The plaintive cry from The Proclaimers ‘mourning over the devastation wreaked upon Bathgate, Linwood and Methil in the industrial heartlands of their native Scotland’ (Luby, 2019: 8) in Letter from America is adapted for the sorrow that has been poured out for the former mining towns and villages of Nottinghamshire. In the last few years I have been humbled to witness the inspiring efforts of dedicated primary school staff alleviating the poverty wrought upon the children of these towns and villages. And it all began with a chance conversation.
That chance arose in a nondescript seminar room of the cathedral city of Lincoln’s Bishop Grosseteste University. However, nondescript is not a word to be used for my partner in conversation – Lee Hessey, Executive Principal of The Forge Trust comprising seven schools in the East Midlands. A diamond in the rough is a more apt description for Lee. Physically imposing, he shares the same characteristics of honesty and humility lauded by Sir Steve Lancashire (2019) in his review of Steve Munby’s (2019) book Imperfect Leadership. Notably, though, neither Lee nor The Forge Trust come alone. Born of similar stock is Grant Worthington, formerly head teacher of Forest View Junior School and now a member of Quality Assurance and School Improvement with the Flying High Trust. Down-to-earth is another of the attributes that they share as exemplified by their conversation whilst surveying the football field of a struggling primary school that no-one wants – except them:
Others see failure and waste; but Grant and Lee see opportunity and challenge. For Grant, it is an opportunity to revive the fortunes of his old primary school; whilst for Lee it is the challenge of growing The Forge Trust.
The Ad Astra Primary Partnership
In early 2015, Lee introduced me to fellow members of the Ad Astra Primary Partnership which, at that time, comprised six Nottinghamshire schools – one primary academy, three primary schools, one junior school and one infant school. They shared the challenge and also their expertise of narrowing the attainment gap for white working class pupils sited in areas of deprivation.
The Ad Astra member schools:
•Lee at The Sir Donald Bailey Academy, Newark that, according to the Index of Multiple Deprivation is sited within the top 6% most deprived neighbourhoods.
•Grant at Forest View Junior School in New Ollerton that is situated close to Newark and Sherwood 001A within the top 10% most deprived areas.
•Head teacher Helen Chambers of Abbey Hill Primary and Nursery School sited five miles south-west of the town of Mansfield and serving an area of high social and economic disadvantage as attested by 47% of the pupils living in families that are income deprived. The school receives substantial pupil premium funding and a significant number of families are supported by social services with the school employing a full-time Child and Family Support Worker.
•Head teacher (and now Her Majesty’s Inspector (HMI)) Peter Stonier then at Jacksdale Primary and Nursery School that is close to the Derbyshire border. Situated within the heart of Jacksdale village, there are 250 pupils on the school roll including a number of children from Amber Valley which is in the top 10% most deprived areas nationally.
•Head teacher Chris Wilson of Ramsden primary school in the deceptively picturesque Carlton-in-Lindrick near Worksop. The housing scheme from which the majority of pupils are drawn is found in Bassetlaw 004A that according to the Index of Multiple Deprivation is also in the top 10% of England’s most deprived areas.
•And last, but not least, Jo Cook at Hallcroft Infant School that is sited not far from Bassetlaw 008A within the top 20% most deprived areas nationally.1
The Ad Astra Primary Partnership focuses on significant factors affecting outcomes for pupils in areas of deprivation, namely:
•material poverty;
•emotional poverty;
•poverty of experience;
•poverty of language; and
•poverty of aspiration.
The group investigates strategies and ideas for minimising the impact of such poverty on their children and the approach of the Ad Astra Primary Partnership is one of collaboration between equal partners, working in similar contexts, but with one shared ambition to identify and implement the most effective strategies to address this long-standing issue. The partnership schools are also responsive to the assertion by Hammersley-Fletcher et al. (2015: 5) that:
This is evidenced by their openness to a series of research consultancy projects (Luby, 2016b) that culminates with five-day ethnographic studies in five of the partnership schools (Puttick et al., 2020).
The nitty-gritty of what some of the Ad Astra partnership schools actually do in the classroom to address poverty will be discussed later; but, for now, let us focus on the professional conversation with Lee.2
Thursday, 2 May 2019
The Forge Trust centre, North Muskham, Notts
There are over 600 words in Lee’s opening statement (some have been excised) or, rather, his outpouring of passion. It is the passion of which Hattie (2012) speaks in the opening pages of his renowned Visible Learning for Teachers. It is the passion that I have seen, heard, witnessed in Lee’s dealings with head teacher colleagues, school staff and children. It is the passion that drives him to overcome obstacles and to succeed in highly challenging circumstances. One only has to visit the sites of the six academies within The Forge Trust:
•Bowbridge estate, Newark, in which the most common council tax band is A, for The Sir Donald Bailey Academy;
•for both the Parkgate Academy and the Forest View Academy, the colliery village of New Ollerton, originally built in the mid-1920s; but times have changed with the closure of the mine 25 years ago;
•the non-ethnically diverse (98% White British) village of Rainworth for Python Hill Academy that also suffered when nearby Rufford Colliery stopped producing coal in 1993;
•Kirkby-in-Ashfield, a part of the Mansfield Urban Area for West Park Academy; and
•5 miles south from Gainsborough, the civil parish of Marton for The Marton Academy.
Soon to be joined by a seventh school, St Augustine’s in Worksop, it is noteworthy that all but two of The Forge Trust schools are currently rated ‘Good’ by Ofsted.4
