What are the benefits of implementing the framework in my school?
We have now prepared a document called "How can PbyP help with...." This sets out the benefits of using PbyP in practically every learning context. One section is reproduced below. The rest is provided with the ‘Starter Pack’
How can PbyP help with….
Student Voice
Key Points
- The ‘Access Manager’ scheme is built in to PbyP. This is a widely recognised exemplar in student leadership with opportunities for evidencing leadership and peer representation.
- One third of all courses in PbyP come with a student leadership guide. The student leadership guide provides a structure for team working and leadership that can be applied to any task.
- Students work in teams of four to solve a problem, learning about how to organise meetings and customer feedback.
- Learners from ages eight to thirteen have been consulted every two weeks as the project has been developed. Almost all of their ideas have been incorporated.
- Those taking greater responsibility obtain access to greater opportunity.
- The writer of PbyP was instrumental in establishing the importance of student voice in the UK and has presented internationally on the subject. The student empowerment curriculum on which PbyP is based sets student owned responsibility as one of its core principles.
- PbyP sets student voice in the context of the professional development of the individual as well as the service of the institution. It is the same process as is used for PDR processes in businesses so provides students with a clear link between developing their ‘voice’ in school and developing their career after school.
- PbyP is set up to recognise student’s responsibility and leadership outside of school.
- Many primary children are involved in responsible representation of their peers and leadership in year 6 yet they join year 7 as expected novices. PbyP allows the development of these skills to be continuous over the phase barrier. Students take all of their evidence with them and can show the quality of what they have been involved in.
- PbyP provides a way of separating leadership qualities from popularity. Student representatives can be chosen on the basis of their evidenced work rather than how many friends they have who will vote for them.
- PbyP brings student voice and the wider role of active citizenship into the assessable curriculum.
What it doesn’t do
PbyP does not provide an ethos. If a significant number of the staff feel that students are at the base of a hierarchy and don’t accept students as equal partners then this has to be tackled first, PbyP is no miracle cure for outdated practice. In fact the contrary is true, as students become more aware of how education could be and they gain a more confident voice they are more likely to understand that schools can struggle with the concept of true democracy. Schools have to create the opportunities within which students can demonstrate leadership. PbyP suggest these but schools have to be open to possibilities.
Coming soon
A system of credits which allows students of all ages to effectively hold ‘budgets’ with which they can trade and book access to rooms and resources.