We are continuing to move forward and develop our Pupil Agency journey using the Lundy Model of Pupil Engagement, with some new initiatives this term. This is critical as we work with pupils to strengthen their sense of power as individuals and as teams and communities, and as we empower each other to:
Have a secure sense of self;
Develop loving and respectful relationships in diverse, technologised societies;
Reinvent a participative, authentic and meaningful democracy;
Live sustainably, and acquire global competence.
So far we have:
Reinvigorated systems for listening to pupils and developing their engagement using the model proposed by Professor Laura Lundy;
Set a measurable benchmark of pupil engagement within all 9 Thrive schools;
Set school level targets to improve outcomes across all 4 domains of the Lundy Model - Space, Voice, Audience, Influence.
Taking this forward
In partnership with pupils we are deepening our Pupil Agency work in four distinct ways at the present time.
1. Pupil written policies
Pupils in our schools have been creating and writing their own policy to decide how
their student voice structures should be run.
2. Pupil Agency Case Studies
This stage is really getting to the crux of the matter. Taking direct inspiration from Professor Lundy and the work of schools in Ireland, we are starting to record case studies of Pupil Agency work. We are structuring this with Professor Lundy’s four stages of Space, Voice, Audience & Influence and the message is clearly getting home. In one of our schools, pupils had asked for more activities at lunchtimes, which resulted in important jobs and responsibilities being set up for them. When asked why she had decided to approach the Head of School to do this, one year 6 girl had said “we went straight to Mrs Marshall because she’s the person who can bring about real change in our school and will listen to what we have to say”. The 9 case studies from across Thrive schools will be shared and celebrated in our first Thrive Student Congress to be held in July.
3. Thrive Voice & Influence
We are really excited that other organisations within the city are on a parallel path to us. The influential Hull & East Yorkshire Children’s University has its own Student Board, which embraces the sense of pupil agency.
Significantly, the Hull Voice & Influence partnership, encompassing many different sectors, has adopted the Lundy Model. So that the message is clear across the city, we have decided to give another push to our journey, calling our initiative Thrive Voice & Influence. This doesn’t mean we have dropped the ‘Space & Audience’ stages at all, nor have we stopped talking about ‘Agency’. Far from it!
While in the early stages of development, our websites are being altered to reflect Pupil Voice & Influence, Parent Voice & Influence and Staff Voice & Influence using the Lundy Pupil Agency Model.
4. Advancing the Lundy model beyond pupils
We have decided that the Lundy model works so well, and is so clear that we will use
this same strategy for our staff and parents.
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