King’s is delighted to be a founder member of an innovative new partnership. East Kent Schools Together (EKST) is a brand new partnership of six schools and a university which aims to raise aspirations and widen horizons by working together and sharing good practice. You can follow its activities on twitter @EKSTpartnership
The EKST partners are:
- St. Anselm’s Catholic School
- St. Edmunds School Canterbury
- Folkestone Academy School
- The King’s School
- Spires Academy School
- St. Lawrence College
- Canterbury Christ Church University
King’s pupils will benefit as part of their character education, meeting people from a wide range of backgrounds, learning together through study skills, sports & culture. The partnership aims to help children become resilient learners, feeling confident relating to a wide spectrum of people in a variety of situations. King’s staff will benefit through building a local network of teachers, shared professionanl development and teacher swaps, enabling teachers to learn together.
King’s students and staff participated in all of the 16 EKST events this term and we were delighted to host a number of these events:
ITT Mentors Cluster Group:
The first of many subject based cluster group meetings planned for the year, colleagues found there was much common ground to share including CPD, placements and teacher swaps.
An Introduction to KS3 Debating:
This was our first opportunity to bring students together from across the partnership to find out more about the benefits of starting debating at Key Stage 3 and some tips on how to organise things. The students has a go at debating while the teachers learned more about the debating events available to schools. Mike Cox, Master i/c Debating, led the afternoon with help from a number of King’s students.
English Cluster Group:
Head of English and others met to discuss common concerns around GCSEs and marking practice as well as exploring a possible journalistic magazine, an EKST online version of the school’s successful Mind’s Eye: https://www.mindseyemagazine.com.
The Globalist:
Students from across the partnership have been invited to contribute to an online modern foreign language magazine: https://www.thekingsglobalist.com. With a different theme every half term the student editors meet for an editathon to decide on which contributions will be published.
SENDCO Cluster Group:
Over thirty SENDCO’s and Exam Officers from across Kent (including EKST partner schools) came to learn more about exam access arrangements from JCQ’s Nick Lait. Nick provided an invaluable and comprehensive overview of the updated regulations.
Should you wish to hear more about the East Kent Schools Together partnership, please contact:
Sarah Moir, EKST Coordinator
Email: ekstpartnership@gmail.com