Head teacher John Wrigglesworth oversees a handwriting class
shows the greatest influence on whether a child is active or not is whether they have an active mother,” says Barnett. When it comes to tackling problems
like obesity – levels of which are higher around River Bank Primary than in other areas of Luton, while life expectancy is shorter – parental engagement is even more crucial. “It has to be about supporting families, because actually the child has very little say in it,” says Barnett. “We can encourage a child to be more active, but if they then go home and have a fry-up every day, there’s nothing we can do about it.” To this end, a large part of the
school’s remit is to serve not only its children, but also their families and the wider community. The school is already offering weekly activity sessions for parents and even grandparents in a local church hall, but once the new building is complete this will be ratcheted up. “We want to make the school an absolute hub within the local community,” says Barnett. “We’ve built in a family room where we’ll offer all sorts of activities, for families and parents on their own.” While family activities will focus on
fostering positive interaction between parents and children – such as Dads and
February 2014 © Cybertrek 2014
Lads sessions – options for parents will include exercise classes, talks on healthy eating, and literacy and numeracy programmes. Eventually, says Barnett, she’d like to see the school open from 7.00am to 10.00pm, seven days a week.
HIGH ASPIRATIONS Barnett has every confidence in the school’s head, John Wrigglesworth, a seasoned teacher with 12 years’ experience as a primary head and 10 as a local authority schools advisor. With the second term now underway, she’s pleased with how things are going:
“The children have responded really well and the parents… the number of parents who wanted to be parent- governors is just unheard of.” She is aware, however, that the
road ahead will not be an easy one. Aside from the challenge of getting the new school open on time, every year for the next seven years will require a full-on recruitment drive to attract not only the best teachers but also the best teaching assistants, family workers and other staff. Most important of all will be the continuing campaign to get parents on board. “We want to be their absolute first
choice of school,” says Barnett, adding that the ultimate goal is an outstanding OFSTED report. To measure River Bank’s success,
Active Luton will be tracking attendance and academic results (as far as possible in the absence of standardised tests), but Barnett will also be looking for other indicators of the school’s success.
“I hope our children will be inspired to have high aspirations,” she says. “Their personal achievement is crucial to us… we want them to be confident, happy, the best that they can be.” Much as she believes in the model
they have created, Barnett is not convinced that other leisure trusts have the wherewithal to follow in their footsteps: “I can see another leisure trust doing this in partnership with an education organisation, but I don’t know that there’s another leisure trust that employs a team of teachers.” When pushed, however, Barnett
doesn’t rule out the possibility of Active Luton opening more schools of its own in the future. “Oh, gosh, everyone else who works here would kill me!” she says. “I’d like to think that we’d do more; our education work is so important to the whole meaning of Active Luton.” ●
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