Partnerships
Our commitment to partnership working is enshrined in one of the School’s founding principles: to have a positive impact on the world.
This work has three key strands: shaping and sharing new practices, influencing decision makers and enhancing the student experience. All three support the overarching ambition to enable more children and young people to benefit from the kind of education available at KAS.
Our core values underpin each strand:
- We honour our founders’ intentions of being a school that has an impact on the wider education system
- We use our independence and freedoms to pioneer new approaches
- We base what we do on research, and evaluate what we do with academic rigour
- We work with others in a spirit of mutual learning and benefit, and in line with our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion
- We encourage our pupils to make a positive contribution to their school, community, and the world.
You can read more about our partnership work in the digital booklet below.
Click the tiles below to learn more about how our partnerships work in practice.
Enhancing the experience of students by giving them direct access to KAS
- Bursaries awarded in Year 7 & Year 12
- Participation in events at KAS, e.g. masterclasses, enrichment events, careers forums, film screenings
Enhancing the experience of students beyond KAS through partnership work
- Joint projects with other students from other schools, e.g. Roots Future programme
- Sharing KAS resources, e.g. Counsellor & technical expertise at Archer Academy, Governance at TPET and E-Act
Enhancing the experience of KAS students by learning with and from others
Developing new practices within KAS which embody our approach to education, including through professional collaboration
These include:
- The Village (see video below)
- School Directed Courses (SDCs)
- Enquiry-based work & 3C (creative thinking, collaboration and communication) skills development, known as Explorations (see video below)
- Learner profiles
- Pastoral support
Codifying the practices so that they become transferable
- Systematically writing up:
- the component parts of the practice
- how these can be applied in different settings
- evidence of impact
- Creating materials that embody this, including Guides, Books, Videos & Websites
Disseminating the practices to others, who can then adopt and adapt them for their own context
Methods include:
- Sharing our materials
- The KAS visits programme
- Setting up and running forums for collaboration (e.g. School Directed Courses Consortium)
- Publicising our work (blogs, TES, social media)
- Running & participating in conferences
Thought Leadership
- Engaging in an ongoing process of articulating our philosophy & experience
- Generating new ideas and practices
- Nurturing a culture that encourages curiosity & debate about education
- Producing research papers on the impact of our practices and the local & international landscape
Advocacy
Changing public perceptions on the purpose and practices of education by:
- writing in the education and national press
- representing our views in public forums, including enquiries
- meeting with national decision-makers
Enabling & supporting collective endeavour
- Supporting individual organisations, e.g. Rethinking Assessment
- Running events and conferences to bring key players together
- Bringing together like-minded organisations to build a cohesive approach to bringing about change by hosting and facilitating coalition-building events
Enhancing the experience of students by giving them direct access to KAS
- Bursaries awarded in Year 7 & Year 12
- Participation in events at KAS, e.g. masterclasses, enrichment events, careers forums, film screenings
Enhancing the experience of students beyond KAS through partnership work
- Joint projects with other students from other schools, e.g. Roots Future programme
- Sharing KAS resources, e.g. Counsellor & technical expertise at Archer Academy, Governance at TPET and E-Act
Enhancing the experience of KAS students by learning with and from others
Developing new practices within KAS which embody our approach to education, including through professional collaboration
These include:
- The Village (see video below)
- School Directed Courses (SDCs)
- Enquiry-based work & 3C (creative thinking, collaboration and communication) skills development, known as Explorations (see video below)
- Learner profiles
- Pastoral support
Codifying the practices so that they become transferable
- Systematically writing up:
- the component parts of the practice
- how these can be applied in different settings
- evidence of impact
- Creating materials that embody this, including Guides, Books, Videos & Websites
Disseminating the practices to others, who can then adopt and adapt them for their own context
Methods include:
- Sharing our materials
- The KAS visits programme
- Setting up and running forums for collaboration (e.g. School Directed Courses Consortium)
- Publicising our work (blogs, TES, social media)
- Running & participating in conferences
Thought Leadership
- Engaging in an ongoing process of articulating our philosophy & experience
- Generating new ideas and practices
- Nurturing a culture that encourages curiosity & debate about education
- Producing research papers on the impact of our practices and the local & international landscape
Advocacy
Changing public perceptions on the purpose and practices of education by:
- writing in the education and national press
- representing our views in public forums, including enquiries
- meeting with national decision-makers
Enabling & supporting collective endeavour
- Supporting individual organisations, e.g. Rethinking Assessment
- Running events and conferences to bring key players together
- Bringing together like-minded organisations to build a cohesive approach to bringing about change by hosting and facilitating coalition-building events
As part of the Next Big 10 partnership work, we created these films to help us share some of our key practices:
The King Alfred School is grateful for support from the Gale Charitable Trust, which provides funding to charitable organisations in a variety of sectors including education, healthcare, community outreach and the arts.
