Swindon primary school recognised as leading the way towards healthy relationships
Mountford Manor Primary is one of three schools with a HOPE Award
A Swindon primary school has been recognised for its commitment to educating its pupils about kindness, respect and safety.
Mountford Manor Primary School is the town’s third school to receive the HOPE Award by domestic abuse charity Society Without Abuse (SWA).
SWA works with a number of schools across Swindon to teach children about healthy relationships.
Headteacher Helen Wollington said: “Kindness and friendship are woven throughout the curriculum at Mountford Manor. From preschool onwards, children learn that they don’t always have to be everyone’s friend, but they should be friendly to everyone.
“Teaching children about healthy relationships and providing support to families shows everyone that Mountford Manor is a safe space. By achieving the HOPE Award, we have the skills and knowledge to continue building relationships with our families so problems can be tackled together. The children learnt a lot from their sessions, as did the teachers as part of a special dedicated training in January.”
'Everyone should be kind to everyone'
The award was presented to the school’s 160 pupils during an assembly where they were celebrated and congratulated for their work.
Aiden, who took part in the HOPE healthy relationships lessons, explained: “I learnt that everyone should be kind to everyone, that’s for boys and girls as well as if you’re black or white. It was a very good lesson.”
Fellow pupil Scarlett added: “I learnt to be kind, help others and that you don’t have the right to be mean.”
When Ms Wollington took over in 2024, the school was struggling with a number of cases of abuse.
In her time at Mountford Manor Primary, she has made it a goal to highlight values such as friendships and healthy relationships.
Developing healthy relationships
She told Greatest Hits Radio that now, children are “happy to come to school”.
“We have lots of positive play time and we've got an initiative happening at the moment actually where we've got somebody coming in to work with the children who are developing play times to be a positive place.
“We are working on bringing back some of those old traditional play games on the playground where anyone can join in. The younger children are being supported by some of our older children, called our play leaders, and we're encouraging our play leaders to be supporting the younger children and teaching them new games to play on the playground.
“And once the children have got those skills to be leaders and to develop those positive and healthy relationships, then they go on in the future to develop those skills and to have healthy relationships with their own as they grow older.”
By being a HOPE school, they also host monthly drop-in sessions with support workers from SWA who assist families who are struggling with or at risk of domestic abuse.
On top of that, Mountford Manor Primary also has its own dedicated family support worker.
By the end of 2025, SWA are expecting the number of HOPE schools in Swindon to triple.
SWA’s children and young person’s manager Emma Maclennan said: “Mountford Manor is only one of a handful of schools in Swindon leading the way having already achieved the award, so they should be very proud of their success.
“It’s clear that the children have remembered their healthy relationships lessons on being kind and friendly and we really hope they’ll keep spreading the word on the importance of kindness.”
If you need advice for yourself or someone else regarding domestic abuse, you can contact Swindon’s domestic abuse helpline on 01793 610610.