Hexthorpe is a large community school, with 451 pupils aged 4 to 11 and the area houses a large transient population, in an area of high deprivation, with 63% of children speaking English as an additional language and over 50% of children eligible for free school meals. Over 30 languages are spoken by families in the community at Hexthorpe and kindness between us, our community and pupils has a great impact across our school. Hexthorpe is part of the ‘Choose Kindness’ pledge, launched by Doncaster Council in September 2023.
‘One Stop Shop’ school hub
Through weekly ‘one stop shop’ meetings, the school is helping families with any issues or support they need. This in turn enables children to attend school, with equipment provided by Hexthorpe including free book bags, water bottles and uniform, ready to learn, receive a good education and experience a real sense of belonging to school and the community within Hexthorpe. Recently, our children have been asking their parents when they can attend school, as they miss it so much in the holidays! The kindness and support offered to families is reflected in the pride our children have in attending our school and from their families who appreciate our help.
Local input
We run the community hub with input from groups including Doncaster Council’s Stronger Families programme, the local Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs), local church and faith groups. We call ourselves more than just a school, we are a base where families can drop in, access help and information from for example, issues with crime, housing, issues with boilers or landlords or domestic abuse. A lot of families are new to the country and may not always trust people in authority, or know what rights they have under the Landlords Licensing Act. By running our weekly hubs, we are offering a lifeline to our families and at the same time, building positive community links – anyone in the area can attend our meetings and don’t have to be at Hexthorpe, we also welcome neighbouring schools to come. The most important thing we can do is support our families, so that when the child comes to school, it’s all about their education and time at school, and not worrying about what is happening at home. For example, when one year, sadly a family had a house fire and lost everything – we were able to source beds, sofas, and what we couldn’t source we found someone to help.
Food, clothing and basic needs banks
We hold our own foodbank on a Wednesday, and a clothing and basic needs bank that we will help families access what they need. We host health professionals twice a year, and aim to get parents registering with dentists, or for breast screening for example. This enables families who do not normally access professional support to come somewhere they feel safe at our school.
Starting school, calming anxieties
We do all our early years admissions through home visits with our safeguarding lead and the classroom teacher, to get to know the families and help parents with any anxieties or worries. We also want to remove any affordability issues, so we help by providing uniform and equipment they need, alongside the food bank, clothing and basic needs provisions we offer.
Translation apps
We help support families with their English by using a special translator app on our ipads. We will also represent families in weekly meetings and help them get issues resolved – perhaps with a faulty boiler or damp, someone who is experiencing domestic abuse or explaining their rights under the landlord licensing scheme.
By offering kindness and help early on, we are able to feed back to children within our curriculum at school and be extremely responsive – for example community issues with crime, antisocial behaviour, stranger danger or safeguarding. By being kind, we offer trust between ourselves as the school hub and the wonderful families that make up Hexthorpe Primary Academy.
Our early interventions and weekly hubs have an enormous impact on the local community and our pupils. We are creating safe spaces to people who are often new to the country, or fleeing war torn or unsafe homelands. We help families understand what they are entitled to, where to find help and to form relationships with people who want to help them. This in turn takes pressure off their children, who pick up English very quickly and often act as translators at home, to be able to come to school and be children, receive a brilliant education and enjoy being at school.