Pupil Voice is an essential element of what we do here at Cranford Park. We recognise that our children are the citizens of the future and that this is their school and so we try to involve them in any decisions which may affect them. For example, a pupil interview is part of every recruitment process, the children voted on which values they thought were important and shaped our vision. Children are ‘courageous advocates’ of causes dear to them and can present to the rest of the school in assemblies about issues which they feel strongly about. In addition, we have several pupil councils which feed back ideas and thoughts to us about how we are doing as a school and suggest ideas on how we can do things better.

Over the course of a year, every child gets a chance to speak with the headteacher and each subject leader, feeding back ideas and helping us to understand what it is like to be a pupil in our school. Pupil feedback shapes our practice and helps us to make this a better school for all.

We also recognise the importance of teamwork and leadership skills for our children’s future success, so are committed to developing these. Each year we appoint head and deputy boys and girls, team leaders, JRSOs (Junior Road Safety Officers), librarians, eco-councillors, play leaders and various other positions of responsibility. We currently have plans to train children as peer mentors and peer tutors and we are also devising a leadership skills ‘thread’ to run through our provision, identifying opportunities for our children to demonstrate Stephen Covey’s ‘7 habits of highly effective people’. Watch this space!