We are delighted to announce that Francis Holland Regent’s Park has been named as a finalist for the Local Partnerships and Community Champion Award in the School House Awards 2024.

We are immensely proud of the partnerships we have established within the local community and place a real importance on giving back. Inspired by the long-term success of partnerships with St Marylebone School (SMS) for example, our aim has been for every academic department to run a partnerships programme.

Our FHS Classics Department has been teaching Latin after school to students from St Marylebone School for seven years, and now teach six hours a week to approximately 55 students in Years 8 to 11. In Summer 2022, 10 pupils at SMS took Latin GCSE and 5 of those girls achieved grades 8 and 9. This is a remarkable achievement for a class who took the subject as a voluntary 11^th GCSE after school.

The feedback we have received has been fantastic. Head of St Marylebone School, Kat Pugh, said in Summer 2021: “Francis Holland’s provision of subject specialist Latin lessons to our students has been a tremendous success. Our GCSE students have been inspired and enriched by the subject. The teaching is excellent, including the adaptability of the teachers to another school’s ways and means.”

Below are other examples of the initiatives with which we are involved:

• Art has shared resources and helped design the A Level curriculum at Haverstock School for the last three years
• MFL ran our annual German Day, which was attended by partner state and independent schools
• Drama invited local primary schools including St Vincent’s Catholic Primary

By partnering with local schools and communities, we are ensuring that our teaching, learning and enrichment, for both staff and students, is continually improving and developing and we are delighted that this has been recognised by being named as a finalist for this award.