Pupil Voice
‘Learners are at the heart of schools.’
Pupil voice at Wimborne First School is a whole-school commitment to listening to the views, wishes and experiences of all children and young people. It is crucial that children in our care are provided with meaningful opportunities to share these experiences. Pupils need to know that it is safe and it is important for them to express their views on what happens in school, ensuring their views feel valued and that they will be listened to.
We believe that having a strong commitment to pupil voice lead to better outcomes and that here, at WFS, we have an open and positive culture around safeguarding that puts pupils’ interests first.
At Wimborne First School, we carry out pupil voice to encourage children to reflect on their own learning. This both encourages their own metacognitive skills and also contributes to monitoring by teaching staff and management. We use these dialogs to discuss what they have learned and the children’s opinions on the learning experiences they have had; their feedback can influence how such experiences are planned or implemented. Subject leaders use pupil voice to gain an insight into what is happening in their subject across the school, ensuring there is consistency across the year groups. Support is then given to help drive improvement.
Pupils across the school were invited to discuss their views about subjects within the curriculum in our school. Here are some examples of what they said.
Maths
What do you enjoy about maths?
Year 2: “I enjoy times tables because when we add and take away, it makes me want to go straight into it and start – I want to whizz through maths to get green!”
English
What information can you recall from your prior learning?
Year 1: “Last week, we wrote a story about Beegu. It was a sad story because she did not have any friends. Beegu lost her family and felt lonely. We used adjectives to describe Beegu and conjunctions.”
Geography
What do you enjoy about Geography?
Year 3: “I enjoyed the earthquakes lesson because it was interesting. It was a practical lesson with two pieces of paper to show different types of earthquakes. This helped me to remember them.”
History
How does your teacher challenge you in this subject?
Year 4: “We get deepening tasks, where we are challenged more. It gets us to think deeper into the learning.”
What do you enjoy about history?
Year 4: “I enjoy looking back and seeing what happened many years ago and how it has evolved. The Boudicca lesson was my favourite because it was interesting. I also enjoyed learning about the Roman Empire.”
Art
What artists have you been learning about?
Year 4: “ We have been learning about John Constable; he is most famous for creating landscapes, normally about the countryside, sky and local places.” “We also looked at Alberto Giacometti. He was a sculptor and thought sculptures were never complete. He used clay to make sculptures and created their outline using wire.”
What skills or key elements have you been taught?
Year 4: “We have been learning about the 7 elements of art: form, line, colour, space, texture, shape and shade. We then used some of these in our own landscapes.”
Science
What is Science like in our school?
Year 1: “Fun and exciting because we get to do lots of experiments!”
Year 2: “I think science is well thought through – I really enjoy it.”
What vocabulary have you been taught in this subject?
Year 3: “We have been learning about the words, opaque, translucent and transparent when using materials. We have used words such a source when studying light.”