English Pupil Voice
We value the views of our pupils and hold termly 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.
Reading Pupil Voice
November 2024
March 2024
Writing Pupil Voice
February 2024
This was a wonderful opportunity to visit EYFS Reception classes and see the fantastic writing opportunities in the setting. The focus text was The Storm Whale by Benji Davies and the children had been challenged to write about a whale based on their wider learning around the text.
Marking feedback, coded and written live as the child wrote, documented independent tricky words and phonemes that had been recalled with automaticity.
Most impressive were the numerous examples of phonetically plausible attempts at spelling words. The children were uninhibited and undaunted by the complexity or length of a word. They were clear on what they wanted to write and did so with confidence. Sound mats were available with pictorial prompts to help children recall GPCs (grapheme-phoneme correspondences) . When asked what the mat was for, one child replied;
It helps me with my letters. I can hear 't'! 't'!
Adults in the provision provided high support and high challenge, working closely in small ratio with pupils but facilitating as opposed to over-scaffolding.
You sound it out for me. What sounds can you hear?
Tricky word 'is'! Oh! Can you find the tricky word 'is' on this mat?
Reading and writing proficiency were promoted simultaneously.
Visiting the role play area of the setting uncovered a group of children accessing the home set up. After one interaction, a child began writing furiously away on a notepad. When asked what she was doing she shared willingly;
I'm writing down what's happening with her and the other doctors and what they say.
Emergent writing experiences are embedded both formally and informally within the provision.
Writing Pupil Voice
December 2023
Using an activity set up on SeeSaw, the pupils in this session shared the way in which they recall find help, support or prompt their thinking when in the classroom.
I find help, words or explanations I need using the Working Walls. Year 4
Feedback was given around ways to remember things that pupils had learnt, either earlier in the school year or in a previous year.
We have a key word list stuck to our table tops to help us remember. Year 6
When asked how they know whether they have done well, the sampled children favoured method of feedback was teacher marking as opposed to self-marking and in preference to verbal feedback.
Reading Pupil Voice
February 2023
Our Pupil Voice group today explored the the different texts they have read and enjoyed this year. We discussed how reading unlocks learning across the whole of the curriculum and all the children were able to discuss theri favourite book and characters.
We discuused the poems we have been reading and learning about and all the children said that they LOVED poetry as they love rhymming and performing them.
October 2022
Writing
This Pupil Voice meeting came after our first full half term back in school. We have implemented a new approach to writing and the discussion in the session centred around pupils' impressions and experiences of what a writing lesson looks like.
We began with a personal reflection on how pupils feel about different areas of writing , using their name label to indicate their initial response to lesson foci: role play, spellings, writing independently. This opened up a good forum for conversation and aligned opinions across year groups.
Pupils demonstrated their awareness of key aspects of the scheme. When shown symbols from the scheme, pupils could identify what feature of the text they were working on and gave examples of this.
"That means 'feelings'. It's what Ruby (the character in the current class text) is feeling. "
Year 1 Child
Pupils also understood and explained 'chotting' (chatting and jotting down ideas), 'kind calling out' (sharing ideas as a whole class group while the teacher annotates) and the editing process in their writing.
When invited to share writing samples which they thought they were proud of, pupis reflected on reasons why:
"I enjoyed writing Plot Point One. We spent a lot of time chotting and sentence stacking."
Year 2 Child
I wrote The True Story of the Fox and the Two Rabbits. We worked for days and I'm now on Plot Point Two."
Year 3 Child
Pupils referenced the breaking down of a text being focused on into the different events or 'points' in the plot. This shows pupil awareness that their writing can follow a real text as a model for their own writing.
Reading
After discussing favourite class texts, discussion moved onto reading.
Pupils were asked how they knew which book to read. Pupils responded:
"We do Phonics. The teacher gives me a book to read myself and I can!"
Year 1 Child
"When we've finished reading, we take a test. It asks us questions about the book. If we get the questions right, we get another book."
Year 5 Child
Children described listening to a whole class text in class and that a reading comprehension activity followed, linked to this reading. Interestingly, some pupils shared that they would like to read aloud to the class on occasion.
Pupils explained their understanding of reading expectations:
"We need to read every day. You write in your reading journal and it says what you read."
Year 6 Child
April 2022
During our Pupil Voice meeting this week we discussed what we loved about English at Grappenhalll Heys and the things that we would like to see more of in school. Children commented that they wanted more opportunities to plan and write their own stories about subjects of their choice and we discussed the possibility of having an authors' lunchtime club to allow the children to get lost in their own creativity.
