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Pupil Voice
At Leybourne Chase we recognise a child’s right to be heard (Article 12) and value the children’s views on all aspects of school life where possible. We recognise our role as duty-bearers to ensure that all children feel that they are respected, listened to and valued as individuals and as a collective group.
We teach the children that it is their right to express their thoughts and opinions (Article 13) and that the best interests of the children are a top priority in everything that affects them (Article 3).
How we encourage pupil voice at our school:
Steering group/school council - this is led by the Rights Respecting Steering group, who meet regularly to discuss areas for school improvement or ideas for events. The outcomes from these meetings and regularly published on the Rights Respecting page on the school website.
Peer mediators - Year 5 are trained to be peer mediators to help to solve disagreements between peers on the playground.
Play leaders and sports leaders - Year 5 are trained as play and sports leaders. This involves them running games at lunchtimes and organising and supporting school sporting events.
Class assemblies - every term a class produces a class assembly based on a charity that they have chosen to support. The children present their work to the rest of the school and parents.
Pupil Questionnaires - we regularly ask our pupils to complete questionnaires to recognise areas of strength and development within the school.
Anti-bullying ambassadors - we have a group of children from Years 4, 5 and 6 who are trained anti-bullying ambassadors through the Diana Award.
Pupil Voice Post-box - following a steering group meeting, we have now placed a post-box in the school where children can post their ideas for events and areas for development. These ideas are then discussed at the beginning of each steering group meeting.
| You said... | We did... |
|---|---|
| We would like the opportunity to be taught by the different teachers in the school. Could we do a day like cultural day again so that we can experience the other teachers? |
We organised a cultural day where the children visited each classroom to learn about a different culture in each room. We even had a Nigerian entertainer visit us! We have also planned in another cultural day for this academic year. |
| We think that lunchtime isn't working when the children in KS2 go outside first and then eat afterwards. We feel like we aren't getting time to play with our friends and to enjoy lunch. | We changed the timings of the day so that the children in KS2 go to lunch first before then going outside. |
| Can we sort out the houses so that we know what houses that we are in? | We now have a new house system that is successfully up and running. All children and members of staff in the school are part of one of our four houses. |
| Please can we sort out the playground rotas so that we have a fair amount of time on the playground equipment and to make sure that football rotas are fair? | The steering group met and put together a new timetable for the playground, including a rota for the equipment and football. |
| Can we have more comfortable areas in our library to read in and can we get more books for all ZPD levels? | We raised money through our 'break the rules' day for new books and we added new furniture for the library, including new sofas! |
| Can we have more clubs that are on offer from the teachers? | The steering group met with their classes to generate club ideas. These were shared at a steering group meeting and with staff members so that they could use these to help them choose clubs for the next term. |
| Can we do a food tech club? | In terms 5 and 6 a food tech club began for children in KS2 that occurred weekly, offering the children a chance to learn about healthy food choices and how to make different dishes. |
Pupil voice events
- July 2022 - Rights Respecting Questionnaire data indicated that 95% of children felt they can always, or almost always, influence decisions in the school.
- April 2022 - a small group of children took part in a VIAT public speaking competition. The children prepared and then presented a speech surrounding the following topics:
-Dreams -Antiquity -Innovation-Adventure
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May 2021 - Panda class were so inspired by watching about the growing number of cases of Covid-19 in India that they asked to raise money to support Unicef UK in providing oxygen to those areas in short supply. The children are completing a sponsored walk on Friday 21st May 2021 and have also placed donation boxes in the local Costcutter.
- Rights respecting questionnaires conducted in March 2021
- On 30th April 2019 a small group of Year 5 and 6 children presented about the importance of Pupil Voice to NHS England. Read all about it in the following document: NHS Pupil Voice Presentation
Introducing Our Steering Group:
