Pupil voice

Children are encouraged to express an opinion and to be included in decisions that involve and affect them.

Pupil voice

Discovery takes the prioritise the importance of pupil voice. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child sets out the right of children to express an opinion and to be included in decisions that involve and affect them.

Pupil voice within our schools happens in a variety of ways:

  • As part of Assessment for Learning, discussing and reviewing others and own achievements.
  • By involving pupils in school self-evaluation
  • Groups such as school council, eco-council, healthy schools
  • Developing resources and facilities (e.g. Sport ambassadors, IT ambassadors)
  • Fundraising, links with charities and with the wider community
  • Improvements to the school environment (e.g. school buildings, playground, toilets)
  • Development of a whole-school environmental policy – Eco Week
  • Involvement with staff recruitment – participating in the interview process.
  • Involvement with planning extra-curricular activities
  • Involvement with planning, reviewing and implementing school policies
  • Involvement with School Development
  • Consultation mechanisms such as teaching and learning surveys, suggestion boxes and circle time

The value of pupil voice

  • Improved pupil engagement and its impact on well-being, behaviour and learning
  • Improved pupil-staff and pupil-pupil relationships
  • Policies are based on the needs and suggestions of pupils and are therefore effective
  • More inclusive schools, where all pupils are encouraged and supported to contribute
  • Increased opportunity for pupils to develop personal, social and communication skills

Participation in observation

There is growing evidence to suggest that the more that pupils are involved in the learning process the more effective their learning is, for example in assessment for learning, peer and self assessment. Pupils are very aware of factors which help or hinder their learning in lessons and can play an important role in identifying them through observation. Involving pupils in the observation process is another important step in developing pupil voice that some of our schools are developing, giving an additional source of evidence in making judgements about the effectiveness of learning.