Garfield Primary School

A Message from Lord Pickles and Lord Blunkett, followed by Garfield Primary School's best practice article

The ability to listen and learn from one another has always been vital in parliament, in business and in most aspects of daily life. But at this particular moment in time, as national and global events continue to reiterate, it is uncommonly crucial that we forge new channels of communication and reinforce existing ones. The following article from Garfield Primary School is an attempt to do just that. We would welcome your thoughts on this or any other Parliamentary Review article.

Rt Hon The Lord David Blunkett

Rt Hon The Lord Eric Pickles

www.garfield.enfield.sch.uk

49GARFIELD PRIMARY SCHOOL |

BEST PRACTICE REPRESENTATIVE 2018

Karen Khwaja, head teacher

Our unique new school

Karen Khwaja, head teacher of Garfield Primary School,

was asked in 2012 how she felt about building a new

school next to the current site. Karen supported the idea

and that decision has led to the amazing but challenging task of

planning the new “dream” school. It would be the catalyst to

create a new and exciting vision and values for the school and

to radically transform and enrich the curriculum. Karen sets out

how her vision of a new model school came into being.

Planning a new school

I was fortunate to work alongside a strong and committed leadership team and a

skilled governing body who were relentless in their ambition. We wanted the very

best for our pupils and the local community. Our local authority, Enfield, allowed us

to get fully involved in the facilities and environment we wanted to create.

The old Garfield was cramped, full of clutter, had only one hall and with no

additional rooms, support staff often worked with groups in the corridors, which

was hardly ideal. We had the opportunity to think very strategically about what we

wanted the new Garfield to be like. We went into meticulous detail with regards to

what the outside of the school should look like. It was important to us that it was

an impressive, unique building that stood out from other schools.

We planned each room, its location, function and potential for impacting

on the education and welfare of our school team. We created a long set of

“non-negotiables” and brokered them relentlessly. Building works started in July

2014 and we moved into the new school in June2016.

REPORT CARD

GARFIELD PRIMARY SCHOOL

»Head teacher: Karen Khwaja

»Founded in 1883

»New school opened in June

2016

»Based in Enfield

»Type of school: Local authority

primary school

»No. of pupils: 425 on roll

»No. of staff: 71

»EAL: 62 per cent – 48 different

languages spoken

»Free school meals: 24 per cent

»SEN: 9.69 per cent

»Ofsted: “Good”

»School motto: “Today’s

Children, Tomorrow’s Future”

»www.garfield.enfield.sch.uk

Garfield Primary

School

THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW

Highlighting best practice

50 | GARFIELD PRIMARY SCHOOL

The new Garfield – the

environment matters

We now have a school that matches

our aspirations. The site has an

inspirational school library, a modern

and professional ICT suite, special

facilities for children with emotional

and social needs and additional group

rooms for our pupils to learn in.

These specialist rooms enabled us to

translate our vision of an inclusive and

broad curriculum into a daily reality.

Our levels of inclusion and our pupils’

reading habits have grown through

this provision and general standards

are rising year on year.

Our new large hall allows whole-school

assemblies and parents can attend

regularly and always be included. It

also divides into three smaller halls

meaning that timetabling is more

efficient. Our vision for the classrooms

was to ensure they were of a

consistently high standard for all pupils

while still giving teachers autonomy.

No clutter, a place for everything and

not too many displays. Our pupils

like the uniformity of the classrooms

and it has helped with transition.

The new school grounds, although

still developing, foster a real love for

sports, play and fun.

What we stand for

Our old mission statement was a

poster, framed in a corridor and few

would have been able to tell you

what it said. It was time for a radical

overhaul. After several staff meetings,

we decided our vision and values

should be an acrostic of “Garfield”.

We debated each key word and

sentence until we were sure it captured

all we strived for and believed in.

We took things further forward

by ensuring they were explicitly

understood by all our community.

Each of our values are now displayed

throughout the school through large

illustrations on walls.

We introduced postcards of each

value and these are now posted home

to pupils once we have seen them

demonstrate them. Pupils develop their

understanding of these values through

weekly assemblies, which focus on

one of the eight values. Our values

and the accompanying explanations

have created a very powerful script

and language which is used by staff

andpupils.

