Tag: pupil/student/learner voice

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School council and student voice case study: Studfall Junior School

Over to Corby in Northamptonshire for another great school in our amazing school council and student voice case study series!

Key benefits

  • Students are able to communicate in a relaxed and confident manner.
  • Creativity and student voice are seen as interlinked, so this helps the school be creative in how it involves students and in turn students have made lessons more creative.
  • Lessons have become more engaging as a result of student comments in response to consultation on the raising achievement plan (RAP, the school development plan).

“It’s absolutely tangible, you can see it, the confidence of young people and the confidence of teachers to listen to young people. [Pupils] really make their own choices now.”

Year 4 teacher

Top advice

  • What you are doing has to be purposeful. Students need to know what their role is and that that it has potency. Set objectives, goals and targets. It is not effective if the students are not sure why they are doing it.
  • Have weekly class meetings so you can deal with everything that comes up.
  • Make sure that the class representatives have someone in their class to take notes for them. That way they can take a full part in the meeting and still have notes to help them remember everything they need to relay to the school council.
  • Have two-year terms on school council, so you roll over experience and expertise.

Methods used:

Young Consultants

“It’s an amazing learning curve for them. The children involved can speak and think about how they learn and what they want to be learning about.”

Creative Partnerships Co-ordinator

Through Creative Partnerships Studfall has been working with a local secondary school to develop creativity in their curriculum. They feel that rather than creativity just being about the arts, it is about how they involve children in all of their work. So they formed a group of young consultants (YCs) to be the pupil voice within the Creative Partnerships work they were doing. To ensure this was not tokenistic they gave them clear roles and training.

Initially the YCs were involved in interviewing practitioners that the school was considering working with, but it has grown from there. They decided that the YCs should observe the sessions being run by the practitioners so they could further develop their understanding about what skills a good creative practitioner uses. This has then grown in to involving the YCs in planning sessions with adults and researching how Studfall pupils like to learn. This practice is now expanding throughout the school with several teachers working through schemes of work with YCs.

To develop this creativity it has been essential to give pupils the space and freedom to make a lot of choices about their learning.

School council

The school council meets weekly to discuss issues that have come up in the class council meetings (also held weekly). These meetings happen during assembly time, so when one half of the school is having an assembly the other half is meeting in class groups.

Pupils were finding that not everyone was confident or able to speak up during class meetings, so they created two other methods for people to speak more privately to their representatives. Every Wednesday there is a school council surgery. There is also a suggestions box in to which people can either put anonymous suggestions or their names if they would like to speak to a school councillor, but not in front of the whole class.

Whole school involvement in writing the RAP

The school council has been involved in running a consultation on the RAP. Each week they asked all the classes in the school a different question related to an area of the RAP. Their responses have been fed into the RAP and also fed back directly to teachers. Pupils can see the effects in their classrooms and are very pleased.

“Some children were saying there’s not enough challenges at the start of lessons, so they were just sitting there waiting for all the other children to come in. So we talked to our teachers at their team meeting and we told them. And they took on what we said, and now we have lot more, so they’ve listened. Children are actually pleased.”

Year 6 pupil

Buddies

Everyone in the school has a buddy, Year 6 are buddies with Year 4 and Year 5 are buddies with Year 3. These are assigned when the new Year 3 join the school so that they have people who can show them around and help them settle in.

The buddy system extends beyond this though with students doing shared activities and lessons with their buddies and buddies helping one another academically. This relationship persists throughout their time at the school and the pupils clearly enjoy being buddied up, in fact they are arguing at the moment for more time to spend with their buddies.

About the school

The school is much larger than average. A few pupils are from a range of minority ethnic groups. A third of all pupils have special educational needs and/or disabilities which is significantly higher than usual. There is designated special provision for 33 pupils with statements of special educational needs and, together with those in school, they account for 10 per cent of pupils. This is exceptionally high compared to other schools.

The proportion of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is below average. A breakfast club is organised by the school each morning for approximately 30 pupils. Two headteachers lead and manage the school.

