Rivers Academy West London

The London school enabling students in a deprived community to thrive through self-worth after many had written them off

Rivers Academy West London, a state secondary school based in Feltham in the London Borough of Hounslow, UK, is giving students in its deprived community the self-worth to stand tall amongst the best in the world. At Rivers Academy, 31% of students are eligible for free school meals, markedly higher than the national average of 20.8%, and 51% speak English as an additional language versus only 17.5% nationally. Despite this, it has transformed from a National Challenge School where only 25% of students achieved five GCSEs passes at A*-C in 2008 to, today, a school with four Ofsted Outstanding grades where 72% of students pass their GCSEs, with 5% of students every year going on to Oxbridge as well as other top universities including Harvard. While many in the community had written off the life chances of students in Feltham, the school has achieved all of this with a single-minded focus on supporting their wellbeing and giving them the confidence to thrive. 

At the heart of Rivers Academy’s work is an ambitious No Limits curriculum that equips students with 21st-century skills by engaging them in tackling real-life problems. It is designed to give all students, particularly disadvantaged students and those with SEND, the knowledge and cultural capital they need to stand tall in society and make a difference as engaged global citizens.

Rivers Academy was the first school to partner with Hounslow Councillor Salman Shaheen to pilot his Grow for the Future programme – the UK’s first policy to transform wasteland into community gardens and orchards and pair them with schools in disadvantaged communities so urban students can learn about healthy living and sustainability. Working with Hounslow Council and the charity Cultivate London, a group of SEN students learned about the food production cycle, sustainability, biodiversity and gardening skills and planted and nurtured a new orchard on a once fly-tipped site in Feltham. The site was opened last year by the students with Downton Abbey actor Jim Carter OBE. 

Students reported that the programme gave them confidence and boosted their mental health and wellbeing and they soon put the skills they’d learned to use in the school - identifying sites across the campus they could beautify and use to grow healthy food for the school.

Other projects using real-life challenges to give students self-worth have seen them design video games, prepare a response plan to the spread of an infectious disease, and promote a space tourism industry.

Student leadership is at the heart of efforts to build their confidence, with student leaders undertaking a regular survey and acting on issues arising, mentoring, tackling bullying by meeting regularly with those who have been bullied or exhibit bullying behaviour, and working with students with low attendance to turn it around by identifying barriers to their attendance and how to overcome them.