Increased collaboration between private and state schools – where both share their expertise – benefits all, says deputy head Matthew Godfrey
This article appeared in The Daily Telegraph on 21 July 2014
Michael Gove has said he wants to
break down the “Berlin Wall” between state and independent schools. He hopes
for a time when a state-educated pupil being accepted to Oxbridge is not a
cause for celebration, but a matter of course.
His laudable goal seems a long way
off. Last year, a little more than a fifth of state-school pupils who applied
to the University of Cambridge were accepted, compared to more than a third of
applicants from independent schools.
The gulf is even wider when
analysing entry rates to the Russell Group, which represents 24 of the UK’s
most selective universities. Around 65 per cent of students from independent
schools go on to these universities, compared with just 25 per cent from state
schools – a 40-percentage-point gap.
In tackling this issue, Mr Gove
can learn from the experience of Onkar Singh, 18, who will be heading off to
the University of Cambridge later this year to read Spanish and Italian.
Singh completed his GCSEs at a
comprehensive school for 1,330 pupils aged 11 to 16 years in Plaistow, east
London, where only half of his peer group gained five GCSEs graded C or above.
After his GCSEs, he managed to secure a place at the London Academy of
Excellence (LAE) – a new, selective sixth-form college in Newham set up as part
of the Government’s free school programme.
The LAE came to life through an
unusual partnership, with a group of eight independent schools working together
to set up a sixth-form college in this economically disadvantaged area. Its
purpose is to prepare the most able local students for entry to top
universities.
The eight partner schools share
their expertise and offer academic support to the LAE, which opened in
September 2012 – with Singh in its first cohort of pupils.
Singh had chosen to study four AS
subjects, including Spanish and French. But the LAE’s languages department comprised
just one teacher – recent graduate Richard Lokier – and he had no experience of
teaching A-level.
Enter Neil Parker, a teacher of
modern languages with nearly 20 years’ experience and now head of department at
Caterham School, an independent school in Surrey – and one of the LAE’s partner
schools.
Caterham – which was founded in
1811 and will send 21 of its leavers on to Oxbridge this year – has the
specific remit of giving leadership and guidance to the new languages
department at the LAE.
Since the LAE opened, Parker has
visited at least once a week to give advice and support to Lokier. He has
received no payment for this extra work.
“I have loved coming to the LAE,”
says Parker. “This experience has enhanced my own teaching at Caterham and introduced
me to a whole new range of people, methods and experiences. It has been
refreshing and challenging.”
Singh recognises how the
flexibility, selectivity and aspiration of the LAE – all characteristics it
shares with its founding partner schools – have helped him to flourish. “It’s
been here that I have been able to develop a real love for languages,” he says.
Partnership between state and
private schools is increasingly common. Around 40 independent schools help to
manage taxpayer-funded schools or colleges along similar lines to the LAE. It
is more common, however, for cooperation between schools to be ad hoc.
Maryse Dare is head of maths at de
Stafford School, a comprehensive in south London. When Ofsted identified a
weakness in the school’s provision for gifted and talent mathematicians, she
contacted David King, a maths teacher at a local independent school.
“There is no sixth form at de
Stafford and so David brings some of his A-level students over to us once a
week and they spend a lesson working with my pupils,” says Dare.
“Everyone finds the visits
refreshing and our results are improving; this link is one of the reasons why.
My pupils thought the private-school kids would be arrogant, but they now see
they’re just like them. It has helped to break down social barriers in both
directions. It has also triggered a cultural shift: at de Stafford, it is now
cool to want to succeed in maths.”
Kelly College, an independent
school in Devon, also collaborates with a local comprehensive, Tavistock College.
Kelly’s head, Dr Graham Hawley, says: “The link between our two schools has
many practical and social advantages. We worked together to raise funds for a
local athletics facility that we both now use. And pupils from both schools
meet each week as part of the Tavistock Interact project, which raises money
for local and international charities.”
At Kingsford Community School, a
large comprehensive for pupils aged 11-16 years in Beckton, east London, head
teacher Joan Deslandes invites sixth formers from private schools to complete
work experience at the end of each academic year.
“Private schools typically break
up for their summer holidays two weeks before us,” says Deslandes. “So the
final fortnight of our summer term is an ideal time for sixth formers from
private schools to visit us.
"Everyone benefits; my pupils
get to meet ambitious sixth formers with plans to go on to university, which
helps to open their eyes to what they can go on to achieve after GCSEs. And the
visiting students gain valuable work experience — they develop confidence and
leadership skills by getting involved in a wide variety of activities and
lessons here. They also get to mix with young people from a different
background, which is healthy.”
Independent schools are increasingly
keen to have – and to be seen to have – sustained and meaningful contact with
maintained schools. They recognise that their pupils do not want to be removed
from the real world.
As one parent of a privately
educated girl with a work experience placement at Kingsford Community School
says: “My child lives a sheltered life. I want her to have the benefits of a
private education, but I also want her to know that life is not always easy or
fair.”
Matthew
Godfrey is deputy head of Caterham School in Surrey
Published in The Daily Telegraph on 21 July 2014
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