Enhancing Pupil Voice
Creating meaningful opportunities for pupils to express their views
Gathering pupil views and ensuring their voice is genuinely heard is an important part of creating effective, meaningful support plans in schools. Children and young people need to be provided with meaningful and safe opportunities to share their experiences, views and hopes, and to understand that their thoughts and opinions will be heard and considered.
From an ethical and legal standpoint, Pupil Voice aligns with principles set out in frameworks such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which emphasises children’s right to be heard in matters that affect them, is a value is reflected in the SEN Code of Practice and is integral to the EHCP and annual review process.
Working in the Educational Psychology field for over 20 years we noticed a problem. Gathering pupil views meaningfully and equitably is not as easy as we might hope. We need to ask the right questions, ensure that children feel at ease, and provide a variety of opportunities and tools to support them communicate with us in rich and personalised ways. Resources to gather pupil views were limited, paper-based and often uninspiring, and our colleagues and school staff agreed. During the Covid-19 pandemic, remote working made it harder to capture pupil views when giving advice for EHCP applications. We wanted something more visually engaging so that children and young people were more likely to tell us what they think and feel about school and themselves. So, we decided to create ‘Central Voice.’
Central Voice activities enable educational professionals to gather insights about how children feel, how they learn best, and their views as to what helps or hinders their progress and wellbeing at school.
School staff and Educational Psychologists using Central Voice have expressed how well the activities engage children who might otherwise withdraw or find it difficult to express themselves verbally. They facilitate deeper reflections and conversations because children are more relaxed and at ease. Children love the moving tiles and the flexibility to add their own text/ideas, and this enables a truly person-centred approach.
When pupils are actively involved in shaping the support they receive, it empowers them, fosters a stronger sense of belonging and leads to more accurate, relevant, and successful outcomes. It reinforces the idea that education is something done with them, not to them.
Central Voice offers a set of 8 digital, interactive, and engaging activities that can be administered via our website portal in person or through screen share for remote working. Completed Central Voice activities can be downloaded, saved, and shared electronically with other professionals/parents and included in documentation.