Pupil Voice at DBJA

We ensure our children are involved in the design of their curriculum at DBJA. We have an active Learning Council who support school leaders across the school to develop, review and assess the impact of our curriculum. Their focus is on teaching and learning and they are called our Learning Council. Our active School Council support non-academic initiatives for example, Eco Schools and Anti-Bullying.

Our DBJA Learning Council

Our Learning Council at DBJA work alongside school leaders to support curriculum development. This means they may be involved in a number of academic initiatives for example, helping deliver parent workshops, reviewing marking & feedback policies, delivering assemblies focused on, for example, the use of targets to develop our learning. They may also be involved in gathering pupil voice responses about our curriculum and raising the profile of subjects through, for example, judging our writing competition. Within our Learning Council children help shape Maths, Literacy, Values and overall Curriculum aims. These children were voted using an application process and they decided what they wanted to achieve.

 

Our Current Learning Council Representatives are as Follows:

Year 3:

Literacy: Ian Radzius 

Numeracy: Martel Opayemi 

 

Wider Curriculum: David Grousu 

Sustainability: Ammarah Baporia 

Year 4: 

Literacy: Fatima Asim 

Numeracy: Daniel Nuamah 

Wider Curriculum: Hassan Nabeel 

Sustainability: Violet Clair 

Year 5:

Literacy: Jack Berry 

Numeracy: Jayasuriya Selvaraj 

Wider Curriculum: Rosaline Kavili 

Sustainability: Sophie  Fackerell 

 

Year 6:

Literacy: Hargun Singh Gill 

Numeracy: Damian Morkis 

Wider Curriculum: Milana Ivanova 

Sustainability: Harrison  O’Riordan 

Cherry: 

Milad Khirollah

 

As part of thier roles the Learning Council have helped to decide the winners of the Anti-Bullying Competition and various Learning Value competitions. We have started looking at how to improve the curriculum and have asked our classes how to improve English. These are some of our class responses. Our next task is to think about how we will implement these changes into our lessons.

Our DBJA School Council

DBJA’s School Council gives our pupils a voice in our school community and to help them play an active role in shaping their environment.

🎯 Key purposes:

1. Representing pupil voice

• Our School Council members gather ideas, opinions, and concerns from their classmates
• They share these ideas with our staff leaders so our pupils feel heard

2. Improving the school

• They suggest and help plan improvements (e.g. playgrounds, events, behaviour systems)
• They contribute to decision-making on things that affect pupils’ daily experiences

3. Promoting responsibility and leadership

• Our School Council helps develops key skills such as teamwork, communication, and confidence
• It encourages pupils to take responsibility for their school community

4. Encouraging democracy and inclusion

• Our School Council teaches our pupils about voting, fairness, and representation
• They ensures all voices, including quieter pupils, are considered

5. Supporting a positive school culture

• Our School Council help to organise events, campaigns, and initiatives
• It promotes kindness, respect, and a sense of belonging

Pupil Parliament

Klaudija Aleknaviciute

Celebrating the Recent Achievements of Our Learning Council, School Council and Pupil Parliament:

🌍 Community Day of Action – Litter Pick

They took part in a Day of Action on Lodge Avenue and the surrounding roads, supporting a community litter pick. This was a fantastic opportunity for pupils to show pride in their community and to showcase our school.

 

 

 

Over the years, the School Council focused on making Dorothy Barley Junior Academy an Eco-School!

Eager to complete this difficult task, the School Council completed an Environmental Review of the school. In this review, they assessed the school against 10 important topics. These topics included Biodiversity, Energy, Light, Global Citizenship, Water, Waste, Transport, School Grounds, Marine, Litter and Healthy Living. The purpose of the Environmental Review was to help the School Council decide which areas we needed to target first.

After much intense debate, the School Council agreed upon 3 main areas: Biodiversity, Waste and Litter.

Since then, the School Council have created an Action Plan to meet these targets, all of which can be viewed on the new School Council Board.

As a result of their amazing work, the School Council have achieved the Bronze and Silver Eco Award! They now only have a few more steps ahead of them before they attain the final Green Flag Eco Award. To do this, the School Council will be working hard by creating a new Eco Code for all students and teachers to follow. They will also be gathering student feedback via surveys to ensure all the changes made have a positive environmental impact.

Walk to School

Dorothy Barley Students take part in an initiative called ‘Walk to School’. Children are encouraged to walk, cycle and scooter to school whenever possible. There are many benefits to walking everyday with children becoming healthier and more environmentally conscious. Every day, class teachers record the method of transport for each child. If a child is able to walk to school at least 3 times a week for a whole month, they earn a special Walk to School Badge!

Every month, there is a different badge to collect with 12 different designs to be collected with each badge designed by children from all over the country.

All Dorothy Barley Students wear their badges with pride. We look forward to DBJA students completing the year with all 12 badges!

In March 2022, the School Councilors at Dorothy Barley Junior Academy were given an amazing opportunity to attend Barking and Dagenham’s first ever Climate Summit for children and young people. The Summit was led by Votes for Schools and was linked closely with the development of the borough’s zero carbon Roadmap. The children were given the chance to contribute their ideas on how they think we can tackle climate change locally and how to make Barking and Dagenham greener and cleaner than anywhere else in London. They found out that the Government wants the whole of the UK to be carbon neutral by 2050 in comparison to Barking and Dagenham who would like to be carbon neutral by 2030. The children learnt about what Barking and Dagenham council are doing to tackle these problems and the six areas that they are focusing on. These include; buildings, transport, waste, nature, energy and companies. The children were asked their opinions on what they considered to be a major issue in our local area and came up with some examples on how to overcome these. The school councilors also had the opportunity to meet former professional rugby player Martin Offiah and listen to him make a speech about how they can make a difference and improve climate change in our local area.