- Home
- Pupil Voice
Pupil Voice
Pupil Voice
At Gordonbrock, we pride ourselves on our students having a voice. We value their views on every aspect of school life where possible. We want to nurture a culture where all children feel listened to, valued, respected and empowered.
PE (dance) Curriculum Pupil Voice December 2018
Miss Norris, Head of PE, spoke to children from all year groups about their dance lessons in indoor PE. This is what they had to say:
"The warm ups are exciting." (Year 6 Pupil)
"The teachers did demonstrations which I liked." (Year 4 Pupil)
"Our dances are linked to our topic on Monarchs – it’s fun." (Year 6 Pupil)
"My teacher showed us the moves." (Reception Pupil)
"Sometimes it was tricky to figure out the actions or agree on what to do next but our teacher would always make suggestions and help us out." (Year 3 Pupil)
"We told the story of the Fire of London in our dances." (Year 2 Pupil)
"It is helpful when others watch us and give us positive feedback and some ideas for how to improve." (Year 5)
"We worked on our own and in a group." (Year 1 Pupil)
"The teacher asked me to help my friends if they needed some help with the moves." (Year 3 Pupil)
"We work in groups and get time to practice." (Year 6 Pupil)
"I liked watching my friends dance and tell them things about it." (Reception Pupil)
"The teacher said we could ‘magpie’ and take ideas from other groups." (Year 3 Pupil)
"I like the warm up that my teacher does." (Reception Pupil)
"The teachers did demonstrations which I liked." (Year 4 Pupil)
"Our teacher let us plan and create warm ups and present it to the class at the beginning of our lessons." (Year 3 Pupil)
"We had two weeks to practice and improve and then performed our dance." (Year 5)
"Our teacher sometimes challenged us to try more difficult moves." (Year 2 Pupil)
"We watched our friends dance." (Year 1 Pupil)
"We were shown some videos to inspire us and asked to imagine being there." (Year 6 Pupil)
"We used the Romans as our dance idea because we are doing that in History." (Year 4 Pupil)
"We showed our dances to other groups and listened to feedback." (Year 6 Pupil)
"We made up our own moves and showed them to other children then we improved them." (Year 2 Pupil)
"I like that we can work with the same partner each time and add on and improve what we are doing each week." (Year 6 Pupil)
"We could always ask for help if we needed it and the teachers made suggestions and demonstrated things to us to show us how to do some moves." (Year 3 Pupil)
"I like that we made up our dances in groups." (Year 5 Pupil)
"We worked in a group and added on new moves each week." (Year 3 Pupil)
"We really liked doing dance in PE." (Year 2 Pupil)
"Our teacher gave us some good ideas when we were a bit stuck." (Year 6 Pupil)
"Our teacher gave us demonstrations and instructions to do different movements, including lifts!" (Year 5 Pupil)
"My teacher helped me to get better and my friends told me things I could do as well." (Year 1 Pupil)
"We made dances about volcanoes and it was really fun." (Year 3 Pupil)
"I did lots of animal moves like the story of Rama and Sita." (Reception Pupil)
"We did dances about the Great Fire of London because we were learning about it in class." (Year 2 Pupil)
"We watched videos of real dancers before we went to PE to give us some ideas." (Year 2 Pup
"We really liked doing dance in PE." (Year 2 Pupil)
Science Curriculum Pupil Voice May 2019
The Science co-ordinator, Mrs Ousbey, interviewed children from every year group to ask them what they have enjoyed about their Science learning this year. Here are some of the things that they said:
"It’s amazing when you learn about what’s inside your body!" (Year 1 Pupil)
"I like the lessons where something explodes, like a volcano." (Year 3 Pupil)
"We wore lab coats and took the microscopes out into the playground. It was really interesting to see the structure of the leaves." (Year 6 Pupil)
"We used the microscopes to look at everything in the classroom. It was so cool." (Year 2 Pupil)
"Science is fun and you might need it in your job." (Year 5 Pupil)
"I like to discover and do experiments." (Year 1 Pupil)
"We added lots of substances to water and investigated dissolving: it was really fun and a bit messy." (Year 5 Pupil)
"We went all around the school and hid moths and we had to find them again. They were camouflaged!" (Year 4 Pupil)
"I like studying different things." (Year 1 Pupil)
