Schoolcommunity partnerships

Schoolcommunity

partnerships

The school actively seeks ways to enhance student learning and wellbeing by
partnering with parents and families, other education and training institutions,
local businesses and community organisations. Parents and families are recognised
as integral members of the school community and partners in their children’s
education. Partnerships are strategically established to address identified
student needs and operate by providing access to experiences, support and
intellectual and/or physical resources not available within the school. All partners
are committed to the common purposes and goals of partnership activities.
Procedures are in place to ensure effective communications and to monitor and
evaluate the intended impacts of the school’s partnerships.
The assessment of this domain includes
consideration of the extent to which:
§§ the school builds partnerships with
parents, families, local businesses and
community organisations (including
allied health, family support, counselling
and rehabilitation services) to improve
opportunities and outcomes for students;
§§ the school identifies potential community
partners on the basis of their capacity
to contribute to improved student
achievement and/or wellbeing;
§§ identified partners are involved in
collaborative planning and are committed
to the purposes and objectives of the
partnership;
§§ the senior leadership teams in the partner
organisations are involved, committed
and play a role in achieving staff
commitment and participation within
their organisations;
§§ there is clarity around partner roles and
responsibilities;
§§ major partnership decisions are made
collaboratively and partnership activities
are designed to make best use of partners’
expertise;
§§ goals, progress and achievements are
systematically and regularly monitored
and refined as required;
§§ adequate resources are committed to
ensure the effectiveness and success of
partnerships;
§§ the school collects evidence to evaluate
whether partnerships are having their
intended impact in improving outcomes
for students; and
§§ the school’s partnerships are sustainable
and have become an accepted part of the
culture of the school community and
partner organisations.

Outstanding

The school leadership team makes deliberate and strategic use of partnerships with families, local businesses and
community organisations to access intellectual, physical and/or other resources not available within the school for the
purposes of improving student outcomes. There is a range of currently operating partnerships, each carefully planned
and designed to enhance student outcomes (for example, to broaden student knowledge, build new skills, develop
more positive attitudes, increase engagement levels, create applied learning opportunities for students, or facilitate
successful transitions to work or further education or training).
Each partnership has been established in response to an identified need. Considerable effort has been put into
understanding students’ needs, identifying appropriate partners to address those needs, planning the details of
partnership programs and clarifying partner roles and responsibilities.
Careful consideration has been given to the benefits of the partnership to each participating partner. Explicit
processes are in place to ensure ongoing and effective communication – sometimes across networks of partners – and
there are documented plans for monitoring and reviewing the effectiveness of each partnership.
The school’s partnerships are being successfully implemented and appear to be adequately resourced and sustainable.
There is clear evidence that partnerships are having their intended impact.
High
The school has established one or more partnerships with families, local businesses and/or community organisations
with the express purpose of improving outcomes for students. Partnerships have generally been initiated by the senior
leadership team and have their support.
Each partnership brings staff and students of the school together with external partners such as families, other
education or training institutions, local businesses and/or community organisations. All partners have a high level of
understanding of, and commitment to, the purposes of the partnership and clear objectives have been set, expressed in
terms of improved outcomes for students.
Attention has been given to communication and to the sharing of experiences within the partnership; however, there
may be no formal plan for reviewing the partnership’s outcomes and effectiveness.
There is evidence that the school’s partnerships are being implemented as intended. However, there may be limited
evidence of improved student outcomes as a result of partnership activities – possibly because there has been insufficient
time for them to demonstrate an effect.
Medium
The school has external ‘partnerships’, but rather than being built around a coherent, jointly planned program of
activities to improve outcomes for students, these ‘partnerships’ tend to be mutually convenient arrangements (eg,
exchanges of expertise or the sharing of facilities between institutions or organisations). Such ‘partnerships’ often are
established by individual members of staff and have limited whole-school support or engagement.
The student needs that partnerships are designed to address may not be made explicit and, rather than being carefully
planned, individual partnerships tend to be opportunistic in nature. Communications between partners are largely
unplanned and infrequent.
No plans exist to systematically review the effectiveness of partnerships, which typically are very dependent on the efforts
of a small number of individuals and so have limited sustainability.

Schoolcommunity
partnerships

Low

There is no evidence of planned, deliberate partnerships with other institutions or organisations. Contacts with families,
other education and training institutions, local businesses and community organisations, when they occur, are limited
to isolated events. Although references may be made to ‘partnerships’, these partnerships are not based on collaboratively
planned programs of activities with clear goals, roles and responsibilities.