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Leadership

A Fireside Chat with Pani Matsangos: Headteacher, Westside AP School, London

17th July 2025Website Admin

A Fireside Chat with Pani Matsangos: Headteacher, Westside AP School, London

This conversation with Pani was held with Zahra Axinn and David Jackson of The Bridge Editorial Team. Only Pani’s responses are attributed.This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Thanks for joining us, Pani. Ali Durban from Gesher visited Westside recently and was impressed, which led to this follow-up for The Bridge.

Pani: I know The Bridge; it’s a lovely publication.

Let’s start by hearing about Westside School.

Pani: Westside is an Alternative Provision (AP) school for secondary-aged children who have been excluded or are struggling in mainstream settings due to social, emotional and mental health challenges. We offer a tailored education for up to 70 students, currently at 55, delivering Key Stage 3 curriculum and GCSEs for Years 10 and 11.

Number one on our list really is engagement: first wanting to be in school, and slowly scaffolding the support that they need in order to get to remain in lessons, to engage in lessons, and to partake in a full school life, which also involves a lot of sport, art and culture at the same time, and broadening the notion of success beyond the academic. That’s really important to the children we work with. There has to be opportunity to win as often as possible, in as broad as possible a sense.

And the last thing I’ll say is about identity. The children who join us haven’t identified as students that can succeed at school, and we really need to flip that and to transform their sense of self. In this way we have tangible impact on the way in which they work and the way in which they engage with staff and achieve some sort of success.

Sounds like a unique approach. Gesher focuses on learner engagement too. How do you achieve that while teaching a GCSE curriculum?

Pani: The hook is about adaptive teaching techniques to keep students engaged. For example, we integrate game design into lessons, like weekly revision sessions for Year 11. They work in teams, moving through stations that test their knowledge. Collaborative learning is a core focus, especially with students’ social and emotional development. Additionally, we have Progress Leaders (PLs) who support students by understanding their individual needs and tailoring learning strategies accordingly.

Tell us more about the role of Progress Leaders.

Pani: They focus on enabling each child to become as self-sufficient in their learning as possible. It’s a coaching model. PLs act as coaches, guiding students toward autonomy in their learning. They are assigned to specific classes and work with each student throughout the day, building up data on their progress. This model moves away from the traditional teaching assistant role, instead fostering independence through continuous support and observation.

How do Progress Leaders assess where each student is on the journey to autonomy?

Pani: They gather and record data from daily observations, looking for patterns in behaviour and learning which can inform next steps. This helps them identify when a child is dysregulated and making impulsive decisions or choosing unwisely. We use this information to tailor support and determine the next steps for each student.

Is the teaching just subject-specific, or do you incorporate integrated learning? Do teachers collaborate in planning?

Pani: We do both. For Year 11, we’ve integrated collaborative planning across subjects, like English, Maths, and Science, to engage students in cross-curricular activities. For younger students, particularly Years 8 and 9, we focus on personal development lessons that address their social and emotional needs. We also have a strong culture of collaboration among teachers and PLs to meet each child’s needs.

You’ve mentioned building trust-based relationships with students. How does that shape your school culture?

Pani: Trust is fundamental. We understand that disruptive behaviour often stems from unmet emotional needs, so staff work to build empathy with students. This strengthens relationships and creates a supportive environment. We believe in a long-term approach–lessons are just one part of helping students grow and develop.

Could you elaborate on your definition of inclusion?

Our definition of inclusion underpins everything. We look at inclusion in a three-tiered way.

I. The first is inclusion within the school – making sure that each child is able to feel included in the school, via adaptive teaching, strong relationships, and having a broad notion of success outside the academic and strong parental relationships, so that they realise that school is for them.

II. The second is functional inclusion outside school – how they communicate with people, how they have the confidence to try things out, how they regulate themselves in tricky situations. It might be going to a museum. It might be going to a sporting activity outside school. We explore what inclusion means outside Westside School.

III. Finally, we’re working hard on the third, longer-term inclusion beyond Westside. This is inclusion in an impact sense. Are they able to use their voice to articulate their needs, and to effect some sort of positive change, beyond 16 and beyond Westside.

Your personal story seems to connect with the work you do. What led you to alternative provision?

Pani: Professionally, I saw mainstream education failing to address the needs of marginalised students. I wanted to better understand those children. We know that the numbers are huge, almost 10,000 exclusions last year.

On a personal level, I have a sibling who was a child who struggled tremendously at school, and eventually, a few years ago, that became a really difficult circumstance. He became a rough sleeper, and he had significant mental health issues. When he passed away, I started to think. Regarding his autism, from a young age he didn’t have the support that he needed, and you can see how things compound negatively. Needs are not met over the years. With the right interventions early on, I think there’s a great deal that can be done to support young people who think differently or have had adverse child experiences. I think you can unlock a lot of positivity and a lot of potential just by thinking differently about the way in which we work. And so that was important for me to join AP and to work in a way in which we’re working now at Westside.

Thanks for sharing, Pani. Do we need more quality AP provision or for mainstream schools to better meet the needs of all children?

Pani: We need both. Some students thrive in smaller settings, which allow for more tailored support. While mainstream schools can’t always offer that level of attention, they could benefit from adopting the inclusive strategies we use in APs, especially around data-driven decision-making to better understanding the underlying factors inhibiting a young person’s social and emotional growth and development. This is of course a lifelong journey and applies to us as adults.

Our journal, The Bridge, was established as a way of seeking to share the practices evolving at Gesher and other interesting schools – like yours. Is Westside an island of excellence or is there also a mission to influence others?

Pani: I think there’s definitely a mission – hence this interview. There’s a national need to rethink how we approach education for students who don’t fit the traditional model. It’s just a really tragic story ultimately that we have this sort of pipeline to prison scenario. The accountability measures of mainstream schools often fail to meet the needs of these children, leading to exclusion.

And there’s also the issue of low expectations. We talk a lot about expectations in schools and there is this idea that children should be sitting behind a desk compliant and quiet and working really hard. And, for me, that’s also low expectations in some ways, because high expectations should be about developing independence, developing, understanding of self and working with others and, and wanting to be curious about things and not having that sort of drummed out of you.

What is your success rate, and how do you measure success?

Pani: Of course, we’re not universally successful. It’s a dynamic process. Success isn’t guaranteed, and the challenges evolve. But we remain adaptive, constantly evaluating each student’s journey. We focus on success in school as the first step—if a student can engage in learning and feel included, that’s a meaningful measure of success.

