Community Work and School Partnerships

Roedean students have a strong social conscience, and they are encouraged to make a positive impact on the world where they can.

For many years, they have volunteered in the local area, but the programme of community partnerships needed a strong anchor. While a wide range of partnerships have continued to run, there has been a concerted effort since 2018 to focus a large proportion of our energies on one institution, St Mark's Primary, less than one mile form Roedean, but in a very deprived area. This has been hugely successful, and the two schools now have a strong connection.

Aims

We made a decision over five years ago to focus on St Mark's to make a tangible difference with a variety of activities, rather than making a small impact in lots of different places.

Background

Students from Roedean had been volunteering at St Mark's previously, but with little tangible impact.  Now, Roedean students visit St Mark's each week as Reading Buddies, and Language Buddies also visit to speak to children who have recently arrived in the UK and need to decompress by chatting in their own language; furthermore, Sixth Formers run a weekly Choir, and others are teaching assistants in lessons.

Since we built the Secret Garden Library at St Mark's, our Librarian visits regularly to train pupil librarians there, and we ensure that the stock is maintained and up-to-date.

These activities are mutually beneficial, and we aim for both sets of students to benefit in a variety of ways.

Resources

Each week, an entire cohort comes to Roedean every Thursday morning, to undertake a programme of Sporting and Academic Enrichment. The children play sports on our fields and all-weather pitch, taught by Roedean staff, and then they enjoy a discrete academic supra-curricular workshop, covering topics like Computing, Russian, Code-Breaking, Forensics, and more.

The entire Year 4, 5, and 6 cohorts come for one term each throughout the year.

Impact

Reflections in case-studies show that students in both schools enjoy the experience and derive great pleasure and valuable life-skills from it.

In 2023-2024, Roedean students contributed 2134 hours to community partnerships and staff contributed 582 hours.

Pupil Involvement

In all the activities except for the Thursday Enrichment, pupils from Roedean are heavily involved. Staff lead the Thursday sessions as our students are in lessons. A member of the maths department also goes to St Mark's every week to work with the pupils.

Frequency

Thursday Enrichment happens every week throughout the year, and this has been the case for two years - it is embedded in Roedean's cycle of partnership work, so is likely to continue indefinitely.