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Fostering Team Spirit for Students and Staff Across Two Separate Sites

“We feel strongly that all of our schools need a really strong pastoral team. It’s all about making children feel they belong,” says headteacher Paul Grimwood…

Elaine Bennett
by Elaine Bennett
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Ah – the summer holidays. Six glorious weeks of getting up when you want to, going to the loo whenever you feel like it and unwinding from another hectic year. But, and we hesitate to say this, does all that spare time ever get a bit, well, tedious?

Not if you’re the headteacher, according to Paul Grimwood: “As a head, there’s no sense of drag at all. In fact, there’s a speed to it all that is really unhelpful when you suddenly realise it’s week five already and you’ve still got so much to do.”

However, that’s not necessarily the case for every member of staff, as Paul explains. “If you’ve got a family or you like to go away for long periods of time, you need that six weeks, but for younger members of staff who perhaps don’t have a family, there can be a sense of drag to the six weeks – I remember it.”

It’s for this reason, among others, that members of staff from Riverbridge and its two sister schools, Saxon and Echelford, dedicate up to three weeks of their holiday to running a daily summer camp for pupils across the three bases.

“For families, the six week holiday is a long time,” says Paul, “and a lot of our parents work. In term time we have a brilliant breakfast club and we work with two providers that do a really good job with after-school clubs, but there’s also that need in the summer.”

This summer, the camp was hosted at Riverbridge, with trust minibuses shipping children in from neighbouring schools.

It isn’t only selfless dedication driving the staff to run the activity days – they do get paid – but it’s a chance for teachers to reconnect with what drew them to the profession in the first place, explains Paul.

My favourite trip was the Y6 visit to Bristol. The city is famous for graffiti so we went on a street art tour which links with our current street art project. The range of trips is great and everyone enjoys them.

“Ofsted results are never a full stop, but we want to get to a point where there’s a break in the sentence. That’s what we’re all driving towards.”

“As leaders, we of course manage and monitor the pastoral side of things – we have fortnightly meetings where we really unpick what’s going on for our families. However, having a strong pastoral team enables SLT to focus on other things too, like getting into class and seeing the quality of teaching and learning – that’s quite fundamental!”

“24 children put themselves forward, so ultimately 21 were disappointed and that’s difficult, but I know that when I was a child, I wouldn’t have had the confidence to stand in front of 600 children, so that feeling is what I hope they took away from it.”

“It’s thinking of ways to overlap the two bases as much as possible,” explains Paul. “It’s all about making children feel that they belong and that Riverbridge is a school to be proud of.”

Name: Riverbridge Primary Executive principal: Mary Ellen McCarthy Headteacher: Paul Grimwood Location: Staines, Surrey Size: 600 pupils Extra info: The school is yet to be assessed by Ofsted

“When I interview NQTs, they often talk about friends on their courses who are thinking about doing supply because they’re not sure if they really want the ‘whole thing’. Teaching is a big deal – it’s a big chunk of work. At summer camp, you get to spend your time leading fun learning – it’s enjoyable.”

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