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Pupil voice is needed for Haringey school improvement

Haringey Council Leader, Cllr Claire Kober
Improving schools should be fun, maybe if she involved pupils Haringey Council Leader, Cllr Claire Kober wouldn't look so glum.

This week Haringey Council Leader, Cllr Claire Kober wrote an open letter to all Haringey parents and guardians about what the council is doing to sort out the mess that is education in Haringey right now.

I am one of those parents. My daughter goes to the Willow School, round the corner from where we live in Tottenham. I am also a community governor of Welbourne Primary School  (which is round the corner from our office) and I sit on the Haringey Governors Association (HGA) Executive Committee and the Schools Forum. I also volunteer my time to support Haringey’s school councils.

Cllr Kober is launching ‘Outstanding for All’ a commission “charged to consider the future of education provision in Haringey” with the aim of understanding “how all our schools can make profound improvements in their attainment”. Between her letter and a message sent to the HGA Cllr Kober made it clear that she wants the commission to talk to parents, teachers, headteachers, governors and local businesses. Fatally I think she has missed out the group she identifies as being “the most important people in any discussion about education”, the students themselves.

It seems that this process is in danger, before it even starts, of seeing young people as merely ‘outputs’ and data points rather than as central to the discussion and any solutions. Where this leads is to an education system that is not about inculcating a love of knowledge and an enquiring mind, but simply about learning to pass exams. This process switches off people’s ability to problem-solve, be innovative, creative and enterprising.

Cllr Kober would do well to visit Wroxham School to find out how they went from being in special measures to being outstanding (and have maintained it). Their attainment has gone up, but they would describe that as a side-benefit, rather than the driver or goal. They turned their school around not by focussing on attainment but on the community, including the children; they use their experience, insight and ideas to make their school successful.

I should point out that these are my views as a parent, governor and educator, I am not seeking to represent the HGA, Welbourne or the Schools Forum.

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School councils in the Czech Republic

We’re just back from a week in Prague helping to train school councils link teachers from schools across the Czech Republic. The words “Žákovské parlamenty” are very important to us now :)

We worked with a GREAT organisation called CEDU who support school councils over there. Having showed Kamila and Tomas from CEDU school councils from around London a couple of years ago, it was lovely to do the return trip.

CEDU have been supporting a number of schools across the Czech Republic to set up and maintain effective school councils.

They had put on a three day course for teachers from 13 schools across the whole country. Three teachers came from each school, including a head teacher – great commitment from the staff. Our contribution was to give a one-hour presentation on how school councils work in the UK, and to deliver a couple of  training sessions for the 40ish teachers (number not age).

Things I learnt in Prague:

  • The obstacles that school councils face in the Czech Republic are remarkably similar to the ones that we face in the UK.
  • Training through a translator is difficult but a good challenge.
  • Prague is an amazing city and rabbit hearts taste really good.
  • Jackets from Top Man don’t keep you warm in -20 degrees temperatures.
  • If a teacher offers you a green drink with cream on the top in a Czech bar, don’t drink it.

Things we did: 

Anyway, we started the trip with a visit to a local primary and secondary school called Táborská. After a lovely tour of the school (which you can see here, we sat in on a school council meeting which was translated brilliantly by one of the students, Max. Their school councils is called ‘3 Oko’ which means ‘Third Eye’.

The school council were talking about having a bigger role in supporting learning for younger students and working closely with teachers. It was a really useful start to see a school council meeting.

The next day was the first day of the conference. We had the amazing Honza as our official translator for the training – he was quick, concise and knew his stuff on participation. The whole week was a lot easier because of Honza – thanks!

After some warm up exercises, and three of the teacher participants turning up in traditional Moravian dress (plus shots of slivovitz for everyone!), Tomas gave an update on the programme. We then gave a speech (through Honza) on school councils in the UK.  You can see this below; though the fonts are a bit messed up.

It became clear that the obstacles to effective school councils were very familiar to the Czech teachers. Around half of them had been involved in the CEDU programme for two years. They were also very interested in the students being excluded in UK schools, which doesn’t seem to be as common in the Czech Republic.

