Partnerships
‘As a supporter of Balsall Common Primary School, John Lewis has been keen to get involved and has so far run a history day and an in-store toy-testing lab, as well as making Christmas jumpers with the school’s fashion club. We are looking forward to becoming more involved in future events. The children are learning while having fun, and we are able to give something back to the community. In the future we hope to be more hands-on, to join in the fun at the various functions throughout the year and help raise funds to support the school.’ John Lewis, Solihull
‘We are proud to sponsor the Balsall
Common Primary School cooking club and have provided free range eggs for the past two years, helping to create
cracking cakes and perfect pastry for all the budding chefs. The support we give helps the children to appreciate where food comes from, and the alternatives to the supermarket.’ Oaks Farm Shop
positive coverage for them.’ According to the Department
for Education, ‘every school should engage fully with their local employer and professional community to ensure real-world connections with employers lie at the heart of the careers strategy’. That’s certainly something that the Mark Rutherford School in Bedford has taken on board, and, indeed, promotes strenuously. ‘Our strategy has been to give
businesses a reason to work with the school – and then build on that relationship,’ says Sam Baker, head of business and education partnerships at the secondary school. ‘There is a strong engineering sector in our region – and companies are well aware of the importance of tapping into a pool of future talent. ‘We actively promote any projects
we do with business partners on our school Facebook page and LinkedIn. We also write a lot of press releases for local media and display these on professional boards in our school reception area, effectively creating a physical wall of sponsors (right). The idea is to have something physical where we can show our
FundEd SUMMER 2019 49
appreciation for our business partners and raise their profi les. One benefi t is that we have been able to raise the profi le of local companies that are industry leaders in their fi eld but that students have traditionally overlooked because they are not household names.’ An important activity that the
school promotes extensively is its regular twilight networking events between businesses and students, parents and teachers. These tend to be organised around a particular topic, for example digital skills or engineering, and they provide a valuable framework for high-quality conversation and a productive ideas exchange. ‘We invite in around 200
businesses over the course of the school year and we’ve had some incredible spin-off ideas,’ says Sam Baker. ‘People who often haven’t been near a school since they left school themselves come out feeling inspired and brimming with ideas. ‘For instance, one civil
engineering company decided to set up an extra-curricular geography club for Year 7s, while other businesses have offered to run workshops or even support students through their education. We’ve found that the best things happen when you create opportunities for them to happen, and that publicising our partnerships acts as a draw for other businesses to approach us.’
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60
