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School council and student voice case study: Beauchamp College

For the fourth in our series of school council case studies, it’s Beauchamp College, which is a Key Stage 4 and Post-16 college.

Key quote:

“College is a cultural mixing pot, so it’s impossible to say ‘this is what The Students want’, student voice enables teachers to be aware of the huge variety of wants and needs.”
Student governor

Key benefits:

Beauchamp College ReceptionThe culture of ‘high respect’ goes hand in hand with ‘high discipline’. There are no bells or uniforms and also no detentions. Students are expected to be responsible, treated as though they can be and so they are.

Staff and students all buy in to and contribute to school improvement: “Staff are with student voice, the school is not for teachers to teach and students to listen; students help the school progress.”

Student-led clubs and societies give every student the opportunity to lead, whilst greatly broadening the range of extra-curricular activities for everyone. This requires minimal staff support.

Students are very clear of the skills they are learning through being representatives, leaders and active participants in their school. They link these directly to the roles they want to take on in later life, both in employment and in wider society.

Top advice:

  • “Start small, let it grow and learn from other schools.” Student governor
  • “It’s not necessarily the loudest or most confident students who have the best ideas. Student voice is every student’s view, not just the ‘leaders’ in the school. All roles should be important, it is not to do with how many ‘leaders’ there are.” Student governor
  • “Communicate and be diverse. If you are the ‘same old, same old’ people, people will not be interested. Give it creativity and glamour. Find different ways to talk.” Student governor
  • “Student voice is about being in the community, not just the school: connecting students and the school with what’s going on outside.” Student ambassador
  • “Engrain things from a young age, so people know how to use their voice.” Student ambassador
  • Beauchamp shows how it values student voice by creating professional-looking posters of all the representatives and teams and the things they’ve been doing. These are displayed all over the college.

 

Methods used:

Student governors

Rather than a school council the top-level student representation at Beauchamp is a group of four student governors from Year 13 (they are elected while they are in Year 12). This structure was suggested by a student five years ago and has been running since then. Student governors are elected by students from across the whole-school. Any student is able to stand; they realise it will be a significant commitment of time but that their potential to make an impact on the college is equally significant. Their role is to represent the views of all students to the college’s management and to co-ordinate and initiate many of the student-led projects.

The student governors meet with the vice-principal every Monday morning for an hour and a half to catch up with what each other are doing and what the school is working on. Any other student or member of staff can also attend these meetings to comment on issues being discussed or bring up new ones. Students can also get their views to the student governors through their Facebook page, suggestion box or by seeing them in their office. The student governors also attend all meetings of the full governing body – as associate governors – and are given voting rights when they turn 18. Having students as associate governors is a possibility open to all schools.

Student ambassador

The student ambassador is a new role at Beauchamp College. This is an appointed post, rather than elected. The student ambassador’s job is to create links between the student body and the local community. He has been working on representation at the local youth council as well as inter-generational schemes with the local elderly.

The student ambassador sees his role as giving a greater number of students the opportunity and encouragement to become involved in making a contribution to the school and wider community. He has set out to do this in a creative way to add to the avenues for student voice and leadership offered through student governors, INSTED, etc.

‘INSTED’

Like the student governors, INSTED was suggested by a student. It is an internal evaluation of teaching and learning led by a student team that has been running for four years. Places on the team are advertised annually and anyone can apply. Everyone who applies to take part can do so. They are trained by a member of staff who is also an ex-Ofsted inspector, who co-ordinates and supports the INSTED team.

The aims of INSTED are to:

  • Celebrate the positive aspects of teaching and learning;
  • Suggest areas for improvement and constructively help the college to move forward to be the best.

The INSTED team do this through lesson observations and discussions with staff and students; these follow a set format developed by the school. The results of these are compiled in to reports by a student co-ordinator. This is given to the teacher concerned and to the head of department.

The scheme is seen as a huge success with students being able to see the impact they are having in the classroom and teachers requesting INSTED observations as they see it as a way to push forward their own practice.

