Celebrating
Partnerships
2023
Annual report of
cross-sector partnership
work between
independent
and state schools
Issue 8
Celebrating Partnerships is published annually by the Independent Schools Council (ISC).
The Independent Schools Council brings together seven associations and four affiliate associations to represent over 1,400 independent schools. These schools
are amongst the best in the world and educate more than half-a-million children. Around half of UK independent schools are ISC schools and these educate
around 80% of all independent school children.
Independent schools save the taxpayer £4.4 billion a year from students not taking up places in the state sector and contribute £16.5 billion to the economy.
Contents
Introduction
1
Why partnerships matter
2
Department for Education celebrates school partnerships
3
Changing lives through bursaries and partnerships
4
Academic partnerships
6
STEM partnerships
8
Careers advice and higher education support
11
Language learning programmes
15
Supporting refugees and pupils with EAL
19
Supporting pupils with SEND
23
Breakfast clubs and holiday provision
28
Helping children facing disadvantage to thrive
30
Mental health and wellbeing support
33
Supporting music and the arts
36
Sporting partnerships
40
Community support programmes
44
Supporting teacher development
47
Regional partnership groups
50
Improving education through governance
54
Widening access through life-transforming bursaries
58
Editors - Emily Roberts, Alex Beynon and Sarah Cunnane
Issue 8
November 2023
1
Cross-sector partnerships between independent and
state schools play a central role in widening access to
educational opportunities, flling gaps in provision, and
supporting the overall development of students and
staf. This bumper edition of the Celebrating Partnerships
booklet demonstrates the breadth and depth of the
collaborative programmes taking place.
You will find in these pages some truly inspiring, uplifting
examples of schools stepping up to support their wider
communities. It is particularly heartening to learn about the
ways in which schools are helping vulnerable members of
society; children with special educational needs and
disabilities, pupils facing disadvantage, refugees, and the
elderly, to name a few. Many schools are forging links with
charities and local organisations. Pupils and teachers are
volunteering their time for a variety of good causes.
Most independent schools are small, with just a few
hundred pupils, but the collective impact they have on
their local communities is extraordinary. By sharing
resources, facilities and expertise, schools create
transformative opportunities for children and
young people.
The ISC publishes this annual report in accordance with our
Joint Understanding with the Department for Education,
who continue to promote state-independent school
partnerships. With a general election on the horizon, it is
more important than ever to highlight this invaluable work.
We want to thank schools for their dedication to supporting
their wider communities. Teachers, school leaders, pupils
and their families should be proud of all they have
achieved. After all, none of this would be possible
without them.
We hope these mutually beneficial partnerships continue to
thrive, and we look forward to discovering some new ones
in 2024!
Introduction
Julie Robinson
Chief executive,
Independent Schools Council
Why partnerships matter
The School Partnerships Alliance (S.P.A.) was founded to
help enable cross-sector partnerships to fourish and
develop. We are a membership organisation and our role
is to connect schools, celebrate partnership work, share
good practice, undertake research, and ofer
professional development for all those working
in partnerships.
Our vision for partnerships is that they are mutual,
sustainable, impactful and serve the public good. Of
course, many partnerships are operating at different stages
of development, and going through these stages is
essential to a maturing partnership, but the centrality of a
clear vision and a shared purpose is what really marks an
effective partnership at every level.
The strongest partnerships are those that have shared
goals and serve a defined local need. These enable
different organisations to work together with high levels of
trust and understanding in a genuinely mutual and
collaborative way, and with a clear sense of their civic duty.
School partnerships can make an important contribution
at all levels, but at their most profound, they help drive
system change. Many cross-sector partnerships we work
with are already operating at this level, helping shape the
future educational landscape by increasing opportunity,
improving educational quality and working towards
greater parity in ways that are transformative
and sustainable.
We warmly congratulate all the partnership work
represented by this booklet, and all those who are
collectively working beyond their own organisations to
advance education for the benefit of future generations.
This is why partnerships matter – because they can make
such a difference, and in the current post-pandemic and
increasingly complex world, it is important to review and
redefine our role as educators, particularly with regard to
the ways we work together.
Schools vary in many ways, serving diverse communities in
different circumstances, but these differences should not
imply separation. While schools clearly differ in many
operational and functional aspects, what truly matters is
the profound way in which schools share a commonality
of purpose.
Partnerships matter, and by coming together we can learn
from each other and become even stronger. We invite all
schools to join the S.P.A., and join the discussion. If you
want to find out more, or want to join while membership is
free, please visit schoolpartnershipsalliance.org.uk or
email us at info@schoolpartnershipsalliance.org.uk
Oliver Blond
Chief executive,
School Partnerships Alliance
2
3
Department for Education celebrates school partnerships
I’d frstly like to thank those schools involved in
partnerships for their continuing hard work. The passion
and determination of staf and school leaders across the
independent and state-funded school sectors continues
to build meaningful partnerships that can deliver
impactful change. Where a pair or group of schools
collaborate and build a rich, mutually benefcial
relationship, they can positively change the lives of
many children.
