Cov AmbasSENDors

"Strong Voices Coventry" started off in 2019 as the "SEND Shadow Board" and is made up of a group of young people who attend specialist secondary schools and college settings in Coventry. This includes young people from:

• Baginton Fields
• Corley Centre
• Coventry College
• Hereward College
• Riverbank Academy
• Sherbourne Fields
• Woodfield  

It offers a direct link for children and young people with SEND to contribute into the local "SEND Board" - a meeting that brings together professionals from education, health and social care. 

The group meets together normally 4 times per year - each time in a different location. The "host" organises the meeting, sets the agenda, and provides feedback about what was discussed. This is to try and make sure that it remains the young people in control of the group - the adults are just there to guide and support where needed! 

Past Meetings

October 2023

For our first meeting of the new academic year, the group met in the Council Chamber at Coventry's Council House. The young people were all given the opportunity to bang the gavel in the Council speaker's chair during the course of the morning, and all got to vote "for" or "against" on a series of "motions" - some a bit more silly than others.

The motions were:

• Should we have 4 days per week at school? Agreed
• Should we have a shorter summer holiday? Not Agreed
• I’d rather eat chocolate than ice cream? Agreed
• We should stop using gas and coal to generate electricity? Agreed
• We should make sure that all children and young people are consulted about the support they are getting at school at least once per year? Agreed
• Coventry City should be allowed a one-goal headstart in every game they play? Not agreed
• Cars should not be allowed in the city centre? No majority
• Children under 14 should not be allowed mobile phones? Not agreed

It must be noted that one young person (who shall remain nameless) was very keen on a shorter summer holiday and a LONGER school week (6 days!) The other young people (and the staff from the schools and college supporting them) listened to his point of view, but were not convinced! 

We were also joined by Kam Kaur and Rosie Nailor from the Local Authority's children's joint commissioning team. They were interested in following up some of the young people's thoughts on access to short breaks provision (which we'd discussed in some previous meetings). Unfortunately, none of the young people attending had accessed Coventry's short break provision, so some of the questions were a bit harder to answer. 

As well as identifying the sorts of activities they wanted to take part in, the young people were able to identify some of the barriers to participating. These were:

• transport in getting to and from activities
• No access to accessible toilets at some facilities
• the age ranges which are offered (not available to under 5's and over 17's). 

June 2023

June's Strong Voices meeting took place at Riverbank school. The hosts were well-prepared for the visiting young people, with a welcome committee in the car park and a well attended refreshments bar! The meeting started with a surprise announcement that Ofsted were going to be arriving the following day to carry out a school inspection!*

The students had decided upon an icebreaker in which groups were required to build a "Malteaser" run, in which they would escort a single chocolate Malteaser as far as possible without touching the floor using just paper, scissors and sellotape. It was quite a warm day, so some of the Malteasers did not make it very far and got stuck! However, there was also suspicion that some were being lost in other ways - mainly into people's stomachs. 

The main item on the agenda was to look at whether Coventry was a good place to live for young people with SEND, in line with the Child Friendly Cov campaign. We looked at a number of questions to see what was good about living in Coventry and what might be improved. 

* Some of the young people from Riverbank were asked by the OFSTED inspectors about how they are able to contribute to school life - the inspectors were very impressed that not only were they able to be involved on a school level, but also contributed their voice to subjects across the city too! Go AmbasSENDors! 

March 2023