A hub of activity and optimism, St Clement & St James Primary is a small one-form entry school on the corner of Penzance Place and Princedale Road with all sorts of promising projects on the go, from a new edible garden to a reading club and an arts centre.

For the last two and a half years the can-do Head of School, Ellie Dowthwaite (photo, far right) with Executive Head of the Federation, Sarah Bouette (photo, second right) have injected energy and vision into the school, which has been knocked sideways twice, first by the Grenfell Tower tragedy which affected many of the school’s families, and now by Covid-19.

Dowthwaite and Bouette have made big changes. An early move was to create an Early Years Centre in the school, spearheaded by Dowthwaite who is an early years specialist. Half of the school’s children have language impoverishment, with roughly half learning English as their second language. 

Bouette says: “What makes our school special is that it is one of the smallest schools in the area so the families all know each other, there’s a lovely community feeling.”  The children are well supported in their learning and move on to Chelsea Academy, Holland Park, Kensington Aldridge Academy and All Saints.

The schoolchildren have sadly been heavily impacted by the Covid-19 crisis. “Unfortunately for us, just as we were getting up on our feet [after Grenfell] Covid came,” says Bouette. “We can see already that a lot of things have been forgotten, like emotional skills and sharing.” Dowthwaite adds that it has impacted the children in other ways: “The children are so excited to be back [but many] have lost stamina. After lunch they go back into the classroom very tired.” Bouette adds: “Some live in very crowded homes with no outside space. Some have been very frightened and not able to enjoy much freedom. We will have a better idea [as time goes on], and know which children might be traumatised.” 

A quarter of the children, those whose parents are front line workers, attended school during the lockdown. The school provided meal vouchers for the 47% of pupils on Free School Meals and the local authorities have also helped. Bouette adds: “Computers have been provided for children and the government has funded internet access. Any problems during lockdown, we sought to solve them.”

After Christmas a lot of children and parents were sick with Covid-19. Some staff who contracted Covid-19 have been unable to work for a long time, still struggling with the after effects. “We worried about staff and are supporting one or two through this. We could have had more children in school if staff had not been ill or isolating” says Dowthwaite. “We were frightened but the vaccine was not allocated to staff, which was frustrating,” adds Bouette, “But we are carrying on and are very skilled at helping pupils to catch up.”

The staff are being taught how to deal with troubled children and they work closely with families. Also, Father Gareth (photo, second left) from St James Church and his therapy dog Libby come into school and welcome all the children in the morning. Says Dowthwaite: “The dog is like magic, part of our caring and supporting team.”

On top of all the activities, there is an art centre in school grounds: the Pottery Lane Art Centre by Avondale Park which was set up nearly two years ago. Ceramicists, weavers and fine artists rent low-cost space and in turn take art classes with the children.

State schools are of course suffering from freezes and cuts to grants. The school has reached out for help with its plans to support their children and has been astonished by the response. There is much praise for the Clarendon Cross Residents Association (CCRA). “We can’t thank them enough for their generosity” says Bouette. “They have helped pay for our breakfast club this year, and some after school support.” The school is now focussed on funding a variety of extra-curricular activities to improve children’s self-esteem and confidence. Importantly, it also means they will be safe and not running around in the streets after school.

“We would like to work with the people in our local community,” adds Dowthwaite. "If we work together it will be productive, because we have young children in this area who have lost out so badly. They have been really let down." The school is helped one day a week with development and fundraising by Hannah Thackwray from the neighbouring Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School (photo, far left).

If you are reading this and are a student, maybe doing your Duke of Edinburgh or possibly retired and would like to do some academic mentoring and to help the children catch up with reading after the Covid-19 crisis, or would enjoy helping with school sports, look no further. The school is also looking for anyone in Norland keen on gardening, to run a gardening club. With funding from Trees for Cities, each class has its own small garden plot. Please contact the school at  info-scsj@stfed.rbkc.uk 

The school also has a fundraising page on their website at stfed.rbkc.sch.uk and would encourage everyone to take a look.

As she says her goodbyes, Dowthwaite adds: “We love our school, everyone is so committed. You could throw anything at our staff and they would not budge.”