Frodsham Weaver Vale Primary School has been recognised for its family and community work through an award from the Investors in Families (IIF) initiative.

This national scheme celebrates the work carried out by schools to engage with families and improve outcomes for children and young people.

It aims to promote a 'flying start' for school pupils, encouraging learning, play, leisure and sporting activities, as well as advance a culture of respect, safety and equality.

Weaver Vale Primary School was awarded its IIF accreditation by Initiative director, Lynsey Woodhouse, who emphasised the school's "brilliant" approach to pupil wellbeing throughout the coronavirus lockdown.

In order to ensure that every child had a supportive ear available to them while not at school, Weaver Vale provided daily workout videos, My Happy Minds parenting workshops, pastoral support for those in need and a traffic light system for communicating and keeping in touch.

The school used several different platforms to maintain contact with families, including School Spider, YouTube, Seesaw, Tapestry, Zoom assemblies, email and phone calls, social media, face-to-face meetings and home visits when needed.

According to the IIF, "this highlights how [the school] adapted and [took] into account the needs of [its] community."

"By providing additional support in terms of food packs through Edsential, Eden red vouchers and Morrisons vouchers [it] kept those important community links and demonstrated [its] commitment to supporting families and developing [its] practices."

Finally, "Weaver Vale Primary School has supported families through the Holiday Activity Fund and work with Weaver Vale Housing Trust to provide additional support and guidance to individuals who have struggled with energy costs. This is an example of going above and beyond."

Weaver Vale was delighted to accept its IIF accreditation, with school Safeguarding, Pastoral and Inclusion Lead, Cory-Ann Taylor, saying: "Like for many other schools, lockdown has been a challenge, so it was lovely to be recognised for the hard work and dedication of the whole Frodsham Weaver Vale Team during the pandemic.

"We are [now] working hard to hopefully achieve a Diamond standard accreditation in investing in families."

Thanks to funding from Edsential and the Department for Education Holiday and Food Fund, Weaver Vale will be open to pupils during the summer holidays.

Staff are currently planning a full programme of local summer events aiming to promote family engagement and address food poverty and antisocial behaviour.

To find out more about the Investors in Families initiative, click here.