Professor Laura Lundy’s model of participation helps us think more carefully about what needs to happen around a child’s voice for their involvement to be meaningful.
Lundy argues that simply giving children a “voice” does not fully capture what meaningful participation requires. Her model identifies four interconnected elements:
Space – Voice – Audience – Influence
Together, they provide a practical framework for everyday school life.
Space
Before asking what a child thinks, we need to consider whether we have created a situation in which they can safely and meaningfully tell us.
For some children, sitting opposite an adult and being asked, “So, what happened?” or “What do you think?” may be one of the least effective ways of finding out.
Participation requires psychological safety.
A child may worry about giving the “wrong” answer, disappointing an adult, being judged or getting somebody into trouble. They may need longer processing time. They may communicate more successfully through drawing, scaling, photographs, symbols, play or conversations with somebody they trust.
We should be especially careful not to confuse difficulties with conventional communication with an absence of views.
The question is not simply:
“Did we ask?”
It is:
“Did we create the conditions in which this child could genuinely tell us?”
Voice
Children also need support to form and communicate their views.
Sometimes adults ask children to make decisions without giving them enough information to understand the options.
“Which consequence do you think is fair?”
“Would you like to move groups?”
“Do you want extra support?”
These are only meaningful questions if the child understands what the possibilities involve.
Voice therefore involves making information accessible and helping children think through their experience.
We also need to remain curious about how children communicate.
A young person saying, “I don’t care,” may be expressing frustration, anxiety, previous experiences of not being listened to or uncertainty about whether their opinion will make any difference.
Rather than concluding that a pupil is “unwilling to engage”, we might ask:
What would make it easier for this young person to communicate their experience?
Audience
Perhaps one of the most overlooked elements of participation is audience.
Children may be asked for their views repeatedly.
Teachers ask. Teaching assistants ask. Pastoral staff ask. SENDCOs ask. Educational psychologists ask. Parents ask. Forms and surveys ask.
But from the child’s perspective, the more important question may be:
“What happens when I tell you?”
Listening involves more than recording what a child says.
It requires adults who are genuinely prepared to consider the child’s perspective, including when it challenges their own interpretation.
A pupil might say:
“I hate coming into school in the morning.”
Our first instinct might be to reassure them or explain why attendance is important.
But meaningful participation requires curiosity before persuasion.
Is the difficulty about separation from a parent? The noise of the playground? Uncertainty about what will happen that day? A difficult peer interaction? A particular lesson? Feeling rushed?
A statement that initially sounds like resistance may contain important information about how school is being experienced.
Listening does not mean agreeing with everything a child requests. It means taking their perspective seriously enough to explore it.
Influence
Influence is perhaps the clearest distinction between consultation and participation.
Children quickly notice whether adults are asking genuine questions or ceremonial ones.
If we repeatedly ask for their opinions but nothing appears to change, we risk teaching them that participation is performative.
Imagine a pupil tells us that the noise in the dining hall makes lunchtime overwhelming.
Perhaps they could eat slightly earlier. Perhaps a quieter area could be created. Perhaps ear defenders would help. Perhaps they would prefer to sit with a smaller group.
Or perhaps some options cannot realistically be offered.
The key principle is feedback.
We might say:
“Thank you for explaining what lunchtime feels like. We can’t change where everyone eats, but we can try the quieter table you suggested for two weeks and see whether it helps.”
The child has not been given complete control.
But they have experienced influence.
Even when a preferred option cannot happen, explaining why matters.
Without feedback, children may conclude:
“They asked me, but nobody listened.”
With feedback, they can understand:
“They listened, considered my idea and explained what they could do.”
What this can look like in everyday school life
Meaningful participation does not need to become another initiative. It can be woven into everyday practice.
Before responding to a behaviour incident, ask:
“What do you think happened?”
“What was going on for you at the time?”
“What might help next time?”
Before changing a child’s seat, timetable, support arrangement or group, ask what they think might help and what they are worried about.
When planning learning, give pupils genuine choices where appropriate: how they demonstrate understanding, where they work best, what helps them concentrate or what support feels useful.
When resolving friendship difficulties, avoid making children simply recipients of adult solutions. Help them identify what they would like to change and what a workable next step might be.
And when reviewing any intervention or support, move beyond asking whether it “worked”.
Ask:
“What difference did you notice?”
“What helped?”
“What didn’t help?”
“What should we do differently next time?”
These are small shifts, but they position children as active contributors rather than passive subjects of adult decision-making.
Participation is not the same as giving children everything they want
One anxiety around participation is that involving children means handing over decision-making entirely.
It does not.
Children’s participation exists alongside adult responsibility.
A school might not agree to a pupil’s request never to attend maths, for example. But asking about their experience may reveal that maths is associated with fear of making mistakes, difficulty copying from the board or embarrassment when being asked questions publicly.
The eventual decision may still involve attending maths.
But the experience of maths may change considerably because adults now understand the problem differently.
Participation is not about children always getting their way.
It is about children having a meaningful role in finding a way forward.
Who gets heard?
There is one final question worth considering.
When we create opportunities for participation, whose voices are easiest to hear?
Confident pupils.
Verbally fluent pupils.
Children who enjoy talking to adults.
Children whose communication style fits adult expectations.
Children who can quickly explain what they think and how they feel.
Meaningful participation requires us to think deliberately about those whose voices may be easier to overlook, including children with communication needs, learning difficulties, autism, anxiety, limited spoken language or simply those who find direct questioning difficult.
The responsibility sits with adults to make participation accessible rather than requiring children to become better at fitting our preferred way of listening.
Sometimes meaningful pupil voice may involve very little spoken language at all.
It might involve photographs, symbols, observation, drawing, choosing between options or working through a trusted adult.
Participation begins with the assumption that every child has a perspective worth understanding.
A participation check for school staff
Before making a decision that significantly affects a child or young person, try asking four questions:
Space: Have we created a safe and accessible opportunity for this child to participate?
Voice: Have we helped them understand what is happening and communicate their views in a way that works for them?
Audience: Is somebody genuinely prepared to listen and consider what they say?
Influence: How will the child know what happened as a result of their contribution?
And perhaps add one more:
If the child were asked afterwards whether their involvement mattered, what would they say?
Meaningful participation often begins with small changes.
Asking before deciding.
Giving children different ways to communicate.
Changing an approach because of something they have told us.
Explaining why a requested change cannot happen.
Returning afterwards to say:
“This is what we did with what you told us.”
These moments communicate something powerful:
You are not simply someone school happens to. You are someone who has a meaningful part to play in shaping your experience of it.
