The Audio Long Read From the archive: ‘Parents are frightened for themselves and for their children’: an inspirational school in impossible times
Mar 18, 2026
A deep revisit to a primary school battling austerity, pandemic fallout and the cost of living crisis. Staff creativity and relentless care transform troubled classrooms. The piece tracks learning loss, social and emotional setbacks in young children. It explores community support, leadership change, safeguarding pressures and wider policy failures shaping pupils' futures.
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Early Childcare Reflects Societal Health
- How society treats children reveals broader social priorities and future costs.
- Aida Edemariam argues early investment in children reduces long-term burdens on prisons, health and social systems using epidemiological evidence.
Rose Hill School's Challenging Demographics
- Rose Hill Primary serves ~300 children with high needs: over half qualify for disadvantaged funding and a third have special educational needs.
- Nearly half speak a non‑English first language across ~35 home languages, in an expensive city where staff recruitment is hard.
Behaviour As Communication Not Discipline
- Behaviour is framed as communication rather than defiance; challenging behaviour signals distress to decode.
- Sue Vermes prioritised understanding each child's history before guiding alternative responses, avoiding quick punitive fixes.