HC 269 Education CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by the Director of Partnerships at King’s College School, Wimbledon
Executive Summary
Introduction to the King’s College School programme of partnerships with maintained schools.
The Wimbledon Partnership.
The Aspirations Project for students on Free School Meals.
King’s College School and Coombe Girls’ and Boys’ Schools.
Benefits to Student Volunteers.
Funding and Sponsorship.
Pastoral Impact and Inspection Reports.
A recommendation to the government to promote the King’s College School partnerships model.
The Submitter
Harry Chapman, the Director of Partnerships at King’s College School, Wimbledon, was educated at Cambridge University and joined the Modern Languages department at King’s College School, Wimbledon in 1998. He took up the post of Co-ordinator of Partnerships in 2008 and became Director of Partnerships and Outreach in 2012. Harry Chapman works closely with the Head Master and Deputy of King’s College School, Wimbledon to maintain and develop the School’s wide-ranging programme of partnerships with maintained schools. The programme has recently been visited by the Under Secretary of State for Children and Families and the Schools Commissioner for England.
Memorandum
1. King’s College School, Wimbledon, is a leading independent day school whose engagement in partnerships with maintained secondary, primary, special needs schools and academies goes well beyond the public benefit requirement placed on independent schools by the charity commission. The School’s commitment to this programme reflects a desire to share our resources with the local community and a strong belief in the mutual benefit of partnerships across the sectors. Among benefits of partnerships work to King’s are opportunities for teacher-training, the sharing of resources and skills, the provision of work experience and the broadening of our students’ cultural horizons. The maintained schools we work with benefit through the sharing of our resources and expertise, exposure to different subjects and teaching styles and the provision of strong teenage role models.
2. The Wimbledon Independent-State Schools Partnership was set up in 2003 in response to the London Challenge, whose beneficial impact was endorsed by Ofsted in 2010. Government funding continued until 2009, since when the costs have been met almost entirely by King’s College School, Wimbledon. The Wimbledon Partnership is between King’s, three academies and four maintained secondary schools. These are Coombe Boys’ and Girls’ schools (both academies) in Kingston, the Ursuline, Ricards Lodge and Raynes Park High Schools and St Mark’s Church of England Academy in Merton, and Grey Court School in Richmond. Mutual arrangements include the sharing of best practice between Heads of Department and the schools’ pastoral teams, shared management courses and opportunities for beginner teachers to obtain Qualified Teacher Status through observation and teaching practice. King’s also provides support for Oxbridge and Medical applications, and our teachers provide a course of ten GCSE revision sessions for over 200 Y11 students at the partner schools every spring term. The average number of pupils achieving A*–C in five subjects including English and Maths at the maintained schools in the partnership has risen from 49.8% to 60.4% in the last four years. King’s also runs a special project for partner school students who receive free school meals and whose parents have not been in Higher Education. King’s staff members sit on the governing bodies of two of the partner schools.
3. The Partnership is sustained through a relationship of mutual respect and trust that has been built up over a decade. Having established several successful schemes, King’s has been able to show these to other schools as a preliminary step to inviting them to join the Partnership. New projects have always been launched in consultation with the schools involved and reviewed by them. In this way the Partnership has achieved depth and variety through a gradual process of constructive dialogue. This has led to the steady accrual of a range of sustainable projects which receive the full support of all the schools and which are regularly reviewed. Crucial to this process are the termly meetings of an executive committee chaired by the Director of Partnerships at King’s. This contains a senior representative from each school and is a forum for the exchange of ideas and the review of projects.
4. Strong support for the Partnership comes from the Head Master of King’s College School, Wimbledon, who speaks regularly about its benefits on public occasions and ensures that the governing body remains informed about the latest developments. A member of the governing body has taken special responsibility for the programme, and there is a widespread perception among staff at the School that partnerships work brings benefits in terms of continuing professional development. Indeed the Partnership is often given by external candidates as one of their reasons for applying for teaching posts at King’s. The development of a partnerships department has given staff the opportunity to rise within the school hierarchy, and the team now consists of a Director of Partnerships managed by the Deputy Head (Academic). The Director has two assistants, one helping to run the Partnership’s academic work and the other supporting the delivery of creative projects. Over thirty members of staff are engaged on projects with local schools, including those in the Wimbledon Partnership, every Friday afternoon in term-time, while sixteen teach after-school GCSE revision lessons in the spring term. Others teach on our Aspirations Project and run a summer scheme for three primary schools.