"The Blue Planet live lesson was really cool, it was so interesting because I love animals." (Year 3 Pupil)
"We tested the impact of different meteors by dropping marbles into different powders, like flour. We decided to see what happened when we dropped the marble from different heights." (Year 6 Pupil)
"Science week was so fun because we went in the dome and looked at space!" (Year 3 Pupil)
"It was so funny when we made the chocolate spoons.’" (Year 2 Pupil)
"I’d love to be a Scientist. I’d double ten out of ten for Science." (Year 1 Pupil)
"I always talk about Science at home, especially when we’ve done fun experiments at school." (Year 5 Pupil)
"I love it when we do drawings and diagrams and pictures in Science." (Year 4 Pupil)
Feeling Safe at School - June 2019
During a Key Stage 2 assembly, Miss Connelly reminded the children in Years 3-6 of the importance of feeling safe and happy when they are at school. She talked about the many adults in school who are able to listen and help if any child has a worry that he/she might need to talk about. The children then shared their thoughts on what makes Gordonbrock School a safe place for them to play and learn.
Miss Connelly was very impressed with the children’s understanding of what it means to be safe and she was delighted that Gordonbrock children were able to describe many ways in which they are kept safe at school.
Some of the things the children said included:
"We practise emergency procedures like the Fire Drill and the Lockdown procedure.”
“When someone gets hurt, they know where to go for First Aid treatment.”
“Adults take evacuation procedures seriously.”
“We have gates and there is always someone on the gate to make sure everyone is safe when they come in and leave and so we have someone to go to if we have a question or a worry at the end eginning or end of the day.”
“We have sign out sheets to visit the toilet when we are in class.”
“Every class has a worry box where you can write down a worry and put it in for your teacher to read so they can talk to you about it.”
“Teachers and adults in the school always help you if you need it.”
“We always walk around the school with another person – sometimes an adult and sometimes a friend – so that we are never on our own.”
“We have a Code of Conduct that are a set of rules that everyone needs to follow to make sure everyone at school is safe and happy.”
“We have a Friendship Stop in the Key Stage 1 playground for children to go to if they want someone to play with.”
“In Key Stage 2, we can be Playground Buddies in the Key Stage 1 playground and help the younger children to play and have fun.”
“The teachers take the registers at the beginning of school and after lunch to make sure everyone is here and safe.”
“We have a No Mobile Phone policy for children and adults.”
“We are a nut and sesame free school.”
“We have Circle Time every week in class so we can talk about anything that is worrying us.”
“We have security cameras at the front of the school so we can see who is coming in to the building.”
“The adults run a club called Sanctuary at lunchtimes for children that want to be in a quieter space and play games indoors.”
“We have Help Points all around the school that we can go to if we need help.”
PSHCE Pupil Voice - Spring Term 2019
Miss Evans, Head of PSHCE, met with children from different year groups to discuss their views on circle time. They had lots to say about how circle time helps them. Lots of children talked about how important persevering is and what they have learned about having a growth mindset. Some children said that they had learned problem solving skills to deal with bullying issues and to help them make friends. Most children commented that they felt that they were really being ‘heard’.
Here are some quotes from our children:
"I know how to be positive with friends, how to help people and how to brighten someone’s day." (Year 2 Pupil)
"We talk about lots of things in circle time like how to make the playground a better place and how to stop bullying." (Year 2 Pupil)
"Circle time helps us to learn how to be good friends and how to sort out an argument." (Year 3 Pupil)
"We try to answer tricky questions like, ‘is someone who sees bullying happening but doesn’t do anything about it at fault?." (Year 5 Pupil)
"In circle time we get to hear different people’s opinions and debate different topics." (Year 5 Pupil)
"We have learned how to stay calm and listen to each other. Children have a right to say what they want to say." (Year 5 Pupil)
