Impact of partnership work done in 2024 (ISC annual Census 2025)

• 30 state schools involved
• 201-500 state school pupils involved
• 100 staff hours given

Impact Statement

St Joseph’s opens facilities and expertise to local schools and the wider community in order to benefit our partners. Since opening our Astroturf facility we have been able to play host to numerous sporting events that would not otherwise have been possible, particularly in partnership with Plymouth Argyle, whose community outreach programme we work closely with. This has meant we have hosted tournaments for many local primary schools, most recently during the 2018 summer holidays where we hosted a girls’ football tournament for local state primary schools. This followed a highly successful tournament for local state primary school boys, with over 10 local schools on site. We are proud to support grassroots children’s football in partnership with Plymouth Argyle and local schools.
In addition, St Joseph’s Junior School has hosted Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 Multi-Skills festivals for local primary schools and Early Years providers. These have given opportunities for settings who do not have the facilities we are able to offer to participate in wider community events and foster a strong sense of community.
This has extended in 2017/18 to include a Nursery Sports Day, were we have hosted local Nursery age children for a fun filled day where they were provided with the opportunities to participate and make use of St Joseph’s facilities. This has been very well received by many local parents.
As our Outdoor Classroom and provision have matured, we have also opened this up to the local community via our weekly – and twice weekly in the Summer Term – Stay n’ Play outreach for nursery and pre-school age children. This has been led by our Reception teacher and Head of Juniors, and has been a very popular addition to the Launceston parent and baby scene. This will continue through 2018/19, and has run through wind, rain (and even snow!) providing valuable opportunities for children to engage with the outdoor through planned and structured activities in a beautiful natural setting.
As a school we also have a keen academic focus, and look to serve as a local hub for primary CPD and training as much as possible. To this end, we have worked with our partners and partner schools through the Hamilton Trust to promote excellence in maths teaching. We have hosted sessions for local schools, with over 40 primary maths teachers here sharing best practice and engaging local maths teachers in this key curriculum area. Sharing of ideas and pedagogy has led to much lively discussion and opportunities to be part of the rising tide that can lift the ships of all children’s results.
Science has also been at the heart of the Junior school for some years, and our Y4 teacher is an accredited STEM teacher and we have the Primary Science Quality Mark Gold Award, which has led us to host Science teaching events both for local teachers and school children. She is released from teaching responsibilities to conduct CPD for external colleagues and schools, and we hosted a Science Fair for local primary schools, where the hall was given over to local children engaged in a wide range of experiments and practical science.
This has extended to Modern Foreign Languages, were our children have offered workshops led by our MFL staff to local primary schools. And while this offer was for French in 2017/18, there are plans to extend this to German and Spanish for 2018/19.
Our partnerships also extend to the logistical, where we provide free use of our mini buses to local primary schools for numerous occasions. We work with local schools to help with transport to events we host, but also to allow schools facing funding difficulties to transport their children to the local swimming pool, thus allowing them to have a broader curriculum offer with attendant health benefits for local children.
At St Joseph’s innovative partnerships are essential: we exist in a rural community and our name and reputation are forged as a partner in our community as well as a school with a long tradition of working with others. Our pupils have worked with the Launceston Youth Council to effect local change, and we do all we can to be innovative as we work with others.
The school is a keen fundraiser in the local community and has partnered with the Cornwall Air Ambulance as the school’s adopted charity. In addition, money has been raised for the Launceston Food Bank, Comic Relief and Sport’s Relief, amongst other charitable fundraising efforts.
Scholarships are offered which can be taken biannually and bursary applications are encouraged and are considered by the appointed panel.