The purpose of this assignment is to propose a school community project. The proposal will be for the PTE school that I attended earlier this year. To ensure anonymity, the school will be referred to as ‘School X’ throughout this assignment. School X is situated on the outskirts of a city in South Wales. School X currently has an average of 39.9% of children who are eligible for Free School Meals (FSM) and an average of 23.9% of pupils speak English as an additional language within the school. (Richards, Jones and Edwards, 2019, p.3). It is crucial that schools have strong links and integrate within the community that they are based in. Successful Futures (Donaldson, 2015, p.30) highlights this importance within one of the four purposes, being that it is fundamental that for pupils to be ‘ethical, informed citizens’, they should be “knowledgeable about their culture, community, society and the world, now and in the past.” The creation and implementation of successful school community projects develop and enhance these links with the locality thus enabling pupils to develop their knowledge and allow them to link these skills to their everyday lives. 

The school has many ongoing community links including a local Reverend who attends the school weekly to deliver assemblies to the pupils. Additionally, the school holds termly fetes open to parents, carers and the wider community. The school actively raises funds for local and national charities by holding fundraisers both within the school and in the community at a local retail park. School X’s pupils regularly attend the local community farm run by volunteers from the area. The primary focus selected for the community project proposal is pupils’ wellbeing and how to ‘further embed Relationships First’ (School X, 2019, p.12). This focus has been chosen as it was identified within School X’s School Development Plan (SDP) and the wellbeing of pupils is at the centre of School X’s ethos. The wellbeing of pupils should be seen as a fundamental aspect of education as not all children have access to a safe, stable environment where they can be truly happy, content or safe. Cowburn and Blow (no date, p.9) support this by stating “schools provide an ideal environment for promoting good emotional wellbeing and identifying early behaviour changes and signs of mental distress.” By teachers and practitioners identifying changes to a pupil’s behaviour, they can then identify what is causing the change and resolve it. 

Wellbeing has been chosen as the focus for this school community project as it is a fundamental aspect of all children’s holistic development and all schools should ensure that the pupil’s wellbeing is a priority. School X strongly supports this vision and believes that providing an education that is concerned with the development of the whole child is important, and that education should be as enjoyable as possible for pupils. School X is a “Relationship First School”, the school believes that relationships are crucial in the learning environment and aids pupils to achieve more in all aspects of their development. School X states in its “Relationship’s Management Policy” that “good relationships underpin all that we do.” (Cadle Primary School, 2018, p.2). This illustrates why it is important for the school to have good links and relationships within their community. 

Urie Bronfenbrenner (1917-2005) was a psychologist who created an ecological systems theory, “he placed significant emphasis upon the wider environment when attempting to explore child development.” (Gray and Macblain, 2015, p.122). Within Bronfenbrenner’s theory, there were five layers from the centre to the outer layer was the: “microsystem”, “mesosystem”, “exosystem”, “macrosystem” and “chronosystem”. All of these layers surrounded the child, the layer which connected the child between their local and school community was the mesosystem. This is where the child will make connections between their school and their community. (Gray and Macblain, 2015, p.124). Bronfenbrenner recognised the social, emotional, financial and political factors that contributed to a child’s learning and development and therefore this theory supports school X’s ethos of the holistic develop that they promote. 

As aforementioned, School X has the high percentage of 39.9% of pupils who have FSM’s, this indicates that there could be families who are experiencing financial challenges or have low incomes which could relate to poverty. Interestingly, Egan (2013, p.2) states that the average amount of children in Wales who live in relative poverty is approximately 17% by “using the percentage of children receiving free school meals (FSM) as an indicator”. Arshad, Wrigley and Pratt (2012, p.147) state that relative poverty relates to a larger group of people than absolute poverty and note that “absolute poverty signifies the inability to maintain your body in reasonable health” and relative poverty “refers to a sense of deprivation relative to current social expectations”. Although these figures are quite alarming, the government cannot simply rely on FSM statistics to provide a definitive percentage of children across Wales who are suffering from poverty, whether it is absolute, relative poverty or a combination of both. The Welsh Government (2020a) found that between 2018 and 2019, “children were the age group most likely to be in relative income poverty (at 28%).” This illustrates that relative poverty has become an increasing problem over the past few years in Wales however, it also shows that not all sources retrieve statistics on relative poverty by basing it on FSM’s. The Welsh Government (2020a) state that all figures given in relation to relative income poverty in Wales come after housing costs such as water rates and mortgage interest payments. These statistics are solely on relative income poverty which will also have a direct effect on children as they will somehow face disadvantages as a result such as: not having fashionable clothes, not attending friends’ parties or going on holidays.

