Queen Anne's School, Caversham case studies (2)

Impact of partnership work done in 2023 (ISC annual Census 2024)

• 30 state schools involved
• 201-500 state school pupils involved
• 25 staff hours given

Impact Statement

Music

Our work with Berkshire Maestros (a charity set up to provide music lessons to children) and Caversham Music Centre is quite significant. We rent out our Music Centre to them at below market rates for 2 evenings a week and there are plans to expand the offering by, for example, offering Sound Production courses via Maestros in the holidays.

We have a link with St Anne's Primary School for joint music and have donated instruments and will be developing this with our girls working with their pupils on music projects.

We are also currently teaching a Year 11 pupil from Reading Girls' School for GCSE Music for free as they have no music teacher. The school has been left with no one to teach GCSE Music. We are supporting her composition studies by her attending QAS composition classes every Tuesday. She receives some additional support associated with the academic components – resources and guides. The pupil in question is very able and is destined for 9 grade 9s at GCSE; the exception being Music, as she has been left up to her own devices.

Our Deputy Head (Academic) has also helped to support pupils with teaching from Henley College and Grey Coat Hospital School, Westminster. Further, he has helped with mock interviews for Oxbridge places for a pupil from the Grey Coat Hospital School and a pupil from Reading Boys’ School. Both were offered places at Oxford.

We are currently rehearsing for a joint production of Les Miserables in February with Reading Boys' School.

As a department, we offer our facilities for ABRSM and Trinity examinations to external candidates including those from state schools and have provided CPD opportunities free of charge for local music teachers as well as seminars/lectures for A Level Eduqas Music.

We work closely with our Foundation Schools, including Grey Coat Hospital School and Westminster City School and regularly exchange ideas and share best practice including concerts and workshops. We have also given equipment to WCS for classroom keyboard work.

We have also offered opportunities for state sector teachers to undertake their QTS and observe lessons.

History

We have had a visit from Humanities staff at Reading Girls School. We shared assessment ideas and some resources and they observed lessons. We also had a visit from the Head of History at Highdown.

English

We have been running a reading buddy scheme with Micklands Primary School, for the last 18 months. Our sixth form students are delivering a reading recovery programme to Year 3 and Year 4 students. The aim is to improve the reading age of pupils who have fallen behind, often for a range of social and economic reasons. Our students give up approximately 1 hour of their time (including travel time) each week to read one-to-one with Micklands pupils.

Micklands reported significant success with the scheme last year; many of their students improved their reading age by two or even three years. I believe the Head of Micklands wrote to our Head last year, thanking us for our involvement.

Co-curricular
We organised and hosted the Grey Coat Hospital Foundation and United Westminster Schools MUN Conference on 9 Oct 2018 and the their Public Speaking Competition on 7 Feb 2018. These events included pupils from the 2 Academies sponsored by the 2 Foundations.

We have, since Nov 2018, been involved in a charitable project-based learning initiative with Redearth Education, an NGO in Uganda, which develops government (i.e. ‘state’) primary schools in Uganda.

Art

Students from Highdown and Kendrick Schools regularly attend our life drawing sessions every Monday.

Psychology

Over the past 12 months we have held the following events that were either subsidised or free to attend, were open to all and therefore of public benefit to the local community and state schools:

• Monday 19th November 2018: The Psychology of Effective Revision. Free public lecture open to all
• Thursday 21st June 2018 - Sleep and the Teenage Brain. Free public lecture open to all
• Thursday 15th March 2018 - Pathways from neuroscience to the classroom. CPD accredited subsidised conference open to all.
• Wednesday 28th Feb 2018 - Autism: Window on the Musical Mind. Free public lecture open to all

We also have the following psychology events planned for this term:

• Monday 11th February 2019 - Educational Partnership Day with Reading Boys, Reading Girls and Queen Anne's. Around 60 pupils from these two state schools will come together at Queen Anne's to develop their understanding of the brain and behaviour and explore mutual interests in STEM careers.

• Tuesday 12th March 2019 - U6 Psychology Revision Day and Sheep Brain Dissection. U6 psychology pupils from LVS, Shiplake, Easthampstead Park Community School and Queen Anne's will come together at Queen Anne's to attend a sheep brain dissection with neuroscientist Dr Guy Sutton and participate in an A-level revision day

• Wednesday 27th February 2019 - Forensic Psychology lecture. Other local schools will be invited. It is free and open to all pupils aged 15 and over

Governorships

Our Head of SEN became a governor at Peppard Primary School in 2014. In 2017 she became Chair of Governors. In 2018 her term as a governor ended but she was asked me to stay on and she agreed to do so as an associate governor.

Our Head of HR has also been a Governor at Crowmarsh Gifford Primary School since 2017.

Sixth Form

In terms of impact on the wider community the Sixth Form have supported Sport in Mind, a local charity which organises sporting events for those recovering from mental health issues. Our pupils helped organised the programme for their annual football tournament, provided support on the day and refreshments for all those involved - this was done alongside Easthampstead Park Community School.

We also have been working alongside Kendrick and Reading Boys School with our staff providing mock interviews for their students who have Oxbridge and Medicine interviews.

Our Director of Sixth Form has also supported Easthampstead Park Community School with the moderation of their Criminology Controlled Assessments.

Sport

We participate in, and host, the Foundation Sports Day, including pupils from Grey Coat Hospital School and Westminster City School.

We will be hosting GCSE PE moderation at Queen Anne’s this year and that will include state schools coming along.

A level dance students from Henley College will be performing their choreographies and group dances as part of a mock exam which our Head of Dance and the course leader at Henley will be leading. This is to give the students an opportunity to present work to others and to see what other sixth form students are creating and performing at this level. We will be marking the Henley College students to give external feedback ready for their live exam at the end of this term.