Tell your story
The entry deadline is Friday 1st March
What is the Impact Through Partnership category?
Strong entrants in this category make a significant impact beyond the confines of their school community. Collaborative partnerships with external organisations is key. This category is for schools and colleges who actively engage with businesses, non-profit organisations, or other schools / colleges to jointly develop programs that benefit not only those in their local area, but also to the wider community.
Within Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs), these collaborations could be among member schools, with the creation of innovative programs or initiatives that are shared and implemented across multiple schools within the MAT, amplifying impact. Other examples could be projects tailored to address specific challenges, that, once proven successful within one school or MAT, are scaled and shared with others to maximise best practice. Outside of MATs, schools could be collaborating with external organisations on initiatives and education that they otherwise couldn’t provide to scale, and that by working with others the benefit of their collaborations can be shared with colleagues and learners on a significantly broader scale.
Those project leaders who have taken on active roles in a broader educational spectrum, leading initiatives that amplify impact by sharing experiences and insights, and have inspired others to contribute to the continuous improvement of education for many should consider submitting an entry.
Who can enter?
- Open to all schools, partnerships or trusts educating children aged between 4-18 in the UK.
- We welcome entries for diverse educators who represent the diversity of our society
Key points to consider before entering
To maximise your nominee’s chances of success, please address these points in your entry.
- Opportunity: How has the school, partnership, or trust created distinctively rich and ambitious opportunities in a group of schools? What would happen in the absence of the partnership’s work?
- Reaching outwards: The winning school or trust or partnership will see itself as the catalyst for wider success beyond any individual school or institution: there will be a commitment to collective responsibility across all stakeholders. Signpost the key partnership collaborators and their roles, and show how these work together for the benefit of young people.
- Achievement: The school will define achievement more broadly than through progress data and examination results: it will show the opportunities that have come to children and staff through dedicated, hard-wired partnership working. You will be able to show how the strategic aims of the partnership are decided and lived out, and you will be able to share plans for long-term sustainability of the partnership.
- Celebrating: This will be a partnership that will tell its story to the wider community and celebrate the successes achieved by all kinds of children and staff. It will be a partnership that exemplifies the values of collaboration and distributed leadership.
Meet our former winners
The HEARTs Project Team - 2023 Gold Winner
The Hearts Project Team, North West – HEARTs project is led by a diverse team who support local schools in Liverpool to become more attachment- and trauma-informed. Hope School, a maintained special school for 68 children aged 5-11 with Social, Emotional and Mental Health Difficulties (SEMH), has worked towards becoming attachment and trauma responsive since 2014, a journey recongised locally and nationally with awards and an OBE.
Royal Opera House, Create and Dance Partnership - 2022 Gold Winner
In 2019 a partnership began between the Royal Opera House’s Create and Dance Programme, Coventry Schools, the Local Cultural Education Partnership (CCEP), Coventry City Council and Coventry City of Culture. Deputy Headteacher Rebecca Bollands, who has been key to the success of the growth of the partnership, assembled schools across Coventry to address a perceived gap in inclusive dance provision. During the pandemic, the partnership continued through online events such as Continuing Professional Development (CPD) sessions and a ‘Live Assembly’ with Principals from The Royal Ballet.
The Roma – Narrowing the Gap Team - 2021 Gold Winner
Queen Katharine Academy (QKA) has a strong ethos of community and collaboration, and has worked hard to understand and support its own Gypsy-Roma community as well as collaborating with other organisations locally, nationally and internationally to share good practice and raise awareness.
Tell your story
The entry deadline is Friday 1st March
