ABSTRACT
A simple but very important starting point is that we should be clear in respect of what we are consulting pupils about. The kind of explicit pupil consultation to which schools are most accustomed is consultation of pupils by senior management about aspects of school life other than classroom teaching and learning, such as meals, uniforms, cloakrooms, toilets and break-times. Our concern, however, is exclusively with pupil consultation by classroom teachers about teaching and learning in their classrooms. At least for the present, the main work of schools is classroom teaching and learning, and it is in classrooms that pupils spend most of their time in school. What schools do for their pupils can be significantly enhanced through listening to pupil voices only if these voices influence what happens in classrooms.
