The King Edward VI School at Morpeth: giving students a voice

My name is Victoria Najafi and I am currently in my third year as the student voice, leadership and enrichment coordinator at The King Edward VI School, in Morpeth, Northumberland. I lead my own department, currently with four assistants who are students in year 12, who had to apply for these positions, endure an interview process in front of a panel comprised of both students and staff, and who indeed balance study with ‘real life’ work. This has led to increased participation in student voice activities from all year groups from years 9 to 13, and students have indeed enthusiastically welcomed the involvement of former students, now in the workforce.

Our student voice is unique, as it is the core of our school, led principally by students from our own student leadership base, one of the busiest and most exciting areas of the school. The student voice base is bright, colourful and welcoming, displaying an array of student voice activities in the school and in the community. There is a feeling of pride and acknowledgement among many students; that this is the ‘hub’ to drive their ideas forward. The student voice base is a hive of activity from early morning before school, break times, lunch times and after school, filled with an abundance of leadership activities from students chairing meetings, organising student voice conferences, to students interviewing prospective school staff.

In July 2008 The King Edward VI School was rated as outstanding and Ofsted stated, ‘We found the work around the student voice to be exemplary, and something that you should be proud of now and in to the future’. This also led to an invitation by the Home Office to write a paper on how we have aimed to address topical issues such as drugs and alcoholism through our student voice programme in school, in relation to the Home Office publication entitled ‘Pathways to Problems’, written by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs in September 2006.

In 2006, Northumberland County Council named the school as a ‘centre of excellence’ for student voice and, in July 2007, the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) ranked our student voice programme in the top six nationwide in the category of ‘Community Facing Services’ in the Public Servants Awards.

Traditionally, it is accepted that a school has a student voice if a school council exists. Indeed, a school council is fundamental in providing students with a voice. However, it is rather prevalent that members are often the more able students who have been nominated by staff to attend. Often, school councils are not representative of the whole student body.

At The King Edward VI School, the school council is led by four senior students (head and deputy boys and girls) who have been elected to their roles by other students, and who lead school council meetings, write and distribute minutes and plan an agenda, and who are also responsible for a considerable budget. In the past, this budget has been used to improve areas of the school, such as the provision of outdoor seating, the refurbishment of students’ toilets, as well as to aid charities on a monthly basis. Students in the lower school (9-11) also nominate two year representatives who will represent their year group at school council meetings, and who also lead their own form representative meetings in their own year group, and who also plan their own agenda. 

The senior students meet with the head in an allocated time slot every week, and there is also an opportunity for any member of staff or students to attend the school council, who simply go to the student voice base to record when and why they wish to attend. The process of students being given the opportunity to elect other students to roles in school has led to the fact that our form and year representatives, and members of the school council, are indeed of a wide academic ability, and more representative of the whole student body. The success of our school council has also contributed to our excellent collaborative work with our feeder middle schools in Morpeth, which will also result in a forthcoming collaborative school council meeting, comprised of students from The King Edward VI School and our three principal feeder middle schools, another method of improving transition from key stages 2 to 3, and indeed to aid the personal development of young people who are often very apprehensive at the prospect of commencing high school.

Students have designed their own student voice badge, which is now widely recognised, not only in the school, but also within the local education authority. They are in the process of designing their own student voice ‘hoodies’ to wear at their own events, conferences, and even out of school!

At The King Edward VI School, our school council is simply one out of now over 40 student-led activities, contributing to developing the school curriculum, as well as our enrichment programme. Benefits have been copious, including the development of personal skills and qualities, a more positive and energetic ethos, and the development of excellent relationships between young people and adults, both in school and in the local community, as well as increased academic achievement. Student voice is at the heart of the ‘Every Child Matters Agenda’, a focal point for the school vision, not only in terms of students making a positive contribution, but also strongly supporting the notion that ‘if a child is happy, they will achieve’.

Examples of curriculum-related student-led strands are SALT (Student Assessment for Learning Team – ‘Making lessons tasty!’),our student policy-making team, student subject leaders and student interview panels. Examples of the enrichment student-led strands are KEVI Radio, the school radio station, which has recently broadcast beyond school into the local community, the KEVI Cirkus Clowns, and the student voice news team. Many of the activities have been successfully implemented in three feeder middle schools, in which the posts of student voice coordinator have also been created. Activities have been led principally by high school students actually leading, developing and supporting student voice activities within lower key stages, consequently facilitating positive collaboration between all schools within the partnership, and also easing transition for many students from middle to high school.

