Collaboration as a keystone
In active partnership with our schools, Working Together is the support that the Company can offer by sharing ideas and best practice across our schools.
Working Together programme is about professional collaboration and brings together staff, school leaders and governors to connect with each other, highlight school achievements, learn from inspiring external speakers and generally gain the benefits of a wider educational context than any individual school group can offer. This allows schools to have access to state and independent sector expertise – an unusual benefit in the world of education.
Our schools’ executive and non-executive teams include excellent strategists, inspired experts and rigorous practitioners. The core function of this professional collaboration programme is to facilitate sharing this great practice and developing innovative approaches to new challenges and opportunities.
A prime example of this is the annual Education Symposium which aims to bridge the gap between governor perspectives and the realities of school life, equipping them to offer supportive challenge to the schools they serve. The topics are chosen to apply to any school from across the family, recognising the diverse nature of the provision they provide. Themes have included mental health and curriculum, bringing in external partners as well as utilising expertise from school staff and governors. An underlying principle of Working Together is seeking to add value to an existing strong programme of continued professional development (CPD) and facilitate collaboration in new areas.
HABERDASHERS' WORKING TOGETHER
Working Together Events
Haberdashers’ Working Together
HALD
A professional development programme for those in the teaching profession aspiring to Headship.
Haberdashers’ Working Together
Mentorship that matters: Can you give just four hours a year to help transform a young person’s life?
Haberdashers’ Working Together
Governors' Symposium
This annual conference at Haberdashers’ Hall includes topics such as the curriculum and mental health.
These events are highly collaborative, designed in partnership with school leaders with speakers sourced from across the school groups. We are in the fortunate position to have exceptional talent from within Haberdasher schools. Where schools deliver their own CPD programmes these are also opened up to the wider family of schools. The Haberdashers’ Accelerated Leadership Programme (based at Haberdashers’ Academies Trust South) benefits leaders from each of the schools, advancing staff on their leadership journey. Haberdashers’ Elstree’s annual EDI conference similarly benefits from attendance of schools from across the state and independent sector, including Haberdasher schools.
Beyond the leadership level, Haberdashers’ Working Together cuts across each strand of the Haberdashers’ Advantage programme. The events which form Futures and Character would not be possible without close collaboration and organisation from key staff members in each school. From running sessions at careers conferences, organising cross-Haberdasher sports events or collective design of a cross-school mentoring programme (Habs Aspire), Haberdashers’ Advantage would not be possible without input from each trust and school. Subject specialists meet to plan these events, but also to learn from each other’s approaches and troubleshoot shared challenges. For example, Modern Foreign Language leads meeting to workshop how to improve GCSE and A Level take up.
The Working Together programme is based on maximising the
benefits of collaboration and partnership and constantly evolves to meet the
needs of a rapidly changing sector.
HABERDASHERS' WORKING TOGETHER
The best thing about this programme is...