Community Partnerships

Helping young children to succeed through community partnerships.

With your support we are helping to give all children in our community the chance to succeed. Please help us to offer this opportunity to even more children and donate today.

Caterham works closely with a network of eight primary schools who are part of our East Surrey Learning Partnership. Through this partnership we support children’s Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 learning outcomes, focussing on English, Maths and Science. We do this through staff and pupil volunteering, sharing best practise and providing extension activities and workshops. We also share resources, and, with the support of Giving Day donations, we were delighted to open a Resource Library this year. The library provides a hub for training and the lending out of specialised learning equipment such as robotics equipment. Alongside the loan of equipment, the Resource Library offers workshops and skills-based sessions for teachers in our primary school network. The Prep School has also benefited as equipment is available for use by Prep teachers.

 

Our programme to boost pupil premium primary school children’s access to academically selective independent and state-maintained grammar schools across Surrey, Kent and South London. Saturday Plus, runs on weekends throughout the year and held its first session at the school on 7 January with 27 pupils from across five state-maintained primary schools.

The Saturday Plus programme extends beyond academic tutoring and interview preparation to provide mentoring, problem solving and digital skills for the children taking part. The weekend sessions include maths and English lessons with additional sessions covering robotics, Latin, creative arts performance, outdoor learning and sport.

Saturday Plus participants are provided with transport to and from the sessions, all equipment and textbooks required in addition to being hosted for lunches. The pupils also have access to Atom Learning, a normally paid for platform that children can use at home for 11+ exam preparation.

Saturday Plus is about supporting the aspirations of children whether they are headed to selective state-maintained grammar schools or independent schools. Our aim is to mirror the level of academic extension and interview support that children gain at preparatory schools for those receiving pupil. The support is focused across a range of primary schools and we have worked closely with primary school heads to build the programme and recruit participants. We also want to break down any perceived barriers that might exist so pupils and their families can approach admissions processes for any school with confidence and familiarity.

The pupils’ progress through Saturday Plus scheme will be monitored by ImpactED to ensure that they are making academic gains from the extension sessions in addition to supporting their application to academically selective senior schools.

Lerang’wa

Further away, but no further from our hearts, we have a long-standing partnership with Lerang’wa School which is a primary school close to Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.  The friendship that exists between Caterham and Lerang’wa village primary school is a great privilege to have. Many of our Caterhamians who have been lucky enough to visit Lerang’wa have spoken about the fulfilling and life changing trip, an experience which stays with them forever. Our partnership has endured many challenges, but none as difficult as the COVID pandemic. Annual trips to Lerang’wa were not possible during this time but the school’s Charity Committee continued to work hard to keep our support going. Donations received during the Giving Day in 2022 gave a great boost to their efforts, providing funding for two years of midday meals to the 900 children attending this school. The simple act of being able to have lunch is highly valued in this vulnerable local community, and leads directly to improved attendance, concentration and educational outcomes. We hope to resume our annual trip there in 2024, and the Pupil Charity Committee is continuing it’s fundraising for the additional needs that this growing school has before then.