Interview - Ed Vainker

What is Reach Academy’s history?

We founded Reach Academy in 2012. We were a group of teachers who had worked in schools around London and felt that they were not always set up to enable every child to excel. We decided to found an all-through school, giving us the time to work with pupils, and a small school, allowing us to focus on their individual needs.

We have built a school with a strong vision – we want all of our pupils to have the opportunity to live lives of choice and opportunity. We have also really prioritised building strong relationships – focusing on working closely with families. We also have a single approach to inclusion, assessment and other aspects of the school to avoid the difficulties pupils have with transition.

Tell us about the nursery.

We opened our nursery in 2014 and it is heavily over-subscribed. We have a strong team including two teachers and two other graduates working in the nursery with 60 three-year-olds and 12 two-year-olds.

The team are very focused on supporting pupils to have a rich, engaging experience and blend learning through play with regular guided sessions. The two-year- olds started this year and they have worked alongside the older pupils. They have been really successful and we have seen great progress from all.

This year we have prioritised learning beyond the classroom in nursery. We have introduced a Forest School and have given pupils a lot of opportunities to be outside and on our farm. Again, this has had a major impact, especially on the most vulnerable. We have also made sure pupils get to go on regular trips.

We have also worked hard to build strong relationships with parents. We have done many home visits to those pupils who needed it and have kept an open door where parents are welcome to come in and visit any time.

Can you tell us about your plans for Reach 2 and its inspiration?

We are delighted to have been approved to open a second school.

We applied to open a second school in Feltham because we are committed to deepening our impact in this community. We are aiming to create a community hub, the Reach Children’s Zone, which aims to bring services together to support the whole community. We are aiming to bring together midwifery, health, adult education and community services so that every family can access all that they need to promote excellent health outcomes, a great education for all children and the strengthening of households.

We had previously worked in secondary school and thought, intellectually, that the early years were important. Our learning from our first four years is that these years are absolutely critical and that we can have a huge impact on our pupils’ readiness for school, independence and resilience.

We look forward to taking this learning into our second school.