In Pupil Voice sessions, we value the views of our pupils and hold regular informal chats with groups of pupils from Year 1 - Year 6 to hear what they think about each subject. Each half term, we see a different group of children so that we get opinions and ideas from throughout the school. Our Curriculum Ambassadors support subject leaders at these sessions.
Autumn 2024 Pupil Voice
Theme: PSHE Curriculum
As we are developing our curriculum and making it more bespoke to our school, we asked the children to talk about what they learn in PSHE and My Happy Mind.
Summer 2024
Theme: Mental Health
In this PSHE Pupil Voice we focussed on Mental Health. The children answered various questions and recorded their answers on post-it-notes. See our slideshow for a snap shot of the discussions we had.
How can you support your own mental health at home?
How can you help the mental health of others?
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Spring 2024
Theme: Relationships
This week the children were asked to discuss what they know about relationships. They shared they answers on post-it-notes and through discussion.
How can we have safe relationships?
How can we show kindness around school to children and adults?
November 2023
Theme: How can we improve PSHE in our school?
This session was our first PSHE Pupil Voice with our new lead, Miss Corradine.
Miss Corradine wanted to find out what children understood and enjoyed about PSHE in our school and what suggestions children had for improvement. The children had some fantastic suggestions and we put these into action straight away. See below some of the children's ideas and how we have implemented them.
Children's suggestions...
"I think we should have a lunchtime club where children go inside at play time. It is really old outside so sometimes it is nice to go somewhere warm."
"It would be nice to have a place where you can go to talk someone if you have fallen out with someone or if you can't find friends to play with."
"I would like to do colouring inside or read a book during playtime but at the moment we have to go outside."
RESPONSE:
In response, we have set up a lunchtime "All Sorts" club where children can go to do some supervised colouring, reading, puzzles and games in a warm and relaxing atmosphere.
"I think some children need a mindfulness club where they can go to just chill, or do breathing exercises. Somewhere they can go to talk to a teacher if they need to, like if they have fallen out with their friends and they just need to talk it through."
RESPONSE:
In response to the suggestions that children made, we have started an after-school mindfulness club where our activities involve focussing our attention, feeling calm and taking care of ourselves and others. Examples of activities we might do will be making lava lamp glitter jars, doing sensory activities, making things from dough, colouring and yoga to name just a few.
Mindfulness Club
Older pupils as role-models
Draw what makes you happy - Treasure Island Meditiation
May 2023
Theme: What feels good on the inside of our body and what should we leave on the outside?
For this session, we looked at linking science (our body), myHappymind. and relationships to know discuss how words and actions make us feel. We drew around a child on the table and worked as a whole group to write positive words and feelings inside the body and negative words and negative feelings on the outside of the body.
March 2023
Theme: MyHappyMind. (Mental Health Programme)
For this Pupil Voice session we looked at our new Mental Health programme called MyHappyMind.
MyHappyMind. is a science-backed programme for schools which is grounded in the latest science and research about what it takes to create positive wellbeing. It’s taught to every single child and there’s a curriculum for every year group from Early Years to Year 6.
We launched the start of MyHappyMind. in Spring 2 term.
The children were extremely positive about MyHappyMind. and loved discussing the characters. Each child, from Year 1 to Year 6 were able to talk about Team HAP and what HAP stood for.
H stands for Hippocampus Hippocampous is like your scrapbook storing all your memories and things you learn
A stands for Amygdala Amydgala takes control and keeps you safe when there is danger. It helps you deal with situations using fight, flight or freeze.
P stands for Prefrontal Cortex Prefrontal Cortex helps you to make choices, concentrate and solve problems.
Can you grow your mind?
All the children in the group knew this answer 'Yes'. Neuroplasticity was talked about in their first MyHappyMind session.
Neuroplasticity is the process of your brain growing when you focus on your mind on something.
The children were excited about MyHappyMind and are all looking forward to further sessions and learning how the brain functions.
Time to journal
Each child has their own MyHappyMind. journal in which they can write down their thoughts, worries and feelings.
MyHappyMind. Giving today's children the skills to thrive in tomorrow’s world.
October 2022
Theme: Relationships
During our Pupil Voice session, we looked at the Autumn theme of relationships and what we had been learning about in class. We then looked at how PSHE linked to other subjects in school.
We were surprised it linked to so many of our other subjects.
April 2022
Theme: Health and Wellbeing
The children were able to share ideas of what 'Health and Wellbeing' meant to them and they were able to make cross curricular link to Science, PE and maths. Our summer theme covers Physical health and Mental wellbeing, Growing and Changing and Keeping Safe.
The children were given a list of the 9 main areas of PSHE and asked to put them in order of importance in which they are taught.
The children then had a discussion to decide which PSHE topic they thought should be taught first. They found it difficult to prioritise as they thought each topic was important.
January 2022
Theme: Living in the Wider World
The children were able to share ideas of what 'Living in the Wider World' meant to them and they could share the learning that had been taking place in their classroom.
Links were made to being part of a community, how to stay healthy, charity work, money, jobs and mental health and wellbeing. All the children joined in and contributed to the discussions.
Sharing ideas and demonstrating teamwork through discussion.
October 2021
During our first pupil voice of the school year, the children were excited to share what they had been learning about. Once we started talking, they realised that across each class they had been looking at the same theme of Relationships. They were able to revisit the previous years learning and discuss new information that had been learnt. Links were also made to Computing especially E-safety and Anti-Bullying Week.
How do we learn - To support our learning of the different topics, the children linked their learning to the different key skills that they use within the lessons
'I didn't realise how many skills are used during PSHE lessons.' Year 5 Pupil
