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Partnerships

As a Catholic School and a learning community we actively engage in partnerships with a wide range of different organisations and community groups. We value partnerships and collaboration as vital mechanisms to continually enhance the level of service we provide to both pupils and staff at Saint John Wall.

In addition, we strive to share our skills and expertise with others so that we can influence and enable improvements to education across the Birmingham Archdiocese, West Midlands region and beyond.

We have 5 members of staff who are Specialist Leaders in Education (SLEs) and Miss Marston, our Headteacher, is a Local Leader in Education (LLE). Our governors are experienced school leaders and practitioners and Mr Quinn, Vice Chair, is a National Leader of Education (NLE). 

Here are examples of our involvement in partnerships:

Birmingham Diocesan Education Service (BDES)
BDES supports all Catholic Primary and Secondary Schools in the Archdiocese of Birmingham. Mr Lloyd-Price in his role as Person in Charge of Catholic Life (PICCL) and Head of RE works closely with Richard Smith, in his role as Secondary RE Advisor. There are regular partnership meetings covering both Catholic Life and RE. These sessions allow PICCLs and Head of Departments to meet and share good practice, resources and ideas. These meetings often lead to new relationships forming between local Catholic schools to further strengthen the Catholic education offer to the children of Birmingham. BDES also provide the school with advice and guidance regarding governance, premises, policies, finance and other matters linked to our Catholic School status.

Visit BDES

Titan
Membership of Titan provides Senior and Middle leaders with networking opportunities. Titan also co-ordinate the local Sharing Panel with the aim of reducing exclusions amongst our schools. Titan helped provide the school with additional technology devices during the pandemic and they organise a variety of enrichment opportunities for pupils such as careers and STEM events. Titan worked closely with us to co-ordinate the DLP bids and they are responsive to the needs of pupils and staff, for example: arranging collaborative meetings for Headteachers to discuss covid guidance, and liaising with the violence reduction unit in response to issues in the local community. Recently Titan have enabled us to join the Schools4Inclusion international project and they run an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion group which we participate in.  Quote: "As a member of Titan Partnership, St John Wall are part of a network of schools, colleges and universities exceptional in their commitment to making a real difference to the lives of children and young people in Birmingham."
Quote: "The Titan Partnership brings schools in the north west of the city together to collaborate in supporting vulnerable children through the Sharing Panel. The Panel members work closely to place and support pupils who need an opportunity to fulfil their potential in a new environment. The NW Sharing Panel successfully places many vulnerable pupils every year."

Visit Titan

English Mastery:
The English department has partnered with the English Mastery programme since 2019. The programme provides a knowledge-rich curriculum which takes a cumulative approach to studying the English literary canon and grammatical concepts. KS3 English teachers draw from the abundant bank of rigorous resources to design lessons which challenge and stimulate pupils.
Quote from Visit 1 Report: "The English Mastery programme is being well led at Saint John Wall Catholic School. Teachers are delivering all strands of the English Mastery curriculum with fidelity. Pupils show a lot of enthusiasm for both Literary Heritage lessons and Mastery Writing." (Eliza Grant, Mastery Link).

Visit Ark Curriculum Plus

IFS
IFS is a multinational enterprise software company headquartered in Sweden. The company develops and delivers enterprise software for customers around the world. IFS sponsors the Computing department at Saint John Wall. Doing so has allowed the school to have a newly refurbished computer lab along with enabling the school to run the Computer Science GCSE qualification. The aim of the project is to provide pupils with the support and guidance needed to follow a career in software development and become the next generation of programmers.

Visit IFS

BBC Young Reporter
Saint John Wall Catholic School pupils have been participating in the BBC Young Reporter project since it was first launched as a pilot in 2007.  The project empowers pupils to be budding journalists and to report on news stories that matter to them. Quote: "Pupils from Saint John Wall School continue to be involved in BBC Young Reporter works in partnership with schools, colleges and youth groups to provide young people with the skills they need to create content and understand the media. The award-winning project supports young people’s media skills and news literacy, as well as finding out about careers in broadcasting and being about to share their own story ideas with the BBC."

Visit BBC Young Reporter

North West Network DLP funding: 
Saint John Wall has received funding to run a SEND literacy Hub focusing on rapid intervention for pupils from our network of 20 secondary schools. The Hub is well underway, and we have hosted pupils from Holyhead, Holte, Hamstead Hall, Jewellery Quarter Academy, Nishkam, City Academy and Heartlands Academy. 
Data shows the programmes are having a real impact on the pupils and typical feedback is "It helped me understand more new words and I enjoyed learning more skills that can help me. I even enjoyed reading new books that I have never read before which makes me happy". (Year 8 pupil Holyhead School). 

