English Outreach Project
Partnership with City of London Academy Shoreditch Park (COLASP).
2017-2018: One member of the English Department spent two periods a week teaching gifted Year 7 students at COLASP in a small withdrawal group. This was a pilot project for eight sessions. At this stage, the initial focus was critical thinking and oracy. Students discussed unseen poetry and prose as stimuli to enable them to think about writers and emotions in a text.
2018-19: The outreach work extended to four periods a week led by the same staff member from English. Building on the work so far COLASP and CLSG created a double focus for the year: teaching more able Year 7/8 students looking at oracy and also supporting the Head of English by creating resources for most able students in the classrooms. Additionally CLSG students from Year 10/11 volunteered to attend COLASP to mentor students there to model communication skills and writing skills. In March 2019 CLSG hosted a workshop for 25 Year 7 students from COLASP, 25 Year 7 students from CLSG and supported by Year 11/10 students from CLSG to produce shared writing from an unseen poem. This resulted in an assembly for the whole school in June 2019.
2019-20: Sixth Formers in Year 12 were involved in a pilot project mentoring Year 9 students at COLASP with homework and vocabulary work every Tuesday during General Studies, coordinated by the same member of English. Additionally, resources are created for COLASP and a workshop is planned for Summer 2020.
Aims
The link between CLSG and COLASP focusses on developing the confidence of COLASP students in line with the School Development Plan with a specific focus on extending vocabulary and building discussion skills.
Background
The partnership was set up by the former Head as part of the established links between the City of London Schools.
Resources
The same member of staff from the English Department for 2-4 periods a week.
Impact
The Principal of COLASP has been very positive about the impact it has had on students in terms of confidence and raising aspiration.
For CLSG, students are more motivated and have developed a greater awareness of volunteering and its potential to boost self-esteem.
Pupil Involvement
Years 7-12
Frequency
Two periods per week, increasing to four in the 2018-19 academic year.