Charity Number 1185497
Annual Report
September 2021 – September 2022
Despite the on-going disruption caused by Covid-19, the partnership has continued to work collaboratively; supporting colleagues in these challenging times and continuing to share good practice and undertake professional development programmes to fulfil the vision, mission and core moral purpose of the Partnership:
Our Vision: Together we support and collaborate to inspire and succeed
Our Mission: To create a collaborative culture in which all children and staff are supported and inspired to succeed.
Our Core Moral Purpose
To improve the life chances of all children and young people To facilitate high quality training and collaborative school to school support To nurture the well-being of children and adults
Partnership Training
The planned core offer of training was delivered either online or in person at Sevenoaks School. Training offered included a one-day training session for support staff on the topic of positive behaviour management playtimes, the 3-day programme for Teaching Assistants was also delivered on-line in 5 half day sessions. The three-day professional development programmes for teachers and school leaders provided as part of the core offer were: the Early Career Teachers in the first year of their careers, Earlier Career Programme for teachers in year 2 or 3 of their career, a programme for middle leaders to equip them to lead school pedagogical development, the Deepening Leadership Programme for experienced middle leaders and newer senior leaders, NPQSL and the Headteachers’ Strategic Leadership and Coaching Pairs. Feedback has been very positive, and attendees speak of the positive impact the training has on their practice in schools.
In addition to the career stage training opportunities, more specialist training for subject leaders and school leaders was provided for Science and Art leaders. Attendees at these twilight training events found them very useful.
Safer Handling training took place in the Autumn Term. By organising the training as a partnership, schools sending staff to the training benefitted from significant savings in the cost.
First Aid and Paediatric Training was arranged several times through the year through Knole Academy and Sevenoaks School outreach. Working collaboratively significantly reduces the cost of the training.
Conference
Our annual conference was planned to be held at Sevenoaks School but the high levels of Covid caused a late change of plan to hold the event online via four separate webinars. It was attended virtually by over 300 people. Andrew Hammond, Kelly Hannaghan, Professor Dame Alison Peacock and Partnership teachers were the speakers for the event. The focus of the morning session was the hidden curriculum and the afternoon sessions included foci on character education, pupils’ mental health and wellbeing and inspirational practice in our partnership schools.
The conference provides a unique opportunity for all schools to access professional development from leaders in Education, which would be unviable without membership of the Partnership.
Sharing inspirational practice is being further developed via podcasts on the Partnership website.
Forums
The Forums are an important part of the collaborative work of the partnership. These are led by teachers and leaders and give opportunities for sharing good practice and organising CPD. The Early Years and SEND forums have met regularly and undertaken shared CPD events and meetings to share good practice and support one another with current challenges. Other groups found it difficult to arrange meetings due to the challenges of staffing in the schools over the course of this year.
Learning Hubs
All learning hubs maintained some contact through this challenging year and met virtually and supported one another as best they could. The learning hubs continue to be an excellent source of support for all headteachers and other leaders. Some learning hubs were able to organise and execute joint training, for example subject leadership and good practice in early years provision, others found it more difficult to organise these larger events.
School Effectiveness provision
After two years when it was difficult for external professionals to work in schools, this year it was possible for the school effectiveness offer to be used for school audits and reviews alongside the well-established use of the offer for leadership coaching sessions for subject leaders, senior leaders and headteachers. 63% of schools took up the school effectiveness offer during the year. The opportunity to have an external consultant and coach provided support for essential areas of CPD during a time when there have additional challenges for teachers to attend CPD events. Feedback highlights the positive impact on staff confidence and clarity of next steps in their roles. This helps to build capacity in the schools and supports retention. The feedback from staff engaged in the coaching session is positive.
Procurement
The Bursars’ Group, ably led by Rachel Harland has continued to support one another, share good practice, and seek out cost savings. The Bursars’ Group works effectively together and demonstrates the benefits of collaborative working across different aspects of school leadership in our schools. All partnership schools continue to make significant savings for supply staff, resources, and contracts for a range of essential provision.
Maintaining and developing working in partnership with other organisations
Spurgeon’s
The on-going relationship with Spurgeon’s has continued to be an important element of support for individual pupils the one-to-one therapeutic counselling for three pupils per school. The feedback from schools demonstrates how the counselling is having a positive impact on children’s wellbeing, mental health, and learning. The cost of the counselling for this academic year was heavily subsidised by a grant to Spurgeon’s from Children in Need.