To give us a flavour of some of the student voice work they’ve been doing, the teachers each gave a short presentation on what their students have been up to. Here’s one of the presentations (you can see a few more here):

The next day we delivered two workshops to the teachers aimed at helping them to overcome some of the difficulties they were having with their school councils. Asher sensibly suggested that the workshops should be in Czech so that the teachers could share ideas, with Honza translating things back to us. This worked out well, and there was a sigh of relief from the teachers when they didn’t have to hear everything in English.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a really interesting day, and many of the teachers had made really good progress. We helped them to support one another, and chipped in with our own advice too. I found it difficult not to be able to support the teachers once they were in small groups though, due to the language barrier – often that’s when you can go into more detail and give some tailored support. We did out best though, and the teachers seemed to get a lot out of it.

After a lovely end-of course celebration, and some exciting discussions about future collaboration, our trip to Prague came to an end. I also did a short interview  on Prague radio. If you can’t speak Czech, it’s probably not worth clicking :)

And if you’re interested, here’s the programme that we ran:  involver session outline – Prague Feb 2012

So we’d like to say a big thank you to the CEDU team: Tomas, Kamila, Karel, Filip, Honza, Jaroslav and Eliska. You were amazing hosts and we’re very grateful. A massive thank you to all the teachers we worked with too!

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Case Studies involver blog

School council and student voice case study: Kirk Merrington Primary School

The next in our series of case studies comes from Kirk Merrington Primary, a village school in County Durham.

Key quoteKirk Merrington Primary School

“If we weren’t listened to it just wouldn’t be right. It makes you feel really welcomed, because you’ve got your say.”

Year 5 pupil

Key benefits

Behaviour is not an issue in the school. This is a result of the incredibly positive relationships between staff and pupils and the understanding they share of rights and responsibilities.

By the time they leave the school all children are adept at expressing their opinions, talking to adults and relating to one another in a civilised, caring way.

Children show a clear affection for the school, the staff and all other pupils. The sense of ownership they feel is impressive.

Top advice

To express oneself compassionately and effectively one needs to learn to listen to and work with others. Group project work from a young age teaches the skills needed.

Staff need to see themselves as role models. Leading by example is essential. If you are trying to teach children respect, you need to show them that same respect.

Set your expectations higher. It is easy to underestimate how responsible young children can be and how intelligently they can contribute.

Pupil voice does not work unless everyone shares the value of listening. So, we need to educate around rights and responsibilities for pupil voice to work.

Methods used

Whilst Kirk Merrington has certain structures to listen to pupils, what is most important is the relationships between staff and pupils, which are open, friendly and mutually respectful. This is not to say that this is just a happy coincidence, the school has chosen to be this way:

Shared values

There is a very strong set of values which underpins everything the school does. Central to this is that the school has to act in a way that reflects the values it is trying to teach:

“We try to teach respect therefore young people are listened to.”

Headteacher

Initially these values grew from what the school wanted its children to learn. It was understood that for this to happen the school would have to be based on these values too and so all its interactions would need to be on this basis. Over time the school formalised this way of working first through the Investors in Pupils scheme and then the Rights Respecting Schools Award. The latter helped the school make clear the links between rights and responsibilities. Everything the school does now is framed within the language of rights and responsibilities. Whilst it cuts across many rights and responsibilities, pupil voice is clearly linked in the school to the right of everyone to be listened to and therefore the responsibility to listen to others.

“Rights Respecting Schools isn’t the be all and end all, but it’s easy to assume that you’re doing it [involving pupils] without something like this. The children will tell us what we want to hear, they are very loyal to us. These schemes help us to understand what’s going on, to audit it.”

Headteacher

‘Righty Duck’

In a primary school the concept of rights and responsibilities can be difficult to convey so the school has come up with a mascot to help. ‘Righty Duck’ can be seen all over the school and all pupils know that wherever they see him, there are rights and responsibilities at play. For example, the school council noticeboard has a picture of ‘Righty Duck’ next to notes explaining in simple language what the school council is for and which article of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) it relates to.