It is evident that School X has a higher percentage of pupils who receive FSM’s than the percentage of children who are in the national statistic of relative poverty which is 28%. This identifies that School X is likely to be situated within a community which faces poverty. Williams states that it is “our national mission” to “raise standard, reduce the attainment gap and deliver an education system that is a source of national pride and confidence.” (Welsh Government, 2017, p.3). To support this, Paulo Freire (1921-1997) who was “one of the most influential educators and social thinkers of the late twentieth Century” and he “suggested that education can be used to domesticate or to liberate” and that “teachers can be agents of change or they can be guardians of the status quo.” Arshad, Wrigley and Pratt (2012, p.4). By creating successful school community projects that will involve the pupils, parents/carers and the wider community, it is giving all pupils equal opportunities and encouraging people from: different financial backgrounds, different ethnic groups and different ages to merge together and become an welcoming, inclusive community, regardless of any differences. 

According to (Unicef, no date), “every child has the right to the best possible health.” They also state that “governments must provide education on health and well-being so that children can stay healthy.” School X has a designated Welfare Officer who is employed by the school to address any wellbeing needs of the pupils and aids parents/carers with any concerns they may have or any support that may be needed. Some children’s wellbeing may not be prioritised in their home setting and this can consequently have a detrimental effect on their education and lifestyle choices as they develop and get older. For this reason, it is essential that schools ensure that wellbeing is considered and implemented within the school’s policies and the school’s natural environment. 

Estyn has recognised good practice in School A where a “strong emphasis is placed on staff wellbeing and, in addition to providing enrichment extra-curricular activities for pupils, there is a variety of wellbeing clubs available for staff.” (Estyn, 2019a). The Estyn case study (2019a) also notes that the school “provides a welcoming environment for all pupils” and that the staff of the school are committed and dedicated and “share the same principles for developing pupils’ self-esteem.” This case study demonstrates good practice for incorporating wellbeing into the school environment. It also illustrates how important wellbeing is, not only for pupils of a school but also for the staff. 

The Children’s Commissioner for Wales, Professor Sally Holland has created a three-year plan for children and young people between 2019 and 2022. Under the ‘health and well-being’ section which falls under the key points from the evidence review, it is noted that “some of the most positive trends of children’s lives in recent years have been in relation to health.” Yet, there are still concerns which relate to the trend in obesity and the amount of fruit and vegetables that children consume. It also states that “Wales’ children [are] more likely to be over-weight than those in England.” (Professor Sally Holland, 2019, p.9).  This demonstrates that there is more than one aspect involved in well-being which include social and emotional needs, physical needs and mental health needs. 

A review of the impact of school experience on mental health in early adolescence was conducted by McLaughlin and Clarke. At the end of the review they concluded that relationships between people within a school environment are essential in “shaping engagement with school.” They also note that “this sense of belonging influences well-being, academic outcomes and social development, short and long term.” (McLaughlin and Clarke, 2010, p.99). Although this review was conducted with slightly older children than primary school age, the statement is still relevant to children of all ages. 

Wellbeing is an important part of children’s development for various reasons. Abraham Maslow (1934) created a motivation theory, which is called “Maslow’s hierarchy of needs”. There are five levels within the hierarchy: the bottom level is physiological, the second is safety, the third is love/belonging, the fourth is esteem and the fifth and final level is self-actualization. Maslow believed that a person has to start at the bottom and have their basic needs met which is physical survival. He believed that “Once that level is fulfilled the next level up is what motivates us, and so on.” (McLeod, 2020). This supports School X’s ethos on wellbeing as Maslow’s theory illustrates that a person has to have their basic needs met before they can gain motivation to move onto the next level. If pupils are not content and happy, they will not be able to move up the hierarchy and will not have the motivation that they need to eventually reach self-actualisation. However, if pupil’s wellbeing is a priority of the school and if the school can help pupils with certain aspects of their wellbeing, they will then be able to move up the hierarchy which will be beneficial to them as they grow up. 

The school community project is a proposal for the Key Stage 2 (KS2) pupils of School X and the aims of the project are to increase the wellbeing of the pupils, families and the wider community of the school. This is linked to the priority under wellbeing in the SDP which states to ‘further embed Relationships First’ (School X, 2019, p.12). This project proposal consists of three activities which include: weekly visits to a local care home, weekly cookery club and an annual fundraiser for the local community farm. 