Are there any final thoughts you’d like to share?

Pani: Absolutely, yes. The core purpose of education should be about fostering curiosity, independence, and emotional intelligence. We need to shift the conversation about what education is for, and stop focusing as much on compliance and linear models for learning, accepting that learning is a complex and messy endeavour! Each person in school, or connected to the school, whether it’s someone in our HR team or the canteen, or a visiting speaker or external mentor is someone that could make a difference to that young person’s life. That’s something that we’re trying to create here, because why not? We ALL have a part to play in raising our children.

Thank you very much indeed, Pani.

Pani Matsangos is the Headteacher at Westside School, an Ofsted Outstanding Alternative Provision (AP) school serving pupils across London. With almost 20 years of experience in mainstream education, he is deeply committed to supporting children with special educational needs, mental health challenges, and difficult home circumstances. Drawing from both formal training and personal experience–having managed his own SEN and a complex upbringing–Pani champions inclusive education. He ensures pupils access a high-quality traditional curriculum enriched by arts, sports, and culture, broadening the definition of success so every student can thrive, both academically and through diverse, life-enriching opportunities.

Assessment for Deeper Learning: A teacher discussion group CPD resource

16th July 2025Website Admin

Assessment for Deeper Learning: A teacher discussion group CPD resource

Kim Wynne, Kelly Sanders, and Carolyn Fink

This Resource for Teachers applies the principles of Deeper Learning to assessment. It demonstrates how assessment practices can be transformed to build trust, raise expectations and promote engagement – our three core principles for Deeper Learning.

We have created three scenarios designed to be used as discussion tools by groups of teachers. We have tried to make them age-appropriate so that they will have relevance for both primary and secondary schools in the UK. After each scenario there is an italicised paragraph that ‘unpicks’ what is going on. As a tool, you can use it with that section and discuss both the scenario and the analysis. Or, you might want to have your own discussion before reading the italicised paragraph – and then discuss both the scenario and the analysis together. Your call!

Primary Level (aged 5 to 9):

It’s reading time in Mr. Wilson’s first grade classroom. Zach enters the classroom from his decoding intervention with Mrs. Swanson. He sees his classmates are arranging themselves in partner groups in different spaces around the room. He spots his partner, Mikaela, grabs his book box, and settles down next to her. Earlier in the week, students had the opportunity to study short videos of other first graders reading aloud. From there, the class created a criteria chart of effective reading. They noticed things like ‘read all the words correctly,’ ‘fluent reading,’ and ‘know how to solve tricky words using the letters and sounds.’ Now it’s time for them to apply the co-created strategies to their own work with their partners. Zach asks Mikaela if he can go first. He pulls out his book about trains, which is a favorite topic for Zach. Mikaela asks: “What goal are you working on?” “I’m working with Mr. Wilson and Mrs. Swanson on reading all the way through words. Can you watch me and put tallies on my goal tracker when you see me doing that?” Zach will share his progress with his teachers later in the day.

In this scenario, Zach is drawing on a trusted relationship with a peer to get real-time feedback on how frequently he is using the targeted strategy, reading all the way through words. As his partner tracks his progress and gives feedback, Zach naturally adjusts his reading behaviours. In the process he also develops a deeper understanding of himself as a reader, enhancing his sense of agency in his own learning.

Middle Level (aged 10-14): There is an excited hum in Mrs. Kay’s class as her fifth graders come back from recess. They have just finished a unit on animal adaptations and biomimicry in which they explored how the form of animals’ bodies supports their adaptation and survival in the wild. During the unit, students completed independent research on animal adaptations, engaged in experiments in which they explored different adaptations, and created informational books on a chosen animal.

As a final project, they worked in collaborative groups to explore biomimicry, or the creation of new inventions inspired by the form, structures, or adaptations of animals. Working collaboratively, Cora and her group developed an idea for a crab-inspired, ocean-walking robot whose hinged legs provide stability, helping it to deftly navigate the ocean floor when investigating environmental accidents or to help in search and rescue missions. Following the engineering and design process, her team made iterative models of their invention, seeking feedback and making revisions as they went. Ultimately, they built a prototype and tested their invention. This afternoon, they will analyse their work from this unit of study in preparation for mid-year Student-Led Conferences with their families when students present their progress and next steps in academic achievement and VOGC skill development.

“Scientists, as we wrap up this unit and prepare for our Student-Led Conferences, it’s the perfect time to reflect on and document your growth using the VoGC skills and dispositions,” says Mrs. Kay. “You’ve gathered all your artefacts. Your task is to analyse and evaluate your own work, including your assessments and checks for understanding from across the unit, using the descriptors in the VoGC. Make sure to tag and document your artefacts, noting how your work matches the VoGC.” Mrs. Kay approaches Cora’s work area and asks how it’s going. “I’m looking back at the engineering model we developed for the ocean-walking robot and thinking about myself as an Engaged Collaborator.” Mrs. Kay nods and says, “What evidence are you finding in your group’s work?” “Right here in our notes from our first meetings,” she says. Cora explains that the process of designing the model was challenging, because her group mates had many conflicting ideas in the beginning. “This work shows that I am an Engaged Collaborator because, at first, no one could agree on how to design our robot. Everyone had different ideas and they got upset when other people challenged them. These notes here show how I helped to take the best parts of everyone’s ideas and help us come up with something good. I learned that I am good at finding a compromise and helping other people feel good about our work. I can’t wait to show my family this evidence and talk about how I’m doing on the VoGC dispositions.”

In this scenario, Cora and her classmates are learning how to use products of their work during a unit to demonstrate not only how they meet unit standards, but also their development of skills and dispositions necessary for lifelong learning and success. Mrs. Kay designs assessment tasks to help them analyse and unpack their individual growth within the context of their collaborative group work. She conveys the importance of this work by having them identify and articulate specific examples of where they see themselves developing these skills and dispositions that they can track in their personal learning portfolios. The Student-Led Conferences offer an authentic purpose for both understanding and advocating for themselves as learners.

High School Level (aged 15-18):

Jahmal, a senior at Farmington High School, thinks about his upcoming meeting with his Capstone advisor as he walks into school on a chilly winter morning. All FHS students complete an Aspire course or Capstone experience based on an area of interest in order to demonstrate mastery of the VoGC. Capstone is an independent inquiry project that includes research, field work, engagement with an outside expert, and some form of service to the community. “Hey, Ms. Wilton,” Jahmal says as he enters her room. “I’ve been working on my digital portfolio.” “Great,” says Ms. Wilton. “I know you are in the middle of conducting research on how executive functioning impacts learning in young children, right?” “Yup,” he answers. He shares that he’s also had several meetings with his outside expert, a second grade teacher at a nearby school where he will intern after winter break. “When I put together what I’ve learned from the research, my conversations with Mrs. Doyle, and the observations I’ve done in her class, I see how important executive functioning and self-regulation skills are for success in school and in life. No wonder it’s an interest for me,” he laughs. Ms. Wilton asks Jahmal how he is demonstrating mastery of the VoGC in his digital portfolio. “Well, researching my topic has helped me strengthen my skills as an Empowered Learner, especially in organisation.” Jahmal shows Ms. Wilton how he’s using the tools she suggested: a daily task sheet to organise his research and a note taker to document his conversations with his mentor teacher. “I’m most proud of my work as a Disciplined Thinker, because I’m applying all that I’ve learned from this experience to actually create something that will help others.” “This is impressive, Jahmal,” Ms. Wilton says. “What have you been thinking about for your service project?” He shares a website he’s started to create for parents and teachers. “It will have resources for developing executive functioning and self-regulation skills for young kids. I’ve found a lot of strategies that I think will be useful. They also would have helped me as a kid.” They go on to discuss the improvement in his fall semester grades. “Any idea why?” asks Ms. Wilton. “Definitely. I’m more excited about learning because of this project. I’ve increased my ability to focus in class and be organised. I also hand in assignments on time.” Jahmal smiles. “I’m taking the SAT test this weekend. I think I can increase my score with my improved focus and attention to detail.”

In this scenario, Jahmal not only knows himself well as a learner, but he understands his insight can be used to make decisions about his future and for making contributions to his community. He recognises that his areas of challenge are opportunities for growth. While working independently on a topic of personal interest, he is improving his academic achievement, demonstrating important life skills, and contributing to his community. Ms. Wilton acts as facilitator and coach, providing him with encouragement, tools, and just-right support through carefully posed questions that help him reflect on his progress toward achieving his goals.

We recognise that some of the more traditional forms of assessment, like national tests, are a reality in our current educational systems and therefore tell one part of a student’s academic story. But as educators, we can support our students in telling a fuller, more complete story of who they are and what they know and can do by giving them increased agency and ownership.

When students tell their own stories, they believe they are trusted to make wise choices, they internalise high expectations for themselves, and they seek engaging experiences as lifelong learners – the three principles of Deeper Learning.

When we create high trust cultures, with high expectations for all students, and highly engaging learning experiences, we help our students understand that standardized test scores and summative assessments are just data points within a larger body of collected information. Zach, Cora, and Jahmal know this. They used these data, along with the pursuit of personal interests and information about themselves as learners, to recognize both their unique strengths and areas for growth. This is what we want for all students. By shifting our assessment practices, our students will experience deeper learning and get to know themselves as learners and humans who can then go out into the world ready to make an impact.

Kim Wynne is the Assistant Superintendent for the Farmington Public Schools in Farmington, Connecticut. Kelly Sanders is a leadership consultant, who worked in Farmington for 30 years as a teacher and principal. Carolyn Fink is the Principal at West District Elementary School in Farmington. Kim, Kelly and Carolyn have worked together for over 25 years, collaborating while working in a variety of different roles across the district. You can learn more about the Farmington Public Schools, including their Vision of the Global Citizen and Framework for Teaching and Learning at fpsct.org.

Student-Led Conference: Model Agenda

16th July 2025Website Admin

Student-Led Conference: Model Agend

In Section 1, XP School, Doncaster contributed an article on student-led conferences as a transformative approach to facilitating learner agency, improved relationships and a sense of ownership and belonging. This guide or protocol, printed by permission, featured in High Tech High’s Unboxed journal (September 2024).

Student-Led Conference: A High Tech High Guide

Randy Scherer

Student-Led Conferences (SLCs) flip traditional parent-teacher conferences to put students in charge of an important conversation about their experience in school. All students deserve the opportunity to reflect on their life at school with adults who care about them. Families and teachers can form strong networks of support when they build relationships together and hear about learning experiences directly from students. SLCs empower students to develop a range of skills and mindsets that foster a growing sense of responsibility, healthy communication, and leadership.

Who attends: The student, at least one significant adult such as a family member, and at least one teacher.

Time commitment: 15 to 30 minutes per conference.

What to bring: The student, with the teacher’s support, brings work samples from each of their classes and extracurriculars, including drafts, final products, photos, and more. The work is selected by the student to reflect appropriately the breadth of their current school experience and learning, and encourage a conversation that goes deeply into how school is going for them, including successes and challenges. Curating a portfolio is an excellent step in preparation, and supports the conversation.

Sample agenda:

Introductions: Begin the conversation by having each person introduce themselves and their relationship to the student.

Why? SLCs facilitate a web of support for a student, and it is essential that each person understands who the others are, and their support connections to the student.

Appreciations and Celebrations–Opening: Each participant shares at least one specific aspect of the student’s experience in school or their personality that they appreciate and want to celebrate.

Why? By beginning the conversation with appreciations and celebrations, we create a welcoming space in which students are open to feedback and embraced as members in good standing of the learning community.

Student Strengths

The student shares areas of experience in school in which they are proud of their efforts, progress, or accomplishments. Ground this conversation in work samples from each area of the student’s work in school, and value all of them equally: expertise, effort, and growth.

Why? By beginning with strengths, we identify areas where the student has a good foundation to build upon. All students bring strengths to the classroom; validating strengths is essential to building relationships that facilitate learning. Sometimes adults surprise students by noticing strengths that they may not have identified yet on their own.

Areas for Growth

The student shares areas of their school experience that they identified as good opportunities for growth. This could reflect their effort, progress, or future accomplishments. Continue to ground this conversation in work samples from each area of the student’s experience in school.

Why? Students learn to take ownership of their education through understanding how addressing areas for growth with the support of caring adults will help them accomplish their goals.

Questions

The student invites questions from their panel of adults and asks questions they may have to the adults.

Why? Up until now, it is possible that this is a student-led presentation. By intentionally shifting to questions, we ensure that the group has a conversation.

Goals Setting

The student shares goals and the next steps they will take to accomplish them. Help students identify “SMART” goals: goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.

The student identifies next steps for the adults in the room to help support them through their experience in school.

Why? By having students articulate their goals, they practice numerous skills of self-efficacy and develop important habits to lead their own learning.

Appreciations and Celebrations–Closing

Each participant shares at least one aspect of the student’s presentation, or their personality manifested, that they appreciate and want to celebrate as a strength to build on.

Why? By ending the conversation with appreciations and celebrations, we communicate to the student that we value what they shared in their conference, and that we see numerous strengths that they can use as they take the next steps in their education.

Suggested questions for the panel of educators and significant adults:

What did you learn from that? Tell us more!

Looking ahead, what are you most excited about and why?

What are you most proud of from your experience in school so far?

What new learning goals do you have for yourself?

What would you like to learn next?

For the student to ask their panel:

What do you appreciate most about the work that I’ve shared with you?

What advice do you have for me?

How can you help me accomplish, achieve, learn…?

What Do We Mean by ‘Belonging’?

16th July 2025Website Admin

What Do We Mean by ‘Belonging’?

Belonging is a theme that runs through this issue of The Bridge. Teachers know that a sense of belonging is really important to children’s learning but do we really have a shared understanding of what is required of us as educators to create belonging classrooms and schools, where learners and learning can flourish?

Informed by articles in the previous two sections, the draft model which follows is offered as a point of reflection and discussion. It is designed to enable teachers, individually or in groups, to form for ourselves a richer picture of what a school that emphasises belonging might involve.

In this ‘Resources for Teachers’ section, you are invited not just to reflect on the model, but to edit it (hence draft) to make it useful in your context. We have suggested some group discussion questions and activities that might be used in staff workshops to surface strengths and areas for development in your school’s receptiveness to ‘belonging’.

“As human beings, one of the most essential needs we have is the need to belong. When that sense of belonging is there, children throw themselves into the learning environment and when that sense of belonging is not there, children will alienate, they will marginalise, they will step back.” – Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond, President and CEO of the Learning Policy Institute in Building a Belonging Classroom, Edutopia

David Price OBE: A Legacy for Young Lives

16th July 2025Website Admin

David Price OBE: A Legacy for Young Lives

Valerie Hannon

Paying tribute to an inspirational leader.

There are some features of learning that are a part of Gesher School’s DNA.

One is the way in which learning happens and is assessed–in and out of the classroom, within and beyond the school and connected to real-world activities, projects and themes. A second is an emphasis on wellbeing, therapeutic support, independent skills development, and self-advocacy.

Learning at Gesher builds from the strengths and passions of young people, enhances self-esteem and efficacy, equips them to relate well to others and provides the purpose and ambition for fulfilment and success in life.

There are many strands of thinking and practice that have led to this end, but an important one is the work of David Price OBE, who died in May. David was a highly unusual individual, in terms of the breadth of his interest and influence; and the unconventional route he took to achieving them.

David left school early and made a living playing the pubs and clubs of the Northeast where he was born. A natural and gifted musician, he was largely (though not wholly) self-taught. When a contract with a music company got cancelled (by Sharon Osborne!!) he decided to give formal education a go; so he took a degree and began teaching in community arts settings.

David understood deeply the barriers that many people encounter to becoming successful learners, and he set out to overcome them. This began with a seminal innovation programme for the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Musical Futures, which leveraged the power of making music in groups and of young people’s love of popular music. The pedagogy he developed (driven by interest and passion, pulling on learners’ strengths) led to many young people moving towards formal music training and qualification. But above and beyond this outcome, it resulted in joyful learning and empowerment. Musical Futures lives on, in this country and many parts of the world.

At the Innovation Unit of that period, we were seeking a platform and framework for working with schools on a new model of engaging pedagogy. David helped us morph Musical Futures into Learning Futures which took some of the insights and ideas it had developed (together with those of several other thinkers and practitioners) and applied them to the way we design learning in all classrooms. A major focus was on how to make learning deeply engaging. Hundreds of schools were involved across England, and their work lives on in strands and tributaries that will never be traced.

From these beginnings, substantial work was done on codifying what good project-based learning looked like – David was the author of a series of publications and resources on this entitled REAL projects. He also authored books on related themes: OPEN – How we’ll work, live and learn in the future, and The Power of Us developed his ideas and illustrated how they were working in practice in many different settings. In systems around the world where the conditions were more conducive to a project-based learning approach, David was much in demand. His great sorrow was that it was so tough for teachers to embrace the approach in the English context.

Nevertheless, enterprising teachers, leaders and entrepreneurs saw possibilities – the “gaps in the hedge” as Tim Brighouse used to call them. Thus the School Design Lab was born as a way of translating high-level principles into workable strategies that could be realised in English education. Out of this came the principles set out at the top of this article: the Gesher DNA.

As I reflect on David’s life, I think of the many children and young people, and indeed teachers, who will unknowingly have benefitted from the work that David Price did. It is a joy that schools like Gesher demonstrate that an approach that puts children at the centre – whatever their assumed capabilities and backgrounds – can flourish, and be a bridge to a different future.

Valerie Hannon is a global thought leader, inspiring systems to re-think what ‘success’ will mean in the C 21st, and the implications for education. The co-founder of both Innovation Unit and of the Global Education Leaders Partnership, Valerie is a radical voice for change, whilst grounded in a deep understanding of how education systems currently work.

Formerly a secondary teacher, researcher and Director of Education for Derbyshire County Council; then an adviser in the UK Department for Education (DfE), she now works independently to support change programmes across the world.

Four Shifts to Drive Real Change

16th July 2025Website Admin

Four Shifts to Drive Real Change

David Jackson

This article explores insights from the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR), which, in its 2023 report ‘Out of Kilter’, proposes four shifts, which together encapsulate the fundamental changes needed to rethink education.

Introduction

Conversations about rethinking education often centre on a long list of issues that need to be addressed, for instance funding, or school buildings, or teacher recruitment and retention, or admissions and so on….

But if you believe that all young people have the right to an education that builds their self- esteem and efficacy; that recognises and values their unique talents; that helps them to form meaningful relationships and sets them up for fulfilling progression pathways from school, then addressing these ‘nuts and bolts’ issues, while necessary, is woefully insufficient.

Education is in need of a transformational vision. Schools do a great job in the circumstances, but the system is broken and the model of schooling out of date.

There is no worse example of this than SEND provision. However, the fault lines in SEND are just one component of the system’s challenges. SEND is not the problem, it is the symptom of a more all-embracing set of issues.

Four Shifts That Could Transform Education

I listened recently to a presentation discussing the findings from a 2023 report called ‘Out of Kilter’ by the Institute of Public Policy Research. Not heard about it? There’s a surprise! The report was the result of a massive consultation exercise and proposed some very significant changes with huge potential, but it was released to a largely indifferent policy audience.

At the heart of ‘Out of Kilter’ sit four proposed shifts, which IPPR identify as necessary to create an education system that unlocks the potential of all young people, enabling them to thrive. If these four shifts resonate with you, that is unsurprising, since ‘Out of Kilter’ draws on the findings of a major consultation with young people, parents and employers.

Rethinking Education First Requires Rethinking Assessment

The order in which the four shifts feature is also important. The first shift, from a system narrowly focused on attainment to one that values a wider set of goals, is the ‘crucial cog’; the magic key that will unlock all others.

To question the current system is to be accused of undermining standards – ‘standards’ as a synonym for approaches developed many decades ago to sift and sort society, with assessment approaches that condemn 40%+ of young people to leave school feeling that they have failed, rather than that all can succeed.

Until the UK has an assessment system that is able to reward and recognise the diverse aptitudes, talents and passions of all young learners; one that values learning and achievement other than academic subject knowledge; one that recognises the wider interests and passions pursued by all young people, both within school and out of school, we will have a system that maintains the status quo and fails too many.

‘Out of Kilter’ was authored by Harry Quilter-Pinner, Efua Poku-Amanfo, Loic Menzies and Jamie O’Halloran, September 2023, published by the Institute for Public Policy Research and supported by Big Change and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. The full report can be accessed here: Out of kilter: How to rebalance our school system to work for people, economy and society | IPPR.

David Jackson has been a teacher, a headteacher, a founding director at the National College for School Leadership and, for the last 15 years, has supported educational innovation projects in the UK and internationally. He is a member of the editorial team for The Bridge.

Professional Prompts

1. To what extent does your school’s assessment system “reward and recognise the diverse aptitudes, talents and passions of all young learners”?

2. Do pupils feel that the school recognises their culture, beliefs, wider interests and passions pursued within school and externally”?

3. What might need to change for this to happen and for every learner to feel that their beliefs, culture, ideology, talents and interests are affirmed?

Reimagining Schools By Design: Assessment, Pedagogy and Curriculum

12th June 2023Website Admin

Reimagining Schools By Design: Assessment, Pedagogy and Curriculum

David Jackson

Teaching: the design and facilitation of great learning through relationships

This short article is about the second phase of the process Gesher School undertook to design the curriculum, pedagogy and assessment they knew they would need to do a brilliant job for children who learn differently, as they moved from primary into their secondary education; from childhood into adolescence, from primary to all-through.

The ‘school design lab’ process – eight workshops involving about 100 stakeholders, completed in March 2021 – resulted in a blueprint for this new school ambition. You can see the final version of the Gesher School Blueprint here: https://gesherschool.com/about-us/blueprint/.

It is worth looking at – for its comprehensiveness, its ambition, its philosophical coherence and the obvious seriousness of intent. Beyond that, there is much to recommend in the evident way it unites a school community (internal and external) around a shared mission and sets out the practical requirements needed to achieve this.

The process to develop the blueprint began by asking “What outcomes do we want all our learners to achieve?” We started with a pie chart (six slices), one of which already had “good exam results” filled in, as a given. The task then is to populate the other five slices. (It could be six slices saying “good exam results” if that’s the only outcome that matters – but in a decade of doing this activity, exams have never featured more than once.) The result? Agreement about the purpose of the school and the outcomes for all learners that matter to the school community.

Standing on the shoulders of giants

Having agreed purpose and outcomes, the next stage in the process was the development of a set of design principles to achieve these, which form the values and practice architecture – the “laws with leeway” – for the school. In that process the Gesher team engaged with the designs of highly successful schools around the world, in a process known as horizon scanning, to find inspiration and ideas that would help them to learn from the very best that exists and has evidence of success.

You will find more on the Gesher school design process in The Bridge Issue 2.

Having the purpose, outcomes and design principles agreed upon, the next couple of workshops focused on assessment, pedagogy and curriculum.

Assessment

The Gesher Blueprint, then, sets out the school’s desired outcomes. They include: skilled for the future workplace; confident in their sense of self; builders of meaningful relationships; and ethical and responsible citizens. Finding meaningful ways to assess, recognise, accredit and value these – to validate them – is the next stage in the design challenge.

Another desired outcome is qualified for the next stage, and while existing accreditation pathways can obviously fit that bill to an extent, they don’t get close to assessing “meaningful relationships” or “confidence in sense of self”.

Fortunately, there is a different audience for some of these outcomes – the students themselves, their parents, peers, community members, etc – and there are known ways of doing it. There are exhibitions, digital badges, portfolios (real or digital), records of achievement, transcripts or even a unique, composite and personalised School Diploma owned and endorsed by all stakeholders, incorporating a range of such validation methods.

Professionals generally agree that schools should be free to assess what they value, rather than driven to value what is assessed. Gesher’s Blueprint states that it will generate unique profiles… affirm talents… recognise unconventionally expressed achievements… and work of relevance to the community and the world. This ambition is shared by many schools and there are, as we have seen, a range of possible ways of assessing what is valued. However, few schools do. Gesher, in this respect – as in many others – aspires to be a “beautiful exception”.

Pedagogy

Ask secondary teachers about their professional knowledge-base and most will probably talk about subject expertise. This is not their professional knowledge-base: it is what they bring in service of their professional knowledge-base. Lots of geographers or scientists or linguists don’t teach.

Teachers’ professional knowledge-base is the design and facilitation of great learning through relationships. It is the creation of apt pedagogy combined with personalised knowledge and understanding of learners. In other words, teachers are designers. They create great pedagogical designs together.

Only, in most schools, they don’t.

To do this requires scope for interdisciplinary planning; it involves real-world relevant tasks (to make learning matter); it will deploy a repertoire of assessment methods (appropriate to the task, relevant for each person); and it requires time deployment that allows on-site and community learning. This is different from 25 one-hour lessons. It also requires that teachers have time together (to design together).

For Gesher, and for most of the astonishing schools around the world that were studied in the horizon scanning, Project-Based Learning (PBL) provided at least part of the pedagogical solution. Real links have been made with the professional PBL knowledge-base from High Tech High and Expeditionary Learning Schools as international examples and with XP and School 21 as domestic ones. Additionally, Gesher commissioned the support of Imagine If to help facilitate its journey.

Gesher, together with a number of other schools of course, deploys time and space flexibly (the subject of a future article); combines a core of subject teaching with flexible interdisciplinary learning opportunities (PBL); deploys a range of assessment approaches relevant to the task; and, because it is a SEND school (although all schools are SEND schools), integrates into learning designs therapeutic approaches and support.

And these rich approaches, whilst great for students, are also fulfilling for the professional lives of teachers.

Curriculum

If pedagogy is how we teach stuff and how learners learn it, and assessment, broadly speaking, is the range of ways we let students and other stakeholders know how well they are doing, then curriculum is simply the range of material – the content – we want students to learn.

For most secondary schools the curriculum is pretty straightforward: divide what we teach into “subjects” and have specialist subject teachers deliver it in lessons lasting about an hour. The learning week, for learners, is therefore a jigsaw puzzle of disconnected hour-long subject lessons (French, then PE, then English, then Science, then Maths….) and fragmented relationships.

There is another way.

Gesher’s curriculum statement emphasises “the application of knowledge through real-world assignments and projects… rooted in Jewish values… highly personalised and responsive to individual interests, aptitudes and needs”. Much is packed into those 24 words:

Application
Real-world uses
Projects and assignments
Overt values components
Highly personalised

What all this means practically at Gesher is that the curriculum contains all the subject knowledge required, some of it taught as it has always been taught, but much of it designed into projects, with real-world relevance (perhaps real-world need) within which students express agency, personalise their contributions and also integrate or enact the values from relevant parts of their culture. They might be assessed in a range of ways, singly or in combination – tests, exhibitions, vivas, presentations, peer evaluation, portfolios, or whatever.

Endnote

The Blueprint design shows graphically that desired outcomes (purposes) frame everything and lead to school design principles facilitative of those outcomes. In other words, “Here are the things we want all learners to achieve and to do and so we need our school to be designed with features like this.”

The heart, the driver, the energy source to achieve this is the integrated and interrelated core of assessment, pedagogy and curriculum. Beyond that, there is a range of further features related to technology, time and space; culture, leadership and professional development; parental partnerships and community relationships.

More of that next time, perhaps.

Professional Prompt Questions

If your school was to do the pie chart activity – the six outcome areas that really matter to you – what would be included? (You could try it as a staff workshop activity.)

What scope is there in your school for teachers from different subject disciplines to plan learning together? What could there be?

Do you agree with the definition of teaching at the start of this piece? If so, what implications might that have for your teaching or your school?

Creating Better Schools by Design

15th December 2022Website Admin

Creating Better Schools by Design

David Jackson

Ask most people to draw a house and nine times out of ten the house they imagine will be a square box, with four square windows, a pitched roof with a chimney, and often some smoke curling into the sky.

We share a mental model — a blueprint — for what a house is and should look like. We don’t stop to wonder:

Does our house have to be square or could it be a different shape?
Should it be one storey high, or two, or three?
How many windows of what size should there be, really?
What purpose does the chimney serve?

Our shared ideas about schools are fixed in much the same way.

There are variations, but our mental model for school tends to include classrooms, corridors, rows of desks, students grouped according to age, one-hour lessons, subject teaching, tests, and so on. This model is based on schools designed in the past. We don’t stop to question whether the school, which we are after all drawing in the C21, should be — needs to be — very different from the blueprint created decades ago. We might ask:

What ideas about learning are informing the layout of our school? What might classrooms look like if we thought of them as places where great learning can happen?
Does all learning need to be packaged into ‘subjects’?
Are one-hour lessons the best unit of learning?
Is one teacher with 25 students better than two teachers with 50 students?
Why are all students assessed at the same time when they mature differently?
Do we have to assess by written exams emphasising memory?

… and so on.

Designing a new school for real is a chance to ask questions like these, and to ensure that the new school is more than just an improvement on the existing model.

“Gesher undertook a serious school (re)design process that placed the needs of their students at the heart of decisions about their new school design.”

At Gesher School, staff, students and parents know how badly a change to the model is needed because most of Gesher’s learners have struggled in schools like the one most of us would draw. So, Gesher undertook a serious school (re)design process that placed the needs of their students at the heart of decisions about their new school design.

Gesher was transitioning from a highly successful primary school to becoming an all-through learning community and needed to find a new school building and facilities, recruit staff, create a secondary school curriculum and reframe its mission and identity.

The leaders of Gesher School knew they needed to go way beyond improvements on the existing model, to design a whole new way of thinking about and doing school, in ways that learned from and built on their experience with primary-age children. They asked:

How might we design an all-through school that will offer success, enhanced self-esteem, personal efficacy, and progression opportunities for all our young people?

Secondly, in doing so, how can we involve multiple stakeholders in our design process?

Thirdly, how might we stand on the shoulders of existing practices around the world?

The design process that Gesher School entered into comprised eight workshops, each involving different stakeholders, which resulted in a school blueprint for:

A bold vision and purpose; and
A set of values-based design principles; which were
Brought to life in plans for a range of innovative features that add up to a very different kind of school.

Upwards of 100 school staff, parents, students, community members, and other local stakeholders contributed to this seriously intentional and inclusive school design process.

Each issue of The Bridge will address an aspect of Gesher’s school redesign process. This issue focuses on the first two of the eight school design workshops that Gesher School undertook, which concerned (i) purpose and (ii) design principles.

(i) Purpose

Gesher’s discussions about purpose started with identifying their ‘non-negotiables’. Non-negotiables tell everyone what is and is not on the table; what is and is not within the scope of the school design team to change. Examples might be ‘no selection by ability’ or ‘the school will be co-education’ or, in Gesher’s case:

We are a school for a specific cohort of children with SEND, including language, communication and social pragmatic issues.
We are a Jewish faith school.
We utilise real-world learning and projects to foster curiosity and connect our young people to authentic issues and problems.

These clear non-negotiables influenced design features relating to Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) provision, to faith observance and understanding, and to the design of curriculum and pedagogy.

A further key defining issue for Gesher to articulate was purpose – the vision and outcomes to which the school community would aspire. Being clear about what the school had to achieve with and for students; about the purpose of learning; about what matters for the community of the school — staff, students and parents – was an essential bedrock of the design process.

Within the current system, aiming for good examination outcomes is a given, and if that was all that mattered, then job done. However, during the workshop, through extensive discussion – and many post-its – it became clear that exam success on its own was not nearly enough. In brief, the outcomes Gesher agreed are that young people should become:

Skilled for the future workplace
Qualified for the next stage (exam results plus)
Independent learners
Confident in their sense of self
Builders of meaningful relationships
Ethical and responsible citizens.

These, one might hope, could be purposes shared by most if not all schools, but two things qualify them as exceptional in Gesher’s context. The first is the inclusiveness of the intent. They are purposes for all students, regardless of their prior educational history or unique needs. The second is to remember that Gesher is a school for children with identified SEND needs, most of whom have been unable to thrive in mainstream schools.

“Staff engaged with mini-case studies of interesting and successful schools around the world to draw from them the particular design features that inspired them.”

(ii) Design Principles

Workshop two was exclusively concerned with design principles and involved staff at the school considering the question: What would be the design principles or features of a school that can confidently achieve these outcomes for all its learners?

Staff engaged with mini-case studies of interesting and successful schools around the world to draw from them the particular design features that inspired them. They used this as a basis to shape their own, then tested the resulting principles they created together using personas of children at Gesher, asking: Would this work and how would it work for Amy or Peter?

Next Time — Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment

Agreement on these three components — the non-negotiables, purposes and design principles — precedes work on designing the more practical features of a school. Clear purposes provide a constant reminder of exactly what we aspire to achieve with and for learners and their families. Design principles provide the guiding architecture that relates to these purposes. They are ‘laws with leeway’ that frame what we do and how we do it. They are also the features that unify and inspire those who work in a school, and they guide and discipline decision-making.

With these three in place, the design process moves to consideration of the curriculum, pedagogy and assessment practices that will be informed by and consistent with the design principles and which will enable every student to achieve the outcome ambitions. That is for next time.

Designing New Schools in the USA

In America, there is a long tradition of creating new school designs. Some of the most successful schools in the world have been created in this way – Expeditionary Learning schools; High Tech High (some of whose resources we share later); Big Picture Learning schools; New Tech Network are all examples. The Gates Foundation alone funded more than 2,500 ‘small school models’ across the United States, and New York alone has 200.

Not all of these new school models have been equally successful, of course. However, their students consistently outperform their peers in conventionally sized and structured high schools with comparable demographics. There are some common design features across the majority of these models — and they are very different from the conventional UK school — they all:

Focus on the centrality of relationships and personalising learning — have ‘advisory’, where advisory is the soul of the school, symbolising relational support for students
Include project-based learning, an engaging and empowering pedagogical model, which also requires teachers to collaborate as designers of learning
Have a pervasive cultural identity and school-level ownership of what matters, including what is assessed and how and by whom it is assessed
Facilitate powerful and sustained adult learning.

The Cost of Not Having New Models in the UK…

Not to foster innovation in school design means that we constantly focus on striving to improve the existing school model – a model more than 100 years old and out of date.

It is a model with multiple features crying out for redesign. For example, it has failed to achieve equitable outcomes, or to address socio-economic challenges, or to engage disengaged learners — or to fully engage most learners, for that matter. Nor has it provided teachers with an intellectually challenging profession, or excited and involved parents around the experience of their children.

Professional Prompt Questions

The design process described above is effective applied to existing schools as well as new ones — revisiting purposes and design features together as a prelude to reviewing wider practices. Might this have value for your school?

The review detailed above distilled six clear outcomes that Gesher is committed to evidencing for all learners. Does your school have similar clarity about its purposes?

Redesigning Education: What Can and Should Philanthropic Organisations Do?

15th December 2022Website Admin

Redesigning Education: What Can and Should Philanthropic Organisations Do?

Ali Durban & Paul Ramsbottom OBE, The Wolfson Foundation

Paul Ramsbottom OBE is Chief Executive of The Wolfson Foundation, an independent grant-making charity, funding programmes and activities throughout the UK. The Foundation’s fundamental aim is to improve the civic health of society, mainly through education and research. He is also the Chief Executive of a linked charity, the Wolfson Family Charitable Trust.

Gesher School was delighted to receive a grant from the Wolfson Family Charitable Trust in 2021 to adapt and equip a Maker Space in our building. We value enormously our relationship with Paul and with the Wolfson charities because our values and mission are closely aligned and we recognise the important role that philanthropic organisations like The Wolfson Foundation can play in helping schools who want to do things differently to realise their ambitions.

We asked Paul to share with us his thinking about the role of philanthropy in education in the 21st century. Here’s what he told us…

Discussions about the role of philanthropy in the English education system have tended to polarise around two extreme positions.

At one extreme is the view that education in modern society is the preserve of Government alone, and that there is therefore little or no role for philanthropy. This is a view frequently expressed on social media, often by people who are knowledgeable about or involved in education.

At the other extreme is an articulation of a role for philanthropy that in some ways lets the Government off the hook, by plugging gaps that probably shouldn’t be there in the first place.

In between these two extremes, and in reality, there are at least three important roles that philanthropy plays:

The first is to support innovation in education; to fund schools, colleges and universities to trial new ideas. By being the provider and underwriter of risk capital in the education system, philanthropists enable educators to do things that the Government can’t or won’t do or support.

The second is to fund capital infrastructure projects necessary for ambitious organisations to fulfil elements of their strategic vision, which would otherwise be unachievable. Buildings and equipment are difficult to fund from statutory sources and can rarely be afforded from core funding. Philanthropy can provide the additional funding that organisations need to really allow them to fly.

The third role for philanthropy, beyond funding for innovation or infrastructure, is as part of a wider ecosystem of organisations, including Government, professional educators and civil society, who are stakeholders in education and who work, together and separately, to bring about system change that will benefit children and young people.

Some philanthropists take a campaigning and lobbying approach, which can be extremely effective. The Sutton Trust, for instance, with its focus on education for social mobility, consistently campaigns for better support in our education system for our most disadvantaged children and young people.

The Wolfson Foundation is not a campaigning organisation; on occasion, however, the Foundation funds research that grows system capacity and capability and contributes significantly to the body of knowledge necessary to support system change.

Recently the Foundation has invested heavily in children and young people’s mental health, with significant funding going to school and community-based initiatives which aim to help children struggling with anxiety and depression.

Already a growing problem, the pandemic exacerbated challenges facing children and young people, who are presenting in higher numbers than ever before with poor mental health. It’s a huge problem facing many Western societies, including our own. However, it is also a problem that is poorly understood. Whilst we might all share some intuition about why this generation of young people seems to be more troubled than previous generations — the prevalence and role of social media, for instance — the reality is that we don’t actually know. Even if our hunch is right, we need evidence to be able to take on social media companies and persuade them to make the necessary changes.

The Wolfson Foundation is funding research into a range of practice approaches that aim to build young people’s resilience to deal with the challenges that life unfortunately throws at us all, as well as improving access to high-quality therapy and clinical support.

An example of this is the new Wolfson Centre for Young People’s Mental Health in Cardiff. Waiting times in the current system are lamentable and the answer can’t simply be to try and provide more counsellors than ever. In the meantime, children and young people continue to struggle without the help they need.

Philanthropic funding should be a resource for everyone.

We need complete systemic change and there is a role for philanthropy in achieving that, both in terms of the research we can fund and providing support for innovators who are trying different ways of working.

Making Philanthropy Accessible to Everyone

If we truly believe that philanthropy can and should have a role in a modern education system, then it becomes really important that access to philanthropic funding shouldn’t simply be the preserve of schools that happen to have an affluent parent community or have professional or fundraising skills in their governing body. Philanthropic funding should be a resource for everyone.

Over the last couple of years, The Wolfson Foundation has been working with a number of partners to create a completely free framework and toolkit for every school in the country. It’s a kind of A to Z or ‘How To…’ of fundraising for schools hoping to look, perhaps for the first time, beyond their parents and local communities for financial support for their plans.

Professional Prompt Questions

Is there a project in your community that needs transformation, perhaps a physical learning space or a bold idea?

Can you capture why it is so critical to your students, and how it will change their outcomes? Will you be able to evidence this?

Have you researched the costs to fund the project and produced a budget to support it?

Are you aware of opportunities for philanthropic support in your area? Is your organisation and proposal eligible for funding? Are there other funding opportunities beyond your local community?

Could the framework and toolkit mentioned above be of value to your school?

Changing Schools, Changing Lives

15th December 2022Website Admin

Changing Schools, Changing Lives

Sam Dexter

Authentic Voices

Reflecting on the content that appeared in the first issue of The Bridge, we noticed a pattern. There was a lot from the perspective of neurotypical adult experts, but very little from the perspective of neurodiverse young people. This worried us. How could we be creating an educational journal about educating neurodiverse young people, without including the voices of these young people? This is clearly not right.

So, in this issue, and all future issues, there will be a dedicated space reserved solely for pupil voice — featuring the first-hand views of neurodiverse young people. For this issue, we spoke to five young people about how life at Gesher is different from the experiences they had in their previous schools.

Different in the Classroom

All of the students we spoke to described how learning at Gesher was different from their previous schools. One student said, ‘I didn’t learn anything… all I ever did was play around and make things’. When asked what it is like now at Gesher that differs he replied by saying: ‘I have more support here’ and ‘I like learning more… I like learning more so I get even smarter.’

Another student, also speaking on the theme of support, told us how in his previous school:

‘I was learning, learning, learning but didn’t understand one thing and there was no support for me. They just said, you have to do it yourself… In this school, there is a lot more support, like if you don’t understand something, they explain it in a different way.’

The students told us how things were taught differently at Gesher. ‘I find learning better because it’s taught differently. We get to do PBL (Project-Based Learning)… which is fun and creative.’ For another student, not having the pressure of traditional assessment was a huge relief. ‘They [student’s previous school] had lots of tests. And I’m actually glad that my mum put me in this school because otherwise, I would have had to deal with lots and lots and lots of SATs exams.’

The approach to emotional regulation helps in the classroom.

A common theme related to how Gesher’s approach to emotional regulation also helps them in the classroom. ‘I can ask for a break and that means I’ll go outside and when I’m ready I’ll come back’. Another student described how, if the learning environment was too noisy, he knew to ask for ear defenders or he had the freedom simply to find them himself.

Different Outside the Classroom

Another feature shared was how school life is different outside the classroom at Gesher. Around this topic, two main themes emerged: friendship and the school’s therapy dogs. Relationships are a big focus at Gesher (they matter a lot for neurodiverse young people) and on the topic of friendship, students explained how Gesher provided them with the opportunity to build new relationships. ‘School can help us make new friends if we meet more people.’ [That same student went on to ask if the purpose of TThe Bridge was to bring more students to Gesher, suggesting that if it was, there would be ‘more friends also’.]

Other students felt that Gesher had allowed them to develop new interests and passions. ‘I like the fact that school can help me get interested in different things, [friend’s name] has got me interested in Minecraft and stuff like that.’ Another interviewee emphasised that Gesher provided the opportunity and support to build new relationships.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, all students spoke enthusiastically about the positive impact that the visits of Gesher’s therapy dogs, Puplinda and Toby, had on their well-being:

Gesher student: I like it when Puplinda comes to visit.

Interviewer: Why?

Gesher Student: She makes me feel happy and calm.

Others spoke about being excited when Puplinda came to their class and were very concerned that she hadn’t visited for two weeks due to an operation (she is recovering well and will be back in Therapy Dog action before this article goes live).

The improvements mentioned are being followed up.

Always Room For Improvement

As well as hearing their views about what was different between their previous school and Gesher, we also asked what could improve their experience. The most commonly mentioned area for improvement was the playground, with students discussing how there could be more exercise equipment, more swings and slides, and some more creative activities. Another liked that the playground was a ‘very big area’ but felt that the surface material is ‘very tough… every time I slip a bit, I end up with everything in the cut, like rocks and everything.’

This part of each interview was important because it helped to give students agency over the process — not just wanting to hear the positives, but also to learn how we can make things even better. Mindful also of not wanting simply to be a passive ear for young people’s views and concerns, the improvements they mentioned are being followed up by one of Gesher’s Deputy Heads.

For Practitioners: Things We Have Learned

A useful mantra for thinking about ‘student voice’, especially that of neurodiverse young people, is ‘nothing about us without us’. As such, reflect on something within your setting that you want to change/are already planning to change. How might you gather the views of some of your neurodiverse learners about what this change might mean for them?
The process of gathering student perspectives and insights with neurodiverse young people can be more time-consuming because there are additional barriers compared to collecting the views of neurotypical young people. We have learned (a) to have a trusted adult ask the questions (quite often not a teacher); (b) to conduct the interview away from the classroom, and (c) to keep it short!
The use of visuals can support students to share their views about something, especially where a verbal interview doesn’t play to a young person’s strengths. In the Resources for Schools section of this issue we have included an example of the ‘Three Houses’ model, a simple tool to elicit the view of a young person who finds it challenging to verbally express their feelings.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to all five young people who gave up some of their playtime to share their views with us, and to Gesher’s Deputy Head and Dramatherpist, Mr Chris, who was the ‘trusted person’ who conducted the group interview.