Students appointing staff

Students are heavily involved in all staff appointments at Beauchamp, including the appointment of the new principal. Where they have gone further than most schools is that they have completely managed the appointment of a member of staff. The job description and person specification of the Key Stage 5 manager, a pastoral role, was written by students; they advertised the post, managed the interviews and made the appointment. It was felt that as the role was primarily working for the students then the students should make the appointment. The process gave the students a real insight in to what goes into recruitment and the college is very happy with the appointment made.

In the recent process of appointing a new principal, students were present at all stages or the 2 week process, bar one interview.

Student-led clubs and societies

The college has a system whereby students can apply to set up and run clubs and societies, like in many university student unions. This not only greatly increases the number and range of extra-curricular activities the college can run, but provides a great number of leadership opportunities for students. The sense of ownership and responsibility this gives to students means that minimal staff support and supervision is needed.

These clubs and societies can come from any aspect of students’ lives, covering religious, sporting, cultural, philosophical and creative interests.

Student-led research

This offers all students the opportunity to become involved in research. Students are encouraged to choose an area which is of particular interest to them but is also in some way linked to the college’s corporate plan. All students who join the programme initially attend a seminar at a university campus in order for them to experience a taste of university life as well as learning the rudiments of carrying out a research project. Students can work individually or as a team and are allocated a mentor who supports and guides them throughout the process. There are currently over 40 students involved in the programme.

Students present their recommendations to the college leadership team once their data is collected and analysed. As students frequently tackle these projects from a different perspective to staff, their observations are of particular interest and regularly student proposals are both innovative and thought provoking.

About the school (adapted from Ofsted):

Beauchamp is a coeducational comprehensive 14-19yrs Upper School, with approximately 2150 students. It was formerly an old-established grammar school in Kibworth dating back 600 years. It is currently situated on the southern outskirts of Leicester city, in an area considered to be relatively affluent.

The Sixth Form is one of the country’s largest, with over one thousand of the college’s 2150 students enrolled. 58 per cent of all students are from ethnic minority backgrounds, including 39 per cent Indian, 6 per cent Asian and 13 per cent mixed, producing a rich and diverse centre of learning for students. 32 per cent of students have a first language other than English. The college has about one third of the national average proportion of students with learning difficulties and/ or disabilities. However the proportion of students with a statement of SEN is about average.

Beauchamp consistently achieves above the national average GCSE and A Level results and ‘outstanding’ Sixth Form Ofsted reports. Amongst its other achievements Beauchamp is an International School, with Leading Edge and Training School status. The college gained technology specialist status in 1996 and gained a second specialism in vocational education in 2006.

 

Involver conducted these case studies for the Office of the Children’s Commissioner in 2011, as part of a project to encourage schools to involve their students in decision making

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School council and student voice case study: Westfield Community School

Here’s the third in our series of school council case studies, it’s Westfield Community School!

Key quote:

“It’s critical that children see the process and can see the end product. It’s more than just having a chat, and the children know this. They know the process is important in school. They know the starting point and what they’ve achieved.”

Assistant headteacher

Key benefits to student voice:

Pupils respect staff because it is clear that the opinions, views and ideas of every child are taken seriously and acted upon appropriately.

Transition and connection between phases is improved by older students working every week with younger students.

All new buildings, equipment and schemes have a high chance of success because the whole-school is actively consulted. The best options for all are chosen and there is a sense of excitement and ownership of them.

Top advice

  • The critical thing is that projects have a process and that children know the process. See things through to the end, do not give up with any stumbling blocks, bring it back to the school council and the class councils and work through it.
  • Do not put anything off limits, it will ruin your credibility. Address everything that is brought up in the most appropriate way.
  •  Value every voice, not just those who get elected. So use a structure where the views from the whole class (not just the class rep) are accurately represented to the school council. A strong system of class councils enables this.
  •  Be clear about what the school council process is and how it works. Only certain types of pupil will volunteer to take part in something they do not fully understand.
  • Keep reviewing your system to make sure everyone is getting heard.

