Partnerships

Mr Josh Fuller Director of Strategic Partnerships

It is an exciting time for partnership projects at Monkton. Our strategic approach centres around developing and strengthening sustainable, mutual relationships with a wide range of local partners for the benefit of both our children and young people, and the wider community. Over this year we have seen first hand the importance of communication, of shared creativity and of developing a culture of mutual collaboration, and we look forward to seeing where this will take us in the coming months and years.

Locally, Monkton is working closely with Freshford Primary School, Combe Down Primary School, St Martin’s Garden and the newly established Mulberry Park Primary Academy, developing joint projects, sharing resources such as minibuses and venues for art, drama, swimming, outdoor education and sport, providing joint staff training and coaching opportunities, and facilitating subject-specific enrichment activities for pupils.

More widely, we are developing a new partnership with the Genesis Trust, as we seek to support their work in a more formal capacity through our charity committee and participation in community fundraising events as well as working to ensure that this link raises awareness and action around issues of homelessness in our community. As a school we have benefited from the expertise and insight of Genesis Trust team members, and our pupils and parent body have taken part in sleep-outs, baking projects, sponsored abseiling and even writing and producing a rap. 

The coming academic year will see a renewed emphasis on service as one of the many ways our pupils can partner with the local community. We are looking to offer pupils the opportunity to take part in a Life Stories Project, spending time each week with members of the community and helping them to capture their key memories and produce a personalised book. Many will visit local schools to help out with literacy, sports or conservation projects on a weekly basis. In addition to these local partnerships, our links with Fisherman’s Rest in Malawi continue to be important to us as a school.

On a different level, Monkton's partnership work with the local authority has led to plans to support some of the most vulnerable pupils in our area. Monkton works with the Boarding Schools Partnership and Springboard, receiving pupils from vulnerable backgrounds as full boarders. We are currently exploring ways of extending this arrangement, responding to the DfES assessment that vulnerable young people may benefit from the stability that a boarding school can provide for young people.

Looking ahead, we are excited that this year has also seen an emerging partnership with a Christian conservation organisation called A Rocha, supporting us in our work to manage the Monkton valley in a way that is sustainable and provides maximum opportunities for our pupils, as well as the wider community, to benefit from spending more time outdoors. Read more about the Wild Monkton initiative here.

More detailed summaries of our current partnership initiatives can be found here.