Running
the show
Tuesday July 1,
2008
How
can schools support the 'economic wellbeing' of their
students? One way is to give them jobs. Victoria Neumark
reports
Among the paintings and plants in the hall and corridors at
Raynham school, Edmonton, north London, posters boldly
urge, "Attention all children! Are you helpful, cooperative
and keen to work in teams? Apply for the Raynham Runners!"
The school's "runners", a taskforce of a seventh of the 720
pupils, are not dissimilar to old-fashioned monitors with
added professionalism. Wearing badges and smiles, they tend
to the day-to-day care of the school, from planting and
watering plants to recycling to running messages. But
underlying the simplicity of each task is a recruitment
process that matches key strands of the government's Every
Child Matters programme.
Tricky requirement
The programme, which began in 2004, requires that schools
support every child to be healthy; stay safe; enjoy and
achieve; make a positive contribution; and achieve economic
wellbeing. This last item on the list has sometimes been
tricky for schools to include.
"We couldn't think how a primary school could help with
economic wellbeing," says Marva Rollins, headteacher at
Raynham. "Then, in October 2005, our previous deputy head
thought of this."
"It is a formal process," says Sharon Gepp, the school's
pastoral officer, who administers the scheme. Children fill
in a form, choosing three from a list of jobs like
pencil-sharpening or reading to younger children.
Applicants undergo a formal interview with two members of
staff, where they answer set questions. They receive a
letter of appointment and a badge. Their payment is
certificates of appreciation. If they leave, they must
write a proper letter of resignation. Sample: "Every day I
come into work I get a headache from the little ones, so
I'm sorry, but I have to resign because of my health."
"Runners do make a genuine contribution," says Gepp,
"especially to the appearance of the school, but of course
it's also a great way for us to help them build their
confidence and capability."
Preparation for the world of work permeates the agenda at
Raynham, "to alleviate the impact of poverty on these
children, to give them the freedom to dream", says Rollins.
Edmonton is one of the government's "most deprived areas".
Many children come from refugee or broken homes, and from
more than 50 linguistic backgrounds; 70% are bilingual;
there is 30% pupil mobility. Yet Raynham Sats results -
English and maths both at 69% level 4 or above, science at
89% - are excellent. Ofsted rates the school outstanding,
particularly for the care it takes of its children.
"We didn't need Every Child Matters to tell us what to do,"
says Rollins. "But it has given us a framework to check
that we are doing it.
"We got someone from BT to advise us on enterprise,
building on the success of the runners. He told us the
single best thing we could do for their future job
prospects was to get the children to talk better to
adults." Using open-ended questioning to get children to
talk in complete sentences is now school policy - enjoy and
achieve, economic wellbeing and making a positive
contribution in one.
The runners take their prospects seriously. Laventica, 10,
a Romanian refugee with patchy English, swells with pride
describing her role at the lunchtime board-games club.
Cee-Jay beams as he carefully says, in whole sentences, "I
like the recycling. It's the kind of thing adults do and I
want to do it so when I'm older I can do the right kind of
stuff." And Reeon says simply, "It makes me happy, watering
the plants and filling the water bottles."
Taking
responsibility
Anjuman, aged 10, who is PA to the medical officer,
explains, "You take it seriously because you're responsible
for something." Howie, aged nine, class-teacher assistant,
concurs. "When you do jobs, inside of you feels you're
being responsible for your school." Being a runner happens
only out of lesson time, so numbers fluctuate, but no one
is ever turned away.
Four of the runners have set up a school newspaper, News
for Blues. "I saw a book on school newspapers in the
library," explains Georgia, aged 10. "It looked like a
brilliant idea and I thought: we could do that. So we
advertised and had interviews, and we've appointed an
editorial team." Kameka, also 10, nods vigorously. "We
couldn't have just everybody. It's no good if they might
miss their homework." There are animated discussions about
content. Reeon votes for more sport. Anjuman and Georgia
debate long and hard over how to preserve the anonymity of
questions to the problem page.
These are not children blighted by tower blocks, knife
crime, broken homes, enforced migration and parental
poverty of aspiration, even though those things are all
around them. Edmonton has seen six teenage knife murders
this year. Rollins says, "We can throw up our hands in
horror and say, what do you do? Or we can say, what do we
do next?"
Kameka says, "I want to be a politician and maybe prime
minister." And Georgia says confidently, "I'll be a
journalist."
Rollins adds: "They don't walk in anyone's shadow."
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