VIEW FROM THE CLASSROOM


What initiatives or special approaches does Downe House use to maximise performance through nurturing pupil voice? In addition to personal tutoring, Downe House’s unique approach to pastoral care also helps to nurture its pupils’ voices, and this in turn maximises their progress. As each pupil progresses through the school, they are navigated through three main sections: they spend their first two years (Year 7 & 8) within one House in the Lower School; they then spend the next three years (Year 9, 10 and 11) in one of our five Upper School Houses; finally, their final two years, as Sixth Formers, is spent in in a specialist Sixth Form House. Each of these steps will see them nurtured by different staff who specialise in the age range of the pupils in their care; the change also enables each pupil to cement established friendships and develop new ones, too. Each House runs many different and fun activities – drama, music, sport, and much, much more. All pupils get involved and there is a good deal of friendly competition between the Houses. The House system is a highly effective way of building pupils’ confidence, friendships and many fond memories. Each House also appoints pupils from its ranks to join the School Council, meaning that everyone’s voice and all ideas can be aired and heard.


of view and to feel confident they will be heard and respected by their peers and their teachers. Outside the classroom, it means ensuring that all pupils feel able to engage in wider school debates and discussions, and to feel a sense of pride, belonging and security within their school community.


What key issues are young people facing right now that may impact them having a voice in school?


Young people can feel frustrated and anxious if they feel unable to speak up, or if they feel their voice is in some way unrepresented or unheard. Recently, young people have become increasingly interested in issues relating to the environment, social justice and equality – to name just a few. At Downe House, we have found that our students are very articulate and passionate when discussing these topics; it is important to enable informed discussions and to help them become used to hearing and accepting differing points of view. We have found that when our younger pupils can see and hear role models from the more senior year groups speaking out on these issues, they will be inspired to find a voice themselves.


How can you spot if a pupil is struggling with finding their voice and being heard, and how do you help them to overcome this?


One of the most effective ways of ensuring each pupil finds their own voice is to give them time, space and confidence to speak to a trusted adult. That is one of the principal reasons why we have adopted a weekly one-to-one tutorial system across all our age groups. This means that all our pupils, from age 11 to 18, meet at least once a week with their personal tutor. The tutor will monitor their tutees’ pastoral and academic progress but is also there simply to talk to them and to encourage them to speak up about matters that are of concern to them.


September 2023 www.education-today.co.uk 17


Can you give examples of lessons or events that have supported this initiative and how they were received by pupils? Perhaps the most recent successful event has been the House Debating Competition. Pupils from each year group are specially trained and supported in preparing speeches on a range of topics which matter to them. All pupils then gather to hear these speeches and to ask questions – and they get to cast a vote for the winning speeches, too! The Competition is eagerly anticipated and is a highly effective way of training all our pupils how to prepare and communicate their point of view.


What has worked particularly well and why? We have recently organised two highly successful events aimed to get our pupils thinking about topics that lie outside of the conventional


academic curriculum: these are the Humanities and STEM symposia. We found that our pupils were able to find their voices and articulate their opinions very confidently when they had the opportunity to focus on topics of personal interest to them and talk to like-minded peers. As one of the participating pupils said: “The Humanities Symposium was a brilliant opportunity to explore topics beyond the curriculum with fellow enthusiastic peers. The evening was structured around three main themes: conflict, identity and innovation. It was particularly interesting to observe how the different discussion groups approached and interpreted the themes in question. I was struck by the significance and impact these discussions held, especially in the increasingly interlinked and global society we live in. For instance, I found discussions on the History table were incredibly relevant: from the importance of studying history, to the effects of colonisation and the significance of the repercussions. On the philosophy table a heated debate was centred around the ethics of euthanasia.”


What can be improved upon?


Enabling young people to have the confidence to speak up and be heard is a real skill that can be honed and improved over time. We are always looking at ways to train our teachers and our senior students to do this more effectively, and we are all learning all the time. It is always a challenge to find time within our school’s busy schedule to achieve this, but we are determined to do so.


What approaches are you considering in the future to ensure that every pupil has a voice?


Downe House has always encouraged senior pupils to mentor younger ones, but we plan to do this in a more structured and focused way. For example, next year our Year 10 pupils will be assigned as buddies to our new Year 7 pupils; they will spend time together in the Lower School Houses, with the older pupils providing help and guidance with their academic studies, personal organisation, friendships and life in general.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52