St Mary's School Ascot case studies (2)

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

• 18 state schools involved
• 201-500 state school pupils involved
• 200 staff hours given

Impact Statement

OXBRIDGE AND MEDICS PRACTICE INTERVIEW AFTERNOON: St Mary’s staff interviewed pupils from a local state school and pupils from a disadvantaged school in London. Each interviewee was given verbal and written feedback on their performance. The interview afternoon has been held jointly with the local state school for several years and we invited the pupils from the London school to join us for the first time as part of our ongoing relationship with them. “I know our students really enjoyed their afternoon and gained much from the interviews. Many Thanks.” (Sixth Form Administrator) “Thank you so much for hosting us. It was superbly organised and you made us feel most welcome. It made a real difference to the students and their confidence – they talked about it all the way home! Thanks again.” (Sixth Form teacher)

MANDARIN AND RUSSIAN TASTER COURSES FOR YEARS 8 & 9: “We are most grateful to St Mary’s for providing extra-curricular language taster courses which are offered to some of our students in Year 8 for Mandarin and Year 9 for Russian. We have had favourable reports from students and parents regarding these opportunities and some of our linguists have been inspired to continue with Mandarin to GCSE. This has encouraged independent learning and greater linguistic depth.” (MFL teacher, local state school)

LOAN OF SCIENCE LABORATORIES AND TECHNICIAN: “St Mary’s Ascot very helpfully came to our aid and offered the use of its science classrooms, laboratories and technicians. Without the help of St Mary’s Ascot those students who had been selected for the summer school would not have had the full benefit of the science programme. We are therefore immensely grateful to St Mary’s for its help and support.” (Summer school staff)

INTOUNIVERSITY: St Mary’s developed a partnership with IntoUniversity about five years ago. Young people from disadvantaged backgrounds take part in a course at Surrey University over May half term. St Mary’s hosts them for the duration of the course, providing accommodation and meals, and the opportunity to experience life in a boarding environment, as well as transport and drivers to take them to and from the University campus. These young people leave St Mary’s bursting with energy and enthusiasm after their two-night stay with us, enjoying the facilities and savouring the food on offer in the dining room. They are extremely appreciative not only to have been selected for Surrey University’s programme but also to have experienced the opportunity provided by St Mary’s. "IntoUniversity students from our Hammersmith and North Kensington centres had the opportunity to stay at St Mary's School Ascot in May half term. Twenty-two students thoroughly enjoyed leaving London to venture on a residential trip. The school were extremely accommodating to students and staff, providing breakfast, lunch and dinner. Students received a full tour of the school to explore all areas of the grounds and had the opportunity to ask staff questions. The IntoUniversity team are very grateful to the St Mary's staff for their warm hospitality." (IntoUniversity staff)

EDEXCEL MATHS COLLABORATIVE MEETINGS: Up to 18 Maths Heads of Departments from state schools attend these meetings, hosted by St Mary's.

EXAMINATION OFFICERS NETWORKING MEETING: Up to 15 Examinations Officers from state schools attend this meeting annually, hosted by St Mary's.

LOAN OF FILMING EQUIPMENT: St Mary’s provided the loan of equipment and training in its use to a local school to support their participation in BBC News School Report, a UK-wide journalism project for students aged 11 to 18. Equipment loaned included video cameras, SD cards and tripods. The students created local news items and uploaded these to a link via an interactive map. This allowed their news to be accessible to a worldwide BBC audience. The work of these School Reporters across BBC programmes in the UK was showcased on News Day, Thursday 15 March 2018.