5. In 2008 King’s launched the Aspirations Project for students at the partner schools who are in receipt of Free School Meals and whose parents who have not been in Higher Education. Seventy students in Y9 are selected each year to experience a four-year programme of inspirational sessions which culminate in a Preparing for University Day in Y12. The sessions include classes given by King’s staff with the support of their pupils and a range of educational excursions, including a day at Imperial College and a visit to the University of Sussex. The Preparing for University Day includes a section on university tuition fees which has a positive effect on the students’ attitudes to Higher Education. The impact of each session is reinforced by a booklet which prepares the students and prompts them to reflect on the session afterwards. In the spring term, Aspirations students and others in Year 11 attend weekly after-school revision classes in GCSE subjects taught mainly by King’s staff. Some pupils on the Aspirations Project are also offered work experience as leaders on the school’s Open Doors Project, an arts and sports scheme for primary schools at which around 50% of the children receive Free School Meals. These are Ronald Ross and Southmead primary schools in Wandsworth and St Mark’s primary school in Merton. Students in Years 12 and 13 at the partner schools are invited to attend academic society meetings and revision classes and given university interview practice if requested.
6. Our longstanding partnership with Coombe Boys’ and Girls’ Schools is founded on the belief that we can benefit from each other’s expertise and experience. Reciprocal arrangements include shared management training courses, student-teacher induction programmes and mentoring for new Heads of Department. As a governor at Coombe, the Senior Mistress supported the schools’ successful bid for academy status and another member of staff at King’s has responsibility for co-ordinating the partnership. Many activities take place on Friday afternoons, when Year 7 girls attend Latin classes run by our Classics Department and delivered by members of our Sixth Form. Our collaboration on the Latin project has enabled it to become embedded as a popular GCSE subject at the girls’ school, and pupils taking the examination in in recent years have achieved the highest grades in any subject. In response to recent difficulties with funding, a King’s parent whose son taught on the project generously agreed to provide sponsorship for the next five years. Members of the King’s Sixth Form also provide learning support in Maths, Science and Languages at Coombe Boys’ school, while Coombe boys join our Cadet Force for army training on Friday afternoons. Coombe girls play in our school orchestra and sing in a Coombe/King’s choir.
7. The King’s partnerships programme is strengthened and enriched by the work of a large number of student volunteers, for whom participation in the programme provides excellent work experience and the opportunity to develop new skills. As well as revising their knowledge of academic subjects, teaching these reinforces the self-esteem of many less confident pupils. In recent years over 350 King’s pupils in Years 10-13 have volunteered to work on a community project every Friday afternoon. Many of these contribute to the Wimbledon Partnership by supporting the teaching of Maths, Latin, Chinese, English as an Additional Language and other subjects to younger pupils at the partner schools. Pupils in the Sixth Form also deliver a science taster course developed by Imperial College to Gifted and Talented students in Year 8 who are in receipt of Free School Meals. 90 partner school students in Y8 experience this programme every year. Among creative partnerships are the teaching of guitar to students at St Mark’s Academy and the creation of a play by members of the Sixth Form at King’s and Ricards Lodge High School. For the Ricards students in Y12 this has formed part of the coursework for their BTEC in Performing Arts. Creative projects are performed in front of the students’ parents at our annual Open Doors Evening in the school theatre, which is also an opportunity for networking between management and staff at the schools.
8. King’s College Junior School runs a Junior Aspirations Project for pupils at four primary schools in Merton and Wandsworth. Supervised by the Head of Outreach at the Junior School, this extends the knowledge and ability of gifted children in Year 5 with the aim of enabling them to apply for places at academically selective schools. Each year a selected group of gifted pupils from each primary school is invited to a one-year programme of classes every Friday afternoon in term-time. Supported by members of the King’s Sixth Form, these include English, Maths, Latin, French, Music, Geography and Art. Of the fourteen pupils who attended the programme in 2011–12, five were accepted at selective schools and three secured places at good local secondary schools.
9. The King’s outreach programme involves large numbers of staff and benefits from the allocation of Friday afternoons for co-curricular activities, of which volunteering to work in local schools is the most popular. Many of the costs of the programme, such as a substantial proportion of the overheads, staff salaries, transport, and earnings foregone from the hiring of our facilities, are invisible; however it has been calculated that these costs amount to at least £200,000 a year. However, King’s also spends a budget of around £60,000 a year on the programme, mainly on transport, hospitality and payments to staff and guest speakers.
