Please visit our partnership website – Chester Schools Together – Chester Schools Together

Chester Schools Together 

We are very proud to be part of a partnership between The King’s School, Bishops’ Blue Coat School and Blacon High School, Catholic High School Chester and Upton High School called Chester Schools Together.

Vision of Chester Schools Together

Working in equal partnership to provide a range of educational and cultural opportunities for pupils across the Chester community and to facilitate the professional and personal development of staff

Aims

Partners in the Chester Schools Together work together to:

• Provide a diverse programme of opportunities for interested and committed young people, regardless of their social or economic background
• Widen the educational and cultural horizons of all participants
• Engender a spirit of commitment, collaboration and confidence amongst pupils
• Provide stimulating professional development for staff and promote mutual respect across the different schools
• Foster a sense of belonging and pride in the city of Chester
• Encourage links with other city institutions for the education and benefit of all

Objectives

• An annual programme of ambitious projects and events for secondary-age students from partner schools
• All projects to have the widest possible impact
• To measure success and regularly review progress through metric provided in Independent School Council’s Impact Evaluation Toolkit and partnership’s own case studies and ISC profile
• The securing of funding from appropriate sources

Saturday Masterclasses 

The Partnership launched its first joint project with a series of Saturday Masterclasses held at King’s, Blacon High School and Bishops’ Bluecoat High School over three consecutive weekends with mixed groups of students from each school, working across the three sites.

The Masterclasses had an overall theme of ‘creativity’ and projects included a collaborative sculpture, a student newspaper and a virtual reality history learning resource.

The Saturday Masterclasses project aims to bring together students from three secondary schools for a variety of exciting learning experiences and to encourage collaborative working and to challenge students’ misconceptions or concerns about working and learning alongside students from different schools and/or socio-economic backgrounds.

More than 40 Year 7 and 8 children attended the three sessions and feedback was overwhelming positive.

Quotes from pupil feedback questionnaires included: 

• “I am very pleased as I feel I produced something amazing.”
• “It was something I wouldn’t have usually done, so I am proud.”
• “It was fun meeting new people and seeing things in a different perspective.”
• “One of the best bits was learning how to use new technology that hasn’t been available to me.”

 

Diversity and Inclusion Conference 

 

Aim:
To work with students to raise their awareness on the importance of Diversity and Inclusion in partnership with the Outreach Team of University of Chester. 

• To bring students together from four Chester secondary schools to work in groups and discuss and promote Diversity and Inclusion
• Increase knowledge on various strands of Diversity and Inclusion
• Embed on-going projects promoting Diversity and Inclusion in all four schools

Schools involved:
• The King’s School
• Blacon High School
• Bishops Blue Coat High School
• Catholic High School Chester 

This conference was targeted at 80 Year 10 students from across the four schools

A small working group of Sixth Formers (Year 11 for Blacon High School) from each school met in March 2022 and agreed the following four areas of D&I for the conference to focus on:

• Being a member of the LGBTQ+ in school
• The impact of a pupil’s socio-economic backgrounds
• Micro-aggressions
• Gender stereotypes

• The conference began with students enjoying a talk and Q&A from an invited speakers in the campus’s lecture theatre

• Students will then broke off into four mixed school groups and given one of the four strands to discuss

• Each team was be allocated a £1k budget to create an awareness campaign for their discussion topic 

 

Q&A session with the Children’s Laureate

King’s welcomed more than 100 pupils from four local schools to take part in a talk and Q&A session with the Children’s Laureate, and creator of Charlie and Lola, Lauren Child.

This event was a great chance to share the opportunity of hearing from and meeting a high profile author, and to learn more about the creative process and inspire a passion for literature in younger pupils. 

Our School Librarian runs a busy and high profile programme of visiting authors and associated literature events and seeks to involve the local school network where possible. 

 

Hockey Masterclass with members of GB squad 

More than 50 primary aged children took part in a Hockey Masterclass with two members of Team GB Women’s Squad. 

Susannah Townsend and Erica Sanders spent the the day at King’s, teaching a group of youngsters some key hockey skills before conducting a Q&A session in the Vanbrugh Theatre.

Pupils from King’s Juniors, St Martin’s Academy, Grosvenor Park Academy, Highfield Blacon and Moreton Hall took part in the day.

All of the pupils had a fantastic morning improving their hockey skills and learning top tips from Susannah and Erica before the engaging Q&A session. This was organised in conjunction with Investec – the current sponsor of The Women’s England Hockey League 

 

Year 5/6 Annual Invitational Tournament 

We were delighted to welcome more than 160 children from local schools to take part in an annual Invitational Tournament at King’s.

The pupils, from ages 9-11, were invited to compete in netball and football matches throughout the afternoon. Students showed great determination and displayed excellent sportsmanship.

 

National Pathology Week: The Living Autopsy

Secondary students from more than 20 local schools were invited to a Living Autopsy Event at King’s as part of National Pathology Week.

Working in partnership with pathologists, laboratory scientists and schools across the UK, the RCoP programme of events and activities aims to engage people of all ages, and improve public awareness and understanding of how pathologists and scientists diagnose disease.

Students were able to speak to members of the NHS about careers in and related to pathology and then enjoy a ‘living autopsy’ lecture, including a Q&A.

 

 

Forensic Science Investigation Day

Twenty four pupils from local primary schools took part in a Forensic Science Investigation Day.

The day involved each team taking part in four different forensic investigations involving flame tests, chromatography, non-metal tests and completing photo-fits.

These investigations allowed pupils to investigate the crime scene and work out who was the thief!

 

Junior Stretch and Challenge Conference

King’s hosted this event as part of the United Kingdom 2019 Junior Programme Gifted & Talented Study Day Programme of Academy Conferences. The event was for able Key Stage 3 pupils (Year 7-9, ages 12-14) and explored the following themes:

Session 1: Genetics, Epigenetics Transhumanism

Session 2: Interactive Guided Community of Inquiry

Session 3: Justice Truth Beauty and Maths

Session 4: Debate

King’s funded (£25 per pupil) a number of places for local secondary schools.