Highgate School case studies (24)

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

• 56 state schools involved
• 2001+ state school pupils involved
• 3250 staff hours given

Academies or free schools sponsored

• London Academy of Excellence Tottenham

Impact Statement

During the calendar year 2018, Highgate worked with 44 state schools in London on numerous events. These schools comprised 28 secondary schools and sixth forms, 12 primary schools and 4 virtual schools.

To deliver our robust and rewarding programme, Highgate employs the equivalent of four extra full-time teachers. This means over twenty Highgate teachers are involved in partnership teaching, either by giving timetabled classes, delivering sessions in partner schools or running events for partner school pupils and staff at Highgate.

Our programme covers a range of academic subjects including art, biology, chemistry, classics, design technology and engineering, drama and theatre studies, English, French, mathematics, music and physics. We have five Chrysalis Fellows (recent graduates or leavers from Year 13 who co-ordinate and deliver this variety of projects), plus a full-time member of our Senior Team and a coordinator who are dedicated to this programme.

Highgate's decade of partnership teaching was brought to bear with the establishment of the London Academy of Excellence in Tottenham (LAET), east Haringey. This new sixth form free school opened in September 2017, following the successful model of the LAE in Stratford (also one of Highgate's partner schools). It provides an academically rigorous sixth form education to children in the Tottenham area. Highgate is the lead educational sponsor, alongside the lead business sponsor, Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. As LAET’s lead educational sponsor, Highgate provided substantial ongoing support in 2018 through the secondment of teaching and support staff, as well as continuing administrative support and as a presence on the governing body. In 2018, we provided the full-time equivalent (FTE) of 6.6 members of teaching staff in English, geography, chemistry, physics, mathematics, art, design technology and engineering, French, Spanish and learning support.

Highgate also has a longstanding relationship with the Haringey, Camden and Islington virtual schools through the Chrysalis Accelerator Project for Looked After Children (LAC). This helps looked-after children in Years 6 to 12 raise aspirations and develop world of work skills, attainment and confidence, leading to successful applications to higher education and into work. The programme consists of a Saturday series with small group tutorials and workshops, led by Highgate teachers and inspiring mentors, as well as university visits and engaging enrichment days led by facilitators.

We worked with two cohorts of LAC in 2018. The first cohort agreed or strongly agreed that the programme made them more like to consider applying to university (100%), more confident when trying new things (100%), developed their ability to make and reach their own goals (95%), helped with their progress at school (86%) and boosted their confidence in academic settings (82%). 89% of attendees in the first half of 2018 said they would like to attend again. The second cohort to take part in the calendar year, who will continue in 2019, universally agreed that the programme so far had made them more confident about university and more likely to consider applying in the future.

The 2018 calendar year saw a total of 102 partnership events take place. Amongst these were the annual Chrysalis Summer Schools, which saw 136 pupils in Years 10 and 12 from 18 partner schools take part in an intensive three-day programme of academic tutorials, higher education workshops and careers provision. Summer School attendees continue to engage with Highgate once the academic year begins. 80% of attendees of the Year 12 Summer School have took part in a university preparation enrichment activity at Highgate during Year 13, such as the annual Chrysalis Interview Evening. In total, Highgate teachers provided mock interviews for 149 pupils from partner schools, equating to 75 hours of meaningful interview preparation. A substantial number of these pupils have received offers from Russell Group universities, including Oxbridge.

New initiatives for 2018 included The Place Dance Residency which saw 270 Year 4 pupils from Highgate Junior School, Brookfield and St Joseph’s collaborate with Year 11 pupils from Highgate in an innovative week of workshops focused on the teaching of dance, and a partnership with the Roundhouse to provide the teaching of circus arts to pupils from Highgate and LAET.

Highgate regularly evaluates the impact of its partnership teaching and feedback continues to indicate positive results. When combining all feedback data for the calendar year 2018, the vast majority of pupils report an enjoyment of their participation with partnership teaching programmes (99%) and express an interest in continuing to engage with Chrysalis (97%). Pupils also hold a belief that the programme fosters a sense of academic community with their peers in other schools (94%). We aim for partner school pupils to have continued engagement with Highgate throughout the various stages of their education. In 2018, over 50% of all pupils surveyed had engaged with Highgate on more than one occasion, and over 25% were engaging with us for at least the third time.

During the 2018 calendar year, Highgate’s projects were various in their scope and intensity, and continued to be measured in units of contact time. A unit of contact time is a piece of meaningful contact between a representative of Highgate (teacher, pupil or non-teaching staff member) and a representative from a partner school (teacher, pupil or non-teaching staff member). These units might be an hour of one-to-one tuition or attendance at a music workshop, in a larger group that lasts several hours. In total, 24,529 measurable units of contact time were recorded. Highgate worked with over 2,000 pupils from partner schools during the course of the year. This represents 12 units of contact time per pupil.

Highgate pupils and staff dedicate a substantial amount of time to volunteering on partnership and community-orientated activities. In the calendar year, pupils spent approximately 4500 hours, equating to 6 full months, volunteering on projects that provided some kind of benefit to pupils in partner state schools or community-facing groups. Our staff and governors spent over 8000 hours, equating to over 11 full months, working towards delivering our programme of partnership teaching.

A sample of case studies demonstrating Highgate School's partnership activities are shown here, our own Community Participation Report includes many more projects.