Pupils love to read in our

new library

Our official opening –

July 2016

We had a long

list of non-

negotiables

“

51GARFIELD PRIMARY SCHOOL |

BEST PRACTICE REPRESENTATIVE 2018

Garfield College and our

curriculum

We believe in a broad and rich

curriculum for all. In 2017, we

launched our Garfield College for

pupils at KS2 (juniors). A wide range

of six-week courses were available on

a rolling programme including: ballet,

mindfulness, origami, art history, glass

painting, carpentry, drama, Albanian

and basketball. The rationale was that

all our staff have talents to share and

our pupils deserve to explore new

subjects and learn more about what

they like and are good at.

Pupils chose their options and learn

together in mixed age groups. Course

tutors were all sourced in-house and

included teachers, office and site

team, lunch staff and senior team.

Pupil enjoyment and enrichment is

high as is the quality of learning, and

our pupils have developed as resilient

and curious learners, always keen to

try new things. It has also helped raise

pupils’ aspirations to attend college

oruniversity.

We have also significantly increased

the number of school trips over each

year by effective forward planning,

researching new museums and

opportunities and being fortunate to

be located in London. Visiting theatre

groups, themed days and weeks and

a timetable of guest speakers giving

career talks, have also added breadth

to our offer.

Capturing progress –

e-portfolio

As an inclusive school, we know that

many of our pupils make progress

not best demonstrated from books

or a test result. Our new e-portfolio

captures each pupil’s learning six times

a year during years 1–6. As well as

uploading work samples that can be

compared, pupils are filmed reciting

a learnt poem and talk about their

learning and achievements of each

passing year. The filming process has

improved their presenting skills and

confidence. It has also given them an

opportunity to record their memories

and opinions, which, as they are

given a copy on leaving year 6, can

be kept and treasured, long into their

adultlives.

Today’s

children,

tomorrow’s

future

“

We are proud of our

new values

www.garfield.enfield.sch.uk

This article was sponsored by Garfield Primary School. The Parliamentary Review is wholly funded by the representatives who write for it. The publication in which this article originally appeared contained the following foreword from The Rt Hon Theresa May MP.

The Rt Hon Theresa May MP's Foreword For The Parliamentary Review

By The Rt Hon Theresa May MP

This foreword from the then Prime Minister appeared in the 2018/19 Parliamentary Review.

British politics provides ample material for analysis in the pages of The Parliamentary Review. For Her Majesty’s Government, our task in the year ahead is clear: to achieve the best Brexit deal for Britain and to carry on our work to build a more prosperous and united country – one that truly works for everyone.

The right Brexit deal will not be sufficient on its own to secure a more prosperous future for Britain. We also need to ensure that our economy is ready for what tomorrow will bring. Our Modern Industrial Strategy is our plan to do that. It means Government stepping up to secure the foundations of our productivity: providing an education system that delivers the skills our economy needs, improving school standards and transforming technical education; delivering infrastructure for growth; ensuring people have the homes they need in the places they want to live. It is all about taking action for the long-term that will pay dividends in the future.

But it also goes beyond that. Government, the private sector and academia working together as strategic partners achieve far more than we could separately. That is why we have set an ambitious goal of lifting UK public and private research and development investment to 2.4 per cent of GDP by 2027. It is why we are developing four Grand Challenges, the big drivers of social and economic change in the world today: harnessing artificial intelligence and the data revolution; leading in changes to the future of mobility; meeting the challenges of our ageing society; and driving ahead the revolution in clean growth. By focusing our efforts on making the most of these areas of enormous potential, we can develop new exports, grow new industries and create more good jobs in every part of our country.

Years of hard work and sacrifice from the British people have got our deficit down by over three quarters. We are building on this success by taking a balanced approach to public spending. We are continuing to deal with our debts, so that our economy can remain strong and we can protect people’s jobs, and at the same time we are investing in vital public services, like our NHS. We have set out plans to increase NHS funding annually by an average by 3.4 percent in real terms: that is £394 million a week more. In return, the NHS will produce a ten-year plan, led by doctors and nurses, to eliminate waste and improve patient care.

I believe that Britain can look to the future with confidence. We are leaving the EU and setting a new course for prosperity as a global trading nation. We have a Modern Industrial Strategy that is strengthening the foundations of our economy and helping us to seize the opportunities of the future. We are investing in the public services we all rely on and helping them to grow and improve. Building on our country’s great strengths – our world-class universities and researchers, our excellent services sector, our cutting edge manufacturers, our vibrant creative industries, our dedicated public servants – we can look towards a new decade that is ripe with possibility. The government I lead is doing all it can to make that brighter future a reality for everyone in our country.

British politics provides ample material for analysis in the pages of The Parliamentary Review

The Rt Hon Theresa May MP
Prime Minister