Surrey Square Primary School: proud to be more than a school
- Borough: Southwark
- Organisations: Surrey Square Primary School, Old Kent Road Family Zone
- Topics: civil society, community life, children and young people
Who we are
At Surrey Square Primary, we are proud to be “more than a school” in so many ways; from how we support our families and community, how we focus on the important work beyond the National Curriculum and how we balance the academic learning with developing well-being, relationships and values.
This is our core work. Yet it is not enough. Our community is facing many challenges:
- 84 per cent of our families are among the highest 20 per cent of income deprived families (judged by the IDACI)
- 25 per cent live within temporary accommodation
- just over 5 per cent have No Recourse to Public Funds.
We understand that all these factors affect the well-being of children, their families and the whole community.
Community-led systematic change
The Old Kent Road Family Zone was created in response to this challenging context, and is designed to make a long lasting positive impact on our community. It works to strengthen and celebrate our local community, creating long-lasting, systemic change.
This grassroots initiative is working in partnership with local government, health, schools, businesses, and the voluntary and community sector. The model centres community voices and expertise at the heart of decision making (working ‘with’, rather than ‘for’/‘to’), building power in Southwark with the design of the services led by children and parents.
Making lasting impact
Over 450 community members attend every month and the work of the Old Kent Road Family Zone now provides paid employment to 10 community members and partners with 20 organisations.
The Zone has already made an impact on community connection and ownership, employment, engagement with services and personal attitudinal shifts including growing self efficacy and positively impacting individuals’ mental health.
Our Family Zone is a bridge between communities and pillars of society. We got the NHS in because people couldn’t get GP appointments and also the council to discuss housing repairs and problems with mould. It takes time to build trust and it couldn't be done without the school. The school is the vital link.
Harnessing community voice in decision making
The Old Kent Road Family Zone Community Board is the key mechanism for ensuring that decisions are made by community members themselves.
This is done by actively engaging with and listening to community members. The content from these ‘listening exercises’ is then brought back to the group and themes are identified.
The Board then seeks to understand the root causes beneath these issues before ultimately co-designing a continuous pipeline of preventative services and projects.
Collaboration is key to sustainability
There are strong collaborative relationships with local government, health, businesses, and the voluntary and community sector, enabled by the successful partnership with Impact on Urban Health in 2021.
These partnerships are key to the Zone’s continued success and wider adoption.
The changes we would like to see
Communities have been ‘done to’ for too long. The Old Kent Road Family Zone fosters inclusion by ‘doing with’ and by being grounded in the belief that many solutions to challenges experienced by the community are already within the community itself.
The aim of the Zone is to show that work with communities can and should be different. ‘Doing with’ should become the norm.
Find out more
Get in touch
If you have any questions about the Old Kent Road Family Zone project you can get in touch with Surrey Square Primary School at [email protected] and [email protected].
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