Motumaoho School

STUDENT VOICE STRENGTHENED AT MOTUMAOHO

During a visit to Hampshire, England, in 2008 Tina-Maree Hooper saw first-hand the difference taking a human rights approach to education could make to student participation. In 2009 she put it into practice in her school.

"Last year I was lucky enough to visit the English county of Hampshire as part of the Linking Minds scholarship, and saw first-hand the difference taking a human rights approach to education could make. I was particularly struck by the way schools capture and use ‘student voice’ to make authentic decisions for the school. I was impressed with the way in which these schools were not a lot of adults running around making decisions for children – it was almost around the other way! I was also impressed with the way all stakeholders in the school could articulate their school values – from the Principal right down to the junior students.
Amongst my first priorities on becoming principal at Motumaoho was the establishment of a student council as a forum for capturing student voice and for measuring the success of the programmes and policies the school has in place. The students voted for year-level peers. The students council meet 2-3 times per term with the principal. We record minutes and feed these back to the teaching staff.

"The results have been
•    An increased sense of pride in the school and belonging by all students, in particular the students on the council
•    A developing sense of value of the student ideas by the parent community and board members
•    The students are excited to see the results of their decisions
•    The students have fed back to us key ideas about our C.A.R.E. Programme (this is our values programme and has  focus on Citizenship, Achievement, Responsibility & Effort)
•    The students have shared their ideas around our New Curriculum development

"We're now working on
•    Having other staff members involved in the meetings (not just the principal)
•    Leaderships roles we can provide for former trustees after new elections in 2010
•    Introducing and trialing human rights resources beginning with the student council"

Tina-Maree Hooper, Principal, Motumaoho School