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Video: 'Pupil voice in special schools'
Pupil voice — the practice of taking pupils seriously as informants about their own education — is particularly important, and particularly complex, in special schools and specialist provision. Many of the pupils have communication differences that mean standard "let's do a survey" approaches don't work. Doing pupil voice well in this context requires more thought, but arguably matters even more.
About this video
The right of children and young people to be heard on matters affecting them is enshrined in Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and reflected in UK legislation including the Children and Families Act 2014 and the SEND Code of Practice. In special schools, the pupils whose voices we most need to hear are often those whose communication is hardest to access — pupils with severe learning difficulties, complex communication needs, or profound and multiple learning difficulties.
The most robust practice in the sector has moved beyond questionnaires and school-council models toward observational, multi-modal approaches. Communication passports, video-recorded interactions, augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems, and skilled interpretation by staff who know the pupil well can all provide reliable evidence of what a pupil prefers, values, and finds difficult. The Getting It Right for Every Child framework in Scotland, and various English SEND resources, provide practical structures.
The interesting philosophical shift is from asking "what does this pupil say they want?" (which assumes they can say) to "how do we ensure this pupil's preferences, dignity and personhood are central to how we work?" That reframing puts the responsibility on the adults to notice, interpret, and act on the pupil's communication — however that communication is expressed.
Ways of listening that work in specialist settings
- Communication passports. Documents co-created with the pupil and family that describe how the pupil communicates, what they like, what they find difficult.
- AAC and low-tech symbol systems. Real communication opportunities using the tools the pupil uses, not just occasional demonstrations.
- Video interaction analysis. Recording and reviewing pupil responses to activities to see what genuinely engages them versus what merely occupies them.
- Longitudinal observation. Patterns over weeks tell you things a single conversation can't.
- Family as expert. Parents and carers know things about the pupil's preferences that even the best-informed school staff can't match.
Discussion prompts
- How is pupil voice gathered from your most complex-need pupils, and how is it acted on?
- Where does the interpretation of a pupil's preferences by adults become a substitution for their voice? How do you guard against that?
- What would it look like if your specialist provision genuinely centred pupil voice in day-to-day decisions, not just annual reviews?
Try this in your classroom
- Pick one pupil whose voice is hard to access. Spend a week gathering evidence of what engages, calms, and unsettles them, using multiple modalities.
- Review the last three EHCP annual reviews for pupils in your class. How centrally does the pupil's own voice feature? What would strengthen it?
- If your setting doesn't use communication passports, propose starting one for a specific pupil. Involve the family in creating it.