When Terry Farrell, co-founder of School-Home Support and my husband for 30 years, was on his death bed in 2007 he told me that this charity was his proudest achievement. 

Its five successive CEOs, whilst expanding country wide, have successfully protected the independence of the grass roots workers who are vital to its flexible ability to detect problems. They see which kid needs shoes, which is hungry and which disturbed. Then they seek  reasons. 

Government statistics show that of the 9.1 million school children in the UK, almost a third live in poverty, 30% and rising. An added 750,000 last year. Truancy amongst the poorest is 50%.

School-Home Support’s methods developed in the 1970s when the Inner London Education Authority, the ILEA, began placing welfare workers in schools because of the proven links between welfare and education achievement. Three people devised the system at Langdon Park School, a co-ed comprehensive in Poplar, East London. Terry, head of First Year, Bridget Cramp, the education welfare officer and Peter Andrews, the entrepreneurial head.  Langdon Park was under subscribed and Peter appointed Terry and Bridget to change that.

They created links with primaries to encourage pupils to pick Langdon Park as their secondary choice but more importantly make early contact with families facing challenges. 

Terry’s formula to attract applicants included making science look fun on Open Days by having bunsen burners appear to explode.  I am sure health and safety would ban that now!

They  recognised how seriously social problems  impact on kids’  ability to get to school, let alone to learn.  Their mantra, as School-Homes Support’s remains,  was, “Be here, be happy, learn.” 

Key was a small welfare fund given by teachers to fill emergency gaps. They also invented something now being billed as a magic solution; a breakfast club  where pupils get  food, but also homework help. 

When the 1978 economic crisis hit the ILEA wanted to return welfare workers to offices. Bridget and Terry were horrified. They had tested the value of a  school-based service in  Langdon Park, which was now over subscribing and getting better exam results. So the Langdon Park School Fund, from which School-Home Support grew, was founded. City funders’ grants paid Bridget’s salary.

Then in 1979 Margaret Thatcher was elected Prime Minister, having earned her nickname  “milk snatcher” as Education Secretary for cutting free school milk. Cuts, starting with welfare, became brutal, as austerity spending remains. Hopefully the new government’s promise to tackle child poverty will bring respite, with local councils allocated enough cash to provide properly for schools and communities. 

In 1984, hence this year’s anniversary, Sainsbury’s awarded a grant sufficient to provide financial security.

The East End where School-Home Support began has changed ethnically but also economically with Canary Wharf where its most disadvantaged pupils lived. But the accidents of life that make good links between home and school fundamental, do not change. 

If life were not a chaotic roller coaster this charity could solve problems in one generation. However it remains a series of accidents, with natural disasters and war creating problems all  worsening with cruel cost of living increases.

What remains vital to School Home Support and those who depend on it is that friendly face, prepared to sit non-judgmentally down, drink tea and listen.

Article written by Anne McHardy