"On hot summer days, the staff at Cotsford Primary School can't let the children into the playground because of the smell of cannabis being grown in nearby properties. The school, in Horden, County Durham, sits amid 19 boarded-up houses, so teachers have to be inventive to help pupils succeed. The children are encouraged to help in the library or as maths mentors, but to do so, they must fill in application forms and be interviewed."
"The school's work is getting harder, nestled as it is in an area where politics has long failed its residents. Westminster slogans have long been left unmet. In east Durham's former pit villages, things never got better, they've never taken back control and Horden, along with neighbouring Blackhall and Easington, was never levelled up. A once proud, close-knit community has been left to the vagaries of absentee landlords, rising deprivation and residents who often don't want to be here."
The primary school in Horden cannot always use its playground because nearby properties grow cannabis, and the site sits among 19 boarded-up houses. Teachers use creative approaches to help pupils, requiring library and maths mentor applicants to complete forms, attend interviews, and receive feedback. The school's work is increasingly difficult amid long-term decline in former pit villages where mine closures left unemployment, absentee landlords, rising deprivation, and dwindling community pride. Many residents feel trapped or disengaged, and political neglect has opened space for new local forces: Reform UK won a majority of seats in recent council elections across County Durham's former mining areas.
Read at www.bbc.com
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