SSLP Student Voice

The Southwark Schools' Learning Partnership (SSLP) was successfully awarded a three-year partnership grant from the Department for Education beginning in September 2020. The purpose of the grant was to increase Student Voice in the SSLP.

Covid restrictions altered the originally proposals but also presented new opportunities for working together.

The first year of the project saw students from Dulwich College working with their peers in The Elmgreen School and Kingsdale Foundation School to produce a short video that encapsulated their experiences of racism. In year two the students focused on producing three podcasts with experts on mental health in adolescence. Year 3 will see students working on projects to improve sustainability, as well as joining a student council.

Aims

To give students a greater voice in influencing SSLP activities.

To increase confidence and skills amongst students in expressing their opinions.

To increase awareness of the SSLP within student bodies and a feeling of community across all the schools.

Resources

The second year of Department for Education funding of the SSLP Student Voice project was match funded by a Dulwich College parent. This year pupils focused on Mental Health as their topic of choice.

The SSLP ran a Pupil Conference in November which was facilitated by our Local Partnerships Coordinator and fronted by our Director of Wellbeing. Dulwich College also directly supplied one speaker, our school counsellor, and arranged for the other two professional speakers.

Three of our pupils attended the conference, accompanied by a teacher, and worked in a breakout group with two other schools to choose a project for the spring term. The group identified teacher training as their main concern and opted to produce a series of podcasts for teachers. All the College staff mentioned above played key roles in supporting the pupils to produce the Podcasts, from arranging interviews to editing the material. Pupils chose the subjects that should be featured and conducted the interviews.