The Access & Participation department are pleased to share some of the work that they have undertaken with Anglesey Primary School since their partnership began at the start of the academic year.
The aim of the partnership, which in this first year will be piloted centrally with a primary school in the north and south of the city, is to provide high quality opportunities for pupils; these include enrichment and aspirational activity in collaboration with schools across the Foundation. The team also hope to develop a strong pipeline of pupils for recruitment at both our comprehensive and selective schools, particularly for those who are disadvantaged and under-represented. The team are actively seeking a partnership in the south of the city, and in the meantime are developing connections with target primary schools.
Anglesey Primary School is in a key location for our north cluster of schools. A large primary located in Lozells near to the city centre, Anglesey’s first activity with the Foundation was an aspiration day for a small group of more able Year 5 pupils, 58% of whom are from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Pupils experienced a day in the life of a King Edward VI student at Aston, Handsworth School for Girls, and Handsworth Grammar School.
A range of taster lessons including photography, art, DT and Science were very well received, with comments such as “the best part of my experience was Science because there were things that were interesting…that I had never learnt” and “everything was so much fun and I would love to come back one day”. Our impact measures also demonstrated an overall increase of 4.9% in pupil motivation following the aspiration session compared to before the visit.
An archives programme aligned to Year 5's history topic 'Victorian Birmingham' was the next activity to follow, beginning with an interactive session looking at artefacts from the King Edward VI Foundation archive. Pupils learnt about the impact of the industrial revolution and the growth of the jewellery quarter, then worked in groups looking at materials focused on fashion, rules and punishment, food adverts, Victorian recipes, architecture and awards. A visit to the school to run an arts session on mono printing and silhouette designs followed this, where children developed an understanding of some of the architectural features of Victorian building design and explored some of the important figureheads in Victorian Birmingham.
To celebrate the end of the archives programme, pupils will have the opportunity to take part in our competition due to take place in December in the form of a balloon debate. Pupils must imagine that they are an important figurehead in Victorian Birmingham and then create a poster and supporting speech persuading the pilot of a hot air balloon that they should be the person saved (only 1 can survive!). The best work from each class will be presented in a year group assembly, with a prize to be awarded to the ultimate winner.
We will be undertaking similar activities in our south cluster in due course and look forward to reporting back on our work in future Foundation News articles. Our huge thanks to all staff who have helped to make these sessions so engaging; working together, we hope to make primary partnerships an integral part of the King Edward VI Foundation offer.
Remember, if you have any ideas for how we can support your school-led participation activity, please send one of the team an email.
