Schools are not just places of academic learning, they are environments in which young people learn valuable life lessons and where they experience the things that will shape them as adults. Teachers and parents alike have strong views on what these lessons and experiences should be, but what do the students themselves value?

TES surveyed 2,500 secondary students - from across the maintained, independent and alternative provision sectors - to find out what they believe every pupil should have done at school before the age of 16.

Pick up the 29 July issue of TES for a free giant poster for the classroom listing the 100 things they chose, which looks like this:

The list in full...

1. Fall asleep in class
2. Fall off a chair because you were rocking back on it
3. Gain the ability to live on your own
4. Have your teacher contact home with positive news
5. Learn how to be good at interviews
6. Learn how to look after someone or something
7. Try school dinners
8. Be hit in the face by a ball
9. Be proud of some work that you’ve done
10. Throw an old pen in the bin from across the room - and get it in
11. Kick a ball over the fence
12. Learn how to save money
13. Be told to tuck your shirt in, tuck it in, and then walk around the corner and untuck it
14. Forge your parent’s signature in your planner at least once
15. Wear PE kit from the lost property bin
16. Give a speech to an audience
17. Be told how to buy a house
18. Look after a fake baby for a week
19. Learn how to do CPR
20. Get to a cake sale while there are still cakes left
21. Win something
22. Lose something
23. Learn to trust/be trusted
24. Learn about taxes
25. Lead a group of people
26. Take part in community outreach work
27. Learn how to cope with anxiety and stress about exams
28. Learn how to look after yourself
29. Learn what to do if you are in debt
30. Spend your dinner money on sweets before school
31. Dress up for World Book Day
32. Wear uniform on non-uniform day
33. Run a charity event
34. Learn how to love yourself
35. Have your phone go off in a lesson
36. Learn the staff wi-fi code
37. Experience disappointment
38. Learn from your mistakes
39. Educate a teacher on new social trends and terms
40. Dissect something in science
41. Get a part-time paid job
42. Draw on your friend’s book
43. Experience loyalty from a friend
44. Take part in a school production
45. Visit an old people’s home
46. Forget to do homework
47. Have a school romance
48. Experience the need to be resilient
49. Listen to music in lessons
50. Break something and deny all knowledge
51. Go with your parents to parents’ evening
52. Talk to someone new
53. Find a hobby you are passionate about
54. Mix with pupils from other schools
55. Push a pull door
56. Visit the school nurse
57. Rename British Bulldog because it’s banned
58. Go on work experience
59. Have a favourite teacher
60. Get a selfie with your favourite teacher
61. Know when it’s important to tell a teacher something − and that it isn’t landing your friend in it, but helping them
62. Own up to a mistake you’ve made
63. Have a water fight
64. Try a new look
65. Get a detention
66. Be in a band
67. Experience different cultures
68. Call the teacher “mum” or “dad”
69. Learn when not to speak
70. Put your hand up in class… and get something right
71. Get a grade you’re proud of
72. Be given responsibility
73. Try new sports
74. Stand up for someone
75. Stand up for yourself
76. Go to the end-of-year prom
77. Go to a national sporting event
78. Have an embarrassing school photograph
79. Vote in a school election
80. Be in a class with none of your friends
81. Represent the school in an activity - academic or sporting
82. Laugh out loud in a quiet class
83. Do a tour around the school for a visitor
84. Have a piece of work on display
85. Walk into the wrong class
86. Have the class go silent just as you say something embarrassing
87. Be more confident and talk to those who have different views
88. Fall or trip in front of everyone
89. Be a role model for younger students
90. Make a best friend for life
91. Do homework during break or lunch for the next lesson
92. Take a risk
93. Take part in after-school activities
94. Partake in a moment of bravery
95. Get annoyed with a friend but remain friends
96. Draw a self-portrait
97. Watch a film in class
98. Fall out with a friend
99. Have a mini heartbreak over “the one”
100. Say sorry to someone you hurt

This is from an article in the 29 July edition of TES. This week’s TES magazine is available at all good newsagents. To download the digital edition, Android users can click here and iOS users can click here

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