Pupil Leadership and Pupil Voice

In September, children who are a part of our ACE Project were asked how the ACE Project and their ACE Tutors have helped them in and out of school. These are some of their responses:

“Mrs Sherlock helped me with my phonics and writing my letters the right way round.” Year 2 pupil

“Mr Sherlock helps me a lot in my ACE time. I can talk to him about my worries and he helps me if I am feeling sad. He makes me feel good.” - Year 4 pupil

“Mrs Baker helps me to figure out why I am feeling frustrated. She helps me when I find my Literacy lessons difficult, she helps me calm down.” - Year 6 pupil

“Mrs Sherlock helped me solve my friendship issues. She always listens and talks to me.” - Year 6 pupil

“Mr Sherlock listens to me. He helped me start a new hobby and he gave me the courage to start going to Dance Club which I loved!” - Year 6 pupil

“Mrs Baker helped me to improve my reading and maths last year. She just helps me with anything I am struggling with really.” - Year 6 pupil

“Mrs Sherlock helps me with my writing. She helped me start in my Year 3 class and she showed me all the things I needed to know about Year 3. She helped me to visit my new teachers and I really love my new class.” Year 3 pupil

In January, pupils discussed how the JLT could support the SLT with finding out about which subjects in the wider curriculum the children liked most. The JLT completed a draft questionnaire and discussed their results. They then suggested amendments to the questionnaire before we approached the whole school. The JLT members agreed to support the SLT by explaining to their classes how to complete the questionnaire (with the support of their teacher).

The questionnaire was conducted throughout the school in February 2021 and the results have been collated in order to provide feedback to SLT, staff and Governors.

 

The JLT discussed their understanding of safeguarding issues in the school.

Children enjoyed a wide range of subjects in the school. They could mention quite a few things which kept them safe:

  • school rules

  • passwords

  • lessons about e-safety

  • first Aid

  • adults supervising around the school at start of day, playtimes and end of day

  • a secure perimeter

Children knew who they could talk to if they had worries - teachers, Headteacher, Deputy Headteacher, Assistant Headteacher, friends and family.

Due to the profound effect of COVID on children's everyday lives, the Children’s Commissioner for England, Rachel de Souza, organised the largest ever survey of children in the UK in order to tell the government what children want and need to live happier lives.

Our Junior Leadership Team thought it would be a great for our pupils to participate in this national feedback. Initially, the members of the JLT took the survey and then agreed to support teachers in rolling it out across the school. There was a wonderful response to their request for children to join in - across the school over 250 pupils took part, including pupils from every year group. Everyone found doing the survey was fun and very interactive. They also really enjoyed giving the Government their opinions!

The children discussed their views on remote learning.

There were many positives of remote learning. Children said they enjoyed typing, rather than writing and could choose the order of the lessons during the day. It was an advantage to watch videos as many times as you wanted and at your own pace. There were, however, some down sides to remote learning. Children missed the sense of being a class and doing activities together. There were also sometimes technical difficulties with IT.

Following the end of lockdown, we elected a new Junior Leadership Team (JLT).

After such a disrupted year, the Junior Leadership Team were really keen to do something that would help to bring pupils across year groups together with a common sense of purpose. In particular, they were keen to breathe new life into the system of Team Points. They proposed buying a large token collection unit (with one cylinder for each team colour) to create an impressive display in the main foyer near the Welcome Office. Pupils would collect a token for each team point in class and these would go to the main foyer at the end of the day. Ideally, they would also like each class to have a smaller token collection unit, so the children could see the value of their token adding to their team's success. Having this visual sense of the value of their team points would give pupils a sense of belonging to something bigger than their 'bubble' and remind us of how many wonderful things go on across the school each week.

The Junior Leadership Team asked the Friends of Seal School (FOSS) to collaborate to make this a joint project by financing the purchase of the token collection units. The FOSS agreed to purchase the large token collection unit for the school reception area.