THE MENTOR
Partnerships
EXAMPLE: MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT We are currently experiencing that
toxic combination, common to many schools, of higher instances of mental health issues among young people and increasing cuts in funding to provide support. In fact, our funding for mental health support has recently been cut to zero. Pastorally, this is where most of our concerns arise, particularly in relation to behaviour and the engagement of young people in their education. The pastoral team are very keen to bring back regular counselling sessions but also want a programme of mentoring for vulnerable students, resilience coaching – especially around exam times – and some designated space to carry out these activities. Taking the long-term approach means
we can explore in more detail any provision that current and new partners have to offer, which hopefully fits in with their own targets and available resources, and allows us to build up a carefully managed framework throughout the year. For instance, although it isn’t specifically structured
projects for 2018-2019, rather than springing them on people with little notice. In this way, we can generate interest and support from the right places over a longer period of time while at the same time eliminating the last-minute and impromptu requests that can’t always be addressed at short notice. This, we hope, will give us better success in sustaining projects over the year. Additionally, having all the
projects lined up and ready to go is helpful when it comes to a co-ordinated approach to publicising them – we will be sending out letters to parents, putting the details on our website and social media, alerting local news publications and generally making it known that these projects are the focus of the current school year. This galvanises the staff as well, and with clear targets in mind we can collectively pull our weight and pool our ideas to make them happen.
Relieve the strain With each of the departmental suggestions, however, there is a need to carefully discuss the level
42 SPRING 2018 FundEd
as a mental health programme, the local university, through its Aspire Higher initiative, can provide a series of exam preparation classes and a number of Masters students to act as mentors. With that in place ahead of time for the mock exam and final exam season, we have started discussions with a local mental health charity around providing counselling sessions and training for mentors. Getting this little team around the table is going to work wonders for the motivation of the pastoral staff, who can see support beginning to happen in the way they had hoped – and more. Once people start sharing their ideas, it opens up suggestions for other options that we hadn’t considered, with the charity offering to come in to give assemblies or run workshops on mental health or to provide resources for tutors and the PSHE team. As this begins to generate interest and success, we know we will have a better platform of concrete projects around which to go out and raise specific funds.
or number of requests we make to our business partners. Many are happy to quickly provide a resource or two, and lots of them will turn up to support an enterprise day as judges or mentors, but we don’t want to push our luck, particularly for longer projects that might need a constant top-up of resources.
advance allows us to be more judicious in who we approach. With the gardening equipment request, for example, we are hoping to spread the load between our current partners, such as a landscape gardening company, and a set of new contacts around some of the garden centres and national DIY stores in the area. The cooking competition is, in the same way, encouraging creative thinking around who we can get involved locally to provide ingredients and equipment, as well as coaches and judges. Often, in the end, we realise we
don’t actually need the cash in hand that we thought we would to make the project possible. Not that it means everything is done for free – it usually relies on people’s time
in planning and organising events and activities, or donations of materials and equipment. But it’s also about tapping into the funding that many external organisations or charities already have and whose purpose, staff and resources are all geared towards making things happen in their area of expertise. This is perhaps the biggest
learning curve we’ve experienced recently in building partnerships. It’s not always about the school trying to get the cash to set up a project independently, adding more pressure to the role of the teachers; it’s much more about working collaboratively with the expertise of other organisations that are more than willing to assist. It’s their job, of course, and this takes away much of the strain that schools can feel in having to provide a wide range of services on their own.
Sam Baker is Head of Business and Education Partnerships at Mark Rutherford School in Bedford (1,236 pupils). He has established an award-winning education-business partnership programme with over 150 local and national organisations engaged in various ways in the life of the school and its students.
Coming up next issue… Forget relaxing in the garden! Sam shares his tips for using the summer break to your advantage.
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