Pupil Voice and Leadership
Pupil Voice at Connaught Junior School
Pupil Voice at Connaught is about the empowerment of pupils to enable them to be engaged and involved in the learning process and the life of the school, encouraging them to take greater responsibility for their own progress and achievement, engage in constructive dialogue with teachers and give them the skills and abilities necessary to develop and learn with greater independence. This helps teachers and other members of the school staff to raise standards and meet the needs of individual children.
It is the responsibilities of learners to understand:
- the extent to which they are personally responsible for their own learning;
- the impact their behaviour and general conduct can have on themselves, their peers and teachers and other adults who form part of the school community; and
- how the legitimate rights of all members of the school community can only be secured by each person acknowledging and undertaking their own responsibilities and obligations.
Pupil Voice at Connaught Junior School goes beyond the classroom and aims to develop our children as compassionate global citizens, with strong morals and the grit and determination to succeed, recognising their own responsibility in that journey.
Our Pupil Parliament allows children, who have been democratically voted in, the chance to demonstrate thoughtful and responsible contributions to school life, participate in appropriate discussions with senior leaders and be involved in behaviour management strategies by contributing to policies on legitimate sanctions for pupils in regrad to discipline and anti-bullying.
Within Pupil Parliament we have five councils: Learning, Sports, Friendship, Safety and Eco. (Please see our Pupil Parliament page for more details)
Read and Respond and Weekly Pupil Conferencing
Effective marking and feedback has the biggest effect on pupils’ attainment, with teachers allowing the children time to enter into a useful dialogue in the books about their work. The children at Connaught Junior School are encouraged to read and respond to their teacher’s marking to help them move their learning on. Time is given in lessons for reflection on their learning.
In addition to read and respond, Pupil Conferencing has a huge impact on children’s learning and provides opportunities for teachers and children to spend valuable time working on specific targets identified by assessment in a small group or one to one situation.
WOW Days/Topic Launches
A Philosophy for Children (P4C) approach is used across the school in the form of Wonder Walls and WOW days to launch new curriculum themes, allowing the children time to consider where they would like to take their own learning. This form of child led enquiry at the beginning of a unit of work guides our teachers in adapting their planning to meet the needs of the children and gives the children ownership which, in turn, increases their engagement. This is revisited frequently throughout the unit of work.
We value the support we get from our parents and wish to share with them the children’s learning and successes. At the end of a topic it is usual for the children to share their learning with a variety of audiences, often parents, but sometimes senior leaders, office staff, infant school children or children from different year groups within the school.
During Charity Week the children in all year groups run stalls to raise money for charity. In the weeks leading up to it, the children decide what the fund-raising activity is going to be: whether they are going to be, for instance; selling items on their stall or face painting, or if it is going to be a game for children to pay to play. Preparation time is given in school, but the children discuss their ideas and organise themselves into groups independently, with minimal help from the staff. It is a very exciting time!