The St Martin’s factor
One inspector recently named it ‘The St Martin’s factor’ – an inner city girls’ school just a stone’s throw from Brixton with at least half of the pupils from lone parent backgrounds, 30 per cent on free school meals and 90 per cent having African or Caribbean heritage – which is bucking the trend. SATs and GCSE results are now routinely above the national average, with 59 per cent of the Year 11 cohort achieving A-C passes in 2004 and St Martin’s has just recently celebrated the opening of its new sixth form.
Ethos
Unpicking all the elements that together create the ‘St Martin’s factor’ is not easy because they all contribute to the ethos. First and foremost is the leadership of the school. Headteacher Lesley Morrison and her team continually re-examine policy and practice, driving the inclusion agenda forward and reinforcing the message that every student can achieve. Key to this process is the raising of self-esteem. Students at the school are generally confident, but there is an appreciable difference between that and a secure sense of pride in their achievements.
Raising self-esteem
There is a huge range of enrichment activities, performance opportunities and celebration of achievement which means, quite literally, that there is something for everyone. There is a drama production every term; 30% of the students sing in the gospel choirs; 25% have peripatetic music lessons and are keen to showcase their talents; modern dance, Bhangra, African, tap and ballet are popular extra-curricular activities. All of these activities feed into raising self-esteem as there are so many opportunities to celebrate achievement in performance both inside and outside of school.
The extracurricular factor
There is a wealth of extracurricular activities on offer at lunchtimes and after school, headed by staff or members of the local community, including Japanese, Latin, Arabic, subject and study support clubs across the curriculum; a large number of PE and music-based activities such as keep fit or keyboard club and three-hour Saturday sessions that run continuously from November till June for the Year 11 cohort. Funding is obviously of central importance so the school lobbies the LEA and other funding bodies vigorously in order to sustain these activities.
The staffing factor
Staffing is obviously of central importance to the inclusion agenda and raising standards. The school often takes the approach of ‘growing its own’ when it comes to recruitment, taking on graduates for the GT or OTT programme and NQTs are often drawn from the teacher trainees who do their placements at St Martin’s. Staff are also recruited from abroad (Jamaica, South Africa, Croatia, New Zealand, Australia to name but a few) which adds to the dynamic flavour of the school, as they bring different perspectives and experiences which are shared. The interviewing process is vital. Ultimately, the headteacher won’t appoint if she does not feel that the applicant can contribute to the St Martin’s factor.
Which of the approaches used successfully by St Martin’s are familiar in your setting? Could any of these strategies be used to add value in your school and raise achievement in under-performing ethnic groups?