We discussed the childrens' knowledge of writing across the genres and children mentioned that they had covered many genres over the Spring Term:
- Y1- Non fiction- writing facts about animals following a visit from many reptiles
- Y2- Report writing
- Y3- biographies of L.S lowry- linked to their art work and following a trip to the museum
- Y4- Myths and legends- linked to their ancient Greek topic
- Y5 - Newspaper Reports
- Y6 - Setting descriptions and character descriptions linked to class book- Kensuke's Kingdom
Year 4 child
''We had a visiting poet come into school (Paul Delaney) last term and he was amazing; he inspired me to write my own poems at home as well as school and I want to be a poet when I grow up.''
Year 3 child
''I love using real life things to help me with my ideas in writing- we had a Stone Age box to help us with our learning. ''
October 2021
October 2022
Writing
This Pupil Voice meeting came after our first full half term back in school. We have implemented a new approach to writing and the discussion in the session centred around pupils' impressions and experiences of what a writing lesson looks like.
We began with a personal reflection on how pupils feel about different areas of writing , using their name label to indicate their initial response to lesson foci: role play, spellings, writing independently. This opened up a good forum for conversation and aligned opinions across year groups.
Pupils demonstrated their awareness of key aspects of the scheme. When shown symbols from the scheme, pupils could identify what feature of the text they were working on and gave examples of this.
"That means 'feelings'. It's what Ruby (the character in the current class text) is feeling. "
Year 1 Child
Pupils also understood and explained 'chotting' (chatting and jotting down ideas), 'kind calling out' (sharing ideas as a whole class group while the teacher annotates) and the editing process in their writing.
When invited to share writing samples which they thought they were proud of, pupis reflected on reasons why:
"I enjoyed writing Plot Point One. We spent a lot of time chotting and sentence stacking."
Year 2 Child
I wrote The True Story of the Fox and the Two Rabbits. We worked for days and I'm now on Plot Point Two."
Year 3 Child
Pupils referenced the breaking down of a text being focused on into the different events or 'points' in the plot. This shows pupil awareness that their writing can follow a real text as a model for their own writing.
Reading
After discussing favourite class texts, discussion moved onto reading.
Pupils were asked how they knew which book to read. Pupils responded:
"We do Phonics. The teacher gives me a book to read myself and I can!"
Year 1 Child
"When we've finished reading, we take a test. It asks us questions about the book. If we get the questions right, we get another book."
Year 5 Child
Children described listening to a whole class text in class and that a reading comprehension activity followed, linked to this reading. Interestingly, some pupils shared that they would like to read aloud to the class on occasion.
Pupils explained their understanding of reading expectations:
"We need to read every day. You write in your reading journal and it says what you read."
Year 6 Child
April 2022
During our Pupil Voice meeting this week we discussed what we loved about English at Grappenhalll Heys and the things that we would like to see more of in school. Children commented that they wanted more opportunities to plan and write their own stories about subjects of their choice and we discussed the possibility of having an authors' lunchtime club to allow the children to get lost in their own creativity.
We discussed the childrens' knowledge of writing across the genres and children mentioned that they had covered many genres over the Spring Term:
- Y1- Non fiction- writing facts about animals following a visit from many reptiles
- Y2- Report writing
- Y3- biographies of L.S lowry- linked to their art work and following a trip to the museum
- Y4- Myths and legends- linked to their ancient Greek topic
- Y5 - Newspaper Reports
- Y6 - Setting descriptions and character descriptions linked to class book- Kensuke's Kingdom
Year 4 child
''We had a visiting poet come into school (Paul Delaney) last term and he was amazing; he inspired me to write my own poems at home as well as school and I want to be a poet when I grow up.''
Year 3 child
''I love using real life things to help me with my ideas in writing- we had a Stone Age box to help us with our learning. ''
October 2021
All the children were confidently talking about their real love of reading and sharing with one another all the books they have enjoyed so far in their classes.
Children were able to share the poems that they have been reading and the talk confidently about the variety of texts and books that they have read.
We asked pupils what we do to help them learn more and remember more...
Year 4- 'Reading is amazing, I love getting lost in a story.'
Year 3- I love the fun writing we do in english that t=is linked to our topic- The great Fire of London.'
Year 2-' We love laughing together when we listen to Mrs Smith read our class book.'
Year 5- ' The best thing about english is creating double page spreads, we get to express oursleves using our own style and presnet our work to an audience.'
Year 6 - 'Our reading is all linked to our Topic- Is it Right to fIght?, this really helps us to develop our knowledge of history.'
Year 1- 'We like predicting to see if we were right.'