TACKLING CHILD POVERTY THROUGH
THE EVERY CHILD MATTERS AGENDA
AT MILTON HALL PRIMARY SCHOOL AND
NURSERY
CONTEXT
Milton Hall is a large primary school with over 580
pupils
 Due to the rising birth rates in the area the school
will be expanding to take almost 700 pupils
 It is situated in one of the most deprived locations
in Southend
 Mobility is an issue with over 50% mobility in some
year groups due to Domestic Violence, Housing
issues, Family issues and pupils returning to their
home land (Often returning at a later date)

CURRENTLY
Over 50% of pupils are from different ethnic
backgrounds
 Around 48% of these pupils have English as an
additional language with many coming to school in
all year groups with no English
 Nearly a third of our pupils are from an Eastern
European background (with 64 of these coming
from a Roma background)
 Around 47% of pupils currently receive Free School
Meals
 School Meal debt is a huge issue for the school
(currently £2,325), with those falling just below the
threshold for FSM really struggling

CURRENTLY:





The school has pupils travelling from as far as Southchurch
and Shoeburyness but majority come from Milton and
Victoria wards
20% of pupils are known to live in over crowded households
and we believe this figure to be higher particularly amongst
our Eastern European families
There is conflict between the different communities outside of
school. This is not seen amongst pupils in school
Over 40 languages are spoken, with English, Polish and
Bengali being the most popular
130 pupils have family/learning mentor intervention and 66
of these have Social care intervention. There are currently 6
looked after children on roll, 6 children with CPP and 3
classified as Children in Need.
CURRENTLY...
We have a large Roma community
 Many of these pupils have poor attendance, live in
very overcrowded conditions, live in an extended
family but not necessarily with parents
 There is racial tension between this community, the
Polish community and the White British
community (not seen in school)
 Many of these families do not value education as
they have had bad experiences in their homeland
(persecution, segregation)
 Families do not always declare themselves as Roma

SUCCESSES FOR OUR
PUPILS
Pupils start the school at very low levels but make
great progress
 By the end of KS2 FSM pupils make better progress
and attain more highly than our non-FSM pupils
bucking the National Trend.
 2011 SATs tests show:
 80% of FSM pupils achieving a level 4+ in English
compared to the National average of 67%
 85% FSM achieving level 4+ in Maths compared
with a National average of 67%
 80% achieved a level 4+ in English & maths
combined compared with 58% nationally

SO WHY? HOW ARE
WE NARROWING THE GAP?
BREAKFAST CLUB
BE HEALTHY...A HUNGRY CHILD IS A CHILD NOT
READY TO LEARN
Healthy Meals
 Fruit for every child funded by school
 Pupils grow fruit and vegetables in school garden
and cook and eat them
 Joint cookery sessions with Chase High School
 Family cooking and eating together sessions
 ‘Cooking on a shoestring’ sessions for parents
 Enterprise projects including ’Healthy recipe
books’,
 Breakfast club free to pupils funded by Greggs
bakers
 Family breakfast sessions funded by school

TAPPING OUR WAY TO SUCCESS
BE HEALTHY....HEALTHY BODY,
HEALTHY MIND
Many free after school clubs including, football,
rugby, running club, hockey, street dance, modern
dance, tap dance, zumba
 Southend Football Club exercise and football
sessions
 All equipment, clothing etc required for above clubs
provided by school enabling access for ALL pupils
 Outdoor learning important part of the curriculum
in ALL weathers
 30 pairs of tap shoes!
 Wellies and outdoor coveralls provided for all
children enabling them access to outdoor play and
learning all year round

BE SAFE
Working closely with all agencies: Health, police,
IYSS, LSCB, road safety
 Participating in Awareness weeks, events etc
 Anti-bullying....whole school approach using the
SEAL curriculum
 E-Safety
 Parents.....parenting workshops
 Parent Support Worker employed full time by the
school to support families in need...deals with
safeguarding issues, supporting families with
housing needs, DV issues, accessing work, benefits
etc.
 Qualified counsellors on site for children, families
and parents

BE SAFE
ATTENDANCE....NEED TO BE






HERE TO LEARN!
Full time Attendance Officer/Home school Liaison
Officer employed by school
Many attendance incentives run in school
Weekly attendance raffle/class trophy
Half termly class attendance winners get to make their
own professional music DVD using our media studio
equipment which they perform to parents.
Weekly visit from Mr. Bigg via DVD from Hawaii, a
character created by our attendance team. A successful
business man who attended school regularly....motivates
and inspires pupils to attend school
Termly trips to Megazone/Kids Kingdom for 100%
attendance, effort and behaviour.
WOW!!! SO GLAD I
WENT TO SCHOOL!!
ENJOY AND ACHIEVE....WHY I WANT TO COME TO
SCHOOL!
Engaging and creative curriculum that brings
learning alive!
 Real life learning
 Mantle of the Expert projects.....creating enterprises
through drama
 Providing opportunities children will not have
outside of school:
 Media suite, professional cameras, green screen
technology, editing suite, music studio (instuments
and tuition provided by school), radio station,
Ipads, Kindles, used throughout the curriculum.
Enables equal access to all learners.
 Qualified film maker in residence

