Partnership in practice

Not just with government and local communities, but particularly with parents and pupils themselves, says Jackie Anderson, President-elect of the Girls’ Schools Association and Headmistress of The King’s High School for Girls, Warwick.

“Partnership for change means commitment from everyone: from the family and the wider community; from those working in the education service; and from those who support it, often voluntarily... Everyone has a part to play.” These words from David Blunkett introduced the new Government’s first White Paper on education - Excellence in Schools. It set out a scene of educational priorities and challenges for the next five years. While addressed principally to those in the maintained sector, many of the messages are just as relevant for independent schools. They offer a similar challenge to us to review and refresh the partnerships that will enable us to provide educational quality and opportunity of the highest order to our pupils.

Every school seeks to meet the needs of its community. That is self-evident in so far as that refers to the pupils and staff. However, the very nature of independent schools is such that their students are invariably drawn from a wide geographical area, much wider and more diverse than the average maintained school. Serving the needs of those communities in any comprehensive way is impossible. Yet every school has its own physical location however broad its pupil catchment area. While an independent school may not necessarily serve the needs of its local community it can at least support that community. This can be through various forms of community service but also through making available particular resources and expertise to other schools and local community groups. One of the important lessons young people have to learn is the extent to which they will, over their lives, have to rely on others. Schools must contribute to this learning process by showing the necessity and the power of partnership in contrast to the potential isolation and weakness of independence.

Many of the present problems of students’ disaffection can be directly attributed to weaknesses in the social structure which should be young people’s first line of support. It is not just the growing incidence of family breakup, but we see virtually all blame for educational underperformance placed on schools, their teachers, and their management. Yet logic should indicate that the first responsibility for educating the children lies with the parents. They are present in those crucial early formative years, they are ‘in control’ of the children for the greater proportion of their waking hours – even allowing for boarding schools – and they are accountable for the decisions which most influence children’s upbringing. If parents could only accept this educational responsibility, and see schools as partners in, rather than totally responsible for, the educational process, we might avoid the split cultures between home and school from which many children suffer, and secure the educational continuity and progression that an effective partnership between home and school should provide.

What can schools do to redress the present imbalance? Maybe the starting point is in the concept of family learning. Parents need to be given opportunities to be partners in the education process, and not excluded from this secret garden. The acquisition of the basic skills of numeracy and literacy, the proper conditions and priority for homework, communication with children that declares an interest in their school work, and the creation of learning opportunities through family visits and activities – all these are legitimate and necessary contributions from parents. By welcoming parents as additional teachers and giving them a positive role to play in the learning process, schools can make this particular partnership a reality.

For many years the previous government has espoused Choice and Diversity as the route to driving up standards. Yet the competition of the market place which has accompanied such an approach sits uncomfortably with the objectives of quality and opportunity for all. Competition without co-operation will benefit only the favoured few, a situation which in the long term undermines society. Yet best practice can be found anywhere and should be disseminated to the benefit of all. Specialist schools for technology, languages, arts and sports will continue to be created under the new Government. Independent schools should sit alongside their maintained colleagues in contributing their expertise and specialist resources to as wide a community as possible, thereby enhancing the learning and social opportunities of all students.

Nor should we ignore the opportunity for partnership with the Government itself. While it is important that the private sector should retain its independence from any political ideologies, and use that independence to experiment, to innovate, and challenge the rubric of the day, no government using education to underpin the country’s economic prosperity could afford to ignore the major contribution that independent schools have always made and still can. By setting the highest standards and having the freedom to explore new fields we can enrich that partnership to a very considerable degree.

Finally there is partnership with the pupils themselves. The hierarchies that must inevitably exist within schools are there to support, not constrain, the learning process. Through these structures young people must be helped to develop and express their own views, to respect the opinions and positions of others and to take responsibility for their own future learning.
A new government, the coming Millennium, the continual opening up of global barriers – all these can be used by those in the educational world to represent a new beginning. How much better if this vision of the future should be of one based on co-operation and partnership.

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