Pupil Voice at Lostwithiel School

Pupil Voice

At Lostwithiel Primary School, we take pride in fostering a culture where all children feel listened to, valued, respected and empowered. Pupils in our school have a strong voice and we endeavour to give all children lots of opportunities to share their thoughts and opinions and play an active role in the decisions that affect their learning and well-being.

We have lots of ways that the children can do this formally through our pupil voice groups (see below). As well as this, we want to create an ethos that allows the children to regularly share their opinions in an informal way, in class and also through working parties which we organise on an ad hoc basis during the year.

As part of our learning at Lostwithiel Primary School, we support our children in developing as confident, articulate learners, able to make informed choices and express their views. Through collaboration and enquiry in our classrooms, we build thinking skills and help our pupils consider, express and reflect so that they are able to use their voices effectively.

Currently there are a range of opportunities for our children to have a voice and feedback from these groups is shared across our whole school:

TEAM 12 – Children from across the school work on issues of school improvement, learning and curriculum.

Eco-Schools Group – Children from across the school work to raise awareness about Eco-issues and ensure our school is doing its bit to help our world.

Student Voice Group – Children of different ages meet to discuss issues that are important to them. They form the body of our ‘Rights Respecting School’ steering group and especially look at how we can implement and teach children about their ‘rights’.

Play leaders – Children from Year 6 have been specially trained to help with the younger children at lunchtimes.

STUDENT VOICE
The group is open to anyone who would like to take part, respecting ideas wherever they come from, and working hard to hear quieter, less confident voices. At first the group started small, just 4 members, now the group has over 15 children actively engaged. The children bring their ideas, concerns and areas of interest to the meetings and they are discussed as a group and actions are then created. Key areas of interest are centered around the environment. The group are currently trying to bring more plants into our classroom spaces. We would like to thank to 'Plant Swap' for supporting us with this. It was a joy to come to Cafe Sam to collect some plants and seeds to help with this initiative. The Plant Swaps donation of £50 will give the 'Student Voice' group the opportunity to plan additional outdoor learning opportunities for all of the children at school. 'Student Voice' write a fortnightly newsletter for each class to keep everyone up to date with their work and we thought it would be nice to tell the community about our group and how the young people of Lostwithiel take a keen interest in making things better. If you have any suggestions or would like to get in touch with 'Student Voice' please email Kate Webber on kwebber@lostwithielsch.org
TEAM 12
The role of a School Council Member:
  • You will attend regular fortnightly meetings with other TEAM 12 members from each class.
  • You will take ideas and suggestions your class have to discuss at TEAM 12 meetings.
  • You will bring back ideas, information and suggestions to your class and encourage your class to listen, discuss, share their views and, where necessary, vote on actions that need to be taken.
  • You will help to organise charity events throughout the year.
  • You will encourage the pupils in your class to be aware of their school environment and to respect and care for it.
As an individual, you may bring lots of additional skills and abilities to this role in particular, however to be a successful TEAM 12 member you need to: 
  • Be reliable.
  • Be proud of our school and want our school to be the best it can be.
  • Listen carefully to the views of others and take their ideas on board.
  • Represent the majority view of your class, even if you don't agree!
  • Commit time to this role and accept that you may need to do things during break times and/or lunchtimes.
  • Be enthusiastic.
  • Be kind and respectful.
  • Be patient