Tag: Pupil Voice

October 4, 2019

Laurieston Primary School Develops Pupil Voice within School Improvement Processes

In May 2019, Beverley Keith, head teacher at Laurieston PS and Yvonne McBlain, curriculum support officer, met to explore how to meaningfully involve staff, pupils, parents and the local community in the school’s review of its curriculum rationale and development. Beverley and Yvonne outlined a proposal which aimed to:

Develop pupil understanding of the curriculum (so that they have a more informed voice in its development)
Provide opportunities for pupil, staff, parent and other stakeholder reflection on what a Laurieston School curriculum should provide
Ensure that all voices in our school and community shape and inform our curriculum
Explore links and ways to connect or streamline our curriculum
Build on good practice in teaching and learning

This proposal was shared with staff alongside a suggested schedule for pupil and staff involvement. These were examined during an August inset afternoon where staff also explored the latest advice regarding the curriculum and self-evaluated what was working well and what they wanted to do to improve their curriculum. Yvonne set up a Microsoft Teams area within Glow so that staff could collate this evidence relating to HGIOS QI 2.2 Curriculum and make it easy for them to access (we noted that this would also cut down on workload and paperwork when preparing for VSE or HMIE).

Staff were enthusiastic about involving their other stakeholders in their curriculum rationale review process and used a collegiate session to explore how other schools were using HGIOURS (Education Scotland 2018) for this purpose. Yvonne shared developments at Avonbridge PS and Shieldhill PS and staff agreed that they wanted to adapt the HGIOURS toolkit Yvonne created for use in enabling pupils to shape their curriculum (click here to find out more about this toolkit). Laura Gavin, senior early years officer, and Claire Thompson, primary 6 class teacher volunteered to lead this process with the new pupil council appointed by their pupils. Sixteen pupils representing every class in the school and nursery met in early September to engage with the toolkit and begin their evaluation of their Laurieston curriculum.

Laura and Claire met regularly with pupils over the next month to support them in exploring how they could address the areas for development they had identified. They were very interested to hear how Shieldhill PS pupils were doing this in their school so invited them for a visit. On 23rd September four pupils from Shieldhill PS shared their process with Laurieston’s pupil council members (read more about this by clicking here). When asked how this helped pupils said:

“It’s been a great visit cos we get their ideas and maybe we can change them a wee bit.”

“We’ve been taught stuff we didn’t know… like about that Glow stuff.”

“I like how everything was unique to them.”

“I like having someone else’s input and opinion.”

Laura and Claire also valued the opportunity to hear what the pupils had done and were extremely impressed by how confident they were in answering questions (with no initial preparation) sharing their process and skills. The Laurieston PS pupils seemed particularly interested in the idea of hosting a school assembly and using the toolkit in some way to gather all pupil voices. Just before they left Shieldhill pupils said they had also benefited from the visit and would value “another catch up – maybe you could come to us?”

Laura, Claire and Yvonne discussed next steps when the children went back to class. Laura and Claire decided to work with their pupil council members the following week to support them in pulling together next steps and exploring whether and how the original schedule was still appropriate in the light of the progress and ideas put forward by their children. Yvonne is on standby if needed and is excited to see what happens next…

October 2, 2019

Developing Pupil Voice and Participation at Shieldhill Primary School

In May 2019, Robyn Wisbey, head teacher at Shieldhill PS & Yvonne McBlain, curriculum support officer, met to discuss recent developments and ideas around How Good is Our School part 2 (2018). Robyn had been developing children’s involvement in her schools’ self-evaluation processes and was interested to hear how the HGIOURS toolkit Yvonne created had been adapted and used by colleagues at Avonbridge PS.

In order to develop pupil voice and participation, Yvonne, Robyn, and Belinda Tomasik, depute head teacher, agreed that primary 6 pupils at Shieldhill could be offered the opportunity to start and lead this new self-evaluation process in their school. If this worked well, in session 2019-20, these pupils would be ready and able primary 7 leaders for school self-evaluation alongside more traditional routine processes.

Yvonne, Belinda and colleagues in school used the HGIOURS toolkit with primary 6 pupils to gather their evaluation and displayed pupil analysis of the 5 themes. The adults explained the purpose of HGIOURS part 2 and how it was co-created with Scottish children and young people. Pupils were asked to consider how they could lead a process in their school which would enable every child to share what they thought their school was good at or needed to do better. Click here to view their initial ideas.

