We are delighted to be celebrating the Independent Schools Council Partnerships Week, recognising the various community partnerships and initiatives we hold with local state and independent schools.
We hold meaningful partnerships with The St Marylebone CE School (SMS), King Solomon Academy and All Saints Catholic College, with the aim for every academic department to run a partnerships programme during the academic year.
Recent highlights have included:
- Art has shared resources and helped design the A Level curriculum at Haverstock School for the last three years. Students from Haverstock and SMS have been invited to life drawing classes in the Spring and Summer Terms.
- MFL ran our annual German Day, which was attended by partner state and independent schools, and an Italian Teachers Day, which 120 delegates attended.
- Physics ran a “We Do Physics” Symposium, attended by approximately 60 pupils from SMS and Camden High School.
- Year 10 students led a ‘Rockets and Robots Workshop’ for Year 6 students at St Vincent’s. They delivered an inspirational STEM session, building mini rockets with paper and straws using a template designed by NASA.
One of our strongest partnerships is with St Marylebone School, where FHS teachers teach Latin, free of charge, to students all the way from Year 8 up to A Level. Kat Pugh, Head of St. Marylebone, has commented: “Francis Holland’s provision of subject specialist Latin lessons to our students has been a tremendous success. Not only has this terrific curriculum offer kept alive an otherwise fading subject in state education, it has developed our students’ scholarship, commitment and academic confidence.”
This successful partnership has continued to evolve and we now offer Physics teaching at A Level, a plethora of academic enrichment opportunities and Oxbridge tuition to SMS students, as well as collaborating in Computer Science, Economics Department and English. Further collaborative learning takes place at our annual Classics Symposium, which is attended by over 100 students from all over London and the South-East.
Other local school partners include Swiss Cottage School, where our students work with staff to help children with special educational needs, and St Vincent’s Catholic Primary School where they volunteer to read with Year 5 pupils once a week, helping them with their spelling and pronunciation and generally providing one-to-one support.
100% of our students and staff take part in local partnerships initiatives, benefitting massively from opportunities to learn from other schools’ ways, means, ethos and values; enriching teaching and learning for all. An FHS student commented on German Day, “The performances were unique but brilliant. My German has definitely improved and it was fun exploring the language with other people at my level”, while an SMS student has commented, “I love the Hale Lectures at FHS. I’ve been to all four so far this year.”
Earlier this year, we were thrilled to be named as a finalist for the School House Magazine Local Partnerships and Community Champion Award. By collaborating with local schools and communities, we are ensuring that our teaching, learning and enrichment is continually improving and developing and we are delighted that this was recognised.
Alongside this drive to change the landscape of education, we offer transformational bursaries up to 100% at 11+ and 16+ and are looking to double our bursary provision over the coming decade.
#schoolstogether #powerofpartnerships