We know that partnership working can improve the
education system as a whole and is a powerful conduit to
learn from one another through sharing experiences,
expertise and best practice. For this reason, I’d like to see us
go even further to promote the great work that we know is
happening across the sector by evaluating and sharing
how partnerships can bring about positive and impactful
change. I would also encourage even more schools to get
involved and take the opportunity to see how the benefits
of working collaboratively with schools across the state-
funded and independent sectors can really make
a difference.
I am delighted to see that levels of cross-sector partnership
activity have continued to grow over the last year, despite
the challenges that many schools had faced whilst
recovering from the pandemic. The 2023 ISC census
reports an increase of 26% from the previous year with
8,793 partnerships across 1,043 ISC schools; this is a
testament to the commitment and aspirations of all
those involved.
We know that school partnerships that grow and develop
from strong relationships, trust and mutual respect are
those that stand the test of time and there are many
examples of such relationships within the partnerships we
see today. Working collaboratively for mutual benefit can
bring about significant change and equip schools across
both sectors with invaluable tools to meet the challenges
faced by the education sector as a whole.
In the coming year, I’d like to continue to encourage
partnerships that focus on reaching pupils with special
educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and
disadvantaged pupils, wherever they are educated. We
remain committed to our Joint Understanding and
together we can work towards breaking down barriers
between the independent and state school sectors to
widen opportunities for all and raise educational standards
across the whole of the school system.
Baroness Barran MBE
Parliamentary under secretary of state for
the school system and student finance
4
Changing lives through bursaries and partnerships
Royal National Children’s SpringBoard Foundation
(RNCSF) is the UK’s largest bursary charity. Since 2013,
the charity has developed partnerships with nearly
200 schools to ensure that 1,200 children and
young people who face signifcant vulnerabilities in
their home lives have accessed the life-transforming
opportunities of fully-funded bursary places in an
independent day or boarding school.
RNCSF helps ensure that bursary schemes are targeted for
children facing the greatest barriers:
• Children in care – through a network of partnerships
with local authorities across England and Wales, the
charity has ensured that “looked-after children” (a
group that has faced the most persistent educational
disadvantage) are prioritised in schools’ bursary
award schemes
• Children on the “edge of” care – by working with
charities and social workers, RNCSF helps to support
the use of bursary places as a route to prevent
the breakdown of family relationships, including
in particular to preserve and retain kinship
care arrangements
• Those in the lowest income brackets and who are from
areas where there are fewer opportunities to access
outstanding sixth form provision
In other words, children for whom the opportunity to
attend an independent school will make a
transformative difference.
“Bursary placements can play a
significant role in advancing social mobility.
With the opportunity of a great education, young
people facing disadvantage and vulnerability can
develop into confident, independent, and resourceful
young people with the grades and aspirations needed to
thrive at university, in apprenticeships and in the
workplace beyond. Our work shows that bursaries can
have a broad ripple effect on the wider communities where
pupils come from. None of us can, on our own, eradicate
educational inequality and improve social mobility in this
country, but we do know that a bursary opportunity can
make a real difference.”
Ali Henderson,
chief executive of
Royal National Children’s
SpringBoard Foundation
RNCSF also works with independent schools to
support their efforts to target broader
partnership work for children in care. To tackle
the saddening reality that fewer than 6% of
children in care typically progress to university,
RNCSF supports local authorities seeking
university preparation support for looked-
after children.
Looking forward, RNCSF has ambitious plans to have
helped to transform 2,000 lives through its work by
2025. RNCSF’s ability to assess the evidence of
bursary award holders’ outcomes across such a large
group has been crucial to demonstrating the
benefits of independent and boarding (including
state boarding) education in dramatically shifting the
life chances of so many children and young people
facing challenging circumstances. This impact
evidence includes recently published research
demonstrating that children in care are:
• Four times more likely to achieve “good” passes in
English and mathematics at GCSE as a result of
attending an independent school
• Five times more likely to take and secure A-levels,
and thereafter to progress to higher education…
• …and, moreover, to selective universities - 25% of
those who have completed placements through
RNCSF’s work have gone on to secure high-tariff
university places
5
“My bursary place taught me how
to think for myself and gave me the
opportunity to break away from the
circumstances of my background. It enabled
me to see my nerves as just a signal to make
me more aware… I am more adaptable now
than ever before to change. The most
amazing thing about my seven years at
school was to have people around me with
whom I could talk freely… the community
was so important.”
Luci, an undergraduate student at the
University of Birmingham who attended
King Edward’s School in Witley
“Working in partnership with
RNCSF has had a much broader impact
on our school than just on the pupils
who were awarded the bursaries. The
ripple effect is palpable and we have
used it to build a sense of pride,
expectation and self-belief across our
whole school.”
