Evolving a partnerships programme

At MCS we have a thriving partnership programme, developed largely from the ground up. Our next task, as we approach our 550th anniversary in 2030, is to consider its evolution: how to listen carefully; how to determine what is most needed and where, and how to stay ‘furiously curious’, as Sean Harris puts it so sharply, about the shape and causes of barriers to accessing education.

We know that ‘what got us here won’t (necessarily) get us there’. Individual partnership projects often begin in a brilliantly opportunistic way, just as a start-up business might emerge from a single idea addressing a market gap. Inspired individuals are aided by perfect timing. To evolve, we must be more strategic: placing resources where they are most needed; ensuring communities have a voice; thinking carefully about the ‘is it scalable?’ question I heard several times at the HMC/IDPE Conference in January. As the sector gets better at evaluating partnerships, demonstrating real long-term impact becomes increasingly important. The balancing act is to find measurable benefits without losing the personal connections that create meaning, too.

We must also dig deeper on our assumptions. Hosting a county-wide Book Awards, a Saturday enrichment programme or a thriving MedSoc, is one thing; being certain they are doing what they need to do is another. This is where being ‘furiously curious’ in the face of highly complex social problems is so important. Oxford is a highly unequal city, and this inequality has many facets, from physical access to facilities, through levels of local education, to employment opportunities. An evolving partnerships programme needs to be part of the local community, not separate from it, and provide a shared space – literal and metaphorical – in which common goals and meanings can develop. 

Doing this requires creating opportunities to listen to those needs. Recently I was part of a fantastic discussion on developing city-wide enrichment from ‘cradle to career’, with maintained and independent schools, MATs, a special school, community centres, healthcare, the local music service, and more. 

There were many messages here for our school to consider carefully. One was that partnerships will work best when integrated into a broader local strategy. There is a clear request from local schools for longer-term enrichment support, alongside concern that one-off, set-piece events offer pupils in both sectors only a window into another world, rather than a doorway into it. Reliability, consistency and dialogue are highly prized. An enduring question as we fine-tune will be this: how do we ensure our partnerships are determined more by demand – by what young people need – than by supply and what we offer?

I write here mainly about questions. The answers will be found through the continued conversations with communities, in the sharing of good practice from other projects across the sector, and most importantly by continuing to listen actively to the needs of our young people and those around them.