Eton College case studies (16)

Impact of partnership work done in 2018 (ISC annual Census 2019)

• 80 state schools involved
• 500+ state school pupils involved
• 16550 staff hours given

Academies or free schools sponsored

• Holyport College
• London Academy of Excellence

Impact Statement

Holyport:
Eton College founded Holyport College in 2012. It is a state-maintained boarding school which now educates 630 pupils in partnership with Eton College. This is among the closest cross-sector partnerships in the country. Holyport was judged by Ofsted (May 2017) to be ‘outstanding’ on all counts, and has the strongest GCSE results across the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. With a Progress8 score of 0.5, it demonstrates a significant increase in their value added score, especially for pupils from the most disadvantaged backgrounds. This is a partnership in its truest sense; Holyport has gained from access to Eton College’s facilities and expertise, especially as the school has developed to include one additional year group annually. This year, Eton College staff have provided signal support in establishing a robust UCAS process and in supporting two Holyport students to successfully gain offers at Oxbridge. Eton, in return, has gained from Holyport’s expertise, particularly in supporting children with high levels of need. As Eton involves itself in the Boarding School Partnerships scheme, it envisages benefiting from widespread support from Holyport in establishing robust pastoral structures for LACs and pupils on the edge of the care system. Both schools benefit from strong pedagogical partnerships and cross-sector collaborations, and pupils from both schools develop strong social relationships and community links.

LAE:
Eton College is one of six independent school partners for the London Academy of Excellence situated in the London Borough of Newham. This summer, with Eton’s continued support, LAE achieved its best ever A-Level results: 61% of all grades were A*-A and 90% were graded at A*-B. For the fourth year running, LAE was placed in the top 1% of state schools nationally for ‘value added’, measuring student progress from GCSE through to A-Levels. These outcomes placed LAE in the top ten state schools and in the top two of sixth form colleges in the UK. These impressive results have enabled a record number of LAE students to take up places at their first choice university. In total, this autumn, almost 200 LAE students embarked on degree courses at some of the UK’s most prestigious universities, with many securing places on highly competitive courses. In 2018, 15 LAE students won places at Oxford or Cambridge, 12 students went on to study medicine, dentistry or veterinary medicine (MDV) and 88 students (including 54 girls) took up places on STEM courses. In January 2019, LAE confirmed that 26 students, a record number for them, had received Oxbridge offers. Eton’s support involves the provision of part-time teachers in English and Theology, a debating coach and numerous workshops to help LAE pupils prepare for Oxbridge entrance.

ISSP:
Eton College is a founder member of the Slough, Eton, Windsor and Heston ISSP (Independent/State School Partnership). In 2018, the partnership delivered a series of workshops in collaboration with the Orwell Youth Prize, engaging with over 250 pupils on questions of non-fiction writing and its relationship to ‘fake news’. The project culminated in the Orwell 101 conference, the ‘injustice commission’, where students from all schools came together to debate inequalities of wealth, education, gender and identity. The ISSP also delivered the ‘music project’, which saw 100 pupils come together to deliver a choral performance alongside Eton’s close harmony group in March.

System Leadership:
The Director of Outreach and Partnership at Eton College was the chair of the Schools Together Group in 2017/18. This network brings together over 300 partnership co-ordinators from the independent and state sectors. ‘Over and above’ events took place in Wimbledon, York and Stratford (East London).Eton’s Director also edited the first ‘partnerships in practice’ publication, which brought together outstanding practice in fostering and promoting cross-sector music partnerships.

Universities Summer School:
Since 1982 Eton College has hosted an intensive, residential, academic summer school for 130 students from the maintained sector. The positive responses which we receive each year from students and the teachers at their state schools make clear to us how the summer school has impacted on their independent learning, choice of academic subject to study at university, commitment and aspiration to apply to Oxbridge or Russell Group universities and engagement with both teachers and their peers in an academic and social setting. At present, we believe that 605 of the students who attend the course in recent years have gone on to study at Oxbridge. We are particularly proud of our work with Spark and the Hounslow schools, the Northern Ireland integrated schools and the growing relationship with our two Eton-sponsored schools Holyport and the London Academy of Excellence.

Rowing:
The Dorney Lake Schools Rowing programme works with over 10 different state schools providing enrichment rowing sessions, GCSE practical delivery and assessment. In the summer term over 250 local school children make use of the lake every week. For those that want to row in addition to school sessions or live in the local community, they can join Dorney Boat Club and even progress to competing. The club regularly sees attendance of 50 members weekly across the junior and adult sections.

Collections:
Collections Outreach has many different strands. During the second half of 2018 we hosted four different visits by outside groups, for a total of 35 students, to investigate various specialist aspects of the collection. The three Museums taught free education sessions, with over 73 local primary school students visiting with their schools. Two family learning events, on Remembrance and Birds of Prey, were held when local children could visit with their families. A total of 72 adults and 61 children had the opportunity to interact closely with the exhibitions outside of a school environment. Finally, a new standardised Collections Education Outreach programme has been devised and advertised locally, providing five new free National Curriculum linked sessions for local state school students. In March the Natural History Museum hosted art exhibitions for two local state primary schools, connected to a proposed mural in the town. These exhibitions were attended by 140 children and 55 parents, many of whom were new to the Museum.

Debating:
On Saturday 23 June, we hosted the Eton Open, a day-long tournament that serves as the finale of the schools debating season. This year’s version involved around 200 girls, boys and teachers from a range of state and independent schools, all gathering in the Jafar Hall. 17 other schools were represented this year (including 9 state schools): Bridge Academy, Brampton Manor Academy, London Academy of Excellence, Hill House School, Sydney Russell School, Urmston Grammar, Saint Dominic's Sixth Form College, Wimbledon High School, Wycombe Abbey School, Harris Westminster Sixth Form, Francis Holland School, RGS Newcastle, Wellington College, Roding Valley High School, Westminster School, Bromley High School and Dulwich College.

Facilities letting:
Following the official opening of the Eton Willowbrook Complex in September, the facility has been used by several different groups under our “Community Use Agreement”. From local state schools we have had 3 groups of 15 students using the facility for 1½ hours each week and 1 group using the facility for 2 hours each week from October to December. We have also hosted 5 groups (3 x 15 & 2 x 10) from Slough Borough Council for 2 hour afternoon sessions from October to December. A local youth football club that an Eton master has a connection with use the facility on a Wednesday evening for 2 hours for training of its junior teams (45 boys) from mid-September to December.