Alison Baskerville
With its budgetary problems, temperamental boiler, draughty windows and many pupils in financial or family crisis, you might not imagine Bellfield Junior School could create such a happy space. Yet the staff here constantly recharge the atmosphere with their high spirits and sense of fun - and never more so than at Christmas time.
In the corridor, tea-towelled, antlered, winged or crown-sporting children scuff their plimsolls on the carpet and jiggle in excited anticipation as they wait their turn to file into the hall, some desperately trying to catch their parents' attention, others staring fixedly at the floor, solemnly mouthing their lines.
Over a quarter of children at Bellfield have special educational needs and disabilities and over a third are on the vulnerable register. Bellfield spends about £114,000 a year - that's about 7.5% of its annual budget - on pastoral care to help children overcome problems, so that they can concentrate better on learning.
Lorraine has now successfully despatched the distressed child back to class and she sits down heavily, sharing a despairing look with her colleague. "We've got to ask the question as a society, they're working and yet we have to give them extra money to survive. I mean, they're trying. You can't point the finger and say they're not trying. They're struggling."
There's a very small pot of money within the pastoral budget to bring in specialised counsellors and educational psychologists. Over the six months that I've been visiting Bellfield Junior School, there have been incidents that we cannot report for legal reasons. Last month, the receptionist who tots up attendance figures, alerted the pastoral team when she tried to contact the parents of a child with an unexplained absence from school. Alarmingly, the given telephone numbers proved to be unattributed or simply rang out.
We sit in silence for a moment. Jamie offers to switch on the soothing tweeting"dicky-birds" CD. The brightly coloured puppet slips from Lorraine's knee on to the floor.
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Wow what a change 😳
Whilst proving that austerity simply heaped more deprivation on the already deprived. Criminally irresponsible of the government.