Wharfe Valley Learning Partnership
Including:
St Mary's CE Primary School
Lady Elizabeth Hastings' CE VA Primary School, Thorp Arch
St John’s Catholic Specialist School
With Partner Schools:
Bardsey Primary Academy
Boston Spa Academy,
Collingham Lady Elizabeth Hastings' CE Primary School,
Crossley Street Primary School
Deighton Gates Primary School
Primrose Lane Primary School
Harewood CE Primary School
St John’s Catholic Specialist School
St Joseph's Catholic Primary School
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). The Partnership is a Cooperative 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 schools have a very 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 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 cooperative 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 Cooperative Trust, stakeholders, including children, young people, parents and staff are encouraged to have their say in how our collaboration develops. These groups have opportunities to voice their views in regular Forum meetings and are represented on the Trust Board which steers the direction of the collaboration. The rest of the Trust Board is made of Headteachers and Governor Representatives from each school and representatives of Partner organisations.
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 cooperation 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, through the Trust’s charitable status, 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 practices and promotion and support of wellbeing; development of teaching and learning with a current focus on assessment and acquisition of speech and language therapy expertise; 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.