Methods used:

School council and class councils

“The class councils drive the ideas. All the children are involved in everything.”

Assistant headteacher

Class councils form the core of pupil voice at Westfield. They happen every week in every class. Pupils can discuss any issues they like but the focus is always on coming up with solutions that the pupils themselves can carry out rather than just requesting things from staff. These meetings are run by members of the school council, who come from Years 5 and 6. They are supported by the class teacher to ensure that everyone stays reasonably well on track. Every fourth week there is a school council meeting where the pupils representing each class share and co-ordinate views and action from across the school.

“As a class teacher you always think such and such would make a good class councillor, but the children have other ideas, and as children can see the processes, more children are putting themselves forward. We’re clear about the process, so they see that they could do it too.”

Assistant headteacher

Improving representation on the school council for younger children

It had been the case that the school council was made up of members from every year group, but it was felt that this meant that some of the younger children were not being properly represented. Often the class reps from the lower years struggled to remember what they had discussed with their classes and so just gave their personal opinions in school council meetings. It was felt that older children were more able to keep this focus, so the school council was restructured to include just Years 5 and 6.

Each school councillor not only represents her own class but also has responsibility for representing specific classes lower down the school. So whilst younger pupils are not on the school council any more they all have an effective advocate there. They also all have the chance to discuss issues every week in their class, in meetings led primarily by another pupil.

Structures that facilitate action

The school council regularly works directly with the school’s senior leadership team (SLT) and governors. These relationships means they understand some of the possibilities and constraints of running the school. It also reinforces the views of the SLT and governors that pupils’ contributions are practical, mature and important. Furthermore it gives the school council a clear channel for raising key issues in the school with the key people.

To enable them to better deal with the smaller issues the school council requested and got a budget. This allows them to act quickly on ideas brought up in class council meetings so pupils see an immediate connection between them expressing their views and changes in the school.

Pupil-led whole-school consultations

When major changes are happening in the school the school council runs detailed, structured whole-school consultations. These ensure that every pupil is able to play a role in shaping what the school will look like.

Recently this has included what happens in the playground (equipment and activities) and a current consultation is on the ‘the Growing Space’. This is an area of unused land adjacent to the school that the school has acquired as an ‘outdoor classroom’. What will go in to this and what it will look like is being decided by the whole-school. Rather than just rely on each individual class representatives to explain this and discuss it with her class in her own way, which can result in patchy levels of feedback, the school council has designed a process to be run with the whole school. They run an assembly for each of the three phases in the school; then do a presentation in each class council meeting; then collect views from the whole-school before finally collating these views to create a report. This report is presented to the SLT and governors as well as fed back to the whole-school.

“It creates as sense of ownership for students, gives them a sense of achievement and shows what we think of our children, that it’s about what they would like, and they know that, and that’s a real key in terms of the respect the children have for us.”

Assistant headteacher

Putting pupils at the heart of school design

By ensuring that pupils are part of the process of designing the ‘feel’ of the school a great sense of ownership and pride has been developed. This is evidenced both in respect for the building and respect for staff. Pupils worked with a photographer to generate ideas for images for each phase within the school. The children themselves are featured in the images and the school council decided on which ones to use, as well as deciding on materials.

About the school

Westfield Community Primary School is a larger than average-sized school formed in 2005, following the amalgamation of two local primary schools. The percentage of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is three times the national average. The proportion of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities is above that usually found. The school population is predominantly White British and there are few pupils at early stages of speaking English as an additional language. The school is also a resourced school for the local authority and offers places to pupils with low-severity autism or speech and language difficulties.

Westfield holds National Healthy Schools Status and the Activemark. It has been identified as a National College Leadership Development School. It also holds the Cabinet Office Award.

 

Involver conducted these case studies for the Office of the Children’s Commissioner in 2011, as part of a project to encourage schools to involve their students in decision making

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School council and student voice case study: New Line Learning Academy

Here’s the second in our series of student voice case studies for the Children’s Commissioner.

