Delivering the experience strand | Primary school

Key topics

• Democratic rights, values and responsibilities.
• Dialogue, deliberation and robust and respectful debate.
• Youth voice, representation, and leadership.
• Collective and participatory decision-making.

Why the Experience strand matters in primary schools

Democratic culture is learned by living it. Primary school is where many learners first experience being part of a group in which their voice can count — where they are asked what they think, listened to, and given a real say in decisions that affect them. The everyday habits of democracy, sharing a view, listening properly, taking turns, disagreeing without falling out, and deciding together, take root here. This strand is about giving learners genuine, repeated experience of those habits in the ordinary life of the classroom and school, so that having and using a voice becomes something they simply expect to do.

In Key Stage 1 this begins with the foundations of voice: routines where everyone gets a turn, talk partners, class votes, and the discovery that their opinion is welcome and their listening matters. In Key Stage 2 learners can take part in richer dialogue and debate, begin to name and value democratic principles such as fairness and equality, and contribute to real decisions through class discussions, consultations and structures like a school council. Across both, the aim is that youth voice is genuine rather than tokenistic, meaning learners shape things that actually change, rather than being consulted for show.

For this to work, learners must feel safe enough to speak, to disagree and to be in the minority. Sharing a view, or holding one that differs from your friends, can feel risky, and for some learners being asked to speak at all can feel exposing. A democratic classroom culture is therefore, first, a safe and predictable one, in which every contribution is valued, no one is put on the spot, and disagreement is treated as ordinary. Building that security is not preliminary to the democratic work; it is the democratic work.

My approach

I treat democratic culture as something we do every day, not a topic we cover. The classroom is the main resource: how we make decisions, whose voice gets heard, and how we handle disagreement:

• I look for small, real opportunities to hand learners genuine choices, for example: what to name the class reading corner, how to solve a shared problem, which of two options to vote for.  I make the process visible, so learners can see democracy working.
• Building a  safe culture of talk is crucial, and that is where I start. We build simple, shared ground rules, everyone gets a turn, we listen to understand, we can disagree with an idea while staying kind to the person, and it is always fine to change your mind or to “pass”.
• I use consistent routines so learners know exactly how discussion works and feel secure taking part. Getting that settled, safe-enough climate in place is what allows quieter and more anxious learners to find their voice.

In Key Stage 1 I keep participation frequent, short and low-stakes:

• Daily chances to share with a partner.
• Regular class votes with hands or cubes
• Circle-time questions where every child can offer a sentence.

In Key Stage 2 I widen it with:

• Structured discussion and simple debate with sentence stems.
• Roles within group decisions.
• Real links to school structures such as learner-voice consultations.
• The through-lines are collaboration, oracy and genuine agency: the learner learning to speak, listen, weigh others’ views and make decisions together, on things that matter to them.

A routine I come back to is Our Class Decision. A repeatable five-step way to make a real decision democratically, so that having a genuine say becomes an ordinary weekly habit rather than a one-off event.

How to run it (a single session, or across a week):
1\. Propose - A genuine choice goes to the class, this could be a proposal box learners post ideas into or a live question you can honestly act on. Be clear what is, and isn’t, up for decision.
2\. Hear all sides - In talk partners rehearse a view first, then a few share using the ground rules: question the idea, not the person, and anyone can pass.
3\. Decide - Vote in a way everyone can access: hands, cubes in a jar, coloured cards, or a secret ballot for anything sensitive.
4\. Act - Carry out the decision. This step is non-negotiable: a vote that changes nothing teaches the opposite of democracy.
5\. Review - Revisit it later: did it work, how did it feel to have a say, and what would we do differently? This is also where you look after the learners who were in the minority.

In Key Stage 1, keep to simple either/or choices, vote with hands or cubes, and scribe the reasons.

In Key Stage 2, open up the proposals, add a short debate and roles, use a secret ballot, and link it to the school council.

A note for teachers: the risk with learner voice is tokenism, asking learner’s opinions and then changing nothing. A small, genuine decision is worth more than a large, hollow one. Start with choices you can honour, be clear about what is and isn’t up for decision and always close the loop by showing learners what happened as a result.

If you can only do one thing… 

Give your class one real, small decision to make together this week, and act on it. The experience of having a voice that genuinely counts teaches more about democratic culture than any explanation.

Where this fits into the curriculum

Democratic culture is best built into the fabric of the school day rather than taught in isolation. Strong homes for it include:

• English - Spoken language and oracy: discussion, turn-taking, presenting a view, and listening and responding.
• PSHE / RSHE / Citizenship - Rights, responsibilities, fairness, and getting on with and respecting others.
• Whole-school structures - School council, learner voice, class charters, school policies and assemblies, where participation is real.
• Everyday classroom routines - Circle time, class jobs, shared problem-solving and class votes.
• Across the curriculum - Collaborative group work in any subject, where learners practice reaching decisions together.

Because it lives in routines and relationships, every adult in the school helps shape it, which makes a shared, consistent approach especially powerful.

Key resources

If you have 30 minutes or less… 

• Hold a single circle-time question or class vote on a real choice, then reflect briefly on how it felt to have a say.

1 hour… 

• Find out about Parliament voting booklet, UK Parliament - Use this guidance to run a simple discussion or debate on an issue learners care about, using ground rules and sentence stems.

1–3 hours… 

• Communities: What does it mean to be British? Democracy lesson, Oak National Academy - Deliver this lesson to introduce the concept of democracy and explore examples of how young people can take part in democracy in their day to day lives. Encourage learners to identify where democracy happens in their own class and school. From here, you could set up or refresh a class charter or class-council routine so that pupil voice becomes regular rather than one-off.

4–6 hours… 

• The Big Democracy Lesson, Young Citizens - Run a short unit on democratic values — fairness, equality, having a voice — anchored in real decisions in the class or school.

6 hours plus… 

• Find out about Parliament voting booklet, UK Parliament - Use this booklet to help learners understand how we can improve our community and bring about change by asking questions.
• Then, run a learner-voice project in which learners consult, deliberate and make a collective decision that leads to a real change in their school.

Considerations for learners with additional needs

• Keep the same routines for discussion and voting each time - talk partners, circle time, agreed signals for listening.
• Offer sentence stems for sharing a view and for responding to someone else’s.
• Give more than one way to vote or contribute: hands, cubes, cards, symbols, a talk partner, or drawing.
• Protect anyone holding a minority view, never single a child out, and keep the right to “pass”.
• Let learners rehearse in a small group before speaking to the whole class.
• Keep contributions short, low-stakes and frequent, so taking part becomes familiar.
• Model disagreeing with the idea, not the person, and handle disagreement with warmth.