Alleyn's School case studies (55)

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

• 36 state schools involved
• 2001+ state school pupils involved
• 9700 staff hours given

Academies or free schools sponsored

• London Academy of Excellence, Tottenham

Impact Statement

London Academy of Excellence Tottenham (LAET)
The LAET is a maintained free school for sixth form students in Tottenham, North London, which is co-sponsored by Tottenham Hotspur Football Club and Highgate School, supported by the Department for Education and a number of other independent schools, including Alleyn’s. LAET opened its doors to students for the first time in September 2017. The Head of Alleyn’s is a Governor of LAET, and three academic departments at Alleyn’s are the primary links with their opposite numbers at LAET. The Head, several Heads of Department and other senior staff from Alleyn’s have made a number of visits to LAET to undertake reviews and produce reports to assist the school in its formative stages. In addition, students and teachers from LAET and Alleyn’s have visited one another on a number of occasions, and there are plans for further collaborative activities in the future. Alleyn’s has also seconded to LAET a Biology teacher for one day per week to assist with their provision, free of charge. The Assistant Head, Co-curricular and Partnerships, continues to provide ongoing opportunities and support to LAET colleagues as appropriate.

Southwark Schools Learning Partnership (SSLP)
The SSLP is a unique collaboration between local state and independent schools based in and around the borough of Southwark. The number of partnership schools has increased to 16 across the Borough.

Alleyn’s has been fully engaged with other SSLP activities to which our pupils and staff have been invited. In particular, Alleyn’s has taken the lead on or hosted over 20 to 25 initiatives, to which pupils and staff from SSLP member schools have been invited, and these activities include:

• Economics: ‘Engage China’ – Chopsticks Club lecture about the importance of China to the world economy and ways in which students can discover how they can engage with China.
• Geography: ‘The Missing Maps’ lecture was held in October at Alleyn’s. The project aims to enthuse pupils in making maps of vulnerable places where there are currently none, and thereby contribute to the work of the international humanitarian aid agencies.
• Politics: The Alleyn’s Politics Society hosted the Rt Hon Baroness Chakrabarti, the Shadow Attorney-General and former Director of Liberty, and pupils from all SSLP schools were invited to the talk and to take part in a Q & A session with the guest speaker.
• Physics: The School’s Head of Physics led an educational visit for SSLP schools to CERN, Geneva in August.
• Mock Oxbridge interviews
• Hosting an indoor athletics competition

Southwark Community Education Charity, Saturday Maths Scheme
The Saturday Maths Scheme (overseen by SCEC, of which the Alleyn’s Headmaster is a trustee) continues to flourish at Alleyn’s with four tutors teaching 52 Year 5 pupils from 12 local primary schools, with the help of Alleyn’s pupil mentors from Year 11. This year, 47 of the School’s Year 11 pupils volunteered on Saturday mornings to support this scheme, which has made a real impact on the learning, enjoyment and confidence of local state primary school children over a period of many years.

Continuing Professional Development
At the start of the Advent Term the Alleyn’s Sports First Aid Officer hosted a CPD day attended by approximately 30 teachers from local state primary schools; ‘Planning for sport-specific functional movement and strength’.

Sharing of the School’s facilities
Alleyn’s have developed many successful and repeated partnerships with local schools to share our resources aiding the delivery of the national curriculum and co-curricular activities. Many schools have difficulty sourcing and accessing facilities given their operation in a high-density area and may require staff expertise to support the delivery of an activity.

Our facilities were shared with 12 different schools, encompassing 23 different projects, for over 540 hours of use, involving in excess of 3,000 local schoolchildren.

One such relationship with Harris Primary Academy, East Dulwich led the Principal to link their positive achievement with the partnerships that had been established with Alleyn’s.

‘Our Academy community were delighted that their hard work and commitment was recognised by the [Ofsted] inspectors, who judged our academy to be to be outstanding in every area. The partnership with Alleyn’s this term certainly contributed to this fantastic outcome.’

Local state schools used our facilities for a variety of activities:

PE lessons and Forest School - Heber Primary School and Harris Primary Academy, East Dulwich continue to use the top field at Townley Road each week to deliver PE lessons and Forest School activities to their pupils. Judith Kerr Primary School have recently been provided with regular access to our sports ground at Burbage Road to host PE lessons and football training sessions. Heber Primary School also held a Hockey Tournament for 60 Year 6 pupils.

School Sports Fixtures - The Burbage Road Sports Ground continues to host cricket and football matches on behalf of Charter School and Dunraven School in addition to hosting South London Schools' Football Association finals and representative fixtures. An initiative to share junior football pitches on a Saturday morning with the Lambeth and Southwark Primary Schools Football League began in January 2018. The League has expanded to encompass 14 girls-only school teams in addition to a “35 school, 37 mixed-sex team league”. The School provided the competition access to an additional venue to host games so that fixtures could be fulfilled.

