As the prices of glue sticks rise and departmental budgets fall, we all need to look further afield to offer our students an exciting range of educational experiences. But where should you start?
One option is to reach out to local businesses and cultural organisations. Did you know, for example, that many businesses have a community budget available to those who are willing to ask for it?
Significant financial support from companies is hard to secure and usually only has a short-term, if any, effect on learning (those bags of popcorn from the local supermarket for the end-of-term film won’t help them to learn quadratic equations).
It’s far more effective to request activities and experiences that will offer a world of inspiration around current teaching topics, allowing local groups to promote themselves to your pupils in exchange.
This all sounds well and good, but how do you begin such a partnership?
Review your curriculum and consider wider learning opportunities
Always start with your schemes of work and have a clear goal in mind for your learning outcomes. Consider the topics you teach and identify links to local organisations, such as businesses, theatres and museums.
For example, our travel-writing scheme requires students to study how tourism and the language used by travel brochures have changed over time. To support this, we reached out to Paul Smith, an archivist for the travel company Thomas Cook, who was only too happy to collate a range of extracts from its earliest brochures for us.
Locate the right contact and direct all communication to them
Don’t send a general email; take the time to find out who handles requests related to the community budget and contact them directly. This means that your request is less likely to get passed from desk to desk before eventually getting lost in the ether.
Pin down as much information as possible when first getting in touch - be specific about exactly what you want and what you hope to achieve - so that no time is lost later, when planning the finer details.
Be prepared to provide resources
Experts from local organisations are often used to dealing with intellectuals or retirees, and their communications with young people, particularly secondary school students, may require some sensitive support. Have examples of what you’re hoping to achieve ready to share, because they won’t know your syllabus.
Record and celebrate your partnership
This is a collaboration, so be prepared to play a key role in the delivery of whatever you create. Delegate capturing the enthusiasm of the event to a trusted team member. They should dedicate a reasonable section of your school newsletter and social media platforms to promote and celebrate the activities. And don’t stop there; invite your local paper to cover the event, too.
Positive publicity for the community groups, alongside thank-you letters from students, can help to forge an ongoing partnership.
Consider how to move things forwards
Take the time to reflect with a “strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats” (SWOT) analysis of the project, involving your collaborators in the process. Then use this review period as an opportunity to discuss how you can continue the collaboration. You want to maintain the momentum and expand on your success with more students or events in the year to come.
Charlotte Boother is leader of English at Stamford Welland Academy in Lincolnshire
