Henry Duffin
Shared Education: Leading a Primary Partnership
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St. Anne’s Primary School, Corkey partnered with Knockahollet Primary School
St. Anne’s Primary and Knockahollet Primary are both small rural schools four miles from each other. They have a long standing, successful history of working together over the years and joined the Shared Education Signature Project in 2016.
Shared Education has enabled the schools to develop programmes which have enhanced the learning experiences of pupils, enabled staff to build personal and professional relationships and connected the schools to both sides of the local, close knit community.
All children and staff within both schools are involved in shared activity. Knockahollet and St. Anne’s feel that curricular areas which lend themselves to hands on and group interaction such as PE, WAU, Art, Music and PDMU allow for greater engagement and ultimately increased opportunity for children to get to know one another and facilitates good relationship building.
Henry is currently one of two Shared Education Coordinators, working alongside Gerry Black in Knockahollet P.S. Both Henry and Gerry are teaching principals and are responsible for the planning, delivery, finances and monitoring and evaluation of Shared Education within their schools. Henry sees great value in Shared Education, not only for the children participating in shared lessons but for the professional development of staff, sharing of resources and expertise and for the professional relationships formed by being involved in such a partnership.
Key learning When considering ways to develop your Shared Education Partnership
Key learning When considering ways to develop your Shared Education Partnership
Plan & evaluate Shared Education with the use of Pupil Pathway document to ensure continuous progression
Link areas on School Development Plan and Shared Education Action Plan to ensure progression and collaborative working between schools
Advance planning is paramount, shared school calendars can prevent overlap ensuring shared activity happens regularly
Consider areas of the curriculum than can foster and promote good relationships through collaborative learning
Explore opportunities to share resources and materials between schools
Questions to consider when developing a Shared Education Partnership
Questions to consider when developing a Shared Education Partnership
Have you established professional relationships with all staff from your partner school(s)?
Are you familiar with the Pupil Pathway document which can be used to plan Shared Education activities ensuring yearly progression and reconciliation aims are being met?
Has your partnership aligned Staff Development Days to help support Teacher Professional Development?
What are the barriers and challenges to engaging pupils within Shared Education when schools are not walking distance to one another? Are all children engaging or particular year groups?
Further resources
Further resources
Learning Leaders: A Strategy for teacher professional learning
A Pupil Pathway: A Resource for Teachers to Support Shared Education
Sharing Works: A Policy for Shared Education
Every School a Good School: A Policy for School Improvement
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