“Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together”

- Woodrow Wilson

It’s the new academic year and our Symphony Question series has returned. Good thing too, because we believe supporting young people by giving them clear opportunities to have their voice heard is more important now than ever.

This week is the second national result of the new school year. Nearly 1,300 young people across the country participated including schools in Manchester, Bradford, London, Norwich, Co Durham, and Norfolk. What a team!

We’re all about sharing the love this week. Asking young people to reflect on what they love most about being back in school and the results are pretty comprehensive…

Question: What’s the best thing about being back in school?

Primary result:

Secondary Result:

Result: Friends, friends, and more friends

There’s a lot to love about being back in school. Being in a safe environment, learning your favourite subjects, seeing your favourite teacher, being challenged in new ways.

None of which, however, are anywhere near the top of the love-list for most young people across the country. For the majority, it is all about ‘seeing friends’. In primary schools ‘seeing friends’ polled a huge 78% of the vote, which was bettered in secondaries were it polled a whomping 82%. So it’s fair to see there’s no ambiguity with this question at all.

Whilst primaries and secondaries were aligned completely on their no.1 vote, they differ in second and third place.

For secondaries ‘being back in the learning environment of a classroom’ came in in second place - I think a reflection of the difficulties and distractions of learning at home during the lockdown. Whereas with primaries, second place is occupied by the variation of ‘things to do during the day and having fun’.

Somewhat surprisingly then, to this writer anyway, is the place of the teacher in these results. A lowly last place for both ‘being taught by a teacher’ for secondaries and ‘seeing your teacher’ for primaries.

Maybe this is a reflection of the fact it’s the start of the academic year and those relationships are new or as yet unformed. Or maybe, teachers just aren’t that exciting…

Young people have spoken, and there can be no doubt about the result.

What can we learn from these results?

Never underestimate the importance of friendships

I suppose this result reflects the nature of past few months. For all of us it’s been a time where we’ve been robbed of seeing some of the people who mean the most to us. Especially if you’re a young person, without the agency many adults have to leave and travel and meet. School is your social support, and young people are so pleased to have access to it again.

Now you’re back in school, how safe do you feel?

Our New Year’s Resolution to our membership is to help them come up with relevant, engaging and thoughtful questions to help get all pupils having their say. Schools usually come up with their own meetings, but we’re giving them additional questions if they’d like them.

Following the successful trial of this form in our General Election Question Series, for 2020 we’ll be recommending a blend of action-led & topical questions to ask each week.

Want to get involved or suggest a question? Send us an email at membership@smartschoolcouncils.org.uk