Arete Partnership Report 2020-2021

ARETE PARTNERSHIP End of Year Report 2020-21 Gordon’s School Woking High School

ARETE PARTNERSHIP REPORT 2020/21 The Arete partnership was established between Gordon’s School and Woking High School in June 2015 with the commitment to providing opportunities for staff and students to discover and develop their talents and interests to the highest standard possible, to lead healthy lives and to make a positive difference to the lives of others. Such people are more likely to have improved well-being and lead happier lives. The partnership reflects developmental aims of both secondary schools in improving practice through collaboration, increasing capacity for training and enterprise, and offering opportunities to students to work and compete together across a range of activities.

DEVELOPING PRACTICE The Arete commitment to developing and sharing outstanding practice is still at the heart of the partnership. This year it has been hard to meet face to face and to share good practice. Key staff are looking to continue working on projects and to deliver training. The Arete Partnership coordinators continued to discuss and plan for the competitions and activities between the 2 schools. Currently the Deputy Heads are working towards a joint symposium which is a linked development for both schools.

This will hopefully be added to the calendar as the restrictions allow. With the lifting of some restrictions the NQT staff from both schools met at the end of June to complete a successful teach meet.

TRAINING AND ENTERPRISE As part of the CPD offering at both schools the Partnership’s Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) centre accreditation has allowed the Partnership to design and deliver a bespoke Level 3 Award for aspiring middle leaders and Level 5 award for aspiring senior leaders. This year, Woking High have again led on the Level 3 qualification, which was undertaken by nine colleagues and nine trainees from the SCITT Scholarship programme at George Abbot School who are aspiring middle leaders. A lot of the course was put on line including a drop in session. Gordon’s School have delivered the Level 5 qualification to four colleagues who are hoping to make the move into senior management. We also continued to offer an accredited student leadership programme. The Level 2 Award for Young Leaders, which incorporates two units of study in reflective leadership and mentoring practices, was delivered by Woking High to their students face to face but on line for Gordon’s students. The ILM 7 was progressed and the course has now been written and is awaiting approval from City and Guilds. We are hoping have this running for the September term and already have colleagues interested in completing the course.

FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS As we look to 2021-22 the Partnership will continue to improve the Arete website, ensuring its content is up-to-date and it clearly highlights the opportunities for other schools to access our services, including the ILM Level 2, 3, 5 and, with approval, the Level 7. With the lifting of restricted COVID measures we are starting to plan the year’s events and are hoping to continue to deliver them safely.

We know that we have learned from the previous year and that we can deliver the ILM programmes virtually. Once we are secure in the lifting of the restrictions we will also start to broaden the calendar events in new and exciting ways for staff and students.

Karen Rentell is leaving Gordon’s School in July 2021 and will be replaced with Sue Parkin. Julia Allen and Sue will start to plan and will publish the updated calendar of events in the New Year.