Pupil Voice

The children chose their top 10 favourite things about Birley Spa and the winning results were:

The children chose:	The children think:
Children	We all include each other. If you’re new or you’ve been here for ages, you’ll have someone to play with and work with. No matter where we’re from or how long we’ve known each other, we all learn from each other. We like how not everyone is the same, our differences make us interesting. The school values help us really appreciate each other. Older children help younger children enjoy lunchtimes by teaching them how to play and share properly. We have quite a few children who come back if they’ve left because they know this is a great place to be! Everyone who needs any extra help gets it straight away and all of us contribute to making school amazing.
Rewards	The House Points are brilliant to show you’re doing the right thing. We all love getting House Points and it’s so exciting to see how many each house has each week! The Learners’ Code points make us go the extra mile. It pushes us to think about how to show the school values in different ways.
Curriculum and Learning	It’s best when we interact with each other when we’re learning. Our Teamwork value is really important. Each day is new and interesting. Our lessons build on knowledge from what we’ve learned before and gives us a chance to gain new skills. We have visual ways to learn, like in Active English or Jigsaw characters, so we don’t forget what we’ve learned. We develop loads of strategies to help ourselves if we’re stuck. Our wider curriculum really helps us to understand the opportunities we’ll have as adults to do what we love for our jobs or make a difference in a way we didn’t know was possible!
Global education	We care deeply about our community and do everything we can to help those close by and those far away. We think about climate change and recycle in school. Our Eco Council works with the Site Manager to care for our environment but also undertake projects to impact the wider world. We raise money for a range of charities and events around the world, such as Children in Need and support for people close to home and around the world who would benefit from our help.
Curriculum enrichment	We also have special assemblies, like when Team GB came to school to work with us about how putting in effort now leads to a lifetime of success. We have three Enterprise Weeks each year, then we use our Christmas Fayre, Easter Fayre and Summer Fayre to sell what we’ve created. Our trips and visits give us chance to deepen our learning as well as experience cultural opportunities such as different places of faith, sporting events and music concerts. Our clubs are a great way to make new friends after school and we use them to develop hobbies too.
Dinner times	Our school lunches are delicious and we get them really quickly. There’s always a lot to choose from and it’s made fresh every day. Our Curriculum Champions work with Taylor Shaw caterers to design a menu that is scrumptious and healthy so that we can always have a range of exciting meals. The menus change to match things going on in Britain, like World Book Day or Christmas dinner. We enjoy getting to play with our friends and spending time outside to boost our brains ready for the wider curriculum learning in the afternoon.
Pupil Voice opportunities	We have lots of ways to be heard at Birley Spa. All the children can be involved and make a difference. We appreciate opportunities to make suggestions or changes in school. Our Safeguarding Stewards have influenced the Local Authority and PCSOs to improve traffic calming measures outside school. We know we can make a big difference so it’s great that our adults recognise that too.
Staff	Our teachers and support staff all care about us so much. If you need help you get it and they keep our learning exciting. They’re kind and show the values all the time. They know loads and make each subject interesting and fun. If you’re ever sad or need to talk, any adult will support you. Our staff keep all children safe and happy.
Assemblies	We really enjoy assemblies because we have loads of positive things to celebrate. Who has the most House Points this week? Who has won the attendance challenge for each key stage? Who has been noticed by their teacher for showing the school values? It’s brilliant because the House Captains and Attendance Ambassadors run the assembly for House Points and Attendance. They’re really clear and make it exciting.
Outdoor environment	Our amazing outdoor spaces look fantastic and make breaks, lunchtimes and PE great. Our sensory garden is a beautiful, calm space to relax. Our playground has lots of equipment to climb on or practise our gymnastics on. Our court makes it easier to play ball games so we can be separate and our outdoor learning environment is great for us to use for Forest School. Early Years children have a beautiful outdoor space that lets them learn through playing every day, even in the rain!

CREATE Collaborate

Our creative thinkers enjoy developing the offer for our children each year. They have influenced the school menu, our behaviour rewards system and the extra curricular clubs that are open to our children.

Creativity

Perceiving the world in new ways and making connections. Being able to generate solutions.

Resilience

Being able to recover from difficulties and challenges. Seeing mistakes as the first steps to new learning.

Endeavour

Striving to achieve the best and valuing the achievements of others.

Aspiration

Having high expectations and working hard to achieve the best.

Teamwork

Working collaboratively and encouraging other members of the school community to be the best version of themselves.

Empathy and Tolerance

Being open minded to opinions and beliefs that may differ to our own.Being patient, understanding and accepting of difference.

Birley Spa’s Pupil Voice Offer

Attendance Ambassadors

Curriculum Champions

Safeguarding Stewards

Pupil Parliament

Eco Council

House Captains

Our incredible children have the opportunity to really make a difference in lots of ways.

Safeguarding Stewards

CREATE Collaborate

CREATE Collaborators

Eco Council

Citizenship beyond the classroom