So, both those who can read the explanation and those who cannot understand that there is a link between the class charters, the work they do on sustainability, the school council and so on.

Staff modelling respectful communication

There are honest, open relationships between pupils, parents and staff. The school has an open door policy in its staff room and the headteacher’s office. This is part of the headteacher’s aim to ensure that all Kirk Merrington pupils will have the confidence and self-esteem to talk to any adult. It is absolutely understood that for pupils to learn how to relate positively to one another this behaviour needs to be modelled in the relationships staff have with them.

“Schools can run on auto-pilot; we don’t want to do that, we want to understand why we’re doing it and be purposeful about it.”

Headteacher

This means that, for example, when the school council asks for something the answer is never ‘no’, there is always an explanation and an ‘adult discussion’ about the reasons why. This is the starting point for attempting to find a solution, rather than the end of the matter.

This culture of problem-solving starts very early in the school and is seen as an essential building-block for positive communication and teamwork as the pupils get older.

Variety of opportunities for leadership and responsibility

In the classroom every child engages in project-based, team learning that helps them build skills of listening, collaboration and leadership. Everyone then has the opportunity to take on other roles of responsibility through which they can represent others or get their own voice heard. Although it is a very small school it makes available a variety of opportunities:

  • School council
  • Music council
  • Pupil-run snack shop
  • Play leaders (run games and sessions in the playground)
  • Singing leaders (teach songs on the playground)
  • Pupils elected to work with architects designing the new school
  • Peer-mediators

About the school (adapted from Ofsted)

This smaller than average sized school, south of Durham, is attended by pupils from the immediate area and beyond. The small number of pupils in the school results in mixed key stage classes. The areas served by the school have below average indicators of socio-economic circumstances and all the pupils are of White British heritage with English as their first language. The proportion of pupils in receipt of free schools meals is below the average as is the proportion of pupils with learning difficulties and/or disabilities. The school holds several awards including Healthy Schools accreditation.

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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Newsletter 11: Can your school council do this?

 

Enough about us …

… this is about you

Many schools are doing great, exciting things with their school councils and student voice; last year we were commissioned to write up some good practice case studies and we’ve (finally) been allowed to publish them. Have a look, steal some ideas and tell us what you’re doing that’s even better!

Case study: Student governors

Beauchamp College doesn’t really have a school council, they have elected student governors and a student ambassador instead. They perform many of the same roles, but as they sit on the governing body, are completely tied in to decision-making in their school.
http://involver.org.uk/?p=3297

Resource: Quick minutes template

Ensure that you get down the most important facts from your school council (or any other meeting): what decisions were made, and WHO is doing WHAT by WHEN.
http://involver.org.uk/?p=3272

Case study: Whole school democracy

Poster at Wroxham: Pupils will not learn to think for themselves if their teachers are expected to do as they are told
Wroxham Primary School was turned around by creating a culture where everyone is listened to and is asking the question ‘how could we improve?’ They have cross-age circle times led by Y6, pupil-led parent evenings and an emphasis on self-evaluation.
http://involver.org.uk/?p=3198

News: By and for young people

This is a podcast produced as part of the Our Say Our Way project, which is linking up young people on housing estates around the country. We’re currently writing a toolkit to spread what they are doing further:
http://www.oursay-ourway.co.uk/blog/2011/12/2012-legacy/

 
Free networking and advice for school council co-ordinators

Free event

Student voice networking in London: We’re putting on some free evenings to get school council co-ordinators together to share ideas, tips and tales of woe. We’ll provide the venue, refreshments and advice if you tell us where you’d like to meet up (if there’s strong interest in an area outside of London, we’ll happily come to you too, so let us know):
http://bit.ly/wxwhDX

Even more case studies!

We’re adding a case study a day for the next two weeks, so keep checking the link below. There are already ones up about Design Teams at New Line Learning Academy and the student-led consultations at Westfield Community School:
http://involver.org.uk/category/case-studies/

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Case Studies involver blog

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