School to School Partnerships

We are strategic partners in two teaching school alliances. Our work with the Billericay Teaching School Alliance has an Initial Teacher Training (ITT) focus. Through this work we help to train the next generation of secondary school teachers. Our work with the Chelmsford Teaching School Alliance has a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) focus. We work with local secondary schools to share our staff training expertise, supporting colleagues to develop their practice and frame their career progression. This ITT and CPD work is a clear demonstration of our staff development vision: from teacher training to educational leadership – nurturing and inspiring the teachers and leaders of tomorrow through excellence in personalised training and development.

CCHS has an established and proud tradition of working with primary schools to support the teaching of able children. This is a clear demonstration of our School aims, which relate to the pursuit of excellence, fulfilling potential and contributing to the community. We are working with the following primary schools:

  • Barnes Farm Junior School
  • The Bishops’ C of E and RC Primary School
  • Kings Road Primary School
  • Larkrise Primary School
  • Lawford Mead Primary School
  • Maltese Road Primary School
  • Meadgate Primary School
  • Moulsham Junior School
  • Parkwood Academy
  • Trinity Road Primary School
  • Springfield Primary School
  • Westlands Community Primary School

On four of our Enrichment Days we invite up to 80 Years 4-5 girls form these schools to visit CCHS to participate in Gifted & Talented activities. Our sixth form students support this work with our teachers and our primary colleagues to ensure that the pupils have stimulating and exciting days.

These projects are a testament to our commitment to school to school partnership work and reflect a determination to share our practice and learn from other schools.

Testimonials from Enrichment Day 3 2020:

Bishops:  The CCHS enrichment days are a fantastic opportunity. They provide a range of experiences across the curriculum which allow a wide variety of children to be invited whether they intend to complete the 11+ entrance test or not. For many these days confirm aspirations and open up the minds of others to the possibility of attending a grammar school at secondary.

The children return enthused and desperate to share what they have learned. All of them speak highly of the lessons organised and the goodies they bring away with them. It’s great to see what they have been doing and when they come back to school their first question is what subject is the next enrichment day on?

The girls had a fantastic time and were buzzing when they got back to school. The boys are very jealous at the opportunities that you give to our girls! The three from my class spent the rest of the day speaking Russian to our fluent classroom assistant. Look forward to hearing from you about the next enrichment day.

Larkrise:  Children get to know different languages today.  Good initiative to encourage children to learn other languages. Each and every session was very encouraging for our children. Very nicely and well planned. We found the girls teaching languages are very confident and helpful.

Lawford Mead:  The Sixth Form students, fun and positive, great role models. The children enjoyed the groups very much.

Moulsham Juniors:  I loved how your Sixth Formers were our tutors. A fantastic experience for them and for our students. I loved how the children were introduced to a wide range of languages: Russian, Swedish, Latin and coding as well as linguistic roots. Your students were terrific attentive teachers and having native Russian speakers was wonderful, giving our children a chance to really hear the accent.

The children themselves were saying they would like to come here. Our school runs after school prep so no child is disadvantaged.

Trinity Road:  Engaging learning, eagerness and confidence of CCHS students.  Easy access to languages – girls all found something positive throughout the day.  Good to see sessions constantly evolving- better every time.

Encouraging able girls to apply to CCHS and dispel myths about the School

  • Information sessions for primary school teachers and headteachers.
  • Visits to those schools with the highest proportion of children in receipt of FSM/PP with Year 9 students presenting assemblies.
  • Presentation to parents at primary school parents’ evenings.
  • Invitations to previews of school productions, dance shows, concerts.

Active Membership of a number of groups:

Engaged locally:

  • Association of Secondary Headteachers (ASHE)
  • Chelmsford Teaching School Alliance (CTSA)
  • Billericay Teaching School Alliance (BTSA)
  • Mid-Essex Secondary Headteachers (MESH)
  • Mid-Essex Teacher Training
  • Saffron Teaching Schools Hub (STSH)

Engaged nationally:

  • Prince’s Teaching Institute (PTI)
  • National Association for Able Children in Education (NACE)

Engaged internationally:

  • International Coalition of Girls’ School (ICGS)
  • ‘Advance Girls’ research projects