What is pupil voice and why is it important?
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child sets out the rights of a child.
At Endon Hall Primary school, we share a whole-school commitment to listening to the views, wishes and experiences of all children and young people. We want children at our school to know that they are valued, listened to and considered.
We strongly believe that children should be actively involved in the life of the school. We also have an emphasis on helping children to develop as citizens who have a voice and a say, ensuring vocabulary is explicitly taught and that there are plenty of opportunities to discuss, debate, and hold conversations. These are very important life skills that we aim to develop during children’s primary school years.
What does pupil voice look like in practice?
We have developed an approach to hearing the voice of the child, and acting on it. This is done for curriculum subjects, as well as for more general aspects of school life. We have a flexible approach towards pupil participation at Endon Hall in order to get a wide range of voices heard across the school and in different contexts. Here are some of the ways that we have gathered pupil voice at our school:
– Assessment for Learning, discussing and reviewing others and own achievements.
– Meetings
– Questionnaires
– Interviews
– Assemblies
– Suggestion boxes
– Mixed year group classes
– E-surveys
– Self-evaluation
– Groups such as Ambassadors, School Council, ECO council
What is the impact of pupil voice on our pupils?
We feel that pupil voice has increased pupils’ confidence and self-belief; we have empowered and improved pupil engagement; improved pupil-to-staff and pupil-to-pupil relationships; become more inclusive, as all pupils are encouraged and supported to contribute; improved teaching, learning and school-wide decision making and increased opportunity for pupils to develop personal, social and communication skills.
Here are some of the ways in which we have responded to pupils ideas and thoughts…
*coming soon*