Partnerships
Our partnerships with nearby primary and secondary schools, local residential homes and guilds allow us to grow together as a community. As we broaden experiences for our students, we bring the opportunity for partner children and staff to collaborate and share ideas.
Relationships flourish, confidence is boosted. Mentoring and other roles of responsibility help combat teens’ propensity to look inwards, encouraging perspective and purpose. Above all, everyone has lots of fun along the way. For many students, their timetabled partnerships session on Thursday afternoon is a weekly highlight.
Our Primary programme is ambitious in expanding to touch the lives of approximately 300 external students, 200 WHS students and 25 staff on a weekly basis.
Our Secondary collaborations are 15-week courses where Wimbledon students work alongside secondary partnership school students. Examples include: Year 12 Chemistry core experiments, Spanish conversation, and a qualification in finance, to name a few. An especially impactful one is Twinkle Orbyts, a scheme with UCL, that inspires students in Physics and coding.
Find out about some of our partnerships
SHINE
A ‘Reach for the Stars’ SHINE programme for Year 4 pupils who may be struggling at home or at school starts the scheme off, with girls and boys coming in on Saturdays for 10 weeks in the Spring term. They are buddied up with a Year 11 or Sixth Form mentor as they explore the moon using VR headsets, or reach for the Stars via dance.
STRIVE
The Year 5 and 6 programmes happen on a Thursday afternoon over 15 weeks. Year 5 STRIVE works with 50 high-achieving pupil premium students, to provide mentorship and opportunities beyond the curriculum via Coding, Science, English and Maths and to build confidence in these children as they look towards secondary school.
THRIVE
The Year 6 THRIVE programme welcomes 130 students weekly to take part in a carousel of activities which explore and address the potential anxieties of moving into secondary school. Raising self-confidence, self-efficacy and self-esteem are the aims. Wimbledon Y11 & Y12 students act as mentors.
Speak Up! Year 6
‘Speak Up! Year 6’ is an exciting public speaking programme for Year 6 students from Wimbledon High Junior School and 12 partner primary schools from across the maintained and independent sectors. Now in its second year, ‘Speak Up!’ is all about pupils sharing their views, learning from each other’s differences, and building vital communication skills that will help with academic and personal development.
Led by Wimbledon High Junior School, it is funded by the contributions of partner schools from the independent sector, covering all costs for maintained schools. Training is delivered in partnership with Speakers Trust, the UK’s leading public speaking training charity.
Each year, over 500 Year 6 pupils and their teachers take part in the Speak Up partnership. Teachers receive a day’s training and deliver a series of prepared workshops to their Year 6 pupils. During the workshops, the pupils develop the core skills of public speaking and prepare a speech on the topic of their choice.
The top 5% of speakers are selected to represent their school at the Grand Final, delivering their speech in front of an audience of friends, family, and an expert judging panel – competing head-to-head to be crowned the Speak Up! Year 6 Champion.
Students finish these workshops with a strong sense of empowerment and with skills they can take with them to their next stages of education.
You can view the ‘Speak Up! Year 6’ website here.
Out of the Classroom and Into the Woods
We partner with Granard Primary School on an EYFS focused-project that provides space for team-teaching between EYFS practitioners and children from two different settings. The children work together to solve simple problems and apply the burgeoning skills of working and playing cooperatively with others in the beautiful open spaces of Wimbledon Common.
Out of this World Space Day
Each year, Year 5 from WHS are joined by Year 5 from West Wimbledon Primary to take part in Out of this World Space Day. This day consists of pupils from both schools working together to tackle space related challenges. They learn about astronauts and space travel challenges over the years as well as investigating heat shields, waste in space, space health and fitness and looking around the International Space Station using virtual reality headsets. This day has taken place for several years now and is a highlight of the Earth and Space topics at both schools.
Orbyts
Physics students in Year 10 and Year 12 work with students from our partner school Ricards Lodge on this University College London project looking at exoplanets.