Our Services and Partners

As the largest primary academy in the country, Durand invests in the products and services of various organisations to ensure that our bustling school of over 900 pupils and 80 staff is supported to run as effectively and efficiently as possible.

We are proud to work with suppliers and partners so that we can focus our management time on getting the most important thing right - the delivery of an outstanding education to over 900 children from Stockwell's estates each year.

All suppliers that work with the school are approved by the Durand Academy Trust, with contracts reviewed regularly. We believe that by managing our budgets carefully and investing in the best expertise, we achieve the best results for our school.

Here are some examples of our key people we work with to deliver the best at Durand...

Teaching Supply Services – Career Teachers & Just Teachers

What do they do for Durand Academy?

• Provide professional supply teachers to ensure highest standards are maintained at all times
• Support the school to ensure every lesson is a valuable lesson for the children that attend our school

With a school of this size, we have a large number of staff that help us to run the school and deliver great lessons to the children every day. We need to ensure that if a teacher is ill we have trusted agencies we can call on to provide reliable staff at short notice. We work with Career Teachers and Just Teachers to ensure that our teaching team is always at full capacity. There is nothing more important than great teaching and we never want a lesson to be wasted.

Communications Services - PLMR Ltd

What do they do for Durand Academy?

• Fundraising (For Durand Education Trust Ltd)
• Academy conversion
• Media and political relations
• 'Shine a Light on Opportunity' Campaign
  

Fundraising (for DET), liaising with Councillors, making applications to Civil Servants, converting to become an Academy, championing our achievements, writing to Ministers and dealing with the media are not the expertise of the school leadership. All of these things are essential for the future growth and development of our school, so we work with a local partner, PLMR Ltd, which provides these services.

We are not unique in working with communications professionals. More schools are following suit to ensure that they can continue to campaign, engage in reform, develop and grow whilst management focus on ensuring the highest levels of attainment are maintained in the classroom.

Last year we achieved record SATs results - we believe that this is no coincidence and demonstrates how good an investment this has been for us. Through careful management and allocation of our budget – which any school can do - we have achieved the most important thing, great results for the children that attend our school. If this is not good value for money we are not sure what is.

Catering Services – ISS Caterhouse

What do they do for Durand Academy?

• Provide professional, nutritious catering services to our school
• Ensure that children receive at least one home-cooked meal a day
• Use organic and farm-assured ingredients wherever possible in their menus

We firmly believe in healthy body, healthy mind. For many of the children at Durand - 40% of which live in overcrowded households -they do not have the luxury of a nutritious home-cooked meal every evening. So we wanted to ensure that every child that attends Durand receives at least one homemade and wholesome meal each day, with the school kitchen sourcing where possible only organic or farm assured food.

Additionally, children have the option of taking part in a subsidised after school club where, for 60p per hour, they receive an additional meal. Up to 250 children attend school club each day.

We started working with ISS Caterhouse as our catering supplier in December 2010 and the partnership is flourishing. The good diet that the children receive has a marked effect on concentration and achievement.