S evenoaks Partnerships and Outreach
The school was established by William Sevenoke
in 1432 as a free school to provide an education
for young scholars regardless of their financial
background, and we remain committed to
respect that heritage by being heavily involved
in the local educational landscape.
Knole Academy and secondary
school partnerships
We have built strong and growing links with Knole Academy
which is introducing the IBCP (International Baccalaureate Careers
Programme), and we have been working together on character
education. There have been joint initiatives involving staff and
students to share expertise in a number of areas. We are also
launching an online social learning platform to enable quick and
easy sharing of teaching ideas, resources, and support between
IB teachers at Sevenoaks and a network of comprehensive and
grammar schools in Kent.
Primary school partnerships
and outreach
The Partnership of Sevenoaks Primary Schools is a cluster of 28
local primary schools for which we host many CPD events. We also
host events for primary school children in science, sport, climbing
and drama, and staff go out to schools to help them with coding.
A series of Outreach Boxes provide resources on loan with teaching
ideas that they could not otherwise access, including science and
technology materials and a recorder music pack.
Every August we run our Science and Maths summer school for
high achieving pupils in Years 4 and 5. The course is aimed at local
primary school pupils with an aptitude for maths and science, as a
way of enhancing their knowledge through practical workshops
and activities.
Our thriving partnership activities benefit all parties and many
staff really enjoy being involved in other schools. We have recently
partnered with ImpactEd who will be helping us to more rigorously
evaluate the impact of our partnership work across a range of
academic and non-cognitive measures, such as confidence,
meta-cognition and wellbeing.
Theresa Homewood
70
St John’s Primary School, Sevenoaks, has borrowed outreach boxes.
“ I can’t thank you enough for allowing us access to science
resources through your outreach scheme.
The children in my class have absolutely loved being able to
see the details inside the heart model. They have understood
the ‘mechanics’ of the heart and associated vocabulary which
traditionally they have found challenging. This has definitely
helped bring the learning alive for them.
As Science Lead I was also very excited to walk into a Year 4
classroom to find the teacher using a model of the digestive
system – also from your outreach scheme – to support
teaching and learning most effectively.
Using data loggers 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 the temperature at
which different solids melted. The children enjoyed using
them and were engaged in their learning.
These exceptionally high quality resources are way beyond
our primary school budget and the impact they are already
having on the children is significant.”
SERVICE AND SOCIAL IMPACT
Julie Reynolds, St John’s Primary