The first activity is for a group of approximately ten pupils to visit a local care home each week. This could be implemented as a part of a carousel activity to ensure that all pupils have had the opportunity to go. As there are a range of twenty-five to thirty pupils to a class, two/three classes would be able to go each half term. The activity would involve the pupils going to the care home, chatting to the residents, making arts and crafts, reading with the elderly people, singing songs together, helping the residents in the garden with planting flowers. The pupils could teach the residents how to use iPads and the residents could tell them about aspects of their lives which can teach the pupils vital information about the history of Wales. The Welfare Officer would be responsible for arranging the visits and overseeing which members of staff would take the pupils to the care home. As there would only be ten pupils going each week and the local care home is nearby, they could walk to the care home eliminating transport costs and only two members of staff (consisting of one teacher and one teaching assistant) would need to take the pupils to the care home. A cost consideration is to ensure that there are enough staff in school to cover the rest of the classes, it could be a possibility that a supply teacher or teaching assistant may be needed to cover for half a day to enable the pupils and staff to got to the care home. 

Estyn (2019b) has written a case study named “connecting generations”, this case study shows how School B have interacted with their local care home weekly with the school’s aim being “to ‘give back’ to the community: improving the health and wellbeing of older adults and an opportunity for the children to interact with other people.” This involved approximately 45 pupils in the School Choir having a weekly “joint rehearsal with residents.” The sessions had become so popular that residents of other care homes, family members and Police Community Support Officers regularly attend the sessions. A very positive impact was gained from the experience for the pupils, residents and wider community and staff noted that they “have seen pupils develop in confidence and self-esteem” and also the valuable relationships “that have been formed cannot be under-estimated.” (Estyn, 2019b). This case study clearly reflects how the interaction between pupils and care home residents can have such a positive effect on the wellbeing of all involved, including the wider community. 

The second activity is for the introduction of a school cookery club which will teach pupils, parents and community how they can cook affordable but healthy meals at home. This club would be available for pupils, parents and people from the wider community to attend once a week, for one hour and would take place in the school’s main hall. The club could be run by one of the KS2 teachers or by members of staff whom have a culinary passion. Teaching assistants would be asked to volunteer to help to run the club to support pupils, parents and others who attend. Depending on how much interest the club would get generate from pupils, parents and the wider community, the maximum amount of people to participate each week would be twenty people (this would include pupils). If there is a lot of interest, the club could have alternate groups every other week to ensure that everyone is able to attend the club. In relation to cost, the pupils of KS2 could hold a fundraiser to raise funds for the equipment needed such as: chopping boards, knives and cooking aprons. The KS2 pupils could write letters to local supermarkets to ask for donations of healthy foods that can be used each week. To ensure that all pupils would be somehow involved in the health eating initiative that the club provides, all pupils could get involved during school time - under the Health and Well-being area of learning and experience, the pupils could do a topic on healthy eating, try some fresh fruits and vegetables in class that they may have never tried before and educate the pupils on foods that will aid their own wellbeing. 

Cooking can have a positive impact on children’s social and relationship skills. Healthy Food Choices In Schools (2019) agrees that there can be numerous benefits to cooking with children by noting that it “can build positive memories that promote future health, enjoyable cooking elsewhere.” Also, by aiding parents, pupils and people of the community to engage with cooking healthy foods, it can aid to decrease the raising trend in child obesity which was earlier mentioned by Professor Sally Holland on page 4. The pupils could utilise its ongoing relationship with the local community farm writing letters to ask for fresh food donations. To build on this, the school could consider opening another club which could involve growing fresh fruits and vegetables on the school grounds. 

The third activity entails organising a fundraiser at the school to raise money for the local community farm. It would be an annual fundraiser carried out by KS2, the pupils would be encouraged to think of their own ideas in relation to how they would like to fundraise. This activity would be co-ordinated and organised by a KS2 Phase Leader and the PTA. School X has access to the local community farm where it is open admission free to the school. The farm is funded by donations, grants and earned income from farm produce. As School X attend the farm regularly for educational visits, it would be nice to give something back to them by fundraising money which would go towards the general day-to-day running of the farm, to enable its future operations within the community. This activity would involve taking the Phase Leader off their timetable for a few hours and potentially providing replacement cover to allow the staff member to meet with the pupils to discuss ideas and how the fundraiser will be planned. By giving the pupils the independence to plan the fundraiser, it will encourage the pupils to work together, cooperate with one another and take each pupil’s ideas into account. This will raise the pupils’ confidence and self-esteem which itself is linked to their wellbeing, resonating with Laevers’ theory on emotional wellbeing and involvement.

The focus of this school community project is to increase the wellbeing of the pupils in KS2, the impact of this project will need to be measured in order to review if the activities are beneficial in relation to improving wellbeing and if the ‘Relationship First’ policy is able to be successfully embedded throughout the project. For all three of the activities, the pupils will be observed during the sessions in order to place them on a wellbeing and involvement scale. These scales have been created by Ferre Laevers who has created the ‘Leuven Scale of Wellbeing’ and the ‘Leuven Scale of Involvement’. Both scales are used to assess wellbeing and involvement. Both scales have a 5-point scale which starts at 1 which is “extremely low” and goes up to 5 which is “extremely high”. There are descriptions at each point of the scale which aids practitioners to be able to put a pupil into the correct level of the scale. “The higher the levels of wellbeing and involvement we can achieve for the child, the more we can add to the child’s development.” (Emotionally Healthy Schools, 2019). This would be an ideal observational tool to use whilst observing the pupils engaging in all three activities.

