Teach Primary Issue 18.6

Working with two other schools in the area, we recently engaged the team at HFL Education to help diagnose causes and look at different strategies to address underlying issues facing children and families in their area. As part of the activity, staff, parents and pupils completed questionnaires, which served as a deep dive into the unique and common challenges facing the schools and the communities they serve. Using the insights gathered, we were able to put together a plan to make Parkgate even more inclusive, with a series of practical actions. These were small changes aimed at making big differences. School clothing Uniform is arguably one of the biggest expenses for parents after food. Many schools have embraced non-branded uniform, which can be purchased at supermarkets, and promote ‘pre-loved’ uniform to make it more affordable and sustainable. PE kit was our biggest challenge. Some of our children never came in with a kit, so we bought it for them in the end. Plimsolls and outdoor trainers were particularly problematic: children’s feet grow so fast! In response to this, we changed our uniform policy to allow black trainers as school shoes. This meant that if parents could only afford one pair of shoes, they could be used for both the school day and PE. Trips The cost of excursions is too much for many families to afford, so we explored options that were closer to home and on a smaller scale, to ensure cost would not exclude any child from taking part. So, we now have a residential at school! Children sleep in the classrooms, we set up a virtual campfire outside and go to a local park in the day. We’ve done trips to nearby woods and class outings to the local post box to post a letter written in class. All these experiences are free or extremely low cost, but still enriching for the pupils. School dinners We made a number of changes to our school meals programme to ensure all our children were well fed and that meals were good value for money. It’s really important that we provide satisfying meals that children want to eat, so we did a survey of our pupils to find out what they wanted to see on the menu. We updated the food choices based on their feedback and upped the size of our portions to make sure there was plenty of food on the plate. Our school dinners are now more popular, and less food goes to waste as children clear their plates. A new normal? A report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation released in July found that, on average, primary school staff estimated that 35 per cent of their pupils had come into school hungry at some point this school year. In deprived areas this rose to 45 per cent. What is shocking about these statistics is that they are no longer surprising. Indeed, primary school teachers and leaders have become accustomed to supporting hungry children – whether in the classroom, through breakfast clubs or by paying for food out of their own pockets. Dealing with hunger has been normalised, and is routine for thousands of primary schools and their staff around the country. Importantly, this is a matter of both hunger and education. Research has consistently shown that hunger in the classroom adversely affects pupil development and academic achievement. Hungry children struggle to concentrate, have low energy levels, and are more likely to be involved in disruptive behaviour and be absent from school. Indeed, the same Sutton Trust survey found 74 per cent of teachers reporting an increase in pupils unable to concentrate or tired in class, and 67 per cent saying they had seen more students with behaviour issues. The Sutton Trust has been calling for the expansion of free school meals, to make it available to all pupils in families on universal credit, and properly supporting breakfast club provision. In its election manifesto the Labour Party committed to free breakfast clubs in all primary schools, which is welcome, but there was no commitment to extending free school meals entitlement. Targeted expansion of FSM eligibility – as opposed to a London-style universal expansion – makes financial sense, targeting support while not paying unnecessarily for those not in need. Analysis by BCG for the Sutton Trust found that extending FSM in this way would cost a relatively modest £360m – £540m with possible additional one-off capital costs of just over £100m, benefiting between 700k and 1.1m additional students. Dealing with hunger in the classroom has to be a priority for the new Labour government. Teachers cannot be expected to continue taking on this welfare role as a regular part of their job. With teachers’ wellbeing, according to the charity Education Support, at an all-time low and with stress, insomnia and burnout all rising, it is not surprising that teacher retention is at crisis levels. Pupil poverty is not the only issue, but if children come into class well fed, paying better attention and better behaved, then any teacher will tell you that that goes some way to preserving not only their wellbeing, but also their love for their job. Kevin Latham is research and policy manager at the Sutton Trust. He previously taught social sciences in a state comprehensive and worked as a university lecturer. 46 | www.teachwire.net