Teach-Primary-Issue-19.2

50 | www.teachwire.net council meeting to give pupils a taste of a ‘working lunch’ and seems to have gone down in school legend. This grown-up event made a real mark on the children who attended, and is a good example of the way the Hogarth team have approached reinstating school trips and events. Coming from a catchment area that includes the Newham and East Ham estates, money is an issue for many of the parents. So the school look to the local area where possible, making particular use of the nearby woodland and country park. When they do venture further afield, for instance on a visit to the Houses of Parliament, they eschew coach hire in favour of public transport to keep costs as low as possible. A different perspective Towards the end of my visit, I discovered that EAL pupils make up a third of the school population. No-one I spoke to mentioned this as a negative, or even a challenge. Suela told me proudly about the world map in the dining room, where children can pin photos of themselves to their home countries. Making new arrivals feel welcome was really important, she and Sam agreed, particularly because they may have been having a hard time. Lauren and Clare also referred to “celebrating a wealth of diversity that is unique among Brentwood schools”. With that in mind, the school has looked at different ways to explore different cultures, particularly through the wildly popular dance classes with the new but influential Dancing Dom. Consistently viewing linguistic and cultural diversity as something that enriched Hogarth, rather than a hurdle they had to overcome, really demonstrated the effect that the narratives we tell about our schools can have on their development. Building community Whilst the children could see and embrace immediate changes in school life even from late 2022, their families took a little longer to get on board with the new way of doing things. Hogarth had a poor reputation in Brentwood, and parents felt excluded from school business. Getting word out that better times were on the way was an important step. Part of Ryan and the SLT’s focus on transparency and accountability involved getting parents into school more – taking part in school events, joining the resurgent PTA, or simply being free to pop in to the classroom to see how their child was getting on. Efforts from all staff towards including parents and communicating with them on every aspect of school life seem to have really paid off. The PTA held a successful summer fete in 2024 – the first for many years – and turnout at parents’ evenings is now up to 96 per cent. Pupil attendance also increased by four per cent from 2022 to 2024, and persistent absence went down by 12 per cent. Arriving rather early for my visit to Hogarth, and waiting in reception, I spent some time reading through comments from parents that have been left in the visitors’ book. It was packed with uplifting messages commenting on the improvements the school has made over the past two years, and I shall leave the last words of this feature to one of those parents. “My son started Hogarth this year and has settled in remarkably well into his first English school. It is absolutely wonderful to see my son happily talk about the fun that he has in the various activities for the day (football, swimming, trips and lessons). I am grateful to the kind teachers and staff of the school.” TP LAUREN KING, DEPUTY HEAD AND SENDCO I was excited at the prospect of turning a school around: there’s no better reward than seeing pupils’ performance improve. It’s a unique experience to have staff that are mostly new, but the whole team has bought in to a shared vision. We just want to continue to make the children happy. PENNY GEGGUS, HLTA I always hoped the school could get back to what it was before, and as staff we want to come into work now – it feels a bit like a foster child finding their forever home. The kids are so much more ready for learning when they know they’re valued, too. CLARE CONNOR, ASSISTANT HEAD AND MENTAL HEALTH LEAD We want pupils to leave Hogarth ready for their next steps. It made me quite sad to see what the school had become, but now you can see the change in the children. The main challenge was behaviour, but high-quality teachers and a solid curriculum have helped tackle that. RYAN DUFF, CEO OF DISCOVERY TRUST You need to get collective buy-in. For pupils, barriers need to be overcome, and consequences need to be enforced – we shouldn’t be unintentionally rewarding challenging behaviour. The team ethos is to listen and understand, and every child in this school has a voice. Meet the staff