West Surrey Partnership

The West Surrey Partnership was formed in May 2022. It is an ambitious, inclusive, geographical, cross-sector, cross-phase partnership.

Current membership includes fifteen state primary, junior or infant schools; eight state secondary schools; six independent secondary schools; and six independent prep schools. It exists to provide additional educational opportunities that bring together our young people to collaborate in order to widen their horizons and build a sense of community across the West Surrey region.

Aims
Widening Horizons: students will have a richer experience by collaborating with others from different backgrounds, experiences, and age groups. Students’ confidence will increase, they will be more resilient as learners, and they will become more able to interact confidently with a range of different people in different contexts.

Community Advocacy and Action: students will look beyond the walls of their own schools and be part of the partnership and their wider community. By developing their sense of social responsibility, they will be able to play their part as active citizens, enabled to advocate in subjects that matter to them. Through their social interactions, experiences, and new perspectives we hope students’ self-worth and self-belief will grow.

Objectives
To deliver an annual programme of events for students and staff that:
- offer academic and extracurricular enrichment
- promote and offer opportunities for active living
- provide opportunities for social interaction

To be sustainable in all we do by:
- creating a sustainable partnership model
- building enduring relationships with each other
- considering environmental sustainability when planning events

In 2025/26 our themes are:
- Literacy
- Sustainability
- Leadership
- STEAM

Background
The partnership was born out of a cross-sector meeting of Headteachers to discuss issues around grading and examinations in the wake of the Covid pandemic. At the end of the meeting it was suggested that a formal partnership in the wider Guildford (West Surrey) area could be beneficial to students and staff at all schools. Following this, local state and independent, secondary and primary/prep schools were invited to attend an inaugural meeting and a group of interested Headteachers met to discuss the purpose and scope of a potential partnership.

The initial schools formed the partnership in May of 2022 with a view to holding the first events in the 2022-23 academic year. The CEO of Learning Partners MAT agreed to Chair the Steering Group with coordination and administrative support provided by mainly by Guildford High School with support from RGS Guildford. During the first year the partnership attempted to organise joint events while at the same time formalising aims and devising organisational and financial structures. In this first year we hosted two large events:

- Y5-6 & Y8-9 Spoken Word Literacy event @ G-Live with Christian Foley
- Y12 Doughnut Economics Sustainability Workshop @ Guildford Zero

In our second year regular steering group meetings were held; the partnership was expanded to include more schools; a working group was established including organisational support from Charterhouse in addition to RGS & GHS; a financing model was established and membership fees were collected; the name ‘The West Surrey Partnership’ was selected and branding, logos a website and email/social media was established; and, crucially, a wider programme of events were held. In the second year we organised or coordinated:

- Y5-Y8 CWIZZ Literature Quiz @ RGS
- Y12 Doughnut Economics Sustainability Workshop @ Guildford Zero
- Y9 Planet Utopia SATRO workshop @ RGS
- Imperial College Science & Innovation Video Competition entries coordinated by RGS
- ExpertEd Family Maths & Science workshops online
- Y5/6 Robotics kits purchased and distributed to schools by Charterhouse
- Heat-Cool workshops in collaboration with University of Surrey & Zero Guildford
- Introduction to lacrosse workshops for primary school children with funding support from The Lacrosse Foundation led by GHS
- Delivery of ‘sport for all’ experience days at primary and infant schools led by student sports leadership coaches from RGS
- Y3-Y6 Literally Brilliant Book Awards led by Holy Trinity Primary with awards ceremony @ GHS
- Staff Adaptive Teaching Conference (SEND) @ Charterhouse
Now in its fourth year, the partnership has continued to flourish.

Successful events from previous years are still going strong, and we are continually looking to add more new events and opportunities to our programme. We currently have over 27 events planned for 2025/26.

We have a particular focus on cross-sector literacy projects, and are committed to working with 500+ pupils across West Surrey to boost reading skills and confidence. We are continuing to run the Literally Brilliant Book Awards, a scheme which gives KS2 students the opportunity to read and vote on their favourite book from a shortlist of five debut authors of children’s fiction, and we have recently launched our Reading Together scheme, which pairs 90 students from 9 secondary schools with primary pupils across 16 schools - secondary students train as reading mentors, learning phonics and reading methodologies from primary teachers, before delivering weekly mentoring sessions throughout the year.

Resources
Coordination: The West Surrey Partnership employs a part-time administrator based at Guildford High School.

Staff: Both teaching and non-teaching staff are used to assist with the running of events. Where possible events are hosted in partner schools to keep costs low.

Steering Group: The Steering Group is crucial to the continued cohesion, financial stability and strategy of the partnership. This steering group is composed of a sub-set of Headteachers of partner schools from both sectors and phases.

Working Groups: The core Working Group is crucial to the leadership, organisation and publicity of opportunities and events. This group is composed of partnership leaders from Guildford High School, Charterhouse, Tormead and RGS Guildford. A wider working group with representatives from a sub-set of partnership schools is crucial to discussion of ideas and dissemination of information.