LNAT INTERVIEW SUPPORT: St Mary’s provided a two-hour LNAT support session for four pupils from a local state school, two of whom were applying to Oxbridge. This involved doing the online LNAT tutorial, followed by a Q&A session. St Mary’s purchased the LNAT textbooks, which were given to the students. “Thank you so much for giving up your time on Wednesday to work with our students on the LNAT – they found it invaluable!” (Sixth Form teacher)

OXBRIDGE PREPARATION DAY: This is a full day of intensive application, admissions test and interview preparation led by a consultant from Oxbridge Applications and supported by a team of Oxford and Cambridge graduate tutors. St Mary’s offered ten free places to a local state school, and six of their students took up the offer. Lunch was provided by St Mary’s. The St Mary’s Oxbridge candidates paid the cost price of £150 for the day. All candidates received individual written feedback on their interview. We sent a copy of materials used throughout the day to the state school for their remaining Oxbridge candidates, which was much appreciated. “A massive thanks to all at St Mary's for having our students. They all found the day very useful.” (Sixth Form teacher)

GCSE LATIN TEACHING AT LOCAL STATE SCHOOL: Pupils in Year 11 at a local State school are taught the GCSE Latin language requirements by a St Mary's teacher, who is released from lessons at St Mary’s on Monday afternoons to travel to the local school every week in term time to deliver the lessons; in addition, the pupils and a teacher of Latin at the local school receive resources for Latin language and literature from St Mary’s, such as loan of text books, hand-outs, set text resources and teaching notes, and past paper booklets. The St Mary's teacher marks pupils’ classwork and homework and also sets and marks mock examinations and tests throughout the year. This arrangement has been in place for many years. “The local school’s association with St Mary’s dates back to 2006 when we were running the second year of a pilot project to offer the experience of learning Latin to a targeted group of students, then in Year 9. This evolved into the provision of a regular GCSE course, for which the support of staff from the Classics department of St Mary’s is vital. Currently staff from St Mary’s share the teaching at KS4 and the delivery of the OCR GCSE syllabus, as above. Clearly we could not offer GCSE Latin without the help of St Mary’s. Students benefit not only from the experience of a different teacher, but also from the example of professionalism and commitment provided by the St Mary's teacher, in particular her constant availability via email to give advice and feedback. Several students have said that this example has spurred (shamed?) them into a more organised approach! For my part I enjoy working with the St Mary's teacher and value her advice. She is always willing to share information, updates from exam boards, translation and commentaries on set texts, and much other classroom material from her department at St Mary’s: I am grateful to all my Classics colleagues there. In addition St Mary’s loans us textbooks and reference material; this has been particularly useful since the implementation of the new GCSE syllabus." (Classics teacher, local state school)

USE OF CROSS COUNTRY TRACK: Every Monday during term time, St Mary's makes its cross country route available to a local state primary school. "St Mary’ s Ascot allowing our school to use their cross country track has encouraged one student to join the local athletics club, where she recently posted a personal best across 1300m. Four members of the club say that they continue to run for leisure at least once a week." (Head of Sport, local state primary school)

YEAR 5 SPORTS COACHING: St Mary’s sport staff run a comprehensive weekly sports programme for Year 5 students from a local state primary school, in which they rotate through a variety of sports in six-week blocks. This programme runs in conjunction with their normal PE programme, allowing for more specialised coaching to assist the overall development of every single child. The equipment is supplied by both St Mary’s and the primary school and the facilities are maintained by the St Mary’s maintenance team. “Since forming a partnership with St Mary's PE department, interest in sport within and beyond school provision has greatly risen. As a result, we have had six students join the Bracknell Cobras basketball club. This sparked interest has encouraged our school to commence an after-school basketball club and purchase the appropriate equipment.” (Head of Sport, local state primary school)

SCHOOLS CLUSTER – SPORT: A group of local state primary schools bring their Year 6 classes to St Mary’s for a full day of sport. The day is split in two with small groups on a carousel of track & field athletics activities in one section, and rounders and tennis in the other, all led by St Mary’s specialist coaches. This allows every child to experience athletics events on a full-sized athletics facility. The schools split their pupils into small mixed groups who are chaperoned by local state school Year 10 pupil ambassadors, who thereby gain useful leadership experience. These ambassadors allocate prizes to students in their group. “The students had an amazing time, with many of them learning and taking part in athletic events such as shot putt, javelin, discus, long jump, high jump and hurdling for the first time using proper facilities. Each receive a high standard of specialist coaching in the events, which would not normally be possible for many of the schools. By the end of the day they all leave happy and exhausted.” (Local state primary school teacher)