Fielding Primary School and Nursery
During the school year, we regularly hold whole school 'Parliament' style assemblies where we come together to discuss issues, giving every child a voice in the life of our school.
A whole cohort of children from Year 6 to Year 1 join together in one of our hall spaces. Children work in small circle groups of up to 6 children. The oldest children, usually Year 6 age, become group leaders, making sure that everyone in the group feels welcomed and contributes. The next oldest children, usually Year 5 age, act as scribes for the group, recording the outcomes of each discussion.
Children discuss issues and come to a consensus of opinion, sometimes by voting or by taking the view of the majority for the group. Children's views help to guide school leaders and governors evaluate the strengths of the school and steer our improvements.
So far this year we have focused on:
Children shared their views about:
Summary
Pupils overwhelmingly enjoy their Guided Reading sessions in school, particularly their time which they spend reading with the teacher in their small groups and their free reading time in the book corners and libraries. They think that is is a good idea to have termly author visits to lead assemblies and carry out book signings and most pupils said that there was nothing they would change about the libraries.
As a result of the pupils' feedback around reading, further improvements and developments will take place in the libraries, further termly author visits will be planned and the scholastic book fair will return regularly.
As a result of the children's views about our playground space, final designs were shared with children. Building works began in November with Phase 1 (natural woodland and sand-pit) and Phase 2 (central area climbing and seating) completed by March 2017.
A new cycle of Values were introduced from September 2016 as a result of the children's feedback and from listening to staff and parents.
Pupils' views helped school leaders define new behaviour systems and routines. Children were asked how good behaviour should be rewarded, whether the emphasis should be on the individual, in teams/groups or both. Pupils discussed thoughts about house systems, merit points, certificates, 'golden time' and systems in class for teachers to show expectations and sanctions.
Fielding's governors will consider all views by the end of term and approve our approach to behaviour ready for the new school year. Read the outcome of our work in Behaviour Policy:
Computing and e-safety, January 2015
Children helped define our vision for computing by ordering a selection of sentence descriptors; thought about the quality of teaching and their interest in computing; discussed how they know how to stay safe when on-line; prioritised future spending on ICT, considering laptops, digital media and Apple Macs or iPads; thought about when computers have helped improve their learning in school.
Feedback from groups of pupils is shown below (nearly 60 pupil groups, each with 5-6 members):
Behaviour and safety at school, November 2014
Children discussed their interest and engagement during lessons; how safe they feel at school and how well children behave during lessons and at break-times.
Next steps for school: