?We should allow children to be experts in their own lives?, writes Tammy Howard, Head at Bickley Park Prep School.
One of my aims as a Head at Bickley Park is to ensure that we are developing a culture in school where pupils not only have a voice, but where they are fully involved in all the decisions that affect their lives.
Often well-meaning policies and procedures do not necessarily begin with the voice of the child but instead this voice takes the form of a rubber-stamp at the end of a process, often through a discussion in School Council. Although this is certainly ?listening?, I would challenge whether this is ?valuing? the views of children. At its heart, this approach suggests to children that we as adults know best how to do something and that they, the children, can then tell us what they think of our views. It has long been recognised that it is of vital importance to consider the voices of children in their school settings and in 2001, the Government published ?core principles? for the involvement of children and young people (Department for Education and Skills, 2002) and this has extended to many areas of education, health and social care.

I believe that if we want to fully embrace pupil voice, we need to go beyond suggestion boxes and councils – we need to fundamentally change the way that we listen.  I appreciate this is easier said than done but something I feel strongly that we must do in schools and at home to help our children grow into emotion...