Some ideas developed at Heathfield Community College

Learner Voice network meeting

26th March 2009

1. A lesson engages me when …

2. I appreciate a teacher who …

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… it’s hands-on, when it’s physical, when it’s practical … everyone’s sharing ideas … it’s fun … group-work is involved … I can work at my own pace, when there’s time to really work at

things and make them good … I’ve got lots of freedom, independence or choice … it’s not about what other people think, it’s about what I think … there’s discussion, it’s not all writing … I’m trusted … I can be creative … I’m seen and valued.

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… is always smiling and happy and asks how I am … respects everyone’s views … sets up lessons clearly … trusts me … gives me options and choices … answers all my questions (even ones that don’t seem relevant) … gives my work variety … gives my work relevance … sets out the classroom interestingly … helps me when I’m stuck … teaches me!

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Part of an East Sussex project with Cambridge University on Personalised Learning and Student Voice

Findings presented at DfES and in a published booklet from Innovation Unit in 2006

HCC’s focus was on utilising Student/Learner Voice in helping us raise engagement and improve the classroom experience for our learners

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One mixed ability tutor group – Y7 into Y8

15 staff across broad spectrum of curriculum

‘Action Research’ approach

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The students’ eloquence about their learning Misreading the engagement of individuals

Their insights …

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“People say ’Revise!’ and it’s like, ‘What do I do?’ Read it again and again?”

“They say you have to do this, that and the other, but I don’t think the curriculum says how you actually have to do it. It is important getting my levels but I just think that some teachers, if the curriculum’s readable, they read it and think, ‘Oh, I’ve got to tell them this’ and they could be more imaginative in the way that they teach it. They could make it more interesting.”

Departments engage the support of the Student Voice Research Team once every 2-3 years on a research project of their choosing e.g. how to develop the Y8 Geography curriculum; success of departmental ‘Extended Learning Days’

Such work has the key function of allowing a department to hear the voice of the learners (in a qualitative form) in order to consider change in areas which are ‘live’ i.e. genuinely ‘up for change’. The focus/foci must be challenging.

The report for the department, produced from interviews with learners, is the department’s property, and from it they develop an action plan for change where it is necessary.

No ‘witch-hunt’!

But remember that what you might do will depend on your context and how your learners learn

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Tokenistic learner voice

Engaging all – learners and staff

Integrating Learner/Student Voice and personalised learning in an exam-driven culture

‘Lunatics running the asylum’?

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Continuing to pursue the insights on learning and teaching gained from the project

Employing learner voice as a key tool in development of curriculum areas

Growing our own researchers

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