There is a student voice job vacancy board in school where students are able to apply for positions akin to ‘real life’ procedures, such as writing a letter of application and enduring an interview process, aiding to the development of such important skills which they will they will be presented with in the near future. This gives students an authentic taste of many of the tasks they are required to do within school, such as learning to write a curriculum vitae and preparing for a job interview. Our student voice programme transforms these tasks in to a reality.

There are numerous examples where co-construction between teachers and students at The King Edward VI School has led to the creation of position change within school. Our student subject leader programme is an innovative feature of our student voice programme, in which students apply to represent subjects in school akin to ‘mini heads of department’ and who are elected to their role by both students and departmental staff. Many student subject leaders are given a time slot at staff departmental meetings to feedback views of the student body within their subject. For example, English student subject leaders have been given the task of reviewing books which English staff have decided to include in the English curriculum, and to gauge the opinions of whole year groups, views which English student subject leaders have then presented back to English staff, and which have actually led to changes in schemes of work. Student subject leaders have even been ‘invited’ to observe lessons by some staff, who wish to gather students’ opinions on various elements of their lesson. Student subject leaders also represent the department at open evenings, monitor departmental displays and students’ roles are also very creative and open, with many students wishing to lead subject specific workshops for other students in school, as well as in our feeder middle schools. This has often led to the development of our enrichment programme, with students in these roles launching activities which other students have expressed an interest in, such as the foundation of a Lit-Café and leading book auctions for charity. At The King Edward VI School, we ensure that students are given a real voice in their learning.

A fundamental aspect of our student voice programme at The King Edward VI School is the provision of a voice for all students in all ‘walks of life’ in our school, not solely via academia. There are many elements of our student voice programme that have been launched and are currently being led by students of lower academic ability, such as the KEVI Gnomes, a group of students devoted to improving our green spaces in school. This year, a project which will transform an old ski slope on school grounds in to a new school and community garden, has led to the KEVI Gnomes winning a BT Global Seen and Heard Award 2008, beating entries from the USA and Canada.

These students will collect their award from the Houses of Parliament in December 2008. Indeed, this success has raised the confidence and self-esteem of these young people, who previously suffered from low levels of motivation and confidence, which in turn has led to increased attendance of some students, and which has, in turn, also raised the achievement of some of these students who are usually supported in lessons by our Learning Support Team. These students are now spearheading the school’s sustainability for the future programme, also working in close collaboration with teaching staff, parents, school improvement staff, senior staff and also governors. Their project ideas have also led to the foundation of the student recycling team and the KEVI Green Committee, who have written the first student-led recycling policy in Northumberland, and who have ensured that every classroom has received a recycling bin from the local council. What originally started off as a small number of ‘voiceless’ students with an interest in gardening and expressing a desire to clean up areas of the school, has now led to large numbers of students working and leading green initiatives across the whole school and community, bringing together a wide range of stakeholders.

Another unique element to our student voice programme is the foundation of the ‘KEVI Cirkus Klowns’, an example of how our programme is being used effectively to involve the participation of a wide variety of the student body. Akin to many of our student-led activities, this group of students is self-funded, self-taught, self-run and their own worst critics! This group of students evolved from a very small group of de-motivated, ‘too cool for school’ boys who were disaffected and who were also using recreational drugs. These students were supported by our youth worker, and secured funding for equipment which has led to huge numbers of students being able to participate learning an abundance of skills, which has increased confidence, motivation, attendance and the development of social skills for many. They now have their own ‘ultra-violet’ show, they are ‘bookable’ for events and, in November 2007, were given a standing ovation by a packed audience of head teachers, deputies and educationalists at the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust Conference. They have also performed for Princess Anne, Prince Charles and Camilla, and at the Hartlepool Maritime Festival. Day in, day out, despite being a high school, the school yard is littered with jugglers, stilt walkers, and staff are now used to the sight of uni-cycles whizzing by and diablos appearing at the classroom window as they are launched into the air! However, this contributes to a fantastic atmosphere and contributes to our friendly and unique ethos. Again, this is responsibility and leadership given to students in another form. Students must apply for funding to ensure the provision of their equipment; practice is day in day out, and they have appointed student leaders and deputies themselves. When they are invited to an event, many skills are required in the planning, such as catering for a target audience, planning the acts, the duration of the show, the designing of the programme, advertising, and much more.

Responsibility comes in a variety of forms, and by giving students such responsibility and a voice in school in simply another capacity, many qualities which may actually lead to academic achievement, which are often ‘hidden’ and cannot be monitored by data, are rapidly developed. This supports our notion, as well as that shared by the Every Child Matters Agenda, that ‘if a child is happy, they will achieve’.

