Student Voice Conference Reflection

In December 2020 the Senior Student Voice Leaders presented four videos to educators and students from Primary and Secondary Schools across Australia, demonstrating a few of Brunswick North West Primary School’s Student Voice initiatives from the challenging year. They covered the BNWPS Radio, Junior School Council, Community Experts Week and Lunchtime Sports Clubs. They did such an amazing job that a few of them were asked by conference organisers to write a magazine article, which will be published in the first issue of the Connect (Student Voice) magazine for 2021.

2020 Student Voice Conference Reflection: After being in lock down in Melbourne for two terms, it was so great to get to connect with other students and teachers across Australia virtually for the Student Voice Conference. It was an awesome experience that helped us feel that the importance of student voice was something greater than just our own school. It was great to feel valued and share opinions with people across Australia and even a few from overseas. We felt we really mattered and were doing something really important! We had never had the experience of creating a video presentation or attending a conference before. It made us feel proud to share the things we had achieved in the crazy year of a global pandemic and school lock down.

Why is student voice important even in primary school: Student voice is a huge part of our school and it should be for every school. Often younger people can get underestimated but it doesn't mean all our ideas are meaningless. Student voice is an important topic for many kids in primary school, even for those who don’t know what it means yet! Student voice is where students can work with teachers to have input into the way a school runs. Who wouldn’t want to have a say in their own learning? If you didn’t ever take the time to listen to students then you wouldn’t know if the school is a great place to be and you would be missing out on some great ideas. Who has a better idea of what would make a school the best for the students, than the students themselves? It would be so great to see even more primary school students present at the next Student Voice Conference. 

Recommendations for Student Voice in Primary School:

Here are some of the projects we were involved in and presented in the Student Voice Conference in 2020:- involving students in teacher planning meetings

- students to present and take part in School Council

- students running lunchtime clubs

- a student run radio station with segments on various issues that we think are important

- involving students in the interviewing process for hiring new staff

- creating well being self assessments in ‘kids speak’ to share with families and teachers

- a ‘Community Experts Week’ where students and community members wrote lessons on topics they were experts in, and were able to create their own lesson schedule based on their interests.

We would like to say a big THANK YOU to all the staff, students and family who allowed us to share this experience!🖤🖤🖤- by Esmeralda, Jane and Micah (Brunswick North West Primary School Students)