Sevenoaks School case studies (6)

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

• 60 state schools involved
• 2001+ state school pupils involved
• 5000 staff hours given

Academies or free schools sponsored

• Knole Academy

Impact Statement

Our outreach is focussed on supporting schools in the local community via events, hire, sharing of staff expertise and high quality teaching resources, the hosting of specialist training for teachers, head teachers and local secondary school staff, as well as more ad hoc knowledge sharing and provision of facilities for educational events.

Our relationship with Knole Academy in Sevenoaks, of which we are the educational sponsor, continues to flourish in a mutually supportive way. Sevenoaks’ School’s Senior Deputy Head has recently been appointed Chairman of Governors. A number of our higher education events are open to Knole Academy students and staff, for example university information evenings and the careers fair. A number of teacher training sessions were held during the year, jointly with Knole Academy, involving newly qualified teachers. The school’s CCF have recently supported Knole with establishing its own unit in September this year. Joint activities will continue.

This year Sevenoaks School took over the Kent Academies Network Universities Access Programme (KANUAP) which has been running for five years. This was made possible by the generous support of a number of sponsors and a key donor to Sevenoaks School Foundation, who share our commitment to improve access to university, and social mobility for students from non-selective schools across Kent.

Since its inception in 2013, KANUAP has aimed to encourage highly able students from local non-selective schools to apply to top universities. The programme seeks to develop students’ aspirations, confidence, and academic skills, whilst providing the experiences and support required to secure top university places. The selection criteria gives preference to Free School Meals ‘Ever 6’ qualification and/or first generation to university.

A number of academically gifted disadvantaged students participate in the four year programme, which consists of two residential events every year, coupled with mentoring and support throughout their GCSEs and Sixth Form qualifications. Sevenoaks hosts and runs one of the residentials every year, and a significant number of Sevenoaks staff teach on these courses. This year we celebrated the graduation of the second cohort of students to complete the four year programme, and we were delighted that a good number of them achieved excellent university offers.
In a recent audit in 2016, over 270 individual primary school activities were highlighted including sports, science events, drama productions and much more.

This year we have continued to work closely with the Sevenoaks Primary Partnership, a group of 28 primary schools local to Sevenoaks School, as well as around 15 other local schools. We continue to offer our facilities and resources as well as staff and students’ expertise regularly to these schools and have hosted the annual primary conference, plus meetings for head teachers, deputy heads, middle leaders and newly qualified teachers, as well as many twilight teacher training sessions.

Our Outreach box initiative continues to grow from strength to strength. 30 boxes of subject-specific classroom enrichment resources are available on loan to schools. These have been borrowed over 100 times in the past year by the local primary schools.
Over 80 local year 4 & 5 pupils attended the Maths and Science G&T summer school.
Our work with the local and regional state school community has been very well received, as these feedback statements on our impact from the school’s we work with show:

Outreach Boxes and academic enrichment:

“The children and staff have been very impressed with the Micro:bits and they cannot wait to learn more! We are very thankful for the support from Sevenoaks School.”

"Using Dataloggers is a key part of the Science curriculum in lower Key Stage Two so it was fantastic for our Year 4 children to be able to use these in their investigations to measure the loudness of sound and when exploring at what temperature different solids melted. They are very easy to use; the children enjoyed using them and were engaged in their learning."
We are shortly to book in our first loan of an Outreach Box, so that pupils can benefit from the resources that have been put together in this way. We have heard great things and look forward to experiencing this outreach soon.

“25 pupils visited Sevenoaks School to experience a Robotics day, using equipment that would not usually be accessible to them at primary level and which was enhanced by the use of an Outreach Box. The pupils were inspired by this day.”

“16 Year 6 children attend Sevenoaks School science department every Thursday pm all year. Our children love attending and it has a positive impact on our science curriculum.”

“We benefitted from being the first school to use the Virtual Reality headsets. All 91 pupils experienced a virtual world, visiting places they are highly unlikely to see in real life. 24 pupils' entire Term 1 curricular topic 'Tomorrow's World' was enriched by the use of the VR resources.”

“I would like to thank you and all of the staff at Sevenoaks School for their help and support: it has added vibrancy and colour to the pupils' curriculum, and supported the school leadership to improve standards... The welcome and openness that we have received as a staff each time we have approached Sevenoaks' School has been very much appreciated and we look forward to more collaborations in the future.”

Pupil feedback after Young Writers Workshop 2018 : “I really enjoyed it! This amazing workshop rejuvenated my imagination... If only I could come again!!”

“We have booked 30 children from our school to see one of the workshops during the up-coming STEAM days at Sevenoaks' School: we can't wait!”

“A member of the Sevenoaks Technology Department visited my school and participated in our Business Brains final - a 'Dragon's Den' style event where he judged the competing companies, questioning their approaches and outcomes which enriched their thinking.”

“Sevenoaks School’s contacts led to my school receiving one year's free subscription to an online resource that all of my pupils and staff are able to access which enriches learning through creativity.”

“Four Sevenoaks School pupils attend my school each week to teach Latin to my more able pupils who are thrilled by this opportunity to develop their language skills.”

“The Science department have visited us twice to run specialist activities in our school which enabled the pupils to learn using resources not usually available to them which, in turn, enhanced their learning.”

Sevenoaks Primary Partnership:

“As Chair of Sevenoaks Partnership, we continue to gain by the use of facilities for meetings and training. This has enabled the partnership to continue and thrive in a current climate where many heads can feel overwhelmed by the responsibilities in their own school. The opportunity to meet with other local heads should not be underestimated. Sevenoaks School helps facilitate this.”

