Kettering primary given special award for supporting community through pandemic

A Kettering primary school has been granted a special award for helping the community during the pandemic.

Grange Primary Academy in Kettering have been given the Rose of Northamptonshire Award for their outstanding contribution to the local community throughout the past year.

High Sheriff of Northamptonshire, Paul Parsons who presented the award said: “We launched the Rose of Northamptonshire awards because we felt the very many unsung heroes across Northamptonshire who had done so much to help others throughout the pandemic should be recognised, and we were keen to engage the public in the nomination process

"I am extremely grateful to everyone who has been awarded a Rose of Northamptonshire award for all they have done and continue to do.”

The school were highly praised for engaging with local businesses and charities to help support the community through food parcels, Christmas boxes, children's games packs, Chromebooks and collecting prescriptions for many members of the local community, all while keeping the school open and the children learning.

Headteacher Chris Latimer said: "We are fortunate to be part of United Learning, the largest educational trust in the country. Their support has enabled us to be able to focus on the two things that we do best over the past twelve months.

"Firstly, in making sure that our children continue to learn. We have, at times, had up to half of our children in school, while the rest have worked remotely.

"Staff have work diligently to change the way they work to make sure that children continue to make progress.

"This has been so successful that other parents and schools all over the country have been using our resources. It has also meant that we have been able to support our local community as much as we could in the way mentioned.

"We could not have achieved this without the hard work and commitment of all our staff. Throughout the last year, despite their own anxieties and concerns about COVID they have always put the children and community first and I am very proud that the school and them in particular have been recognised for this. It really has been a team effort."