Key quote:

“Everything we do is about improving the opportunities and life chances of young people. If they can see that they are helping to design their learning they are more engaged.”
Community Director

Key benefits

Engagement has improved which has meant behaviour and attainment have too. This has shifted students away from a pattern of disaffection with educational experience inherited from their families.

Students love the responsibility membership of the Design Team offers them and rise to the challenge.

A small number of sixth-form students are employed on a part-time basis to provide classroom support in Performing Arts and PE.

Top advice

  • Students should not be consulted ‘as and when’ but be an integral part of the day-to-day running of the school. They should assume that they are able to put their ideas forward and staff are expected to engage with them. This should be put in to school policy.
  • The Design Team has a core of key members but allow others to opt in and out of student voice roles – different people will be passionate about different things. Use that passion, but do not force the engagement.
  • Use the media to engage other students and keep them informed. Students speak to other students in ‘their language’, magazines, video and online.
  • Examine your curriculum: remove repetition and be creative. Through doing this, New Line Learning Academy has shortened the Key Stage 3 curriculum and given students access to Level 3 courses earlier. Create space and time for this equally important work on personal development and engagement – student discussion and well-being have equal status to academic study.

“If it’s important, and these things are, we just find the time. This is part of their learning.”

Community Director

Methods used

Design Team

The Design Team is a group drawn from across the school, anybody can be on it. They are the focal point for student voice within the school. They help to design all aspects of the school, from the logo and uniform to aspects of the curriculum.

Students volunteer themselves and can join and leave at any time. Whilst this creates some fluidity in the membership, there is also a core group of students who have specific roles. They are the heart of the Design Team and ensure that it keeps running.

The main method they use to ensure they represent the whole of the school is maintaining the diversity of their Design Team. They also use the daily 30-minute ‘well-being sessions’ in their year groups to discuss issues which are taken back to the main Design Team meetings. For more formal information gathering from the whole-school or specific year groups they create surveys in SharePoint which can be pushed to all students through the VLE. They also use a team of ‘social reporters’- Y10 students trained to use digital media to report on social issues – to examine issues and create debate. These stories often reflect external community issues and bridge the school-community interface.

Peer mentoring

A group of volunteers have been trained jointly with students from Tunbridge Girls Grammar School to provide peer support on both a social and emotional level to other students in the school. This focused on active listening and helping people to access the appropriate support structures in school for more serious issues.

Using students in this role “bridges the gap between staff and students”; those students who feel more comfortable talking to staff can and those who would rather talk to a peer can do that. A side-benefit is that it is also a very cost-effective way of improving the ratio of ‘supporters’ to those needing support. Having ‘more ears to the ground’ has enabled the school to deal with issues more quickly, before they escalate. The school’s external assessors have noted the improvement in engagement and behaviour.

Student Observers

The school felt that for their students to reach their academic potential they needed to understand what good learning and teaching is. The school uses observation as a regular, ongoing part of staff CPD (continuous professional development). It was felt that getting feedback from students as well as peers and managers gave everyone a better picture. So the scheme is used to give both students and staff a greater understanding of how learning is happening.

This was introduced gradually, but all staff are expected to participate. Students volunteer and are trained in observation and debriefing by the vice-principal, who is also an Ofsted inspector. Whilst all involved so far have found it to be beneficial and enjoyable the scheme is monitored and evaluated to improve development.

Student interviewers

It is now school policy that all teaching and pastoral appointments will involve a student interview panel. The students work with the vice-principal and the human resources manager to discuss questions and themes. The students then interview prospective candidates with a member of staff present who does not intervene. The student panel then gives feedback to the full appointments panel.

“It’s the best part of the process. Students are major (I don’t like the word, but) stakeholders. They have insights into things we may not pick up on. It’s about collective responsibility.”

