What our young people say
What our young people say
Our young people are at the heart of our school community and play a significant role in decision making processes. The work we do through Rights Respecting School Award ensures young people have an awareness of their rights and responsibilities as citizens.
We seek through our vision for our young people to be able to clearly communicate their needs, wants and opinions in a communication style that meets individual needs and ensures their voice is heard.
Our student voice group meets regularly to discuss key issues around school, they work on actions relating to their meetings as well as hosting events throughout the academic year and getting involved in community action projects.
They are responsible for organising and hosting our annual ‘Student Takeover Day’ where young people take over the school for a day and get to experience different roles within the academy.
We have a group of peer mentors who have been trained through Durham County Council ‘Anxious about schools’ project who support young people across school as peer mentors.
Representatives from our student voice group participate in the wider County Durham Youth Council meetings as representatives on the SEND Community as well as working closely with Durham eXtreme group to ensure their voices are heard more widely across the local authority area.
Young people within the academy have also been involved in NHS recruitment for school nurses, in school recruitment and other networks to ensure the views of young people with SEND are heard more widely.
We have recently been visited by Durham Youth Council Young Inspectors who provided this report on our school.
Click the link below to read more.
Here are what some of our amazing young people have to say about the academy:
“I love Duke of Edinburgh and going outside”.
“I like it when I can chill with the laptop”.
“I’m going to Houghall college when I finish Hope Wood”.
“My favourite thing is playtime with my friends”.
“I enjoy litter picking”.
“We sometimes have parties”.
“I help out in the other class sometimes, doing work experience”.
“We go travel training which is good so that when we are adults we know how to go places”.
“I’m looking forward to going on holiday with my teachers (talking about a residential)”
“I help my friends when they’re sad”.
“I do hair and beauty because I want to be a hairdresser when I’m older”.
“Everybody loves the dinners”.
“We’ve got Zones of Regulation to discuss feeling and what we need when we’re stressed”.
“I like doing my options.I like cooking, making biscuits and eating them”.
“I enjoy doing exercise at school”.
“Maths is my favourite lesson because I’m good at it”.
Peer Mentors
As part of ensuring all our young people have their voice heard and have appropriate support from colleagues and their peers. A group of young people self selected have participated in Durham peer mentor training to support their peers across school. See below the presentation they provide through our assemblies programme to remind their peers of the support available.