10. The partnerships programme has acted as a stimulus for many individual acts of philanthropy. In the last three years over £700,000 has been given by members of the King’s community to its bursary fund, enabling talented children from modest backgrounds to enjoy the benefits of a King’s education. In addition, individual projects have attracted generous sponsorship from donors, including support for Latin at Coombe Girls’ School and the Junior Aspirations Project. The first senior Aspirations pupil to enter our Sixth Form on a full bursary joined us this September. The Open Doors Project is partly funded by the School’s Parent-Teacher Association. The generosity of the parents who run this committee towards the project provides strong evidence that many parents value the School’s openness to the local community and recognise the educational benefit of the programme to their sons and daughters.
11. The School’s policy of focusing its work with primary schools on schools whose pupils will later attend the secondary schools in the Wimbledon Partnership means that large numbers of local children and their parents know our campus, staff and pupils and have a positive attitude towards King’s. This is also true of many families whose children attend the maintained schools in the Partnership. Possibly as a result of this there has been a slight increase in applications from pupils at local maintained schools for bursary and other places in recent years. Numbers have not been so high as to undermine the Partnership, however, and the closeness of our relations, coupled with the School’s generosity in other areas, have proved sufficient to counteract possible tensions in this area.
12. The emphasis on empathy, teamwork and social awareness which informs the volunteering programme reinforces the work of tutors and Heads of House, many of whom run demanding community projects out of a strong belief in their educational and pastoral benefits. The teaching of younger pupils, in particular, often has the effect of increasing the self-esteem of less confident pupils. In the case of younger pupils at our partner schools, King’s pupils frequently provide outstanding role models. One example of this is the combination of Gifted and Talented girls in Year 8 on our science programme with King’s girl scientists in Y12.
13. The last two Independent Schools Inspectorate reports have warmly endorsed the School’s outreach work. The report for November 2011 states: “It (the curriculum) is enriched by an exceptional outreach programme of community service and a rich variety of outstanding creative, cultural and sporting activities, which promote inclusivity as well as variety… Pupils show concern for each other’s welfare and their strong moral, social and cultural awareness is highlighted in their commitment to and involvement in the service of others, both locally and worldwide… Exemplary links with the local community underpin an exceptional outreach programme of community service. An educational project involves pupils in helping run workshops to inspire local maintained secondary school pupils to raise their aspirations. Others work in special schools or deliver ICT and art classes at local libraries… Many (King’s pupils) are outward-looking, showing strong moral fibre and making a commitment to regular service in the community, whether preparing displays, workshops and shows for partner primary schools or working with the local homeless.” Perhaps even more tellingly, the recent Ofsted report for Ricards Lodge High School speaks approvingly of its partnership with King’s College School.
14. King’s College School would like to propose its varied and successful partnerships programme to the Select Committee as a model for other independent and maintained schools. While the School supports the government’s policy of encouraging independent schools to sponsor academies, its ambitious outreach programme shows that there are alternative ways for schools in the maintained and independent sectors to engage productively with each other. Many successful independent schools lack the resources of schools whose endowments make it possible for them directly to sponsor academies but nevertheless have a strong desire to contribute to improvements in mainstream education. The King’s model is successful because it offers opportunities for work experience to pupils and for professional development to staff while making a substantial contribution to the education of students at maintained schools. Our programme is also in harmony with the government’s desire to promote a culture of volunteering among young people. King’s would like to suggest that its programme offers a practical, sustainable and imaginative model which sits comfortably alongside the creation of academies and free schools. Its model enables an independent school to work closely and share good practice with one or more local maintained schools and support them in flexible and mutually inspirational ways. These schools may be academies or they might be long established in the area, and ready to benefit from shared good practice and the formation of a close and trusting relationship with another local school. We should like to encourage the government publicly to endorse this model and to recommend its adoption by other independent and maintained schools.
15. The Wimbledon Partnership was visited last year by the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children and Families and in March this year by the Schools Commissioner for England. Following the latter visit, the Head Master of King’s College School and the Head Teachers of the maintained schools in the Partnership have been invited to the Department for Education to give a presentation to the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Schools and the Permanent Secretary for the Department for Education. They will also be celebrating the first decade of the Partnership at a reception at the House of Commons in June 2013. King’s College School would be delighted to show members of the committee around its programme and is keen to engage in a dialogue with the government about the potential benefits of its model to the maintained and independent sectors.
October 2013