Pupil Voice at The Meadows

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.
Pupil voice is essential in schools because children are stakeholders in their own learning and should be provided with the opportunity to have their say about our school. We have developed considerably in this area over recent years, particularly with blogs, pupil surveys, pupil led fundraising and lunch time clubs. Our pupils are even part of our monitoring schedule and ask them to undertaken particular roles.   our school has been praised for the way in which we engage children. Furthermore, we have been highly commended because the children are aware of our strengths and weakness and what we are working on, within the school year, to improve (our school improvement plan). 

We currently have positions of:

  • School Ambassadors
  • Wellbeing Champions

 Ambassadors are role models within our school who are keen to promote our school  values and ethos. They need to demonstrate our "Secrets of Success" in all that they do. Some of their responsibilities include:

  • Meeting and greeting visitors
  • Leading fundraising events
  • Conducting Pupil surveys
  • Observing learning in classrooms and playground behaviour
  • Meeting with the Academy Council
  • Contributing to Newsletters
  • Communicating with other pupil groups in the Shaw Education family of schools.

They have been selected because they really care about the well-being of the children in our school, treating others how they want to be treated and believe listening to one another is extremely important in moving the school forward. It is a real achievement to be chosen to represent the school as an Ambassador and we feel that this role helps children show their leadership qualities.

Wellbeing Champions

These are also role models within our school who are keen to promote our school  values and ethos and promote positive wellbeing across the school. They need to demonstrate our "Secrets of Success" in all that they do. They play an important role in implementing our restorative approach in our behaviour policy. They really need to be able to empathise with children, show good listening skills and be able to scaffold conversations. When children make mistakes at The Meadows we ask them to reflect on the choices they made and how they can make the right decision next time. It also includes thinking about the impact upon others and how they can put their mistake right. Pupil to pupil dialogue has proven to be most successful with this. They also support other children to talk about how they are feeling, developing their social-emotional language. This year, they have been integral in supporting the school to embed our 'Red 2 Blue' approach to self-regulation. 

Reading Experts

The Reading experts help to promote a love of reading across the school. They are actively involved in the organisation of the library. They emanate the characteristics of a reader to their peers. They provide book suggestions to their peers and work alongside our Reading Buddies team to support younger pupils with their decoding skills in Key Stage 1. This includes reading stories to the younger children during lunchtime, as a whole class, a group or one-to-one. 

Sports Leaders

Our Sports Leaders display the characteristics of an athlete to their peers across the school. They display excellent sportsmanship. They represent our school at tournaments brilliantly. Each week, they celebrate the athletic successes of our pupils in assembly by giving out certificates. 

Science Lead

Our Science Lead is an excellent Scientist, who promotes a passion for Science across the school. They help to encourage others to develop the characteristics of a Scientist in lessons and when on the playground. They support the Science staff lead to deliver STEM extra-curricular clubs. They also share new about Science with the school community. 

The Role of the School Ambassador

Our school ambassadors are expected to: 

  • Be role models of exemplary behaviour. 
  • Be familiar with our behaviour policy, our school improvement priorities and regularly view the school website so that you know what is or has been occurring across the school. 
  • Recognise the success of others by awarding children with weekly certificates - from the ambassadors - celebrating their achievements.
  • Meet and greet visitors to the school
  • Promote our school motto, ‘Learning by caring and sharing’ across the school in their interactions with other children.
  • Contribute to our Meadows in the Moment school newsletter. 
  • Meet with Mrs Kuffour to review learning and behaviour across the school as well as to discuss how our school is improving. Represent the voice of the pupils during these meeting. 
  • Help to generate ideas about fundraising.

Amy and Isaac

“Hello, we are the new ambassadors for our school. We are role models to other children of kindness, behaviour and a positive attitude towards ours and other people’s learning. We feel proud to be role models for our school because we can inspire others to be the best that they can be. One of our roles is looking out for children who have been doing great learning and give certificates to them in Celebrations Assembly. We felt nervous doing this for the first time but really happy too because we were proud to share other peoples’ successes.”

Amy and Isaac

Wellbeing Warriors - Alfie, Avery and Seren

“Hi we are the Wellbeing Champions. Our job is really important because we care about people’s wellbeing and want to help other to recognise and manage their feelings, as well as to reflect when they have done something wrong in order to move on and not make the same mistake again. This year we are implementing the Red 2 Blue approach to help people calm down and move from Red to Blue. Sometimes we all need help to calm down, deal with our emotions and reflect on our actions – we know this personally because we have been through this before. We are here to help.”

Alfie, Avery and Seren

Sports Leaders - Zac and Zac

“Hi we are the Sports Leaders. We are here to help the school be active and stay healthy. One way we are doing this is by promoting physical activity on the playground. We have come up with a timetable of zones, where different activities, games and team build all comes together to promote sports during social times. Also we are role models to the other children of good sportsmanship and the characteristic of an athlete. Each week we celebrate children in our school who are great athletes – this week we gave certificates out to pupils who have showed good sportsmanship in lessons and physical activities. We look forward to representing our school soon in competitions.”

Zac and Zac

Science Lead

“Hello, I’m Henry, your new Science Leader. My job is to encourage other pupils to enjoy Science and try and help them see what jobs they could do in their future lives that are related to Science. I can use my knowledge and skills to promote Science to others. One of my jobs is to support children during our Science extra-curricular club. Currently we are doing our Crest Awards, and this involves leading investigations and different types of enquiry. The Kingfishers (Class 2) looked at ‘peg problems’, exploring which pegs would be the strongest for their washing line.”

Henry

Reading Experts

“Hello, we are the new Reading Experts. We are here to encourage people to read and develop a love of books. We wanted this job because we love reading and read a lot. We help the teachers to promote reading in class and we are responsible for keeping the library tidy. We are looking forward to promoting books some children don’t sometimes choose like non-fiction books.”

Peter and Tilly