Running the show

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.

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