We all belong here
Windmill Primary School champions inclusion
Lynn Knapp, Windmill Primary School’s head teacher of 19 years, knew she had to do something when she saw the display of Union Jacks and St George flags on Headington roundabout just recently. “I felt so strongly. I wanted to give another message and offset the negative feelings I felt every time I saw them”.
As a result, the pathways around her school in Headington are now adorned in 68 flags of nations—and these include a flag for every different nation represented amongst the pupils at school.
As Lyndsey Hart, dropping of her three grandchildren at the school gate, remarked “it makes it a positive thing about flags not a negative thing”.
The ‘value’ within school for the month of November is Freedom and Lynn says this will particularly explore the “freedom to be proud of who you are”, as well as looking at freedom of speech, religion, expression, movement and choice.
The school gate reflects these values with Lynn welcoming each child by name every morning despite the weather. With her boogy box she dances, gives hi fives, and says good morning to all. She knows every pupil by name and that’s no mean feat when she is in charge of the largest primary school in Oxfordshire, with 630 pupils. Their most recent Ofsted report makes mention: ‘Every morning, pupils literally dance happily, to music, into school’.
Sky, aged 10, bounds into school with three others all smiling and says “I’m really excited about what I’m going to be doing today. Our school logo is ‘we all belong here’”. The flags definitely reflect this. Suzanne Jukes, 44, dropping of her daughter said “oh we love it here, the whole school is one big family”.
Lynn organised the flags this week but started the dancing during Covid to welcome the children of key workers who were feeling vulnerable, and she hasn’t stopped. It’s become a time where “they can speak to me at the gate, children or parents. It prevents problems building into larger ones.”
The school’s mission statement reads: “Diversity will be celebrated and we will be fully inclusive”. Lynn’s dynamism continually finds ways to carry this through. She has asked all the children to come up with a design for either a school flag to represent Windmill Primary or a school banner to represent the “we all belong here” slogan. These designs will be judged in a couple of weeks.