Listening to Student Voices

In the closing weeks of November, each grade held a town hall, which was led by the elected grade reps. Afterwards, Head Girl and Boy Izzy Farag and Owen Smith met with Mr. Way and me to share their findings. It was nice to hear that students indicated our new spaces provide them with more room to socialize and work quietly or in small groups, that the food in the café is good, and that plenty of extra help from teachers is available. They also gave us some feedback on how we could improve our lunch time routines, make copier printing less expensive and continue to work on stabilizing building temperature and internet connectivity. Hopefully, feedback from the next town hall, which is scheduled for February, indicates that we have addressed these concerns.

 

During tomorrow’s adviser period, all students will participate in a survey developed by Panorama Educationthat measures student perceptions of teaching and learning. Research has demonstrated a strong correlation between student input and learning outcomes. The Panorama survey tool was developed by researchers at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Each student will complete the survey for four of their courses. Questions on the survey address such areas as student-teacher relationships, the perceived quality of teaching and the student’s sense of belonging in the class. Feedback from the survey is shared with teachers, as well as school administrators. Gathering this feedback from students at this point in the year enables teachers to use the survey findings to alter their course or approach over the second half of the school year.