Visit SJW's SEND Information

ITTs and ECTs
We work with various ITT providers to train new teachers. These providers include: Teach Central, Future Teaching Scholars, Birmingham City University, Bishop Challoner Training School Alliance, University of Birmingham, Titan, Newman University, South Birmingham SCITT and Teach First. Quote from our Teach First Development Lead: "The pupils and staff made a really good impression on me.  I have never visited or worked in a school in your area before, I was really impressed by the behaviour and respect demonstrated by the pupils I saw in the three lessons I observed. They were calm and well behaved on entering their lessons – they were focused and engaged in their learning – and it was so positive to see the Teach First Year 2 trainees being able to enjoy their teaching and relationships with their classes. From the staff in reception, the staff who guided me around the site and to the staff I met in the staff room and in the classrooms – everyone was very friendly and welcoming."
We also work with our local teaching school hub- Arthur Terry to fulfil our statutory induction requirements. They work with the Education Development Trust to deliver the Full Induction Programme to our Early Career Teachers (ECTs). Arthur Terry is also our Appropriate Body for the registration, monitoring and assessment of ECTs in their first and second year of induction.

Brilliant Club
The Brilliant Club deliver The Scholars Programme to small groups of our Year 8 learners. On the programme, our learners work with a university researcher to give them experience of what it's like to study at university and develop their knowledge, skills, and confidence.

Visit The Brilliant Club

Bouncing Statistics
Bouncing Statistics is a local community interest company based in Birmingham that exists to support and develop young people aged 9-25 in Birmingham to ‘bounce statistics’ and achieve greatness despite any adversities, stereotypes or barriers they have to overcome. It provides young people with the skills and experiences which are vital for everyday life and for pursuit of their goals and targets. A mentoring programme has been arranged with the Bouncing Statistics mentor Ryan. This programme supports pupils identified by the Pastoral team.

Bouncing Statistics also run our daily after school supper club which includes team building and sports activities as well as hot food at the end of each session.

Visit Bouncing Statistics

Ten Ten
Ten Ten is a Catholic organisation created to support schools in their delivery of their Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) curriculum. A Ten Ten subscription provides schools with resources to help school communities grow in faith, love, understanding and compassion. Ten Ten creates a wide-range of unique media-rich programmes and resources, inspired by the Christian faith.

Visit Ten Ten

Police and Schools Panel
Saint John Wall Catholic School is committed to keeping our pupils safe, both in school and the wider community.  As part of our safeguarding arrangements, we have a two-way information sharing agreement in place with West Midlands Police.  The agreement is compliant with Crime & Disorder Act 1998Data Protection Act 2018 – 2021 Update and United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK-GDPR); and focuses on preventing young people from becoming involved or further involved in crime and anti-social behaviour, as either a victim or offender.
Visit Birmingham Police
and Schools Panel
PiXL

We have worked closely with PixL (Partners in Excellence) since 2015. PixL’s main aim is to improve life chances and outcomes for young people. PixL provides senior and middle leaders support, practical solutions and strategies to make an impact on the outcomes and characters of pupils at St John Wall. Senior and Middle leaders attend national and subject specific conferences to support with leadership strategies, CPD and essential pedagogy and educational process. Staff value the professional development and networking opportunities that PixL provide. The schools PixL Associate recently added in a report about the school, “The CPD offered for staff reflects on the concepts, knowledge and skills required by the pupils to succeed. The outcomes that the pupils achieve at the school are excellent.”

Visit PiXL

Education Staff Wellbeing Charter

We feel it is vital that every member of staff feels valued, supported, and motivated as they live out their vocation to serve and teach the children and young people at Saint John Wall Catholic School. We recognise that our staff are a valuable and precious resource and want every member of staff at Saint John Wall Catholic School to thrive knowing that they will be well supported. Our school has signed up to the DfE's Education Staff Wellbeing Charter to show our ongoing commitment to workload and wellbeing.

 

National School Breakfast Programme

We participate in the National School Breakfast Programme and offer free breakfast bagels to all pupils who would like them before school begins, from 8.20am in the morning. 

 

 

Visit National School Breakfast Programme

Think for the Future

This is a social enterprise organisation that partners with Saint John Wall Catholic School to deliver structured sessions which are proven to have a positive and measurable impact on engagement in learning. Our school is allocated a mentor who runs group based mentoring sessions using a highly-structured curriculum of over 200 interactive sessions.

Visit Think for the Future

Swanswell Language Hub

The Language Hubs programme is an exciting initiative funded by the Department for Education and managed by the National Consortium for Languages Education to re-energise language learning across England and to improve the learning opportunities and outcomes for all pupils. The Swanswell Language Hub is one of the first 15 Language Hubs in England with the aim of increasing uptake and attainment in languages education. 

 

School Games

The School Games is a programme which puts physical activity and school sport at the heart of schools, providing young people with the opportunity to learn through competition to achieve their personal best.

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