This article by Carly Chynoweth discusses the strategy employed by the head of Loughborough Primary School, Richard Thornhill, in delivering holiday activity programmes for local students for the past ten years.
If Richard Thornhill’s pupils at Loughborough Primary School were only offered summer activities run by the local authority many of them simply wouldn’t go, no matter how much fun they sounded.
For a start, the school is at the centre of an estate in Brixton, south London, which makes it easy for children to get to. And parents trust the school, so they are happy about it too. The other big factor is that, in an area that suffers from inter-estate tension, children may not feel safe going to a centrally organised programme that may be in the territory of a rival gang.
“It is very difficult for children and parents to travel,” Richard says. “That’s why we tend to deliver for children on the Loughborough estate. The school is right in the middle of the estate so the children can walk to it as they normally do without worrying about being assaulted or having to travel. If it was in a different place people just wouldn’t go.” The same holds true on many other inner-city estates in big cities around the country, he adds.
Richard, the executive headteacher at Loughborough and two other schools in Brixton, south London, has offered holiday programmes for most of the 10 years he’s been at the school. An element of the initial motivation was a straightforward determination to improve results: “Part of our strategy with exended services was just because we wanted our children engaged in learning for longer.” Since then he has also seen improvements in parental engagement. “One of the great benefits of the programme is that we get a huge improvement in parental approval ratings,” he says. “What it also means is that when problems do arise it’s easier for parents to see the school in a positive light as we resolve it.”
Hilary Emery, an executive director at the Training and Development Agency for Schools, is trying to encourage even more parents to send their children to summer programmes. At the moment only about 20 per cent do, although more than 80 per cent of schools offer holiday activities. Hilary said: “the activities can be great fun and support future learning and wellbeing, including helping transition from primary to secondary school.”
At Loughborough other partners, notably the Metropolitan Police, also use the school’s associated programme for older children as a way to build bridges with the community by running activities. “Coldharbour ward [where the school is based] is a difficult area for them, so to be able to engage and work with young people is a unique opportunity for them.”
Richard acknowledges that running summer activities does place some extra demands on him and his colleagues, but says he does not see it as a real imposition as he always spends a couple of weeks of his holidays catching up with school work anyway. “Our senior leadership team staggers our holidays to make sure that we always have someone available over the summer, although they do not always have to be at the school,” he says. “We have also have a an extended schools manager who works a standard year … who does all the practical operational activity of overseeing the events that are taking place.”