The success of our student voice programme has led to success in the local community, and indeed, nationally and internationally. Many external organisations have requested to work collaboratively with students. These have included the UK Youth Parliament, in which four students from The King Edward VI School now represent the views of young people in Northumberland. It was the first time in history that a UK Youth Parliament election had also been organised and led by students, who were actually Sixth Form Student Subject Leaders for Politics and Government from The King Edward VI School. This also led to young people from The King Edward VI School making history, by being among the first young people in history to speak in the House of Lords. Their voices are now heard regularly on a national scale.

In March 2008, Castle Morpeth Borough Council also invited students to write an agenda for a public scrutiny meeting, again the first time in history. Local councillors indeed attended a meeting organised by young people who set the agenda according to issues important to young people in the area, suggesting how they could be supported. This has led to support for many student-led projects and initiatives from the local council, including financial support.  Students are regularly invited to local council meetings, and to present their ideas on county educational initiatives.  This also led to the foundation of the Northumberland Youth Cabinet, on which many students sit and represent the views of young people in the county, also having been elected to their roles by other young people in Northumberland.

Collaboration and networked learning communities is certainly an important factor in order to have an effective programme of student leadership.  In order to share good practice in particular, students thoroughly enjoy visits to our feeder middle schools, as well as partnership schools, as we are a Leading Edge School. Another fundamental aspect of our student voice programme are our student researchers, who research elements of school that interest them. Topics which have included school meals, what constitutes a good lesson and possible changes to the timing of the school day. Again, students have developed a multitude of skills, such as how to research, analyse and present data. This also included students working closely with educational researchers from Newcastle University, and even students as young as year 9, leading their own research conference for several schools for students who are also in sixth form. It is via such elements of our leadership programme, that important skills such as critical analysis are developed, which also certainly develop numerous areas of their school studies.  We also feel that it is important to give students authority to feed their learning back in to their own school, with many of our student researchers presenting their research to senior staff, the staff body and even at regional school governors conferences.

Nationally this year, I was also invited to contribute to a collaborative research paper on student voice by the University of East London, which was successfully submitted to the British Educational Research Association (BERA). On an international scale, in September 2008, The King Edward VI School hosted 24 Dutch Educational Researchers, comprised principally of Dutch Head teachers. In 2009, our student international relations committee will lead a visit to our now copious number of Dutch partnership schools, for a research visit. These students are responsible for maintaining and monitoring our international links, also including with schools in Australia, Germany and France. This year, we have also been awarded international school status.

It would be fallacious to say that we have not experienced any challenges. There are still a number of staff who do not fully understand what student voice is, and there remain elements of our student voice programme which some staff do regard in a rather threatening light, and indeed areas of our student body which remain challenging to reach. However, we have certainly made many advances in student leadership over the course of the past three years in particular, and indeed we have tailored our own programme to suit our school context, a hugely important factor to consider when implementing any student leadership programme. We are constantly reviewing, monitoring and trying to improve our student leadership activities, with a new target this year of spreading our student leadership success in to local first schools on request, after the success of our student leadership programme in our feeder middle schools. 

In comparison to many high schools, we do have a low percentage of students who receive free school meals and very few students of ethnic minority backgrounds.  However we have other challenges, including a very wide catchment area, with a number of students travelling from very rural areas of Northumberland, with some travelling over an hour and a half to get to school. However, despite difficulties which may include location, academic ability, and even the number of students a school may have, opportunities will always exist in which young people can be given leadership and responsibility opportunities, which in turn will boost their self-esteem and confidence, and develop qualities and skills which do not need to be supported by statistical data.

At The King Edward VI School, we see and experience the evidence and living proof of the success of our student voice programme, day in, day out. A study has been compiled by our gifted and talented coordinator, which has indeed revealed statistical evidence that students involved in leadership activities have achieved above their target grades. Despite our excellent examination results, we are not simply an ‘exam factory’. We know that a ‘one size fits all’ curriculum does not exist, and we pride ourselves on the multitude of opportunities we provide to our young people to ensure that we provide the highest possible level of support, personally, socially and academically.  The success of our student voice programme certainly reflects our vision, that our students are at the centre, and to ensure that we teach students valuable skills such as teamwork & conflict resolution, listening & responding to others, expressing your own views confidently and taking part in debate, developing decision making skills and working cooperatively to tackle problems, such skills are only maintained if students are given opportunities to practise them. There are bountiful opportunities to do so at The King Edward VI School. Through our innovative approach to student leadership which has also indeed led to numerous visits from schools and staff far and wide, perhaps we are a ‘school of the future’ for many.

The message is simple, see what exciting and magical things can happen when you have the courage to let your young people ‘take the reins’. We have.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ms Victoria Najafi is Student Voice, Leadership & Enrichment Coordinator at The King Edward VI School, in Morpeth, Northumberland, England, United Kingdom.

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