Grangeton

Summary

A primary school containing its own town run by the pupil population? Grange Primary School in Long Eaton, Derbyshire has such a town through which it runs the curriculum. It's been designed to complement the Government's vision for the future of Primary Education - Excellence and Enjoyment.

• The Idea!
• Getting Started
• Funding
• Help from the Local Community
• Barriers
• Collaboration
• Impact
• Issues
• The Future
• Grange Primary School

The Idea!

The town, called Grangeton, is run by the pupils - headed by an elected Council and town Mayor. The town has a newspaper (printed termly), a cinema, a healthy-eating tuck shop, a computer-controlled library, a television studio and radio station, a language cafe and a museum which charts the history of the school - all of which are run by the pupils who applied for the jobs to run the town. Richard Gerver, Headteacher of Grange, explains where the idea came from and how it's been put into practice.

"The project's roots come from the desire to create a contextual curriculum that enables children to see a practical purpose for their learning, whilst defining the concepts of citizenship, teamwork and opportunity. Our aim is that all children should leave Grange as independent learners aware of how key learning can support their future life choices."

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Getting Started

"We began from the idea of a town and the jobs and opportunity available within a place such as Long Eaton. We brainstormed some of the most exciting and creative. We then looked at how they could be adapted to life within a school and ensured that skills taught throughout the curriculum could be reinforced in one way or another through the project, by now called Grangeton. We then launched the concept within the community, attracting media interest. We wanted to work with real providers from within our wider community to ensure authenticity and to provide the children with powerful role models.

The key areas we decided to develop initially were: a radio station, a television studio, a school shop, a council with an elected mayor, a newspaper, a craft shop and a language cafe.

We are hoping that we will add a post office and a job centre, but the ideas are endless. We have combined these ideas and integrated existing school roles where appropriate - for example, our school buddies, litter pickers and lunchtime office receptionists. All elements of Grangeton are still developing because each aspect requires children to apply for jobs and, upon selection, go through a training programme.

We drew up an action plan which included sections for each of the elements. We then held a launch afternoon for our local community when we asked for support and help - that was in December 2002. It generated a great deal of interest, particularly from the local media. This led to meetings with interested businesses and industries such as the BBC and Erewash Museum.

From January to April 2003 we developed those links and talked through training packages and visits. Once the new budget was confirmed in April 2003 we were able to prioritise some of the enterprises and develop the facilities and resources.

In May we began training the newspaper team, the buddies and the School Council.

In September 2003 we began training in the TV studio, the radio station, the shop and the museum teams, all of which launched as fully functioning enterprises by the following January.

Our School Council were invited to Westminster by our local MP, Liz Blackman. The children were visiting in order for them to experience their roles in the wider community. They were given a tour of the Houses of Parliament, followed by a question and answer session with Liz in a committee room. They then went into the Stranger's Gallery to watch the debate in the House of Commons. The visit has really heightened the children's awareness of the importance of their own role as councillors and has given them a context for how to conduct their own meetings.

The Language Cafe is waiting to be launched as we are still waiting to fund elements of its development. Future planning and developments are ongoing."

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Funding

The Grangeton project has mainly been funded by the Grange Primary School's own budget, particularly their ICT development money and capital development funding. The DfES Innovation Unit have supported the project by giving them a grant.

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Help from the Local Community

Richard Gerver tells us about the help they've received.

"We have gained practical support and guidance on developing the enterprises from a number of local sources including: Young Enterprise, Derbyshire and Long Eaton Business Partnerships, Long Eaton Rotary Club, Erewash Museum Service, Derby Evening Telegraph, BBC East Midlands and BBC Radio Derby. They have all been involved in developing training packages and arranging visits for our children to experience industries in practice."

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Barriers

According to the school, there have been very few barriers with the exception of the amount of money available, which has governed the speed of development. All have, however, thoroughly enjoyed the work due to its innovative and developmental nature.

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Collaboration

"We have worked extremely closely with Wilsthorpe Business and Enterprise College, the secondary school most of our children move on to. This has been a very powerful link as they are Derbyshire's first Business and Enterprise Specialist School. Also, it was vital to us that there was a continuity in the themes of Grangeton beyond Grange.

Our other key partner has been the BBC who have provided limitless expertise and guidance in developing the training programmes.

We have shared our working with Derbyshire LA and our cluster schools so that we can cross reference good practice. We have also been invited to share the Grangeton concept with headteachers in Nottinghamshire.

The project has also had the support of Alistair Smith, Head of Alite and author of Accelerated Learning, who has shared our project at countrywide conferences led by him.

We are currently working closely with Derby University to find ways of exposing some of their training teachers to the project and its themes."

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Impact

"The project has had a remarkable impact on attitudes. Where pupils were demotivated and lacklustre, particularly the boys and the potential high achievers, there is now real excitement and commitment. That ethos has fed dramatically into the classroom, where teachers have adapted and developed their teaching and learning to become more experiential and contextual. Children are more confident and as a result more independent. Learning at Grange has a real purpose for the children and they feel part of something very exciting. The effect has also fed into staff and parents who have begun to contribute so much to the project's further development.

The project began in January of 2002 and the effects on the year 6 cohort of 2002/03 was extraordinary. At the start of last year our tracking analysis showed that the cohort had significant weaknesses that had been neglected over time, most of which were attitudinal. As a result our predictions at best were for around 70 per cent level 4+ in SATs Literacy and Numeracy with only a single figure percentage achieving level 5.

The previous year our results had hung around 60 per cent level 4+. The actual results showed 76 per cent level 4+ in Literacy, with 37 per cent level 5, and 81 per cent level 4+ in Numeracy, with 32 per cent level 5."

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Issues

"We are lucky in that we are blessed with space, so we have been able to create rooms. However, the project has been designed to work in any school. The school does need to resource materials and labour, both can be reduced by tapping into the generosity of the local community, a good place to start is a regional Rotary Club. The main issue is getting support from staff, who can gain a huge amount for their own personal and professional development. For example, we now have teachers trained in museum curating, television and radio production. One of our teachers has even been offered a job presenting on Radio Derby! Use local industry but don't approach them for money, ask them to offer you their skills and expertise. In our experience they were more than happy to help."

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The Future

"Grangeton's potential is huge. We are still completing the work on many of the enterprises and the next stage will be to work with the children on ways for them to generate income, by, for example, selling advertising space and applying for specific funding. We want to develop a business studies angle to the project using the expertise at our local secondary school. Grangeton is already an integral part of Grange culture and has come to perfectly illustrate our vision of Living, Learning and Laughing."

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Grange Primary School

Grange is a fairly large primary school (430 children including Nursery) on the borders of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. It is an urban primary housed in 1940s purpose built accommodation. The catchment is an interesting socio-economic mix ranging from professional to socially deprived families. It does not have a high ethnic mix.

An Innovative Culture

Grange's ethos and vision is based on three words - Living, Learning and Laughing. It's a school with enormous potential; enthusiastic children, fantastic staff and supportive parents. The climate within the school encourages risk taking through a culture of support and encouragement.

We work our school development programmes starting with the children and ask ourselves the question 'would it excite me if I was between 3 and 11?'. Grange is about excitement, challenge and discovery.

Links and contacts

For further information please e-mail Richard Gerver at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
or visit the Grangeton website.
Grangeton features as a case study on the Teachernet site.

Download a more detailed case study of Grangeton here (PDF - 58 KB).

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