Working with the under fives helps build parental engagement

Case study

Loughborough Primary School in Lambeth operates a children’s centre which uses its services to build relationships with parents and families. The value of this work is evident in children’s progress through school.

Key learning

Engaging the fathers of under fives, achieved through a range of events and access to ICT provision and classes, is having a positive impact on children’s success in the early years of their time in school.
The presence of the children’s centre allows disaffected parents to get used to school surroundings so that, by the time their own children are of school age, they’ve lost their own fear of school. Parent surveys confirm that they see the centre as offering good levels of support for children moving into the school and that their experience of it has transformed their views of what school is about.
Joint working gives parents more confidence in ‘the system’ and encourages them to trust and value the support available to them when they need help in parenting.
Language and communication measures and early years indicators consistently testify to the positive impact of the centre’s work. The school is also experiencing rising standards of attainment in Key Stage 2 and improved pupil and staff retention.

Background

Loughborough Primary School’s unusual leadership arrangement is practical evidence of a commitment to collaboration. The school has two headteachers, working in a job share, who report to the executive head of a federation of four schools.

The school, in the inner London borough of Lambeth, was a Fresh Start school seven years ago after being placed in special measures. Since then a purpose built children’s centre, whose manager reports to the two heads, has been attached to the original building. The two organisations have a single governing body with a sub-committee that oversees the children’s centre and extended services. This sub-committee includes representatives of staff and parents, the latter drawn from a local community in which there are many families for whom English is not their first language.

Key challenges

Navigating legal constraints

To begin with, there were constraints on what could be offered because of the different rules applying to schools and to children’s centres.

Suspicion of ‘officials’

Some local families were influenced in their attitudes to education by their own poor experiences of schooling. Many have poor experiences of contact with ‘officials’ and avoid it wherever possible.

Permanence versus transience

A commitment to serving the local community has been challenged by the presence in the children’s centre of a number of families who are not local and whose children move on to other schools.

Solutions

Changing the rules

Some restrictions no longer apply so that, for example, access to ICT and training opportunities can now be offered to parents across the age range covered on site.

Creating common purpose

The two headteachers have a strong shared vision which permeates all that the school and children’s centre do.

Monitoring progress

An assessment policy, operated by the school’s inclusion manager, encompasses the children’s centre so that specific needs are identified before children enter the main school. The leadership team uses a combination of data and family case studies to monitor individual and institutional progress.

Meeting local need

The school builds community cohesion by offering English classes to local families whose first language is not English.

Catering for short-term residents

The two heads adopt a philosophical approach to the requirement to cater for all comers, whether or not they are committed to sending their children to Loughborough Primary School. They take the view that a good general level of service must be of benefit to local people whether they are temporary or long-term residents.

Next steps

The school’s stated aim is to create and nurture a lifelong learning community where the successes of all are expected, achieved and celebrated.

Further information

For further information contact Loughborough Primary School at thook.208@lgflmail.org.