Oct 14, 2023 | Leadership, Partnerships, Primary, Professional development, Secondary
A school in East Kent regularly lets another use its sports pitches on Friday afternoons. It’s the sort of collaboration which happens all the time between schools in a trust. However, in this East Kent example, these are not schools in a trust but a different sort of collaboration: a state-independent school partnership. Here, an independent school is using the pitches at an academy. The academy finishes early on a Friday and the independent school is short of PE space. It’s a simple case of schools working together to solve a problem....
Oct 14, 2023 | Leadership, Partnerships, Primary, Professional development, Secondary, Updates
When I was appointed to the newly-created role of Head of Partnerships at the King’s School in Canterbury in 2014 some colleagues wondered if it had something to do with marriage guidance counselling! Partnerships are still a relatively new concept for some independent schools. Many are charities and look to fulfil their status through bursaries and outreach yet need to survive as businesses. Partnerships are different from outreach: co-designing educational projects with other schools can enable everyone to thrive; education is not a...
Mar 21, 2023 | Partnerships, Primary, Science, Secondary, Updates
Some young people are put off studying physics because of mistaken stereotypes. Planet Possibility is a consortium working to change this. Read on to find out what we are doing and how parents and teachers can be part of the story. If you close your eyes, what image comes to mind when you hear the word “physicist”? Fig 1 shows a recent Google image search for “physicist”. Does it confirm or shatter your own opinion? Fig 1. Google image search for “physicist” conducted on 29 September 2022 To those of us working in physics this...
Dec 21, 2022 | Leadership, Partnerships, Primary, Professional development, Secondary
At a recent partnership training event a participant asked me: “if independent schools lost their charitable status, do you think they would continue to partner with state schools?” My immediate answer was yes, of course they should – partnerships between state and independent schools bring enormous value to both partners. All schools improve by collaborating with others, especially when they plan their partnerships strategically. If it is genuine partnership which is mutually beneficial and involves activities co-created from the basis of a...
