Strengthening opportunities for pupil leadership

Information about the school

Trinity Fields School and Resource Centre is the only special school serving the county borough of Caerphilly.  Currently there are 170 pupils on roll aged from 3 to 19 years.  Nearly all pupils have a statement of special educational needs (SEN) for severe learning difficulties, physical and medical difficulties, profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD) or autistic spectrum disorders (ASD).

Nearly all pupils come from within the county borough of Caerphilly; a very few come from neighbouring local authorities.  All of the pupils are from English speaking backgrounds.  Around 40% of pupils receive free school meals.  A very few pupils are looked after by the local authority.  

In addition to the provision on the Trinity Fields site, the school operates two satellite classes at Cwm Ifor Primary School and St Cenydd Community School.  The resource centre based at the school works in partnership with the local authority to provide a range of bespoke services to support pupils with additional learning needs in mainstream schools across the local authority.  These services include: Caerphilly Autistic Spectrum Service (CASS), health-based clinics, an outreach and inclusion service, youth and leisure activities, and respite and home support services. 

Context and background to the effective or innovative practice

Staff and governors work in close partnership with the school council to embed pupil participation at every level across all aspects of its work.  The school is a Rights Respecting School (RRS), an award that recognises its achievements in putting the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) at the heart of planning, policies, practice and ethos.  The school’s journey towards achieving this important award has helped it continue to improve its provision and develop pupils’ talents and abilities, enabling them to make strong progress.

Description of nature of strategy or activity

In September 2012 the school began its journey towards becoming a RRS, achieving full RRS status in January 2017.  The school took the key steps outlined in each section below as part of implementing the RRS agenda.

Initially the school identified four key rights from the UNCRC that it thought were most relevant to its children.  These were:

• Article 19: Governments must do all they can to ensure that children are protected from all forms of violence, abuse, neglect and bad treatment by their parents or anyone else who looks after them.
• Article 28: Every child has the right to an education.  Primary education must be free and different forms of secondary education must be available to every child.  Discipline in schools must respect children’s dignity and their rights.  Richer countries must help poorer countries achieve this.
• Article 29: Education must develop every child’s personality, talents and abilities to the full.  It must encourage the child’s respect for human rights, as well as respect for their parents, their own and other cultures, and the environment.
• Article 42: Governments must actively work to make sure children and adults know about the Convention

The school then raised pupils’ and staff awareness of these articles through a long-term, co‑ordinated approach that included assemblies, displays, personal and social education, opportunities to achieve accredited units for older pupils and staff training sessions. 

To ensure planning for pupil voice is central to what happens at whole-school and class levels, the school implemented awareness training for staff on pupils’ rights, with a particular focus on developing the skills of staff who work primarily with pupils with PMLD.  This approach was to enable these staff to apply their understanding in relation to individual pupils’ needs.  It added key UNCRC articles to school paperwork and mounted large displays around the school of “rights in action”.  Pupils from the school worked with the Children’s Commissioner for Wales to develop a more accessible format for the UNCRC articles.  These are now available on the Children’s Commissioner’s website.

School leaders worked in partnership with the school council and pupil leadership team to develop an extensive range of pupil-friendly policies and documents.  These include pupil‑friendly policies such as safeguarding, health and wellbeing, food and fitness, e-safety, assessment, attendance, teaching, and learning and curriculum.  It also ensured that documents such as the school development plan, school vision and aims, and IEPs are available in formats accessible to all pupils. 

The school strengthened opportunities for pupil leadership and learner voice through the pupil leadership team and school council.  Within this structure, the roles of head, and deputy head, girl and boy have provided purposeful opportunities for individuals to fulfil specific high-profile responsibilities.  For example, members of the pupil leadership team have successfully helped lead visits with Assembly Members, Member of Parliament, the Children’s Commissioner for Wales, senior local authority officers and consortium personnel.  Leading these visits shows clearly how much pupils are engaged in school life and their knowledge of how the school works.

The school embedded robust approaches to arrangements for listening to pupils to ensure that these support their work as a RRS.  For example, the school council plays a pivotal role in the appointment of all new staff.  Pupils are keen to be involved and know that their views are taken into consideration by governors when making new appointments.  Candidates usually comment that their interview with the school council is one of the most challenging aspects of the selection process!

All pupils contribute effectively to the school’s self-evaluation processes.  For example, an “Ideas Tree” outside the headteacher’s room enables pupils to place their suggestions, which in turn feed into self-evaluation and school development planning.  Pupils routinely lead school assemblies and end of day reflections; this again develops their communication skills, confidence and promotes pupils as leaders.

Up until spring 2019, the views of pupils were communicated to the governing body by the headteacher through his termly report.  However, to further strengthen pupil voice the head girl and boy now present their own written report to the governing body that includes information about what is working well and what requires further development.  Each year the head girl and boy also write to all stakeholders such as governors, health and social services staff, schools with our satellite classes to seek their views about what is “great” at Trinity Fields and what would make the school even better.

What impact has this work had on provision and learners’ standards?

All staff, governors, parents/carers and other key partners are fully committed to placing pupils at the heart of everything we do.  Pupils know that their opinions matter; they are not afraid to express their views to staff and governors; they have become increasingly confident, independent and more fully engaged in all aspects of school life.

Pupil-friendly documents and policies enable pupils wherever possible to develop their understanding of a range of key information about their school and where necessary help them make informed choices.

Our commitment to the RRS agenda and pupil voice is reflected in the school’s achievement of a range of national awards and is well-documented in those bodies’ supporting reports (all available on the school website). 

How have you shared your good practice?

Pupil engagement practices have been widely shared with colleagues within the local authority, consortium and across Wales.