Cover story
THE NETWORKING PARTNERSHIP
The East Grinstead Groups of Schools (EGGS) is a partnership of two secondary and 14 primary state schools, which aims to raise the achievement of learners ‘through collaborative networking’. It was set up as a community interest company, initially to bid for West Sussex council funding (for SEND and counselling) that the schools could not access individually. Today, says Paul Street, deputy headteacher at Sackville School (an 11-18 secondary), EGGS supports its members professionally and financially by sharing good practice and offering training at cost. ‘We have tremendous expertise
across our network and draw on this to run sessions in First Aid, positive handling and learning mentoring, as well as bursar and governor training,’ says Paul. ‘We also have professional network groups, including bursars and SENCOs, that meet regularly.’ The network is especially useful for
primary school headteachers, who don’t have the leadership teams that secondary heads have, he says. ‘The heads meet regularly to discuss ongoing and emerging issues, and are able to develop greater consistency in pupil progress through moderating children’s work across schools. Communicating across schools and key stages is also a great way to support transition through a 13-year curriculum.’ The schools collaborate on community events too, including the popular EGGSFest music concert, which features a choir of more than 500 primary pupils among its acts.
SKILLS-BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS
Providing specialist teaching and facilities, particularly for sports and science, is difficult for many primary schools. Yet Diarmuid Skehan, headteacher at St Aidan’s Primary in Coulsdon, has been able to scale up what his school can offer through two partnerships with secondary schools. In the first, his school has benefited from moves by the independent Trinity School to strengthen links with primaries across Croydon. One initiative is for three Trinity
PE teachers to rota the delivery of rugby and hockey coaching to primary pupils and run INSET sessions for teachers. ‘We are a one-form-entry faith
school of 220 children, so we can’t offer the resources available in bigger schools and our training budget is tiny,’ says Diarmuid. ‘The input from Trinity has transformed our provision, making us more attractive to prospective pupils and parents. ‘Not only can we use the school’s pool and hockey pitch, but the standard of pupil coaching is excellent. My staff have benefited from free CPD and I’ve improved my own teaching of tag rugby by shadowing one of the Trinity team.’
The sports initiative is just
one strand of a larger partnership programme being developed by Trinity, which is governed by the John Whitgift Foundation (set up in 1596 to educate the young and care for the elderly in Croydon). Today, Trinity is intent on building on that history of social responsibility, with activities including STEMlink, where hundreds of Year 5 pupils come to Trinity’s DT lab each year to design and build a model vehicle, as well as CHEMlink and COMPlink (computer) challenges. Interestingly, it was a personal
connection that led St Aidan’s to another partnership that has helped expand its science provision. ‘A parent whose child attended our school is a science teacher at Sutton Grammar and wanted to build links with us,’ says Diarmuid. ‘He has run showcase STEM lessons for Years 5 and 6, and arranged for our pupils to have regular use the grammar school science labs, which has been absolutely fantastic.’
Further information n
www.gov.uk/government/publications/setting-up-
school-partnerships (detailed guides and an MOU) n
schoolstogether.org/about/schools-together-group n Connecting-classrooms.
britishcouncil.org n
Stem.org.uk
16 SUMMER 2020 FundEd
GRAPHICS:
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