Educational Partnership Between Judith Kerr Primary School & JAGS

Judith Kerr Primary School opened as a local free school in 2013, only a stone’s throw away from JAGS.  With the aim of creating a German bilingual learning environment, Judith Kerr students come from across London, with at least half of the pupil population from the local area.  The school is rich in its diversity and cultural community and hosts families from many background and languages, including their German cohort.

Aims

To support Year 5 and 6 Maths extension (Weekly sessions lead by JAGS teaching staff and Year 13 students).

To support in lessons across all year groups where needed (Year 12 student volunteers).

To set up Maths stretch and challenge activity days alongside other community schools (1-2x per year).

To support German extension sessions for German speakers.

Background

While all state maintained schools are struggling with increasing demands and constantly restricted budgets, newly established schools are particularly stretched. Being such a short walk away and new to the community, JAGS wanted to welcome and support Judith Kerr in whatever way we could.

Inviting pupils to use the JAGS swimming pool was a quick and easy answer: ‘Yes, of course!’.

However, further conversations with their SLT also highlighted a need for stretch and challenge workshops for their more able and enthusiastic Year 5 and 6 Maths pupils – and of course any of our A-Level German students would be more than welcome to drop in to volunteer their time too. In response, JAGS set up a new Liberal Studies option for Year 13 students to volunteer their time at Judith Kerr each week specifically in Maths enrichment and German.  Maths sessions began in 2018, and we expect German to being in the new year. 

Pupil Involvement

Year 12 and 13 pupils from JAGS volunteer weekly to support in Judith Kerr. Some take part in the Monday afternoon Maths enrichment, and others go into classrooms when they have free lessons on their timetable.  In addition, we hosted our first Maths Enrichment Day where we welcomed Judith Kerr and Bessemer Grange for an afternoon of Maths activities.  We had 20 JAGS student mentors setting up and facilitating group Maths activities enjoyed by all!

Frequency

Fostering an ongoing relationship with Judith Kerr, JAGS will continue to support more and more within the JKPS school community and will continue to be led by the school as to which areas we can best support.