Sue Yates, headteacher at Blacon
High, Cheshire and trustee of Hope
Opportunity Trust, one of RNCSF’s
community partnerships
Academic partnerships
Academic partnerships come in all shapes and sizes,
and they work to broaden the horizons of all involved.
These cross-sector initiatives help to improve
attainment, boost pupils’ self-confdence, and
introduce young people to new learning experiences.
Partnership work at South Hampstead High School GDST
(SHHS) includes a focus on oracy: the ability to express
oneself through spoken language. The school has been
working to increase debating and public speaking
provision in primary and secondary partner schools, and
has partnered with over 50 schools this year.
One way they do this is through debating competitions.
These have attracted a range of entrants – their Year 5
competition welcomed over a dozen state schools and
200 state school students. The scale is impressively large:
two of the competitions had over 500 speeches each.
SHHS students have also been involved, with young people
from the senior school working as judges, chairs and hosts.
Beyond the competitions, the partnership has also
delivered teacher training; working with a dozen schools
and more than 50 teachers on how to improve the quality
of discussion and debate in their classrooms. This training,
along with the workshops and entry to competitions, is
free to state schools.
The partnership work has proved popular; the average
workshop rating is 9.25 out of 10 and 100% of respondents
said that they would like to attend another of SHHS’
debating competitions in the future.
Our students
thoroughly enjoyed taking part in
the competition at your school.
And even those who attended as
audience members were inspired by what
they saw and are excited to get involved
next time. Thanks once again for
welcoming us into your school.
An English teacher
at Ark Greenwich Free School
“
“Thank you very
much for an excellent evening.
I particularly liked all the
South Hampstead girls giving
the feedback and managing
the judging. All our children
thoroughly enjoyed all
elements of the event and left
very inspired.”
A parent at
St Stephen’s
“
6
“
“
The children have all absolutely
loved their time doing Go Cook! The
experience they’ve had is something
that we, as a primary school, are
simply unable to provide on our own
and we strongly feel that the
experience has been an invaluable
one! We would love the opportunity
to take part again next year!
Jordan Matthews,
a teaching assistant at
King Charles School
7
“Thank you so
much for an INCREDIBLE
experience. All children
made fantastic progress
and loved their day.”
Alicia Stratton,
a teacher at
King Charles School
Truro High School for Girls (THS) has partnered with
four local primary schools over the course of the academic
year to introduce their pupils to the joy of cooking
nutritious meals from scratch in hands-on cookery sessions.
The sessions incorporate vital advice regarding healthy
eating and food hygiene, and impart crucial culinary skills
such as the safe and efficient use of kitchen knives, ovens
and other equipment. The school uses its own minibuses to
collect and return the pupils to their schools and, in
addition to providing the ingredients and tuition, donates a
goody bag with wipe-clean recipe cards and wooden
utensils to each child so that they can recreate the dishes at
home for their families.
Pupils have loved the experience: 95% of the pupils from
Devoran Primary School and 100% of the pupils from
King Charles Primary School, Falmouth, said that they
would cook more at home after their day at THS and all
testified to having gained new knowledge, skills and
confidence. Many pupils wrote of cooking the meals at
home with their parents and one teacher recorded that a
child in receipt of free school meals was so inspired that he
saved for his own wok in order to cook at home.
STEM partnerships
State and independent schools are coming
together to widen access to educational
opportunities within science, technology,
engineering and maths (STEM). These
partnerships are vital in raising the
aspirations and involvement of pupils,
particularly those underrepresented in
these felds.
Getting more girls to feel confident in studying
and actively participating in science, technology,
engineering and maths is the aim of the Bright Girls Bright
Futures (BGBF) partnership, run by Nottingham Girls’
High School (NGHS). The school decided to run
the mentorship-based project after finding that
their STEM events for partner schools were
consistently oversubscribed.
The initiative aims to foster confidence in two ways. The first
is by giving mentoring opportunities to girls in Year 8 who
are either on a bursary or who
could benefit from connecting
with younger girls outside of the
immediate school community, as a
means to foster inclusion and nurture
empowering all-female connections. The
second is the work those mentors do with
pupils from Dunkirk Primary School and
Jesse Gray Primary School.
Over the course of three years, students from NGHS
work closely with Year 4 pupils at the partner schools to
learn something new about STEM and women in STEM, and
to complete follow-on challenges in pairs. The partnership
is focused on peer-on-peer mentoring and support, with
girls at all levels contributing valuable skills, knowledge, and
approaches to completing tasks.
In its first year, BGBF was dedicated to ensuring that
pairings of all the pupils were just right, taking lots of time
8
“Women can
do anything.”
A Dunkirk
Primary School
pupil
“The best
thing has been
connecting with
my partner.”
A Jesse Gray
Primary School
pupil