School Sports Days - The top sports fields and athletics track hosted five sports days for Harris Primary School East Dulwich, St Anthony’s Primary School, Heber Primary School, Judith Kerr Primary School and Goose Green Primary School. Approximately 2,000 children in total, in addition to their teachers, parents and supporters, visited Alleyn’s during this time.

School Swimming Lessons – Bessemer Grange Primary School and Harris Primary School East Dulwich used the pool for one week and Heber Primary School each used the pool for two weeks during the year. The Swimming Pool Manager, and his team, delivered an intensive learn-to-swim programme to approximately 200 pupils, many of whom were previously unable to swim. Pupils from Sydenham School used the pool for their GCSE PE moderation

School Art and Performance – In July 5 primary schools were accommodated in our theatre to host their respective end of year productions. We welcomed Heber Primary School (for two days), Dulwich Hamlet Junior School (for three days), Harris Academy East Dulwich (for two days) and Horniman Primary School (for two days). Schools using the theatre receive full technical staff support.

In total, local schools used the theatre for over 150 hours involving over 500 pupils, performing to several thousand-audience members.

Parent Association Events - The Judith Kerr Primary School used the Burbage Road Sports Ground as the end destination for their St Martin’s Day Lantern Parade. The Goose Green Primary School PTA hosted a fun run on the playing fields bringing together pupils, parents and teachers, the event raised funds on behalf of a local charity.

Outreach

Primary Schools
The Primary Outreach Programme has worked with seven local state primary schools to deliver specialist projects in the Sports, Arts and Sciences. Over the course of this year, 600 primary school children have participated and benefitted from one of our specialist projects, led by our Year 12 students under the supervision of several teaching staff. Our scheme has now expanded to include eight partner primary schools and we are delivering specialist Arts, Science and Sports Projects at Harris Primary Academy, Goodrich Primary School, Heber Primary School, St Anthony’s Primary School, The Belham School, Elm Wood Primary School, Crawford Primary School and Rosendale Primary School.

The Head of Outreach meets with each Primary Head or link person and a bespoke programme is devised to maximise impact in each school. For example, a bespoke ‘Science through Dance’ scheme of work was created which featured magnets, forces and the lifecycle of a plant, all covered through movement and dance-based learning.

Now in its third year, a record number of 92 Year 12 students have participated in the programme, planning and delivering a sequence of five sessions, supervised by their specialist subject mentor, and they have loved their experiences.

“We have loved working with the Alleyn’s Partnership Programme, it has given our students access to a wider range of activities then we would typically be able to offer. Their sessions have been well-planned, resourced and have tied into our topic-led curriculum. The Alleyn’s pupils and staff have gone out of their way to work with us to enrich our curriculum offering. Our children have really loved working with older students — it’s given them something to aspire to.” (Assistant Head: Key Stage Two & Curriculum at The Belham Primary)

Rhythm for Reading
We have continued our partnership with the Rhythm for Reading programme this year, in which 20 Year 12 students have the opportunity to work with and mentor small groups of Year 3 pupils at Goodrich Primary School as part of their enrichment programme on a Monday afternoon. We run one cycle per half term of both the Advent and Lent terms.

Rhythm-based activities to help improve children’s ability to tackle multi-syllabic words, phrases and sentences with greater fluency, which in turn helps to improve their literacy skills across their entire curriculum. On average, the pupils we worked with at Goodrich Primary School gained an average of 9 months progress in their reading skills over just five weeks of the programme.

"As Programme Developer and Director of Rhythm for Reading, I have been very fortunate to have collaborated with the teachers and Year 12 students at Alleyn's over the past four years. It has been a huge privilege to do so. I have seen rapid transformation take place in the relationships between Alleyn's students and the pupils of Goodrich Community Primary School where we work together on a weekly basis on reading books and musical activities. The sparks of creativity generated in this collaborative learning space ignite lasting change in the reading of disadvantaged young children, in addition to broadening and illuminating the self-awareness of the Alleyn's students. My personal journey during this beautiful collaboration has really enabled me to see that enrichment is most beneficial when it takes place at many levels simultaneously: intellectually, socially and most importantly, emotionally." (Director of Rhythm for Reading)

Volunteering
Over 60 pupils take part in Fun Fizz at The Bridge Leisure Centre, Sydenham. This programme has been active for over 30 years. It offers a programme of physical activities for children with some form of special educational needs.

Junior Saints connects the School’s pupils with a local mainstream primary school in Peckham. The pupils help implement a range of numeracy, literacy, craft and sporting activities at their after-school club under the excellent guidance of a senior member of staff at the school.