We are responsible for creating a reciprocal partnership of likeminded schools in the area to support school improvement activity within the system.
Affinity teaching school alliance was established by Kibworth CE Primary School in 2012, as a cohort 1 alliance. We are responsible for creating a reciprocal partnership of likeminded schools in the area to support school improvement activity within the system.
We currently are formally partnered to 27 schools comprising of 21 Primary, 4 Secondary and 2 Special Schools, from across Leicestershire, Leicester City and Rutland who work together to develop effective school improvement activity. We pride ourselves on being a ‘purposeful school improvement partnership’ and focus our work on the DFE defined focus areas including:
Since becoming a lead Teaching School in 2012 Kibworth CE has worked proactively to build a large, collaborative partnership of schools. Affinity TSA has facilitated the release of key leaders in order to build a successful alliance of partners who are committed to ensuring that children in our schools get the very best educational opportunities.
Since 2012 we have worked with over 90 schools and have formed close relationships with the 3 Local Authorities (Leicester, Leicestershire & Rutland), and 11 local partner TSAs. We are active partners of our local Maths Hub, Leicestershire TSA Network, HEIs and our closest working partnership is Inspiring Leaders, who lead on NPQ programmes in the region. We have a track record of supporting school improvement and since 2012 our school, TSA and MAT, has successfully supported over 20 schools to become Good or better schools from previously worse grading’s, through deploying NLEs, SLEs and expertise across the alliance. We lead the 3 Counties MAT CEOs network with 30 MATs attending termly.
In 2018.19 Affinity TSA led a £489k SSIF project focusing improving Reading Outcomes for 41 Primary schools in Leicester City and Leicestershire. The project enabled schools to join research informed, structured CPDL and school improvement activities. Our evaluation partners including the DFE and Kyra Research School praised by our work it’s organisation, focus on outcomes and impact on staff and pupil outcomes. Over 3500 teachers/schools have accessed the legacy resources produced and shared here and this project has led to the establishment the English Research Partnership committed to improving literacy outcomes across the area.
Affinity TSA has a number of key designations and wider partnerships it connects to advance our work which include
In 2020 we were designated as one of the first 19 Schools in England to become a lead EdTech Demonstrator School.
The Ed Tech Demonstrator Programme includes a network of schools and colleges across England who exhibit effective practice in the use of technology. The programme is designed to boost peer-to-peer support on the effective use of technology and has now been tailored to help schools and colleges provide education remotely. The reach of this programme will be expanded over the coming weeks.
As a demonstrator school we provide professional development, focussed on supporting the effective delivery of remote teaching practices to schools and colleges across the country.
For more information about how we could support your school please visit:
In 2020 we were appointed as one of 9 Primary PE specialist schools in order to support schools in the area to offer the highest quality PE provision for their pupils. As a part of our responsibility we will offer schools support with:
More information about our support can be found in our school improvement section (here)
In 2014 we were designated as a provider of ITT by the Department for Education based upon our track record of providing high quality support for teachers in their training year and first years of teaching. We established Inspiring Leaders Teachers Training SCITT (LINK to page) with our partners at the Flying High Partnership and have trained over 200 Primary trainees since 2015. In 2017 we are judged by Ofsted as an Outstanding Provider and have recently expanded our work to include Secondary Teacher Training with the Redhill Teaching School Alliance. We work closely with Nottingham Trent University and the University of Leicester to award PGCE for our trainees and are recognised as a great place to train to teach by our trainees and schools.
“The training programme is first class. Specialists, including Headteachers, senior leaders and specialist leaders of education (SLEs), are involved in the delivery. Trainees gain a multiplicity of opportunities to develop as practitioners, including in a range of differing, often challenging, school contexts. Trainees and NQTs said that their training was thorough and of extremely high quality.” (Ofsted, 2017).
We are founding partners of the Inspiring leaders partnership, established in 2012 as a licensed provider of the National Professional Qualifications in School Leadership. We form part of a wider partnership of Trusts and Teaching Schools consisting of over 320 Primary, Special and Secondary Schools who lead the partnership and provide the expertise and capacity to lead on our Outstanding delivery. Participants can access a collaborative, comprehensive and effective route into leadership and unprecedented levels of support, expertise and opportunities.
Programme are offered at a discount to all Affinity TSA Members and many of our school leaders take the opportunity to become trained facilitators with Inspiring Leaders to ensure that our developing leaders are learning from the best.
More details about Inspiring Leaders can be found here http://inspiringleaderstoday.com/index.php
We are founding partners of the English Research Partnership which was formed in 2020 where we work alongside other local TSAs, MATS, LAs from the area who are passionately committed to improving literacy outcomes for all learners. Over the past 6 years we have been working together to run numerous literacy initiatives across the area to drive up standards including DFE funded projects and collaborative learning projects. Over the past year we have formalised this partnership with plan of establishing a more visible group of like-minded colleagues to help support local teachers and schools to continue our improvements.
