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Partner State Schools
Our partnership work with local schools is called Chrysalis.
Our Chrysalis Partnership work started in 2008 as a Year 12 summer school with twelve state schools, mostly in Haringey. It has grown to become a year-round programme delivering specialist and inspiring academic projects and masterclasses to pupils from primary to sixth form in over 50 partner state schools.
Our mission is “to inspire and support pupils of any age to pursue academic subjects at the next level, culminating in applications to Russell Group universities” through extension and robust academic provision.
We aim to ensure that our Chrysalis projects meet four key criteria: impact, sustainability, tackling disadvantage and mutuality.
'Few independent schools can match Highgate’s efforts to promote social mobility' Times and Sunday Times Parent Power 2020
'There is mutual benefit for the pupils who learn about important issues, and develop personally' Community Partnerships Director
LAET was founded in September 2017, following the successful model of the LAE in Stratford (LAES is also one of Highgate’s partner schools). Highgate serves as the principal education sponsor, working alongside Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, LAET’s principal business sponsor.
The London Academy of Excellence Tottenham is a sixth form free school and is Highgate’s flagship school partner. It provides an academically rigorous sixth form education to children in the Tottenham area, in response to an identified need for improved post-16 education in the borough.
Highgate provides governance and has an annual set of teachers who are employed by Highgate and seconded to teach full, or part-time at LAET. In the 2022-23 academic year 15 teachers, and 3 non-teaching Highgate staff members are officially seconded to LAET with other meaningful staff resources deployed throughout the year, i.e., for CPD training and joint planning.
July 2022 saw the return of Highgate’s Partnership Summer Schools for Years 4 and 5. Over 130 pupils from nine primary schools attended lessons in subjects including British Sign Language, Drama, Science, Maths and Design Technology & Engineering. Participants in Year 5 worked with members of the SpEx Department in a number of sports including Fives, Hockey, Orienteering and Street Dance.
Years 10 and 12 will enjoy a Summer School later on in August. This will include similar content to our Summer School of 2021 with academically rigorous tutorials alongside Higher Education talks from universities and careers workshops. For those entering Year 13, there will be added focus on applying to university. Through these sessions, we hope that more participants will apply to and secure places at Russell Group universities including Oxbridge, reducing underrepresentation of students from the state sector.
—Year 5 Summer School Pupil, 2022
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Partner State Schools
14,000
Hours spent on partnership work by Highgate teachers and the Chrysalis team
We build university access into all of our Chrysalis programmes. In addition,
Our Science partnership projects are highly varied and are designed to generate enthusiasm and result in pupils feeling empowered to engage with Sciences at the next level.