Community Director

Performing Arts and Sports leaders

Sixth formers studying Sports or Performing Arts Studies are given the opportunity to become sports leaders and performing arts leaders. They are then able to help out in the classes of students lower down the school. This has huge benefits for all involved, raising self-esteem, improving aspirations and attainment. It means that GCSE students can get advice from people who have recently achieved the qualification themselves, and benefit from the greater number of people there to support them. Those taking on the leadership roles further develop their sense of responsibility and understanding of learning and teaching.

Another important benefit the school has found is using these leaders as auxiliary staff to assist with after-school activities and hires of the school facilities by external organisations and individuals. This allows the school to employ these leaders for a few hours a week, which is very helpful in keeping them in education, especially since the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) is no longer available to them. They also provide a useful service to the school in this way and get real work experience.

The school also uses these sports and performing arts leaders to improve their relationship with the local primary schools. Along with staff from New Line Learning Academy they go out to run sports, dance and drama activities for the primary pupils.

About the school

New Line Learning Academy is one of two academies run by the Future Schools Trust. New Line Learning and
Cornwallis Academies share a governing body and an executive principal, but each is led on a day-to-day basis by a head of school. The academy has specialisms in business and enterprise and in vocational studies. The school moved in to a brand new building in September 2010.

The academy accepts students of all abilities although it operates in a selective area. It is smaller than the average secondary school. Most of the students are of White British heritage, with a small number from a range of minority ethnic groups. Some of these students are at the early stages of learning English. The proportion of students known to be eligible for a free school meal is double the national average and over half have special educational needs or a disability. Students’ difficulties mainly relate to their learning or behaviour. The academy’s roll includes a small number of looked after children.

 

Involver conducted these case studies for the Office of the Children’s Commissioner in 2011, as part of a project to encourage schools to involve their students in decision making

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School council and student voice case study: Wroxham School

Here’s the first in our great school council and student voice case studies that we did for the Children’s Commissioner.

It’s from Wroxham School in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire. Great stuff!

Key quote:

What the teachers had in common were the principles of:

  • Trust – that we trusted children and that the children felt that they could trust us;
  • A sense of co-agency – so not only was it important that you listen to the child, but that the child listen to you, that together you can take something much further forward than if you were just in a passive mode, listening:
  • The ethic of everybody – ie that it’s not just the people that are easy to engage that matter, it’s everybody.

Headteacher, Wroxham School

Key benefits of student voice:

The school was in special measures, it was turned around not by a headteacher telling everyone what to do, but by creating a culture where everyone is listened to and is asking the question ‘how could we improve?’

Students are eloquent and keen to talk about their learning, when they join secondary school they perform well because they understand how to learn and are eager to do so.

Top advice

  • Student voice is not about structures it is about ethos, vision and values.
  • Do not think ‘voice’ is just about what people say. The way students behave reflects how they feel, it is a way they express themselves and give feedback. Pay attention to it and try to understand where it comes from.
  • Participation is about whole-school culture. Ensure that staff are listened to as well as students.
  • Create a culture of trust, not judgement so you enable everyone to learn. Do not give out grades, support people to self-assess. They become more aware of their learning and challenge themselves to learn more.
  • Do not force staff in to a way of teaching or running their classrooms, engage them in conversation: ask them whether what they do in class allows children to surprise them.

Methods used:

Whole school approach to democracy

Everything the school does is about including the whole-school community in decision-making and getting everyone to work out ‘the answers’ together. Efforts are made in the staff team as well as with students to ensure that everyone feels equally able to contribute. The hierarchy is minimal so democracy can be seen as a real choice: it is worth saying something because you have as much chance to be listened to as everyone else. In this way democracy is not something that fits uneasily (or pretends to fit) within the strict hierarchy of the school.

Another aspect of this is the school’s refusal to give out grades or stream its pupils. It is seen to be incompatible with a view that everyone and their opinions are equally valued. Instead, an approach of co-construction and co-agency is fostered, where staff and pupils work together to understand how learning can best happen for each child.