ENJOY AND ACHIEVE.....WHY MY PARENTS LIKE TO
COME TO SCHOOL!!
Support staff that speak the languages of our
learners. We have a Roma support worker, Czech,
Polish, Russian, Bengali, Urdu and Punjabi
speaking LSA’s.
 These staff also act as translators for our parents
and support them during parent consultations, help
with induction, support with form filling, both for
school and other purposes.
 Workshops run for families in English, maths and
ICT.
 English classes run for EAL parents
 DVD’s made by pupils in own language and shown
to parents to showcase school

IDENTIFYING AND REMOVING BARRIERS....WHAT
WE DO BEST
2 Full time Learning Mentors work with pupils that
are at risk of underachieving due to emotional or
social issues or trauma. They also work with the
families of these pupils.
 3 other Learning Mentors work closely with
identified pupils on a one to one basis.
 Pastoral team meets weekly to discuss identified
children, track progress and make
recommendations
 Dyslexia and discalculia screening programmes in
place. Special programmes resources put in place to
support pupils and parents with
dyslexia/discalculia

ECONOMIC WELLBEING...
School Bank
 Moneysense project run in school by Nat West Bank
 Making Maths fun!!
 Real life maths
 Budgets/applying for funding (for year 6 disco)
 Working with Children’s Centre....credit union
sessions for parents

ENTERPRISE PROJECTS!
Pupils run enterprise projects to enable them to
raise money for their own school trips.
 School used to pay for/heavily subsidise school
trips
 Lessons pupils learning?
 Pupils set up enterprise from scratch. Create
company, devise jobs, apply for jobs, write CV’s,
attend interviews, carry out market research, work
out budgets, design product, make, market,
advertise and sell. Work out profit and look at reinvestment of some funds
 Children have ownership

PROJECTS TO DATE
‘Garden Friends’ bird table company.
 ‘Real Recipe company’ Recipe books professionally
bound and sold
 ‘Photo Fabulous’ Photo frames for special
occasions
 ‘Music Marvels’ CD’s. Pupils composed, recorded,
edited and produced CD’s including artwork for
cover.
 ‘Victorian Christmas’ All gifts Victorian from
Christmas tree decorations to bookmarks and
Christmas cakes. Enabled families to buy affordable
gifts!

ENTERPRISE
Parents and volunteers are also involved with
projects
 This has enabled pupils to pay for school trips to:
London, Adventure Island, Le Touquet in France, a
residential experience at Belchamps Scout camp
 The sense of achievement the pupils feel is
immeasurable.
 Parents do not have to worry about finding money
for trips, alleviates stress, feelings of failure etc.
Children do not have to worry because their parents
have not paid.
 Children begin to recognise the sense of
achievement that comes with ‘working’ Too many
live in families stuck in the ‘benefit culture’ It’s
about changing attitudes as well.

MAKING A POSITIVE CONTRIBUTION...






Joint projects with Buckingham House, valuing our
older community (WW2 documentary)
Special lunches, dinners etc prepared and served by
pupils to members of the community
Special events such as : ‘Love where you Live’ joint
project with Southend Council community and
enterprise department celebrating all cultures and
communities within our school
Cultural weeks, valuing all cultures in school and the
contribution they make to our school and local
community
Family sessions: art, cooking, dance etc
Charity events to raise money for children in ‘poverty’
WHY DOES IT WORK?
Working on Maslows Hierachy of needs, we ensure
the lower level needs are met first. Children cannot
learn if they are hungry, thirsty, tired, worried, cold,
don’t feel safe, have witnessed violence, have been
the victim of violence, don’t feel valued or loved. If
they are unable to learn they will get caught in the
poverty trap that so many are in currently.
 Once we have addressed specific barriers facing the
most disadvantaged groups of our children, we
make learning real, exciting and inspiring. Our
children experience success!
 Our pupils want to come to school, they want to
learn, they look to the future with excitement. They
want to make a difference!

INCLUSION AND BELIEF!

It is our duty to enable all of our pupils to achieve
their potential by improving their attainment,
aspiration and progression at all stages of
education.

At Milton Hall ‘We Can and We Do!’