The Pupil Parliament has taken student voice to the next level this term by designing, leading, and delivering a series of pupil-led focus groups across various departments. To ensure their approach was both meaningful and impactful, our student leaders underwent training on Roger Hart’s Ladder of Participation. This model helped them understand how to operate at the highest rungs of engagement, initiating the project themselves and sharing real decision-making power with school staff.
Following their training, the pupils met with Principal Teachers to understand the specific areas each department wanted to explore. They then formulated targeted, questions and independently facilitated the focus groups, creating a safe environment where peers from all year groups could share honest opinions. To complete the process, the Pupil Parliament analysed the data and met back with staff to deliver their findings.
For our departments, this initiative has become an invaluable self-evaluation tool. Principal Teachers are already using the robust, qualitative data to shape future teaching, learning, and departmental strategies.
The feedback from staff has been incredibly positive.
"The young people, both those organising and those participating, were brilliant. This process was really useful and provided our department with great feedback."
"Wonderful process which has provided robust feedback and actionable next steps."
"I think the process worked very well and we got some useful feedback from the learners. The 2 pupils who led the session were confident at leading the group and delivering the feedback to staff."
In addition to supporting school improvement, the pupils leading these focus groups have developed a massive suite of transferable skills for learning, life, and work. They built immense confidence and leadership by presenting directly to senior staff, honed their communication and active listening skills while guiding discussions, and developed strong critical thinking abilities by translating raw discussions into constructive feedback. We are incredibly proud of our Pupil Parliament for leading this initiative with such maturity and actively shaping the future of learning at our school.