In addition to therapeutic counselling for children, Spurgeon’s secured additional funding to employ a parent support worker for 3 days a week to work with families of children in partnership schools. This resource has been used by a small number of schools to date, with good outcomes for families.
This collaborative working will continue in 2022-23 with the counselling funded by a generous grant from The Combe Bank Trust. This is an excellent example of the benefits gained by being a member of the partnership. The trustees of the partnership and the trustees of the Combe Bank Trust are keen to develop further opportunities to work together as the purposes of the two charities share many similarities.
Sevenoaks School
Our relationship with Sevenoaks School is a strength of the partnership and benefits the partnership, and the schools individually. On-site meetings were possible at times during the year and pupils from the partnership schools were able to use Sevenoaks School facilities again. Sevenoaks School continues to support the primary schools with excellent outreach support. An addition to the expertise given by the school to partnership schools has been the provision of a music teacher in the primary school for a series of music lessons and the opportunity to hold a Hub concert in the Pamoja Hall to celebrate the outcomes of the music making.
Sevenoaks School allowed the partnership training events to return to the school and continued to provide us with excellent facilities, refreshments, and lunch for all the CPD events. The partnership is very grateful for this generosity.
Sports partnership – Knole Academy
Despite some continued restrictions on sporting events, more opportunities were able to run this year through the relationship between Knole Academy and the Sevenoaks Sports Partnership.
First aid training and paediatric first aid training has been delivered to significant numbers of staff at a greatly reduced cost thanks to our partnership working with Sevenoaks School and The Knole Academy.
West Heath School
West Heath School continued to offer a range of Mental Health First Aid course throughout the year, but very few schools were able to take up the opportunity to send staff on the training due to the challenges of covering classes due to high levels of staff absence.
CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND ANO WALES Receipts and payments accounts CC16a For the period from To Section A Receipts and payments Unrestrict8d funds to the nearest Restricted fund5 Endowmènt funds Total funds Last year to the ne8r•¥t £ tothe n8arost £ to tho nearost£ to tho th•are8t £ A1 Receipts Subscnplion Income Tr*ifjing Income Hub Contribution 40,515 40,515 150 150 Sub total (Gross income for AR) 41,780 41,780 A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). Sub total 41,780 41,780 A3 Payment5 Consuii8ncy Cost Df Administr3lian and Finance Provision of pupil wel1bngc0uSelIi9 S8tvicts Tiaining ernal consultsn151veDue3 Cost of olhprtrallinglevents £32,819.75 £1.703.21 32,820 1,703 £9,75D.OU £4.585.00 £o.oa 9,750 4,565 Sub total 48,838 48,838 A4 Asset and investment purchases, see tsble Sub total Total payments 48,838 48.838 Net of reGeipts/{paymentsJ A5 Transfers between funds A6 Cash funds last year end Cash funds this year end 7,058 7,058 £53.466.08 46.408 53,466 46,408 CCXX R1 accounts ISSI 131ffi12023
Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period Unrestricted funds to rtearest £ Restricted fund5 to nearest £ Endowillent fund5 to nearest £ Catogoriès Details B1 Cash funds Cash al bank 46,408 Total cash funds 46,408 iaureÈbaianEe8WithieiptSand paymenls Unrestricted funds to n•8ro$t £ Restricted fund5 to nearest£ Endowment funds to nearest£ Details B2 Other monetary assets Fund lo whl¢h asset belori Current valup DetsSls C¢¥t loptionall B3 Investment assets Fund to which assèt balon Details Cost loptionall Current valu• B4 Assets retained for the charity's own use Fund towhich relates Amount due tronal When due Dètails B5 Liabilities Signed by one or two Iru51ees on behalf of all the trustees Signature Piint Name Date of roval CCXX R2 accounts ISSI 1310612023
CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examiner's report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner's Report Report to the trusteesl members of On accounts for the year ended 31 Ab&lJ5T IOLL Charity no (if any) Set out on pages I report lo the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity {"the Trust'l for the year ended31 / 0 ? 120 Z2 Responsibilities and As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation basis of report of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 ("the ACY'I. I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 14515)(bl of the Act. I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention (other than that disclosed below ') in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect.. accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or the accounts do not accord with the accounting records Independent examiner's statement I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. Please delete the words in the brackets if they do not apply. Signed: Date: L8IOÉ/LOL3 Name: Relevant professional qualification{s> or body (if any): QSIStrL Address: IER October 2018
Section B Disclosure Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts.. directions and guidance for examiners). Give here brief details of any items that the examinerwishes to disclose. IER October 2018