Leah Brown, PSHE Lead at Great Coates Primary Academy, shares how Harbour Learning Trust used SuperKind to bring social action together across its primary schools, celebrate existing work and strengthen pupils’ sense of community and social responsibility.
What prompted Harbour Learning Trust to introduce SuperKind across all of its primary schools?
As the PSHE Lead at Great Coates, I was incredibly proud of the extensive community work and kindness initiatives our schools naturally deliver. However, I felt our pupils, staff, and parents deserved a formal framework to celebrate and recognise these achievements. While researching initiatives to support this goal—and simultaneously leading a year-long personal development project across the Trust—I discovered SuperKind online. It immediately struck me as the perfect vehicle to enhance and validate our trust-wide vision.
How did you introduce and coordinate SuperKind across the trust while allowing individual schools to make it their own?
I introduced SuperKind to our Trust’s PSHE leads during our first Professional Learning Community (PLC) meeting. The consensus was immediate: we were already doing the work, but we lacked a unifying ‘umbrella’; to showcase it. To build momentum and cohesion, we launched with shared ‘quick wins’; prior to Christmas, collaborating on Harvest food pantry donations, Children in Need, and Christmas Jumper Day. Once a strong foundation was established, we encouraged individual autonomy. In the spring term, schools truly made the initiative their own, launching diverse projects ranging from colour runs and bake sales to ‘grow and give’; schemes and social impact New Year’s resolutions.
What kinds of social action did pupils undertake across the trust, and are there any particular examples that stand out?
Our pupils embraced a wonderful variety of social action, from organising ‘grow and give’ projects to participating in colour runs for disadvantaged youth. Personally, however, our food pantry donations had the most profound, resonant impact. Sadly, food insecurity is a reality that many of our children intimately understand. I experienced incredibly moving moments where pupils would hand over a small donation and quietly whisper, ‘It’s not much.’ Being able to show them how their individual ‘not much’ transforms into something monumental when combined with the generosity of others was incredibly powerful.
What difference has the programme made to pupils (for example in terms of confidence, sense of belonging, leadership skills or understanding of their communities)?
Community focus and social responsibility have always been core strengths of our Trust. What SuperKind has brilliantly achieved is weaving these separate threads into a cohesive narrative. It has provided our pupils and staff with a sharper, more deliberate focus on civic duty, empowering our children with a clearer understanding of the tangible difference they can make in the world around them.
What did it mean for 100% of the trust’s primary schools to achieve the Social Impact Schools Award?
Achieving this across 100% of our primary schools feels absolutely spectacular. It is a testament to the dedication of our PSHE leads, who collaborated seamlessly toward a shared vision. This milestone has truly unified our family of schools, instilling a profound sense of collective pride and shared achievement across the entire Trust.”
What feedback have you received from pupils, staff, families or community partners?
The feedback has been incredibly encouraging, particularly from parents who loved utilizing the online fundraising platform and watching our school web pages evolve. Looking ahead, our next strategic step is deep integration. While our pupils are aware of SuperKind and proud to be part of it, my goal for the Trust moving forward is to fully embed the ethos so that our children truly live and breathe these values every day
What were the key factors that enabled such consistent engagement across every primary school in the trust?
The primary catalyst for our success was embedding SuperKind directly into our broader strategic initiative to enrich our personal development offer. It became the central focus of our Professional Learning Community (PLC) meetings, allowing PSHE leads to collaborate and align regularly. Crucially, this wasn’t just a grassroots effort; we had the absolute backing of our school principals, alongside the active involvement of our CEO, for whom personal development is a top priority. Having that robust, top-down support combined with enthusiastic frontline coordination made all the difference.”
What advice would you give to another multi-academy trust considering introducing SuperKind across its schools?
My key piece of advice is to dedicate a full academic year to the rollout and secure leadership buy-in right from the start. Bring your Headteachers on board early and give your PSHE leads the collaborative space to champion it. The beauty of SuperKind is that it doesn’t create extra work—it spotlights the wonderful community initiatives schools are already doing in the background, while providing fresh inspiration and a profound sense of validated achievement at the end. We have absolutely loved the journey this year, and we cannot wait to make it even bigger and more impactful next year!