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 through were important and they are currently helping us to shape our vision. Children are also encouraged to be ‘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. We are currently 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!