Capturing the voices of children, young people and parents to promote inclusion
Read a practice example from Kingston Park Primary School, Newcastle upon Tyne.
All schools now have a duty to promote equality. According to GTC Council member Philippa Stobbs, one of the biggest challenges facing schools is to involve disabled pupils and their parents in implementing this policy. Philippa, who is also the Principal Development Officer at the Council for Disabled Children, was the main drafter of the Disability Commission’s Code of Practice for Schools.
One school showing progress in engaging disabled pupils and parents in their planning and developments is Kingston Park Primary school in Newcastle.
Kingston has planned provision for 12 children with disabilities, and there are currently six disabled children on its roll. These include children who have cerebral palsy, are visually impairmed, or use walking aids.
Capturing pupil voice
The school is led by Judy Evans, who believes that parents’ and pupils’ views need to inform everything it does. There are therefore regular consultations with disabled children and their parents. Structures that support the capture of pupil voice are well established in the school for both disabled and non-disabled children through specific and whole school policies. Parents also take part in teaching reviews and complete a parental booklet.
Teaching review
The school’s procedures include a termly teaching review for all children with School Action, School Action Plus or a Statement. This involves working with the children to review their learning and identify how the teacher can best meet the child’s development needs. The teaching review varies for different children:
- Disabled children in Key Stage 2 complete a booklet outlining what they feel they need to do to improve their learning, what they are finding difficult, and what they feel they do well.
- Those who are able to write independently do so; others have their views recorded by teachers.
- Key Stage 1 children complete a more visual booklet with pictures, stars and circles.
- Children in Year 4 and above attend a termly meeting with staff.
- The parents of disabled children also take part in teaching reviews and complete a parental booklet. There is 100% response to this.
Children with disabilities also have their views represented at school council, and the council membership always includes at least one child with a disability.
Consulting with children
Unless a school is willing to act on the information given, pupil and parent voice will lose credibility. At Kingston, parents and children trust the school to translate their views into action and so they take an active part in consultations. As a result, a range of changes have been made:
- Children with cerebral palsy wanted to wear the school’s bottle green uniforms but were getting them very messy at lunchtimes. The school has introduced bottle green aprons for all the children to help keep their uniforms clean.
- Many children with disabilities did not like facing the wall while working on their specialised desktop PC arranged on the edge of the classroom. They now have laptops and are able to face the teacher and class mates like everybody else.
- The school has used its budget to buy special equipment and to make adjustments to existing equipment.
- Children who are wheelchair users said they were fed up with being on the end of a playground bench, so the school provided a bench with a gap in the middle for wheelchair users. They can now be at the centre of a group instead of always on the end.
- When the school began as a site for special provision in 1999, there were two playground levels: a lower level for younger children and an upper level for older children. Access to the upper level was difficult for wheelchair users. The school has used inclusion funding to build a pathway through woods between the upper and lower playgrounds and thus make the playgrounds more accessible and user-friendly.
The changes illustrate how feedback from pupils on areas that teachers and leaders might overlook can support inclusive practices and environments for all pupils.
Find out more about capturing pupil and parental voice
Our Research of the Month feature has several useful studies:
You can also find out more about school’s duties under equalities legislation.
