Pupils’ voice is very strong… Pupils are well mannered, confident and articulate; eager to share their creative ideas for the school.
SIAMS inspection report 2017
Pupil voice
We feel it’s really important to give our children a voice when making decisions on a range of school related topics. We give children from Year 1 to Year 6 opportunities to work alongside teachers and the senior leadership team of the school. It means that we listen to their views, and they learn about how to work with others, manage meetings, and take responsibility for our common life.
Pupils help to make decisions about which charities the school supports and also discuss every day school matters that are important to the children, such as the structure of playtimes and lunchtimes, playground equipment, or issues around sustainability and building maintenance. Children are also involved in discussions about our school vision and values, behaviour policy, and other community concerns. Importantly too, pupils help interview prospective members of staff for key positions.
Photograph of house elections taking place in September 2022
Houses and the Forum
When children join our school community they also join one of our four houses (sadly without a sorting hat!). The houses are:
- Blue-St Andrew
- Yellow-St David
- Red-St George
- Green-St Patrick
Each house elects a House Captain and Vice-Captain early in every school year, and these children lead meetings of their house. The houses mix children across the age range, with the older children taking responsibility for looking after the younger ones.
At our school sports day, for example, children compete in houses, not just as individuals. We also use the house system whenever children mix across the age range: a good example would be the themed days we organise, like a whole school science day or values day, or again for activities at Christmas parties in school.
In many ways the most important function of the house system is our School Forum. Through the school year we arrange special Forum days. The children gather around the school in their houses and discuss a whole range of issues: partly things about which the staff and governors would like to hear their views, partly topics and issues which the children raise themselves. House captains and vice-captains run the house meetings: they write and read a prayer at the beginning; they lead the meeting, ensuring everybody is able to make a contribution if they want to; they also take minutes, and then meet with the Headteacher to feedback.
This page was last updated on 24th November 2022