Pupil Voice - February 2023

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Pupil Voice

Here at SFDS, pupil feedback is taken seriously. What our pupils think of our school matters to us, we listen to opinions and enact changes for the benefit of the whole school community.

We ask pupils to sit an anonymous questionnaire on a termly basis, and identify areas of development. Please see the responses for Spring 2020 below.

How Pupil Voice has Brought Change

In Autumn 2019, 70% of pupils felt hot dinners in school could be improved. We agreed and decided to meet this challenge head on and brought the control of school dinners in-house.

The aim was to provide school dinners which pupils enjoy and at the same time would be better quality, tastier, and healthier. In consultation with pupils on what types of hot dinners they would like to see, and with input from our chef and kitchen staff, we have now developed our own menus and 'themed' days. In order to provide a even better dining experience we have also improved the atmosphere and ambiance in the dining room by introducing music and an art gallery to the dining space. 

Since we introduced the new menu there has been a 30% increase in the take up of school dinners and the response from pupils has been overwhelmingly positive. Our aim now is to build on this by:

• Classes preparing a dish to be served at lunch. They will grow some of the core ingredients and herbs in our science garden and in class. They will then assist in the preparation and cooking of the dish. This will provide an valuable insight and experience in the 'field to table' process and the origin of ingredients.
• Cookery lessons as part of D&T will recreate dishes from school dinners
• At the end of a series of cookery lessons pupils will able to submit an entry into a competition to be judged by an outside expert. The winning dish will be recreated and served as a special at lunch.
• Pupils with a particular talent or interest in cooking will be able assist our chef in preparing certain ingredients for school dinners
• Developing a range of 'family favourites' for lunch time. We are asking pupils and parents to contribute much loved  recipes from home which we can recreate in school as specials. It may even be added to the regular menu! This recipes will be shared with our school community to try at home.

Other examples of how pupils have contributed to improving our school.

Pupils wanted extra activities at lunch and play time:

• An astro turf area provides supervised sport at lunch for all year groups
• Play pod ensures there is always something to do or create
• The 'Buddy Base' ensures there is always someone to play with and activities that encourage collaboration and team work
• Extra play equipment provided for break times

Pupils wanted to contribute to charities:

• For St Francis de Sales feast day pupils provide essentials bags for the homeless rather than receive presents
• Instead of receiving presents fro pupils and parents staff ask for a voluntary donation to a chosen charity

Pupils want to have a 'kids take over day':

• We have planned for pupils to apply for and be interviewed for roles in school where, for a day, they will shadow and complete certain tasks related with that role - including the Headteacher!! We believe this will give pupils an invaluable insight into the applying for jobs, interviewing, the world of work as well as being enormous fun!