Constitution for your school council

School councils, also called school representative body or school boards, have an important legal document known as the constitution.

It sets out rules for you to follow as a body member, as you serve your school community.

The constitution is a contract between the body and its members and sets out how you work together.

Your principal will give you a copy of it when you join.

The document includes:

• your school council’s guiding principles
• what your school council can make decisions about
• how many parents and teachers are on your school council, and how often they meet
• the committees your school council has.

It should be reviewed yearly to:

• ensure that all members are familiar with the contents
• allow the school council to consider updating it.

Create a constitution

At the first meeting, a new school council must adapt the model constitution. Follow these steps:

Step 1. Draft

You must use the model constitution template:

• model constitution for school councils DOCX (54.2 KB)
• model constitution for independent public school boards DOCX (53.0 KB).

The model constitution has been written to meet legal requirements and help you identify how you want to work together.

Some sections of the constitution need decisions on what to include. All members must talk about and agree on this.

Step 2. Submit for department approval

The Department of Education must approve the constitution. This makes sure it meets the rules.

Email your draft to schoolgovernance@education.nt.gov.au.

Step 3. Sign off

Once the constitution is approved by the department, the school council meets again to sign off on the final version.

You must record and keep the minutes of the meeting.

Step 4. Send to department

Email a copy of the signed constitution to schoolgovernance@education.nt.gov.au.

This makes sure the department can keep a copy on file as per government recordkeeping rules.

Change your constitution

If the body would like to change or update the constitution, you should talk to the school community about the proposed changes.

This helps give the whole school community a voice on the body.

You will still need to:

• send the draft of the updated constitution to the department for review and approval
• sign off on the changes as a body
• send the signed constitution to the department.