Partnerships
The Trust is outward looking and intends to build upon the strong record of collaborative working which already exists at its founding school, St Clement Danes.
Its system leadership extends across a wide network of educational establishments. In 2008, Josephine Valentine was one of the first National Leaders in Education in Hertfordshire and was on the inaugural Board of Directors that set up Herts for Learning.
Challenge Partners
St Clement Danes is also the lead school of the Hertfordshire Challenge Partners Hub – another organisation of which schools joining the Trust will become a part. This is a national organisation of 400 primary and secondary schools at the cutting edge of school improvement, which builds long term capacity by organising constructive collaboration and peer to peer evaluation.
The Science Hub
St Clement Danes also leads The Science Hub. Accessing national resources, The Science Hub promotes professional development for staff to generate high quality science teaching in all phases of education. Again, joiner schools will have priority access to this successful and developing organisation.
These partnerships demonstrate the Trust’s track record of collaborative working for school improvement. This collaborative approach will impact positively on teaching and learning at all schools within the Trust, whether it be the implementation of key findings from research and development projects undertaken within the Teaching School Alliance, or from joint INSET and Continuing Professional Development offered to staff from across schools within the Alliance and Challenge Partner Hubs.
An excellent record in school improvement
A core element of our work as a trust is that focused upon sustained school improvement, whether a school be Outstanding and wishes to become World Class, or is in need of more targeted support for a subject, leadership or phase over a specific period of time. Our reputation for excellence in this area began with our DfE funded work as a Teaching School Alliance and has continued since we have adjusted our focus towards our increasing family of Trust schools and our DET: The Partnership collaboration which oversees delivery of the ECF and ITT. We work together, drawing upon considerable expertise within our schools and, when necessary, our extensive partnerships, including Challenge Partners and The Brilliant Club. As such, we seek to provide timely, nuanced and sensitive challenge that will enable our learners to experience the very best and equitable provision possible, and to encourage our colleagues to recognise the power of system leadership in a world that has never needed it more.
