On November 1st 2014, Tottenham held its first Tedx Conference! Asher was invited to speak about our approach to working with young people. You can see his fantastic talk below:
Tag: involver
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
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