To measure the impact of the activities on the parents/carers and wider community, questionnaires could be distributed at the end of activity sessions to get their feedback on how they felt whilst participating in the activity and if they think it could potentially benefit their wellbeing in anyway. By using questionnaires, it enables the staff at the school to monitor the impact of the project and enables parents/carers and the wider community to feel involved in the project by giving their feedback. The feedback can then be used to monitor the impact and consider any changes that are suggested to the project, it will also generate both quantitative and qualitative data which enable the school staff to categorise the feedback more efficiently. Michaelson, Mahony and Schifferes (2012, p.10) agree with the use of questionnaires to measure well-being by noting that they “provide information in the form of numbers (“quantitative data”) and they offer the advantage that they can be repeated at different times to show trends and patterns in results.” When the staff have the results from the questionnaires and observations, something will have to be done as “measuring well-being is of little benefit unless you act on the results.” The project could be tailored to the needs of the pupils, parents/carers and the wider community “which will be made more effective in enhancing people’s well-being.” (Michaelson, Mahony and Schifferes, 2012, p.25). 

A ‘SWOT’ analysis has been completed in relation to the school community project and can be found in Appendix 1. There were various strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats noted within the SWOT analysis. Pertaining from the SWOT analysis, pupils will be developing aspects of the four purposes throughout the project. As the first activity involves the pupils visiting a care home, they will be making progress as “ethical, informed citizens of Wales and the world”. (Welsh Government, 2020b, p.11). This part of the project will enable the pupils to engage with the residents and they will be able to learn new skills from the residents such as gardening or sewing, the residents can also educate the pupils through discussions about the history of their lives. This could aid pupils if they were learning about different decades in school or World War Two. The pupils may also be able to teach the residents new skills, such as how to use an iPad. This also promotes the ‘Relationships First’ policy that School X are keen to embed within their curriculum and school. 

The second activity which involves a weekly cookery club enables pupils who attend to start progressing within the “healthy, confident individuals, ready to lead fulfilling lives as valued members of society”. (Welsh Government, 2020b, p.11). This part of the project will enable the pupils to gain an insight into how to cook and prepare healthy but affordable meals. As the percentage of FSM’s is quite high in School X, it is likely that the deprivation is also quite high, therefore, by teaching pupils, parents and families of the community how to cook healthy but affordable meals it is enabling them to potentially make healthy lifestyle changes if possible. 

Deprivation could be a potential threat to the project as many parents and members of the community may not want to attend parts of the project such as the cookery classes and the fundraiser due to potential embarrassment of how they may be dressed or lack of money. Another potential issue that could arise is defining the school’s wider community as there may be many different communities living around the school. This could mean that some families may not feel included or welcomed for various reasons which could include their ethnicity, gender and social class.   

Relating to the SWOT analysis, a potential threat could be that due to costings associated with the project, the school’s finite budget could result in money not being spent in other important areas, to the detriment of the pupils. From the current SDP, School X receives a grant of £125,532 for pupil deprivation and receives £7,117 for “other” which includes “contribution to Well-Being Officers – supporting vulnerable families/support networks for families/parent groups/working with vulnerable children” (Richards, Jones and Edwards, 2019, p.2). It is not specified how the grant money is spent and if this is these are annual grants which the school receives.  

To conclude, there are many benefits for school community projects however, there are also some disadvantages. The main disadvantage for School X would be the high potential of pupils and their families facing deprivation when considering the 39.9% of pupils who have FSM’s in the school, notably well above the national average of 28% (Welsh Government, 2020b) of families who are victims of relative poverty. Although this is a disadvantage for the pupils of School X, it is important that teachers engage with social justice and believe they can be the ones to change things “by interrupting disadvantage and thinking about what they teach and how they teach.” (Arshad, Wrigley and Pratt, 2012, p.4). By implementing the activities in the school community project, this should encourage and celebrate equality, inclusion and diversity within the school and the community, enabling the pupils to become ethically informed citizens. It is essential to be mindful of the professional standards for future practice in order to correctly meet them. Within the ‘professional learning’ section it is stated that 

“the teacher in a formal leadership role stimulates an appetite for professional learning that is valued, has impact upon pedagogy and supports professional growth across a learning community within and beyond the school.” (Welsh Government, 2019, p.16).

This standard illustrates the importance of the role of the teacher and how teachers impact learning and growth inside and outside of the school gates.