Teach Middle East Magazine Sep-Dec 2019 Issue 1 Volume 7 | Page 18

Sharing Good Practice THE 5 Ts FOR EFFECTIVE PARTNERSHIPS BY: MEGEL BARKER A partnership can be legally defined as an agreement between two or more people to form an alliance for mutual benefit. Law firms are the most common examples of partnerships in a business sense. In this way, partnerships are legalistic and have clear protections afforded to each partner. The concept partnership may be defined as a relationship that produces a benefit to each of the parties involved. The Latin phrase, est major summa partium eius, provides a way to consider a partnership; the sum is greater than its parts. In education, partnerships range from a micro level to a macro level, as well as take many forms. This complexity manifests itself as an alliance, a union or a mutual partnership. Teachers planning with other grade level teachers, teachers meeting with parents to address an issue with a child, connecting with the psychologist to identify and support students, heads of school meeting to develop emergency evacuation plans, aligning with a sponsor, are all examples of different partnerships in school environments. The reasons are varied and numerous, but with mutually beneficial outcomes. " 18 Term 1 Sep - Dec 2019 Class Time With so many competing priorities for time, capacity and resources, schools have to be cautious about who they strike partnerships with, as well as the immediate or long term benefits of forming partnerships. Huxham (2009) introduced the phrase collaborative advantage to mean an outcome that is only possible due to the collaborative effort of the parties involved. Exploiting the collaborative advantage present in partnerships is considered to be the goal of these relationships. Armstrong (2015) found that partnerships have no direct impact on student outcomes in Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs). This research highlights