On Tuesday 8 November, Sophie P, Mia Z and Mr Kemp attended the Public Education Student Forum at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre. Approximately 750 students and teachers attended the forum hosted by Professor Martin Westwell. Students were invited to share they currently value in public education and to imagine the impossible.

Activating student voice was vital. Mia and Sophie worked in small groups with students from a range of primary and high schools when exploring state wide data on Wellbeing with a focus on persistence. Year 9 and 10 students shared similar ideas and solutions to Sophie and Mia, making our girls feel proud that they could keep up with the sophisticated thinking skills of high school students. By the end of the middle session, Sophie and Mia were leading the conversation and proposing creative ideas on how to increase persistence in public schools in SA.

The girls also engaged with current research in education. They discovered the importance of Oral Language, Collaboration, Feedback and Metacognition in the classroom. Reflecting on their favourite lessons, the girls thought about how these elements increase student learning. All ideas were collated into electronic databases for further research within the Department.

Minister Blair Boyer addressed the group at the end of the forum. The Minister’s message around the importance of Student Voice suggests that this will not be the last forum of this kind. Sophie and Mia were a credit to Pimpala. They demonstrated the values and flexible thinking skills that makes Pimpala an amazing school. Our SRC is currently experiencing a reimagining of how Student Voice is run at Pimpala Primary School. With such amazing thinkers and speakers leading our learners, the voice of students at Pimpala is in safe hands.

Sophie’s highlight of the day was working with the high school students because we collaborated well and shared ideas.

Mia’s highlight of the day was working with the high school students because they shared the same ideas and solutions. It didn’t matter that they were older, the thinking was the same.