Ian Bennett has been headteacher of Downshall primary school in Ilford, east London, for 16 years. In that time he has seen council support and funding ebb away, as poverty and deprivation among the families his school serves has grown. The result is that the needs of his pupils have become greater, but he worries that as cuts bite he will be able to help them less.
Downshall (motto Dream, Persevere, Succeed) is a large, popular primary school serving a mixed, disadvantaged community. On Tuesday morning, the children are playing boisterously in the playground. The rain has held off, toys are scattered and sunflowers are growing apace in their pots.
The school is rated “good” by Ofsted, praised particularly for the way in which it nurtures all aspects of pupils’ development. The children are predominantly from minority ethnic backgrounds with 3% white British pupils and they make strong progress in their time at Downshall. Behind the scenes, however, the school is struggling to make ends meet.
“Initially when I started here there was strong council support,” says Bennett. “There were very good systems in place to support the school with development, special needs, safeguarding and curriculum.”
But with government cuts to council funding and growing pressure on education budgets, Bennett is being forced to axe what he regards as vital services, in particular the pastoral care team that supports the neediest children, enabling them to cope with their anxieties.
It was the school’s lead pastoral care worker, Amanda Redmond, who put in the application to BBC Children in Need, with Bennett’s support. She’s now scrutinising the Turn2us charity website to see if there are more bids she can make.
“It’s just ridiculous,” she said. “We so desperately need pastoral care in this school, with all the social issues and the asylum seekers. We desperately need to keep the team together to make sure these children get the support they need.”
She describes the sort of challenges facing some of the children she works with in the school. “We have a young man whose grandfather was shot dead abroad. He could not cope with that. He was angry. He would not stay in class. He was running around the playground crying.
“I picked him up and worked with him. We did a bereavement book. He still has his moments but he is back in class learning and meeting his expectations,” says Redmond. Bennett adds: “He probably would’ve ended up excluded without that help.”
Other children struggle with the effects of parental drug abuse, domestic violence and unstable, overcrowded housing. “It petrifies me,” says Redmond. “What’s going to happen to those children? They desperately need extra support.”
Bennett agrees. “It’s very shortsighted to cut back on schools because it will come back to bite everybody. We have to go the extra mile for those who have not had the best start in life. Once they get to secondary it’s so much harder.”
A spokesperson for Redbridge council said: “We have considerable sympathy with the views expressed by Ian Bennett. The government has progressively reduced the funding available for local authorities to support schools and this has meant that authorities have either had to concentrate increasingly limited resources on those schools that need the help the most or trade services to schools.
“We believe that this policy is shortsighted and it is to the credit of Redbridge schools that they have maintained such high standards in an increasingly difficult funding situation.”
