We visit a Willenhall primary school where inclusion and diversity are cherished and where pupils and staff are encouraged to develop themselves in all areas

At its heart, Lodge Farm believes that all children should be provided with a wide range of opportunities to develop and grow as an individual and shape their own future and the school works to equip children with the skills, knowledge and self-belief to flourish and seize the opportunities the world offers.  

That principle extends to the staff of Lodge Farm as well, with a culture of continuing professional development (CPD) which looks to help teachers and support staff to develop within their roles, as well as look outside of their roles to see where they could go.

The school is part of the SHINE Academies Trust, a forward thinking and growing Trust that is committed to improving the outcomes for all children within its care and approach of educating the whole child, offering a wide range of extra-curricular activities and a Creative Arts, Music and Sports provision. 

Deputy head teacher Nyoka Lawrence-Beckles and family services lead Suneeta Jackson are part of the leadership of the school, with Ms Lawrence-Beckles also working closely with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) children and Ms Jackson fronting projects such as the new community shop.

Both spoke about the inclusivity of the school and how the school worked to help pupils understand and embrace these concepts and their role within the community.

Ms Lawrence-Beckles said: "We have a very diverse group of ethnicity at the school, with new arrivals from Italy, Romania and African countries like Nigeria, and while the majority of our students are white British, we are a real melting pot of ethnicity and we really do force the issue of inclusivity.

"That's not just in the things we do, but even how we support our family here as we don't leave the family out here, we bring the family into our school, so we help not just the children on the ground, but all the families and we bring them along, which can be anything from clothing to food to bingo nights to activities with their children.

"We have a high percentage of SEND children on our register, so we adapt our learning to support the children with SEND needs and ensure they are not isolated, so while their time might be different throughout the day, they are very much part of the Lodge Farm family."

Ms Jackson said: "Our motto is caring and working together, so it's about that and about a whole community hub and that's how we perceive ourselves as a community network with our families and bringing in our parents in terms of raising the parental engagement.

"We've got the children onsite, but we need our parents on board to be able for the children to be able to function effectively, so our area as family services team is to build that community network, to establish the community in terms of the deprivation and to build on those.

"We've offered food banks and used uniform sales and we do our parental engagement and social engagement, as parents can sometimes see school as a barrier in itself, due to their own experiences, so it's about us breaking down those barriers to them and inviting them into the school as a whole entity."

Lodge Farm is a school which works to help students become better throughout their time at the school, preparing them for secondary education in the long term, but also helping them improve throughout the day.

This can start from first thing in the morning with a breakfast club, allowing pupils to have a healthy start to the day, to emotional support from trained staff, as well as schemes that allow older pupils to mentor younger pupils in areas such as reading and writing, while the curriculum is consistently changing to foster the culture of diversity and inclusion.

The school also works with the Willenhall E-ACT school, with pupils encouraged to do work experience sessions in the community shop, a new part of the school's efforts to help the local community during the cost of living crisis.

Ms Lawrence-Beckles said one of the major aims of the school was help everyone to leave better than when they came in, citing a recent letter writing exercise to people in Jamaica as a way of developing English skills through diversity.

She said: "As educators, if you come in our path and we can't imprint something on you, I don't feel like we've done our job as we feel you should leave us with something academically better for the world.

"When we looked at the writing to Jamaica, that was us reaching out to the world because with the way our English curriculum is done, we can pick something that is happening in the world and write about it."

Ms Jackson also spoke about the idea of pupils and staff being able to leave as better and more informed people, saying the school had a full family ethos.

She said: "It's not just about the pupils, it's about the whole school and the whole family as when you're looking at the school and school culture, you're looking at the family unit.

"It might be siblings and it might be extended members of the family, so that's the kind of ethos that we have here and it's about delivering that further afield."