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The PROGRESS Programme gave a very specific focus to the voice of pupils and support staff. The fact that the survey results were taken away, distilled and then brought back enabled people to talk about their views and how they had been treated. It was powerful.
Susan Papas, Headteacher
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A year after finishing the PROGRESS Programe, Heavers Farm Primary scored its best SATS results for many years. The headteacher credited this to a whole range of things the school had been doing to address the emotional needs of children, some of which had either come out of the work with Antidote or been refined through it.
'Because of the levels of deprivation, the level of criminality, the kind of things we face in our local community,' says the headteacher, 'we cannot get near raising standards without addressing behaviour, attitudes, relationships and emotional issues. Unless we do that, standards are never going to go up. We cannot separate those things out. Those children cannot step out of their home situations, come into school and leave the issues aside. No adult can do that. So why would we expect children to do it?'
Before starting PROGRESS, the school had been going through an unsettled period. This had led to staff not feeling well supported, and students not feeling very safe. Children gave a low rating to their relationships with adults and with peers.
Doing PROGRESS gave the whole school community a structured opportunity to talk about what had happened in the past and what they wanted to happen in the future. The headteacher says it was a particularly powerful experience for the older children to be able to describe how they felt they had been treated in their relationships with teachers and other staff.
Specific things that came out of the work include:
- Fencing off an area of the playground that the survey had identified as unsafe; children were taken there and bullied
- Arranging for Year 5 and Year 6 students to act as buddies and mentors to the young children, and generally to take responsibility for making things better
- Enabling support staff to have a voice alongside that of the teachers
But the biggest change, according to the headteacher, has been the shift in mood as teachers and support staff found that they had a common purpose and were being given a place to voice their views. Everyone's experience can now be heard. This means that their needs can be more effectively addressed.
