The school where staff go home with pupils to help cook

‘Hands on’ academy has staged dozens of ‘interventions’ in past three years

TEACHERS at a school in Middlesex are going home with students to cook them meals, in a bid to improve their grades.

Staff at Reach Academy in Feltham have also set bedtimes for students and used home visits to check they had a clear space where they could do their homework.

Ed Vainker, the school’s executive principal, estimated that it had staged 50 to 60 of these “interventions” in the past three years.

“Where a child is very fussy, our teachers will go home and cook a meal with the parents and child and eat it all together. We take a hands-on approach,” he said.

In one case, teachers coaxed a pupil into widening his diet after he would only eat food of one colour.

“One child had only a few foods that he would eat. We used a food diary and supported him to try new things. What really made a difference was when his teacher went home and cooked dinner with him and his mum and then ate with the family,” Mr Vainker said.

“He’s much more adventurous now.”

Schools are increasingly banning children from bringing sugary snacks and drinks on to their premises; however, Reach Academy’s approach is believed to be the most drastic example of a school extending its remit beyond its front gates.

“Schools can be quick to say ‘you need to read to your child, your child needs to do their homework’. We think sleep, diet and exercise are just as important to learning – and where we can offer support, we will,” he added. “If our goal is for our pupils to make academic progress and get great results, then we need to work closely with their families – not just because morally it’s a good thing to do but because it helps them to make academic progress,” he said.

Last week, Amanda Spielman, the Ofsted chief inspector, warned schools were having to do more than ever to make up for poor parenting, and pointed to cases of children starting school still in nappies.

Reach Academy – which opened six years ago and received an “outstanding” grade in its Ofsted report – is one of a many academies and free schools to offer a suite of services to its 900 pupils.

Staff have attended immigration hearings with families,

‘It’s not only morally a good thing to do, it helps them to make academic progress

signposted mental health support to parents and helped mothers to leave home after incidents of domestic violence.

The school has an extended day, serving breakfast from 7.30am, and runs until 4.30pm, after which after-hours clubs are offered.

Reach is one of only 150 “all-through” schools to teach students from nursery through to sixth form and wants to become the first in the country to provide parenting classes from birth.

Mr Vainker confirmed that the school had put in a proposal to West Middlesex hospital that would see midwives introduce prospective parents to their offer of antenatal classes.

The Department for Education said it broadly welcomed any initiative taken by schools to integrate themselves into their local community.