Pupil Voice

At Avon Valley Academy, we are a values driven community, which includes staff, pupils and parents.  Our values of Respect, Determination and Excellence are at the centre of everything we do.  As such, we regularly canvas opinions from all our community to review how we are doing against our values.

We collect opinions in various forms, though the format we use most regularly is a Start!, Stop!, Carry On!  With this, we ask members of the community to tell us what they think we should start doing, what we should stop doing, and what we should carry on with.

The results of these are reported back to the senior leadership team and help to shape the direction of the school.  It may be that they inform us of a direction change, or the need to explain why we do what we do.

We do a formal Start! Stop! Carry On! with pupils twice a year. The most recent was January 2023.

We also collect pupil opinions via SLT direct.  Members of SLT go to the tutor groups and talk directly to the pupils, asking for their opinions on matters around the school.

Some examples of pupil voice that have helped shape our school: -

1. Pupils told us in Stop! Start! Carry on! about there being too much litter on the school site and they suggested through a Start! that we use tutor groups on a rota to litter-pick.  This has had a very pleasing effect and it is lovely to see the pupils taking ownership of their school grounds.

2. As a Stop! they told us that they did not like conduct cards and so these were removed and replaced with a simpler system for monitoring uniform and giving rewards.

3. Pupils wanted us to Carry On! with a more progressive approach to hair colour and piercings.  We were happy to do so and pupils regularly tell us that they appreciate being able to show more of their individuality, whilst still wearing our uniform with pride.

4. We also use pupil voice when we are recruiting new staff.  The pupils give the candidates tours of the school, lead a very important panel interview and effectively tell us who they think the strongest candidate is.  So far, we have always agreed with them. 

We will regularly update this page with more examples of pupil voice being implemented in the school.