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RGS Partnerships

As a former maintained grammar school and now as a leading independent school in the heart of Guildford, we firmly believe in serving our community and therefore, over the years the RGS has cultivated significant external relationships with other local, national and international organisations in order to engage in meaningful partnership and outreach activities.

In our local community, the RGS is an associate member of the Guildford Educational Partnership (GEP), a member of the Guildford 11-19 Partnership and engaged with large number of primary and secondary schools in the wider Guildford area via significant core and miscellaneous outreach activities. Nationally, the RGS contributes to the Schools Together Group and works with other HMC schools and the Independent Schools Council regarding partnership working. Internationally, the RGS has forged sustainable links over the past decade with schools and communities in Nepal and Cambodia. Also, in recent years, the RGS Guildford International (RGSGI) Schools in Qatar (RGSGQ), Nanjing, China (RGSGNJ), Dubai (RGSGD) and openining in September 2023 Muscat (RGSGM) are engendering global links.

More details about each of these partnerships can be found below.

The school values of Service, Respect and Inclusivity are the foundations all of our partnership and outreach activity. We are extremely proud of all we have achieved via our reciprocal engagements with our partners, yet continue to seek and be open to new sustainable partnerships and connections for the benefit of all.

Enquiring Teachers’ Programme

Teachers from RGS, Epsom College, City of London Freemen’s and schools within Guildford Education Partnership have presented research which was carried out under the auspices of the Enquiring Teachers’ Programme.

Sharing of good practice is central to a successful school and our involvement in this programme is a testament to the quality of teaching and learning going on at the RGS.

The Guildford Educational Partnership

The RGS is an associate member of the GEP and as such engages with the three secondary and four primary schools in the trust. The Enquiring Teachers Programme is a collaborative professional development programme which enables staff at any of our schools to undertake a year-long research enquiry with coaching provided by Enquiring Schools leading to publication and sharing of research findings.

RGS staff work with and support staff at Kings College Guildford in their journey of improvement. In addition to other links, RGS Physics staff provide weekly teaching for the most able Kings GCSE Science pupils while the Maths staff and RGS Sixth Form students provide maths enrichment classes during Period 8 activities for talented Year 9 Kings College pupils, and the English department and Library provide support for author visits and guidance inspiring able pupils. Other staff regularly teach at GEP schools such as the MFL department supporting French teaching at Sandfield Primary School and the Classics department providing Latin teaching at Boxgrove Primary School. There are many other engagements with the GEP schools and we are continually looking to strengthen and widen our cooperation.

The Guildford 11-19 Partnership

The RGS is currently the only independent school to be a part of the Guildford 11-19 Partnership – a group including all of the maintained sector schools plus Guildford College and the University of Surrey. This group cooperates to ensure that the most vulnerable pupils receive appropriate education, provide cross Guildford networks for staff and also promote joint educational experiences such as the IMAG programme.

The Tudor Project

Our core outreach activities are the Tudor Project, the RGS String Scheme and the RGS Masterclasses which have all now been running for the benefit of local primary pupils for more than a decade. Over the course of two terms, the Tudor Project invites 600 Year 4 or 5 pupils from eight local schools who are studying the Tudors to spend a day at the RGS in immersive activities for Tudor history, music, art and weapons and concludes with pupils making a movie of their day.

The RGS String Scheme

The RGS String Scheme supported by our generous sponsors (The Investec International Music Festival, the Community Foundation for SurreySouthern Pro Musica and the Mila Charity) teaches every pupil in Year 5 at Boxgrove, Sandfield and St Thomas of Canterbury Primary Schools to play the violin or cello for a year. In addition the RGS runs a weekly string orchestra, ‘Strictly Strings’, for those who continue to play and arranges concerts in which all Strings Scheme participants perform. This scheme currently reaches more than 250 pupils each week and more can be read about this nationally recognised scheme in the Schools Together Group ‘All together now’ publication.

RGS Masterclasses

Every November the RGS opens its doors to over 120 Year 6 pupils from over 35 different primary schools for four consecutive Saturday morning Masterclasses in six strands: Science, Technology, Maths, Modern Foreign Languages (Chinese, Russian, Japanese and German), Creative Arts (Drama, Art, Music, creative writing), and Humanities (Geography, History, Politics and Philosophy). As well as being inspiring, educational and fun, the Masterclasses also help the boys and girls involved to develop confidence in an unfamiliar situation and to look forward to their transition to secondary school.

Volunteering

In addition to helping with RGS Masterclasses, RGS boys can also volunteer their time and talents to serve our local community during Period 8 and General Studies. Each week Sixth Form boys coach sport, run a chess club, teach maths and deliver Technology lessons to local primary school pupils. They provide maths enhancement sessions for Kings College pupils and visit Abbots Hospital to document residents’ stories. They also help at a long list of events to which we invite students from the wider Guildford area such as the Careers Convention and seminars, Economic Speakers Day, society lectures, author visits, drama performances, coding events and engineering competitions to name a few.

International Links

Our International Links continue to forge and develop meaningful relationships which increase our boys’ understanding and experience of the world. Through the Nepal Partnership which originated from involvement with the Alexander Ewart Memorial Fund, and recently in partnership with Tormead School, we are committed to supporting two schools in Besisahar in the Lamjung District of Nepal. In addition to fundraising improving facilities, staff exchanges over the past decade have served to improve teaching pedagogy and school management. Recently, the partnership blossomed to include annual pupil expeditions and also enables a few Nepali pupils to visit Guildford.

Our expeditions to Cambodia and East Africa support the work of educational charities to promote education in rural areas and enable our boys to visit, teach and work in these less developed communities. Though these expedition and partnerships are challenging and ambitious, they are often one of the highlights of students’ memories of their school days: the camaraderie, the personal challenge and the enrichment mean the value of such experiences is an intrinsic part of their development.