Wharfe Valley Learning Partnership

Our Learning Partnership:

What is it? And what is it for?

The Wharfe Valley Learning Partnership including:

Deighton Gates Primary School

Primrose Lane Primary School

With Partner Schools:

Boston Spa School

Collingham Lady Elizabeth Hastings’ CE Primary School

Lady Elizabeth Hastings’ CE VA Primary School

Thorp Arch, St Mary’s CE Primary School

Harewood CE Primary School

Bardsey Primary School

St John’s School for the Deaf

The schools in this area have a long established practice of working closely together within the Elmete Partnership of Schools & Services (EPoSS) Family of Schools. Nine of these schools (as listed above) took this collaboration further in January 2014 by setting up The Wharfe Valley Learning Partnership (WVLP). Two years we were delighted to welcome Crossley Street Primary to our partnership.

The Partnership is an Educational Trust, enabling each school to keep its unique identity and autonomy, whilst simultaneously working closely together to benefit our children, young people and communities.

Together, these popular and successful school have secure base on which to build a strong, effective partnership. The Governing Bodies of these schools believe that a Trust of this kind is the best way to ensure the long term, sustainable collaboration that is required to meet our common aims.

The WVLP seeks to develop practice across the schools to further enhance the provision and opportunities available to our children and young people, maintaining and improving their already high standards of attainment and achievement. It collaborates closely with other organisations, such as Leeds City Council services and providers of higher education and others, so that we can serve our children, young people, families and communities most effectively.

Shared Vision and Values

Key to the success of the Wharfe Valley Learning Partnership is our shared vision and values.

Our Vision

The schools in Partnership are each unique, equal and autonomous. We work together to achieve our shared vision of securing the very best outcomes for the children and young people in our schools through: setting the highest expectations for achievement; innovating in practice and organisation; and inspiring and supporting each other in continual improvement from our strong base.

Our Values

This vision is underpinned by our shared values:

That every child and young person is of intrinsic value and importance;
That every child and young person should be enabled to achieve to their full potential in all aspects of their lives;
That effective education is broad, encompassing the acquisition of knowledge, development of understanding and skills, as well as personal, physical, spiritual, moral, social and cultural development;
That children and young people should be inspired to become skilled, self motivated learners, developing capacities such as curiosity, creativity, resilience, perseverance and the enjoyment of challenge;
That our children and young people should be happy, safe, secure and engaged throughout their education;
That education should encourage and enable children and young people to look outwards to their community, region, nation and the World, recognising the unique contribution they can make to the benefit of all;
That we are stronger and more effective working together within our schools, communities and across the Partnership.

Furthermore the Partnership is based on the values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity. In our dealings as a Partnership we demonstrate the ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for others.

As a Trust, stakeholders, including children, young people, parents and staff are encouraged to have their say in how our collaboration develops. The Trust Board is made of Head teachers and Governor Representatives from each school and other Trust partners.

Our priorities

The schools have identified several priorities for the work of the Wharfe Valley Learning Partnership. They are as follows:

To build upon existing partnership work and good practice within the Wharfe Valley Learning Partnership schools by developing sustainable structures to secure effective collaboration and co-operation for the future.
To work together as partners, pooling our knowledge, skills and resources, to continue to improve and enrich the quality of educational provision across the partnership, by bringing new learning experiences and development opportunities to our pupils, staff and communities.
To ensure our local focus remains sharp and responsive to the developing national educational landscape, seizing the opportunities that will most benefit our schools and communities.
To collaborate to maximise the funding available and attract further funding and investment opportunities for the benefit of our children and young people, schools and communities.

Organisation

Headteachers in our partnership have grouped together to take on responsibilities in leading aspects of our development plan: development of leadership through collaboration, training, sharing of best practice and promotion and support of wellbeing; development of teaching and learning with a current focus on assessment and moderation and, importantly, the development of pupil voice in shaping the work of the partnership.

The work of the partnership is overseen and guided by the trust board which is made up of headteachers and governors from each of the schools.

Our Partners

To help us achieve these priorities, as well as collaborating together, we work closely with our partner organisations. Currently we have the following partner organisations:

Leeds City Council – maintaining a series of important relationships for educational delivery and offering access to the authority’s significant experience of school management, school improvement, education development and children’s services.

Through collaborative working in the WVLP we are ensuing that not only do we get best value for money with training and staff development, but that children have opportunities that are wider than the sphere of their own school. That they understand their part in the community and feel able to take and active confident part in it.