Mixed age circle groups led by Y6

The circle groups led by Year 6 pupils demonstrate the whole-school democracy approach. Each circle group will have pupils of all ages involved as well as adults, who take part as equal members. The Year 6 pupils have been given the leadership role rather than the member of staff. This helps to ensure that the views that come from these groups are authentically from the pupils, not mediated by staff. That is not to say staff cannot have an input, but they are there as participants – participants with different levels of experience and knowledge – they are not controlling the discussions.

These meetings follow a standard format to give those running them confidence that they can do it. An agenda is worked out across the whole-school that all of the circle groups follow. To begin each meeting the Year 6 leaders run a game and share news about what has been happening across the school. They then discuss the agenda that has been agreed. This has built mutual understanding across the age ranges in the school and makes the older children more tolerant and aware of the needs and wants of the younger children.

Having these meetings weekly means that the younger pupils quickly become used to them and find their voices. It also ensures that most issues are small ones; issues are spotted early and ‘nipped in the bud’.

Student self-evaluation

In place of teachers grading pupils, students are expected to self-evaluate. This gives them a much greater sense of what they are learning, how they are learning and what they would like to improve upon. The headteacher says it has created a culture where is it “cool to challenge yourself”. As there is no judgement of ‘failure’ there is trust between pupils and between pupils and staff. Pupils can choose to redo things to challenge themselves further and learn more.

Writing their own reports

Students are given reminders of the topics they have covered and asked to write down what they learned (their ‘successes’) and what they struggled with (their ‘challenges’). Younger children are buddied with older ones who type up the reports for them. They can add photographs and drawings to demonstrate their learning. This information is then shared and discussed with the teacher who responds to the points made by the pupil and adds in any other successes or challenges she feels the pupil has overlooked. There is a meaningful dialogue between pupil and teacher, which creates a meaningful dialogue between pupil and parent about learning. All of this is done without grading or putting the pupil down, so pupils can fully understand where they are succeeding and what they can do to improve.

Pupil-led parent evenings

Parents evenings run in a way that supports this process. Pupils create a short presentation for their parents about what they have been doing, their successes and challenges. They present this to their parents and their teacher; the headteacher sits in, makes notes and contributes. They can then discuss this all together and revisit what was discussed at previous meetings. In this way everyone is kept up to date with progress and they actually understand what has been going on in the classroom. Furthermore the child has ownership over her own learning and takes responsibility for her successes and sees the challenges as just that, rather than failings.

“Children talk comprehensively and passionately about their own learning.”

Headteacher

Students deciding on the curriculum

“Even the curriculum here [is influenced by students]. They give us all the ideas of what they want to learn about. They’re just so much more engaged.”

Year 5 Teacher

Having rigorous structures of evaluation and monitoring that are not based on standardised grades or tests creates the freedom for pupils and classroom staff to make important decisions about the curriculum. It allows classes to respond to sudden interests of the children, maybe sparked by current world or local events – so the week after the March 2011 tsunami in Japan a Year 5 class was studying earthquakes and tsunamis at the request of the pupils.

Topics are discussed with pupils and their areas of interest form the key areas of study for the scheme.

About the school

The Wroxham School is average in size. It is popular and heavily oversubscribed. The majority of pupils are White British although there are pupils from a wide range of ethnic heritage. English is an additional language for a few pupils. The proportion of pupils with learning difficulties and/or disabilities is below average as is the proportion of pupils with statements detailing their educational needs. The number of pupils eligible for free school meals is below average.

Fewer pupils join or leave the school throughout the school year than is generally seen. The Early Years Foundation Stage includes a nursery, which operates a flexible provision. Attainment on entry to the nursery draws on a full range of abilities but overall is generally typical for this age of children. The school has gained national and international recognition for aspects of its work. It has gained awards for Investors in People and Financial Management in schools. It has also been awarded Healthy School status. The school provides a breakfast and after school club.

 

Involver conducted these case studies for the Office of the Children’s Commissioner in 2011, as part of a project to encourage schools to involve their students in decision making