Pupil Voice

Our school vision is to be a primary school where everyone is valued and respected. We believe that our children are the most important people and we endeavour to give all of our children opportunities to share their thoughts and opinions and play an active role in the decisions that affect their learning and wellbeing.

We have lots of ways that the children can do this formally, such as through the school council, eco council, pupil surveys and through our digital student newspaper, Heath News. However, we also want to create an ethos that allows the children to regularly share their opinions in an informal way, simply by chatting to our members of staff at the school.

Pupil Surveys

March 2023: Reading

Mrs Pettitt was joined by Mrs Tillinghast, one of our governors, to talk to children across the school about reading. Here is a selection of their responses.

Reading takes you to magical places.

Adults need to read so they can teach their babies. 

Reading teaches you about other subjects like rainforests. 

My teacher always smiles when she reads.

My teacher uses silly voices when she reads. 

You can learn new things by reading. 

It's important to look after books. 

July 2022: Leavers' Reflections

We asked our Year Six children to reflect upon their time at the school. Here is a selection of some of their responses.

What have you enjoyed most about your time at the school?

Meeting new teachers, friends and going on school trips.

Gardening and our trip to Harry Potter World

The chickens, rabbits, ducks, first aid training, gardening and school trips.

Sports day and the Bawdsey trip.

What have you achieved at Heath that makes you feel proud?

Earning house points and being star of the week.

Becoming a school councillor.

Learning how to play the piano.

I have achieved a goal for the school in the Quad Kids tournament with my friends by becoming in 4th place.

Becoming an Ambassador.

Reading Harry Potter.

Taking part in Drama Club and playing in the netball tournament.

Think about all of the things that you've improved at whilst you've been at Heath. Which of them makes you happy/pleased/proud?

I feel I have improved my maths and that makes me proud.

My suspense writing.

It makes me happy when I make friends.

I have improved my confidence in maths and other subjects this makes me feel proud because it made me do better in my stats tests.

 Is there anything that you can think of during your time at the school that you would want to change or make better?

I would say it’s unfair that they do the lunch lines in alphabetical order especially on Fridays when it’s most busy because we have to wait longer to get our fish and chips.

Action point: Our teachers now alternate between register order and non-register order for school dinners.

The year 6 toilets.

Action point: These were the final toilets to be refurbished and were finished in the summer holiday.

The flavours for my Enterprise Project!

May 2022: Governor Visit

We were very happy to welcome Mr Paton, the chair of our curriculum committee, into school to talk to children from Years 2. 4 and 6. He explained what the role of a governor involves and listened to the children's views on what they like about school, how they like to be supported, and who supports them. Below are a selection of quotes from the afternoon.

I like choosing which colour questions to choose in maths. I like to challenge myself.

I find guitar lessons fun.

I like everything about history. I enjoyed learning about the Mayans and the Tudors the most.

I like learning about algebra and problem solving.

I like history because I like learning about what time was like before this year.

I like reading. It's a good life skill and I like reading books from the school library and home.

The teaching assistant tells me to re-read the question so that I can work out what it means.

My partner helps me. I like that we switch partners every week because it's nice to sit with someone else if you've been next to someone for a while.

I like the maths groups. It helped because we learnt things that we didn't know before, so when it came up in class, we knew what we were doing.

My teacher helps us. When someone is stressed, she says something positive and she rewards us for having a go, even when something is hard.

We practise what we will be doing in school the next day. It's fun and it helps me.

 Maths before school helped me because I became more confident at reading.

My friends cheer me up when I am sad.

The adults help to sort problems out.

I like gymnastics club. Before I couldn't do a cartwheel, but now I can do a backhand spring.

Jigsaw is fun and my friend goes too.

I like being part of Heath News. I enjoy seeing things behind the scenes and reporting.

I'm a member of the school council. We help to decide what is needed to make the school better.

Being a school council rep makes me happy because it gives me a spark when we make people happy.

January 2022: School Dinners

In the lead up to catering changes at the school, we asked our children what they thought about school dinners. Their views, alongside the views of parents and staff, will help to shape our new menus from Easter onwards.