On Friday, I was delighted to be leading and participating in the ‘Building Effective Partnerships’ conference, as well as being present for the formal launch of the Association of Education Partnerships at Ort House Conference Centre, Camden. There is something quite poignant that the launch of the association took place in Camden, where our own Camden Learning is situated.
I was delivering a session with Tim Boyes (Birmingham Education Partnership Chief Executive) and Maxine Frogatt (Director at the North West and Lancashire School Improvement Partnership Board), where the focus was on managing complexity and working with stakeholders to accelerate improvement. One of the aspects we considered was the analogy that there are many players vying to oversee the match (on a crowded pitch), and with that complexity, not losing sight of the core purpose and need to have impact.
I was continually going back during the day to consider a slide from Christine Gilbert’s introduction, that had six features of successful area partnerships, I concluded that we in Camden Learning with our schools are making sustained and incremental progress towards:Collective moral purpose and vision linked to place and community
- A clear model of change, using professional power and skills, and aligned with evidence
- An inclusive culture of openness, trust and mutual accountability
- Attention paid to develop networks
- Good planning, quality assurance and business development
- Capacity building to develop a self-improving system
Another highlight of my week was attending the secondary math hub event, which was led by Clare James from LSU and Jeremy Silk from Acland Burghley. It was tremendous to see ten schools in attendance and a real buzz of passion and interest in their subject specialism and focus for the new academic year. The focus for the coming year will be on the maths pedagogy in KS3 and increasing confidence in teaching, using mastery techniques.
Jon Abbey
Managing Director, Camden Learning
