Mulberries

Haileybury of course has much longer holidays than the primary schools and tomorrow is the last day of term for them. I have been looking back as I finish tomorrow after nine years as Chair of Governors of the Mulberry Primary School in Tottenham. It is a non-church school in my former parish and I have been a community governor there since 1995. All three of my sons were there before going to Haileybury and my wife teaches there.

The Mulberry serves a wonderful community which has extraordinary challenges. The population mobility is very high and more than a third of the children leave and come each year. About three quarters have English as an Additional Language; over half qualify for free school meals; the 650 pupils speak upwards of 60 languages. Everyone has the experience of being in a minority. At the Year 6 leavers' assembly this morning a child who entered the school just over a year ago with no previous experience of formal education and no English spoke - with good grammar - of his memories. The nationally recognised provision for children on the Autistic Spectrum is also on site. It is a school well below national levels in attainment: but the progress the children make from their starting point is extraordinary, and much better than most schools in the country.

I know it is blue, but Allenby hooded tops are blue! Green and black remain the colours!

My boys have not been the only Haileyburians educated at the Mulberry; an Allenby hoodie was to be seen in the school today as the teenagers come to help out in their old school in the last week of term. There was a chap now at S Edmund's Ware in school yesterday. it is wonderful that the Attlee Fund at Haileybury and similar schemes in other schools helps children from Tottenham to come to Haileybury. if you have contributed thank you for helping our Mulberries and others like them.