Teach-Primary-Issue-19.2

F EATURE S RE A L S CHOO L S www.teachwire.net | 49 boundaries, which are explained to them clearly and reinforced regularly. “You never hear a raised voice in our school,” observes Lauren. A partnership with the West Ham foundation enabled the school to introduce cooking and nutrition to the curriculum, and pupils get weekly singing lessons, too. Classrooms have had a bit of a glow-up as well. Suela described to me how the walls were much more colourful these days: “If I don’t understand something, I can look at the wall display to work it out.” Regular whole-class reading has been introduced, with KS2 classes reading a chapter each day, and there are well-stocked book corners in every classroom. Pupils are encouraged to read freely at the end of each lesson, and children can bring in books from home as well. Alongside the creation of a richer curriculum, pupils are now offered a greater variety of extra-curricular activities. Each teacher runs one free club – from crochet to maths – and pupils can take part in a wide variety of sports. Every child has the chance to represent the school at county level, if they wish. Changes have been made to playtimes too, with prefects from the upper years spending time in the KS1 playground helping everyone learn to play together. “The younger kids really love the prefects,” Suela informs me. Have all these efforts made a measurable difference to performance, though? Well benchmark data showed that Year 1 phonics improved by 19 per cent year on year from 2023 to 2024. During the same period, Year 6 SATs results showed improvements of 25 per cent and 23 per cent for maths and reading at expected standard, as well as a 12 per cent increase in reading at higher standard. Things really do seem to be taking a turn for the better. … and the staffroom Centralising the curriculum and tackling challenging behaviour school-wide have both fed into the leadership’s drive to keep workload low and morale high among their colleagues. Other measures introduced include, where possible, laying out key deadlines for the year, so that no-one is asked to get something done ‘by tomorrow’. Ryan also pushed for two-week half-term holidays, to allow as many staff and pupils as possible to get a real rest. One of the objections raised to this initially was the issue of childcare. To address this, a holiday camp is held at one of the Trust’s secondaries, St Martin’s School, led by Hogarth. In addition, all three DET primaries go on Year 6 trips together, allowing each head to just do part of the week. Making use of the Trust’s centralised resources and expertise as much as possible has been key to running Hogarth more smoothly. “I don’t want Rob to be bogged down in policy,” says Ryan. “It takes away from the children.” A lot of policies are centralised across the trust, and Hogarth staff can draw on the financial expertise of both ‘head office’ and other Trust schools. This has included getting some invaluable help in securing two large funding bids. Peer-to-peer support has also been important for Hogarth’s SLT. As well as taking part in joint-trust CPD with fellow heads and deputies, they’ve reached out to other Brentwood schools to share advice and best practice, and look at establishing mutually beneficial partnerships. And at a school level, the most transformative thing of all has perhaps been two simple words. “Rob excels in thanking people for their efforts,” Lauren tells me. “We say thank you all the time. You want to know you’re appreciated.” These efforts are clearly paying off, as not a single staff member left school during the 23/24 academic year, and the current pupils had their first ever year without a change of teacher. Looking outward One thing I definitely didn’t expect to talk about during my visit was the local carvery, but it loomed large over the conversation! The eatery was chosen as the venue for a school I T TAKES A V I LLAGE Throughout my visit to Hogarth, the teaching staff stressed the importance of their non-teaching colleagues in the transformation of the school. Every staff member is deemed important in supporting pupils and creating an environment in which the children can thrive. The office staff – all newly appointed in 2023 – play a particularly important role at the centre of the school community. Like the SLT, they quickly formed a close and efficient team, and their role as first point of contact for parents has been key in bringing the wider community on board with the SLT’s vision for Hogarth. “Everyone is proud to work here,” Rob tells me. “Even our caretaker dressed up for World Book Day this year – that had never happened before.” “Everyone is proud to work here. Even our caretaker dressed up for World Book Day”