At that point, Jan Archibald took over as primary 6 class teacher and supported the children in developing and taking their ideas forward. She encouraged their creativity and problem solving as well as the digital and literacy skills they used to create pupil-friendly versions of their questions and video explanations for younger pupils. Pupils were encouraged to solve any problems which occurred with as little adult intervention as possible. At each stage in this process all adults took care to make explicit the skills being developed and applied by pupils. These included: working with others, time management, digital skills, drafting and paraphrasing. Pupils needed support with their organisation and planning skills , and Yvonne prompted their thinking by asking questions to help them identify and sequence the tasks required to bring their ideas to fruition. Yvonne, Jan and Belinda observed that not all pupils were equally engaged with or interested in leading the involvement of their fellow pupils or managing their self-evaluation process. In consultation with Robyn, it was agreed that pupils could decide whether they wanted to continue with their HGIOURS role. By the time pupils moved into primary 7 and Isla Dyer took over as their teacher, a team of 14 children had volunteered to drive this work forward.

At an early stage in the process Belinda and Yvonne set up and populated a Microsoft Teams area for our HGIOURS group to ease communication and to store files so that everyone could see and work on these. The pupils used this platform very effectively, and Yvonne and Belinda found it really valuable for collaborative working. Yvonne in particular was able to stay in touch with developments remotely from her base in Camelon Education Centre – offering feedback and praise for the preparations pupils were making.

High praise was due to the pupils when they scripted, prepared and led a school assembly to share their self-evaluation task/purpose and alert fellow pupils to their upcoming visits. (Pupil presentation slides provided above & right) They have interpreted HGIOURS Features of Effective Practice for younger pupils and adapted and prepared a Microsoft Forms survey version for use across certain school stages.

Pupils have consulted with nursery staff to explore how best to involve the youngest children in their school. In addition, on 23rd September, a team of 4 pupils were invited by pupil council members at Laurieston PS to share their progress so far. Nathan, Eilidh, Ella and Hannah seriously impressed Laurieston pupils and staff with their confidence, their knowledge and their ability to share and explain their process with such clarity. Watch this space for further developments…

October 2, 2019

Supporting pupil voice & participation using How Good is OUR School

Pupils in Falkirk Children’s Services schools are beginning to use How Good is OUR School (Education Scotland 2018) to contribute to the self-evaluation and improvement of their schools. Senior leaders and practitioners are using the Features of Effective Practice (see example below) to support children and young people in their consideration of what their school does well, or needs to do better.

In February 2019, Yvonne McBlain, curriculum support officer, worked with colleagues in Avonbridge PS to create a pupil toolkit using elements of HGIOURS. They designed tools and a process which would enable every child in their school to add their voice to a collective self-evaluation/review process. The picture below shows the pro forma developed, and readers can click here to see the Features of Effective practice for theme 1 – Our Relationships. These are parts of a toolkit created to enable pupils to engage meaningfully in school self-evaluation, so that they can play a genuine role in identifying and shaping the school improvement agenda alongside staff, parents and partners. Click here to view the Power Point presentation used to help pupils at Avonbridge PS understand and take part in this opportunity to make their voices heard.

Jacqueline McLaughlin, head teacher at Antonine PS then used the HGIOURS toolkit with pupils in her school to inform and shape school improvement. In September 2019 her pupil council used the kit to help them prepare for and involve their parent council too. Jonathan Crawford, acting depute headteacher is also making use of the kit with pupil council members at Wallacestone PS. In each case, the kit is acting as a mediation tool to make the process accessible and meaningful to the pupils involved.

In May 2019 Robyn Wisbey, head teacher at Shieldhill PS and her depute Belinda Tomasik asked Yvonne to work with their primary 6 pupils and their teacher to explore how the toolkit could develop genuine and sustainable pupil-led self-evaluation and improvement processes across their school and community. Read about how this work is developing by clicking here.

In August 2019, Beverley Keith, head teacher at Laurieston PS and her staff began their refresh and review of their curriculum with Yvonne during their August inset day. Click here to read how Claire Thompson, class teacher and Laura Gavin, senior early years officer are supporting their pupil council in using HGIOURS to ensure that pupil voice also informs their curriculum.

All of these developments naturally support schools and pupils with HGIOS 4 Leadership and Management – particularly QI 1.1 Self-evaluation for self-improvement and QI 1.2 Leadership of Learning – children and young people leading learning. As a result of the leadership opportunities provided through their engagement with HGIOURS school at these schools, pupil participation has very obviously impacted on pupil skills for learning life and work, and on their confidence, leadership and self-esteem. They have an increased sense of their own capacity to make a difference in their school and are totally committed to ensuring other pupils in their school have their voices heard too.

In addition, this work helps these schools address Aspects for improvement from the Thematic Inspection of Empowerment for Parent and Pupil Participation (Education Scotland 2019) :

Continue to increase children’s and young people’s opportunities to lead their own learning and contribute to school improvement.
Involve pupils, parents and partners more in curriculum design and evaluating the impact of curriculum change.

