May 15, 2021 | Leadership, Partnerships, Updates
At school everything is compulsory or forbidden. Or so it seems to many schoolchildren. As teachers we chide our students’ lack of independent learning, often overlooking their resourcefulness, maturity and creativity. I think by our nature teachers like to retain an element of control, but amazing things can happen when we let students take ownership of a project. And it’s the opportunity for student initiative in school partnerships I really want to talk about here. In this blog I start by...
Feb 23, 2021 | Leadership, Partnerships, Primary, Professional development, Secondary, Updates
I had the opportunity to update Kent influencers last week on the educational landscape regionally. It was the perfect platform to talk about school partnerships and their crucial role in academic recovery post-Covid.Schools have managed to continue collaborating during lockdown, making use of new relationships and innovative technology and meeting new need. Student initiatives have been particularly heart-warming: making PPE, raising money for computer hardware, reading stories over Zoom and instigating peer mentoring schemes for attainment...
Jan 13, 2021 | Leadership, Partnerships, Professional development, Updates
I wrote this article for the Girls School Association; it appeared on the GSA website on 5 January 2021: https://gsa.uk.com/2021/01/5-myths-of-cross-sector-partnerships/ There are as many perceived barriers to engaging with state schools as there are benefits, not least the current restrictions placed on schools because of the coronavirus pandemic. Nevertheless, schools are always thinking ahead and I would argue that partnership working plays an important part in any future planning. We know that the best cross-sector partnerships are...
Oct 25, 2020 | Professional development, Science, Secondary, Updates
As all parents know, we put on a brave face in order to instil a cheery confidence in our offspring. As my eldest and her friends prepare for GCSEs this year I’m acutely aware of the difficulties of studying for exams that didn’t happen in 2020 and still might not in 2021. Revising for mocks whose purpose is unknown – a useful practice run or evidence towards a centre-assessed grade? – is pretty unsettling. Add to that the fog surrounding some of the work which was supposed to have been covered during home-learning...
