Almost 500 students took part in the June Student Voice survey, representing students from year 7-10 and 12. One of the things students told us is that they’d like us to share the results and actions that come from their voice – so here is what you told us and how we have responded.

You told us…

Most of you feel safe and happy at school. The happiest year group was year 8. However, some of you told us that sometimes you feel unsafe or unhappy and the main reason is that you are worried about interactions with older students and aren’t always sure how you should report any unpleasant comments or behaviour.

Our response…

We have allocated zones in school to each year group. Each one has a covered area and some space to play or chill out in the fresh air. We are keeping the zones, so all year groups have their own space where they have daily access to their heads of year, so you always have access to an adult you know well who can support you and listen to any issues you have.

We are exploring how we deal with incidents of unpleasant and discriminatory language around school and how we can make it easier to report it. These incidents are reported via the behaviour system as serious incidents, but not all of you have felt you knew who to tell, so we will try to improve this.

You told us…

Almost all of you feel that the school encourages you to respect people from different backgrounds and treat everyone equally, but some of you felt that you sometimes hear discriminatory language, especially racist or homophobic language.

You feel that Life Education lessons, assemblies and Applied Learning Days communicate clear messages of equality and non-tolerance of discrimination, however some you felt that action was not taken. A few of you felt that racism was a hidden issue that needed to be talked about more openly in school.

Our response…

Reviewing the lessons and resources in the life education curriculum, including Applied Learning Days and Assemblies in response to some of your comments and taking opportunities to develop our understanding so we can continue to work together to discuss important issues effectively and sensitively. We’ll continue to use the student council to get more student opinions on topics we need to cover in these lessons as well as ideas for how else we can make our school an inclusive place to work and study. 1o student went out this term to do some training around anti-bullying with the Diana Trust. These students will form the core of an Anti-Bullying Ambassadors group which will start working together in September exploring more ways to benefit our school community through what they have learnt.

You told us…

Lots of you like the clubs we have on offer, but there are more things you’d like to see.

 Our response…

The list of clubs and activities you suggested have been shared, and we are looking to see if we can make any of them happen next year.

You told us…

You appreciate teachers taking the time to explain, checking on you while you’re on a task and breaking down tasks into chunks. You like it when knowledge is checked with short quizzes and practice before moving on to a new topic or skill. You like your teachers to be enthusiastic and inventive in lessons. You appreciate the lessons where you are able to have some debate and discuss important issues freely. Some of you have really appreciated the little things that staff do to help you stay focused or help you with things you find hard. The main thing that stops you learning is anxiety, often not related to school itself. Some of you felt anxious about overwhelming workload and felt that it wasn’t always clear where to find what you needed to get homework done.

Our response…

We know that the research tells us that things like regular quizzing, breaking up tasks and letting you know how things fit together help you learn better, so it’s great to hear you appreciate these approaches too. We are working hard to increase awareness of mental health and ways to recognise issues and manage them before they become overwhelming. In September, we will be looking to create a Mental Health and Wellbeing student group who can support each other and the school.

There were lots more individual comments about things you felt worked well for you or individual concerns. These will be discussed with individuals.

We continue to be committed to the role of student voice in our community and Mrs Osborn is looking forward to forming a new senate committee in September to continue to support our school through community, integrity and opportunity.

Have a lovely summer.

Mrs Osborn