June 27, 2014

Developing pupil understanding of the curriculum

Yvonne McBlain, from Falkirk Education Service Support and Improvement team has been exploring pupil understanding of the curriculum with colleagues in St Bernadette’s RC PS and Bankier PS. Click here to see the Bankier version of the learning experience shared with pupils on 13th June 2014, and here to see Yvonne’s analysis of the impact gained.

Maria McNally and her primary 6/7 pupils were the first to trial this experience earlier this session – click here to read Yvonne’s evaluation of these. Pupils were able to explain things they understood, and how they had come to understand these things. They were offered an opportunity to explore how they reached this understanding so that they could apply successful approaches for new learning too.

The whole set of experiences is designed to:

Help pupils learn the difference between knowing about something, and really understanding it.
Let pupils discover how they reach deep understanding – what works for them (based on David Perkins & Harvard/Tapestry Teaching for Understanding programme)
Help pupils review their own understanding so far and how it helps them build a good life
Ensure that pupils know what the curriculum is and how curriculum for excellence and the four capacities relate to their lives present and future (helps with pupil profiling too)
Help pupils see how they apply their understanding in different contexts
Enable pupils to see the natural connections and overlaps between curriculum subject areas
Let pupils see how their school learning articulates with wider achievement
Develop pupils as independent learners

Yvonne will continue to trial and develop this set of learning experiences to complement the methods other Falkirk schools are using to enable their pupils to build independent learning capabilities. Click here to see some pupil understanding charts made during the lessons, and see how pupils connected their understanding across curriculum subjects below. Yvonne would be happy to hear from any teachers wanting to be involved in exploring this further. yvonne.mcblain@falkirk.gov.uk

March 25, 2014

Filming for Pupil Learning to Achieve Policy

Yvonne McBlain, curriculum support teacher with Falkirk Education Service, is continuing the filming process for Falkirk’s pupil version of their education policy Learning to Achieve. For the past two years, pupils from as many Falkirk schools as possible have been contributing to the creation of the policy in collaboration with Yvonne, staff in their schools and at the centre. Click here to see the paper version. Pupil council members have played a leading role in the organisation of the tasks at every stage. They suggested that the policy should be digital, and as dynamic and visual as possible.

Yvonne offered all schools the opportunity to be involved in this creation process and currently, secondary pupils are sharing their thoughts on their role in getting the most from their education. Many pupils are taking the opportunity to share and celebrate the educational experiences they have had so far.

On Friday 21st March, St Mungo’s RC HS S5/6 sociology students were filmed in conversation about their role in their own education. These students spoke eloquently about what they would like their lives to be like in 10 years time, and how their education has equipped them for this life. Paul and Martin from Baby Grand Productions are the media partners providing technical support for the creation of the policy.

Carrongrange High School pupils were filmed during their Enterprising Fridays and Life-Long Learning experiences. Each Friday pupils develop their skills for learning, life and work within a range of elective groups.

At Braes HS in the afternoon, a small group of S3 drama pupils were also filmed in conversation. They had prepared some thoughts on how best to conclude the policy video and “acted” out a conversation which they felt would do that well. Their vital task was to persuade and communicate a summary of the policy message to their target audience – every Falkirk pupil!

Mariner Support Service pupils will be filmed on 31st March sharing some of their diverse learning experiences and then all of these parts will be edited with the content already created by S4 Denny HS Creative Industries pupils in conjunction with Baby Grand Productions.

June 7, 2013

Pupils start making their version of Learning to Achieve

Yvonne McBlain from the Curriculum Support team is working with groups of pupils and their teachers to create the pupil version of Learning to Achieve, Falkirk’s education policy. Christine Snedden and Yvonne have been working with pupils and pupil council members for a while, to create the draft version of this policy. Groups of teachers and their pupils have now volunteered to turn this text document into something digital like a video or animation. John Chalmers primary 5 class at Grange Primary brainstormed ways that they could bring each bullet point to life. Click here to see some of their initial ideas – most groups thought about making drama performances which could be filmed. The animation club run by Sarah Ritchie at Bonnybridge Primary spent most of an afternoon coming up with ideas for animations which could bring each bullet point to life. Click on the photos to take a closer look at their initial ideas. Yvonne was very impressed by the way all of the pupils began this task – they quickly understood the message and content of the policy text in the document and made very clever judgements about how best to get their message across to fellow pupils. When these ideas are turned into a digital multi-media policy, the senior pupil council have suggested that this is shared with all pupils and staff working in education services at a launch assembly in every school, sometime in October.