Pupil Voice - How can you be heard?

DIGITAL LEADERS PROGRAMME – ALI (K)

The DLP serves as a forum for e-safety issues where pupils can raise concerns and act to improve the digital environment in which we learn. I joined because I believe that in order to make changes and educate the pupil body we have to be proactive and take the opportunity to shape a certain aspect of College life. Since joining DLP I have witnessed numerous achievements and changes.

Prior to the pandemic we were able to visit a local school to discuss phone usage and educate pupils on a healthy technological lifestyle. Teaching them how to use smartphones safely from an earlier age is something we hope will benefit them in the future, especially seeing how interconnected phone usage and mental health have become.

Mental health, cyberbullying and sexting have been prevalent subjects we have addressed in assemblies to all year groups because of their influence within the sphere of e-safety. We cannot change things overnight but through developing an understanding of these areas we can begin to learn how to prevent potential dangers.

EMBRACE – GEORGE (H)

The Embrace committee aims to break the stigma around talking about mental health. Having a range of different people joining has been so important for us to understand how we can tailor certain messages to fit different communities which exist within the College. Everyone has been affected by this pandemic in different ways and it has, at times, been mentally challenging. Being able to join a group that combats the struggles young people are facing is an exciting challenge. Bradfield has always fostered an open and kind environment and the Embrace group seeks to not only improve this ethos but to try and incorporate other messages into it as well. One of the key messages we are aiming to promote is that it is “Okay to not be okay”. Even though this group is fairly new, we have already achieved so much and the pupil body and staff are already working hand in hand in aiming to make Bradfield an even better place.

E-SAFETY COMMITTEE – SAVANNAH (M)

The E-Safety Committee is composed of members of the IT department, Head of Wellbeing, Head of Pastoral, Head of the Digital Leaders Programme and Sixth Form pupils. The committee meets frequently to discuss any recent e-safety issues and works together to ensure the e-safety experience and education at Bradfield is the best it can be. The most recent task the committee embarked on was updating the E-Safety Policy. As a pupil it was a huge privilege to play a role in the rewriting of such an important document as in the past we have had no say in such matters. The dynamic membership which forms the committee has meant we can keep a constant loop of communication between opinions of the pupil body and concerns from the staff, something that is vital in making sure pupil voices are not only listened to, but acted upon.

CHAPEL REPRESENTATIVES – LEXIE (M)

The group provides an opportunity for pupils to discuss feedback for the content of Chapels and also it acts as a space for any ideas or topics people want to learn about.

I volunteered to be a part of the group because I wanted to act as a voice for the pupil body so that everyone could have a positive experience in Chapel. I also believe that communication is key and I think that having this group it allows the pupils to be involved more. I have always aimed to give constructive criticism and praise and it is great to be able to discuss new topics to learn about. With pupils leading more Chapels each term I believe it has benefited everyone significantly and engages more pupils.

SUSTAINABILITY COMMITTEE – DIDI (M)

This committee aims to improve the education around, and action taken upon, sustainability within the College. Initially I wanted to focus on improving the recycling system and to help make other pupils aware of what we all can do to reduce waste and improve our carbon footprint. So far, we have been able to ensure that the recycling system has been completely upgraded with general waste and mixed recycling bins available College-wide. This has helped us all realise just how much of what we had previously disposed of in general waste could actually be recycled. I was very proud to be asked to design the poster for the new recycling system which can be seen at multiple sites around school.

EQUALITY FORUM – MIRANDA (I)

Consisting of one boy and two girls from each House, the Equality Forum is designed to help identify and act on the sexism we all face. Our aim is to create a welcoming and inclusive environment where we can be open-minded to discuss pupil experiences and emotions in order to break the norm of casual sexism as the College prepares us for a society in which no discrimination should be tolerated.

Started as a way of communicating the issues and emotions felt by each gender at the College, the forum hopes to achieve a better environment in school where pupils feel accepted and appreciated, helping to educate others about having empathy while being sympathetic to the inequalities faced by pupils. We have recently held a trial forum in which we discussed the differences in boys’ and girls’ lives and how to go about improving them, helping us to better understand the experiences of all pupils and we look forward to creating more of these across the year groups in the new academic year.

PUPIL LEARNING COUNCIL – KIT (F)

The Pupil Learning Council is designed to be a unique place, where pupils of every academic interest can give their personal feedback on learning at Bradfield. We have discussed a number of academic initiatives including a more individualised booster session system, giving the Sixth Form pupils more freedom as to when and where they can work outside of lessons. This could lead to a reduction in strict individual study periods and implementing a more targeted self-evaluation report process allowing pupils to isolate areas for improvement and reducing the friction experienced by pupils when doing a deep self- evaluation.

The achievement I am most proud of is the way in which the Pupil Learning Council guided the transition to Digital Learning. We have discussed how prep and lessons are carried out, where pupils prefer resources to be uploaded, what software is being utilised and the use of study spaces. In such a forum, honesty is critical and the more informal, friendly nature of the Council has allowed for issues to be identified quicker and dealt with accordingly.

CATERING COMMITTEE – FLICK (M)

Representatives from each House meet every half term to discuss the food, catering service and mealtimes at Bradfield. It is a chance for pupils to discuss things they may want to change with the caterers and staff. Pupils who are vegetarians with dairy-free diets may not find it straightforward going into mealtimes so I decided to join because I believed it would be good to have a voice to discuss different dietary requirements. The food standards here are incredibly high but I hoped to be a voice for my whole boarding house’s concerns. We are also able to communicate when we like new initiatives trialled by the caterers and it has been great to see the increase in frequency of some of our favourite meals showing that the pupil voice is clearly valued.

Pupil Voice – How can you be heard?