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Student voice

Listening to students and developing students as leaders is at the heart of enabling children to realise their potential. This builds the skills, confidence and motivation for young people to become advocates for their own and others' needs. It also helps them to improve their own learning through a wider range of experiences.

Why is student voice important?

The term, student voice, refers to creating a culture where students are consulted and take a lead in shaping their own educational experiences. Developing student voice work is an important part of the Every Child Matters (ECM) agenda. The five outcomes of ECM were originally developed by children. It is therefore essential that children have a say in the realisation of those outcomes.

Encouraging student voice to develop

Educators often use the image of a ‘ladder’ of participation to describe the different levels of student involvement in decision making. The bottom rungs of the ladder show student participation at its lowest levels. This is a tokenistic approach, presenting students with little or no choice about what they do and how they participate. For instance, some approaches to consultation keep learners informed, but offer them no real influence over decisions. Moving up the ladder brings a greater degree of participation, ownership and decision making. At the top of the ladder, students are empowered, they initiate agendas and are given responsibility to bring about change.

Student voice activities have tremendous potential to bring benefits to everyone in the school. For instance, students’ views can help school leaders to shape and clarify a vision for the school. Activities such as designing the school website, observing lessons and landscaping school grounds are further examples of how student leadership can result in real benefits. Ideas to encourage student participation include having student governors and inviting student representation on school management committees. Often, the best student leadership activities are often unstructured and driven by the students themselves.

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How to get started

Encouraging student voice activities may require a cultural change in your school, away from the traditional roles of ‘teacher’ and ‘student’. Changing attitudes does not happen overnight. Students need time to question, think and reflect. Developing their leadership skills is not a bolt-on to an overcrowded curriculum, but needs time and space to develop.

Here are some ideas to get started:

  • Create a framework to develop leadership skills and opportunities for young people that has the support of the whole school.
  • Offer a supportive environment to encourage young people to develop responsibility and teamwork.
  • Consider the power that student leaders should be able to exercise, on behalf of the school, in order to make their experiences meaningful, rather than tokenistic.
  • Trust young people to be able to develop projects - step back from over-controlling the students.

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Student leadership programme

The National College has developed a programme for student leaders, co-designed by students. The programme builds the necessary skills, confidence and motivation for young people to engage directly in the wider improvement of the school and, in particular, in the improvement of the learning experience.

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Example of good practice

Hastingsbury Business and Enterprise College has been a leading school in student voice work. The school’s approach is based on the belief that learning from one’s peers can be more powerful than learning from a teacher. For example, the school trains post-16 students to act as mentors to younger students. The mentors cover relationship issues for Year 9 pupils, drugs education for Year 10 and alcohol education for Year 11.

The school was the first in the country to offer a GCSE in student voice and there is a great emphasis on students becoming researchers. Students also sit on recruiting panels for new teachers. The school ethos is to bring groups of students together to talk about their experiences and learn from one another. Listening to this discussion also gives teachers insight into community issues.

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