AS you look across the skyline in Greenstead in Colchester it’s hard to miss the striking towers at the University of Essex.

The university boasts scores of top professors, groundbreaking research and state-of-the-art facilities on Colchester’s doorstep.

But just down the road, in the shadow of the looming student accommodation, lies another education centre hoping to become among the best.

Unity Primary Academy, Greenstead, is simmering below the radar, but a new project is under way which could produce the top scientists, doctors and lawyers of the future.

After all, its new headteacher, Pieter Labuschagne, says the children, the parents and the community “deserve it”.

Mr Labuschagne joined the school last September having honed his skills in supporting struggling schools in London.

He was born in South Africa and arrived in the UK in 1999. Now living in Great Notley, however, it’s Colchester’s classrooms he calls home.

The headteacher is under no illusions he faces challenges with the school set at the heart of one of Colchester’s most deprived estates, but he feels the tide is beginning to turn.

“The community deserves something positive and something good for a change,” explained Mr Labuschagne.

“Just because it’s Greenstead it doesn’t mean you can’t achieve, you can’t aspire to do great things. It is absolutely non-negotiable we as adults, as leaders exemplify that.

“We’re trying to educate the children if they choose wisely they will succeed, this mentality was missing at Unity for a while.

“There is a wider world out there. Every parent is accountable, every adult including myself, to ensure we can do the best we can.”

The ambitious headteacher explained how the primary school’s name is very much at the heart of all he wants to achieve; he wants to unite parents, children and staff alike.

Among his plans include a desire to get a washing machine in the school as some children come in without access to these facilities and he wants to help “respectfully” and “with dignity”.

He says how visibility on the school gate and inviting parents into school has “significantly” built up trust within the community.

“My passion lies with people and my values are based on people and what they can add both to each other and to the community,” added Mr Labuschagne.

“We now have parents asking what they can do to get involved and are really invested in what’s going on, when beforehand they perhaps may not have been.”

Mr Labuschagne says investment is already underway to fund more engaging ways for the children to learn, while opening facilities up to the wider community.

He is working closely with the Woodlands Trust and Essex Wildlife Trust while building outdoor classrooms, while he plans to add a vegetable garden alongside the two forest school areas.

It wasn’t simple getting the projects off the ground, however.

“From a very early starting point I realised there is an exceptional community in this school which has faced challenges which needed to be overcome,” he said.

“It did mean for the best part of the autumn term we had to be on the ground looking and understanding the school in order to garner the right information.

“It meant honest and frank, adult conversations between staff, parents and pupils.

“From here, we could then put together the contextual framework of the school and identify where the strengths and areas of development lie.

“There was a bit of a negative disposition about this school and it is really important to demonstrate it doesn’t have to be like that. We’ve embarked on a complete culture change within the school.

“It has meant we have had to take a strong stance against anti-social behaviours, something I have a zero tolerance policy for. We have seen a remarkable change in pupil behaviour and staff attitudes.

“We have also identified our outcomes have to improve, without question.”

And what does Mr Labuschagne hope for the future?

“For Unity to become the driving force behind the community,” he says, “I know we can all achieve this.”

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