New partnership with Free school in Barking and Dagenham
News article from September 1, 2015
The national charity School-Home Support (SHS) and Riverside School have begun working together to work with children and families to overcome barriers to education.
SHS is a charity that works with children and families to maximise educational opportunities and improve life chances. Partnering with schools and families, SHS looks beyond the classroom to understand and tackle the issues affecting children’s learning.
The most common barriers to education include housing crisis, mental and physical health issues, domestic violence, substance misuse and poverty. SHS delivers solution-focussed interventions, working directly with the whole family to address these underlying issues.This may mean emergency short-term support from their Welfare Fund, or longer in-depth work to tackle a chronic condition.
By tackling the root causes of absence and negative behaviour, SHS supports three quarters of the children they work with to improve their attendance. From September, SHS and Riverside School will be working together to help end the intergenerational cycle of deprivation faced by children and families in the community.
SHS will provide and support a practitioner to work direct in Riverside School to engage with students and their families to improve attendance, increase their engagement in learning and improve their attainment.
Mr Andrew Roberts, Head teacher, Riverside School said:
“We are very excited about our new partnership with SHS. Attendance is such a key issue and we are sure that this partnership will help us with our unrelenting focus on attendance.”
Jaine Stannard, Senior Manager of Services at School-Home Support said:
“We are really pleased to be partnering with Riverside School and to continue working with children and families in Barking and Dagenham. We know that by working with the whole family, we can support children to make the most out of their education and improve their life opportunities.”