framed by a modern look and feel.

On this website, knowledge, practical guides, model documents, training and other tools come together in one accessible location. Functionalities have also been added, such as a quick scan that helps schools gain insight into the quality of their school participation council. With this renewed website, we want to further strengthen participation in primary and secondary education and support users even better in practice. 

 The project Strengthening school participation council II started last year. In this project, made possible by a subsidy from the Ministry of education culture and science (OCW), we work together with student organization LAKS, employee organizations AOb, CNV and FvOv, employer, supervisor and school leader organizations PO-Raad, VO-raad, VTOI-NVTK, AVS and the VOO to strengthen participation in schools.

Research into the state of school participation council  

 An important part of the project is a new national study on the state of school participation council in the Netherlands. This is a follow-up to research carried out in 2023 commissioned by Ouders & Onderwijs, the VOO, LAKS and ROV. The goal was then to investigate every few years the experiences and needs of school participation council members. The outcomes formed an important basis for further discussions and improvements within the participation at schools. 

All schools and school governing bodies in primary, secondary and special education received an invitation with a link to the online surveys, with a request to forward them to the school participation councils and their members (both staff and parents and students) and discussion partners. The results of the ‘state of school participation council 2026′ will be available at the end of August. 

Look to the future  

With the new collaboration, the involved organizations want to gain insight again into what is going well and where improvements are needed. This way, participation in schools can be strengthened, so parents, students and staff can really participate and co-decide on topics that matter to them. 

Furthermore, besides strengthening knowledge and awareness of facilities, the project will also contribute to easy access to a place where questions can be asked for and by school participation councils. Please watch the developments on the website for this.