“All of our teaching and teaching assistants at attended the one-day conference on ‘Questioning’. The excellent hospitality and facilities added real value to the day, making it something that they learnt from but also something that staff will remember.”

“Staff from my school have been able to access specific training opportunities that have been run at Sevenoaks School, using the excellent accommodation to support their learning around pupil analysis, middle leader and Head teacher development.”

“Sevenoaks School has facilitated all the Primary Partnership meetings, giving over time and facilities to provide space for these strategy meetings, which has directly impacted the development of pupils at my school through information sharing and looking at current educational developments.”

“All of my teaching and teaching support staff were able to attend the conference on High-level Questioning which has resulted in better quality teaching and learning, impacting on all staff and pupils.”

“Staff from my school have been able to access specific training opportunities including (to name a few) Teaching Support Staff Training, Working with More Able Pupils, Staff Appraisal, Head Teacher Training, Fisher Family Trust, which, due to the provision of a venue by Sevenoaks, I have been able to afford and which have impacted on the quality of professional development for my staff and, in turn, improved teaching and learning for my pupils”.

“I have been able to meet with my Head teacher colleagues in the Sevenoaks Partnership three times each year to plan and evaluate the work of the partnership which impacts directly on the quality of education for the pupils in our schools.”

Co-curricular support:

“13 pupils from our school played in the Sevenoaks' Prom, a musical amalgamation of the primary school musicians in the Sevenoaks area: a very special experience.

“Pupil feedback on Macbeth Primary Tour: “I think the play (Macbeth) was brilliant, I really liked how you included people from the audience to help you during the play. Furthermore, I think you all really get inside the character's shoes which made me feel like I was actually there. You have really inspired me for the Year 6 play at the end of the year. Thank you so much.”

“Thank you for organising the Frances Hardinge event. My students thoroughly enjoyed the morning and all are now avidly reading her books.”

“Sevenoaks School produced posters to advertise and made the trophy for the winner of our Bake-off competition. 15 schools took part and this had a particular impact on less academic pupils.”
“(Our students) participated in a choral day held in the Pamoja Hall followed by a concert, which provided an opportunity for them to experience learning music with a high-quality conductor and to perform to their parents.”

“25 pupils from my school were transported to and from the stunning Kathakali performance - an art form not usually studied in primary schools and which provided the pupils with insight into another culture and created an opportunity to debate different forms of dance and storytelling.”

G&T Summer School 2018:

“Two really great days of fun and exciting activities. My daughter had an absolute ball. The teachers were fantastic. The 6th formers who helped out were really lovely too - a real credit to the school. Thanks so much for the opportunity to attend.”
“My son had a great time at the Maths school. Challenged him intellectually which he thrives on. Many thanks.”

Further detail on other Sevenoaks activities with local schools:

Our primary school outreach group developed lesson plans and then delivered them to local schools to the delight not only of the children and their teachers but also our own students. We have also run sessions for parents within the Primary Partnership Network. A recent example was a session on online safety, which gave parents practical advice about how to keep their children safe online.

The Higher Education Department continued to provide support to local schools. This year, twenty schools were again invited to an ‘Oxbridge’ information evening. Local schools were also invited to a discussion forum established to assist in understanding the complexities of the US university application process. In addition, we organized and hosted three HE access days for the Kent Academy Network of schools and other local state schools.

The school continues to support the rollout of the new IB Career-related Programme (IBCP) to 26 schools in Kent. As one of the world’s largest IB schools, with nearly 40 years of experience, we are keen to share this knowledge and expertise with state schools in Kent who have adopted the programme recently as their sixth form offer. We have hosted a number of events for the IBCP schools and supported them with marketing and academic advice and resources, which included the production of a marketing brochure.

The school’s extensive sports facilities and grounds are made available to the community, including to local schools. Over sixty different local clubs use The Sennocke Centre and other facilities for activities such as football, tennis, cricket and yoga. Almost all local primary and preparatory schools make use of our facilities.

A multitude of activities take place on a weekly basis throughout term time arranged by the school’s Voluntary Service Unit (VSU) and include the VSU Junior Science Club, where Lower Sixth and Year 11 pupils assist in the running of a series of weekly experiments for Year 6 pupils from Amherst Primary School; since 2001 we have had a Javanese Gamelan at Sevenoaks School and ever since its arrival it has provided practical and dance workshops for children from local primary schools. We continue to welcome children from local primary schools during the summer to participate in our Gifted and Talented Programme. As part of the school’s general primary school activities within the Voluntary Service Unit (VSU) on a Thursday afternoon, students in Years 10-13 were supervised and trained by the Classics Department to go out to local primary schools to teach Latin. The aim of the lessons was to provide resources to teach a subject not usually offered in the state primary curriculum and to stretch more able students. Alongside these projects, around 60 students are visiting local schools to assist with reading, writing, debating, mathematics, languages, design, music, and community theatre.

Our academic departments have also made efforts to pass on their expertise. The Physics department continues to offer support to non-specialist physics teachers teaching GCSE and A level in 10 local schools in collaboration with the charity Physics Partners.

Budding authors aged nine and ten joined a Young Writers Workshop at Sevenoaks recently, spending a morning with specialist English teachers and learning how to improve their skills. We organised the event on 9 June for over 50 Year 5 students from a range of local primary schools, all of whom were nominated by their teachers because they have a passion for creative writing. During the day the English department delivered a range of activities to awaken their creative senses, broaden their vocabulary and help them make new friends.