There are a range of different approaches to working in partnership or working collaboratively in the education communities, from informal arrangements between curriculum teams and heads of science in local schools to highly sophisticated collaborative delivery where partnerships have contractual arrangements with a range of providers. Some of these more formal partnerships take the form of 'hard' federations and involve staffing, funding, transport and development of new systems across several organisations. Different approaches have been identified for urban, suburban and rural environments.

Local school (or college) cluster

This involves sharing delivery of the curriculum by sharing teaching, use of peripatetic teachers, sharing students, sharing resources/equipment, organising joint visits, mentoring, buddying, and joint planning and delivery of staff development. A school partnership in Slough, which consists of a grammar school and two 11-16 schools, has been set up for KS5 teaching. All three schools are within walking distance of each other, so that travel times and delays are minimal. Of the five science staff, one is a physicist and the rest are biologists. Through the consortia students have access to a wider range of AS science units thus extending the KS5 science curriculum. This model could be expanded to provide a wider KS4 science curriculum. See Case study 1.

Local and regional networks

Networks provide opportunities for teachers and managers to meet to discuss common issues of management, teaching and learning. They enable members to collaborate on resource development, common projects or to share staff development opportunities. Some networks have developed through support from national bodies such as SLC, IoP, IoB, and RSC (see Appendix 5 for web addresses) whereas others have evolved organically in response to local need. The flexible models of networks funded and managed by national bodies allow local schools to work with each other as well as HE institutions.
See Case study 2.

E-learning, virtual learning environments (VLEs), interactive web-enabled provision, video-conferencing and the use of IT in collaboration.
Some communities have developed the use of technology to enable sharing resources within and across institutions, managing learning, assessment and monitoring and tracking student performance. These approaches are particularly relevant to rural communities where travel is difficult.
The use of electronic local area prospectuses has opened up access for students and parents to information on the courses available and progression routes.
See Case studies 6 and 7.

Partnerships with higher education and employers
Many HE institutions and employers are keen to engage with schools – to support and update teachers, offer CPD and provide students with an insight into science in research and the world of work.
Many science teachers in schools have links and affiliations with local and regional contacts in science related industries and research.
There are also many national arrangements that teachers can tap into such as:

• STEMNET helps schools and colleges access science, technology engineering and mathematics activities and experiences. It links businesses and other organisations that employ STEM-educated people with schools and colleges for young people to get a clear idea of the diverse and exciting range of careers open to them. See www.stemnet.org.uk
• SETPOINT contract holders offer information on national, regional and local initiatives that are available to schools in all areas of STEM education and can direct schools towards appropriate programmes that enhance science teaching and learning.

Research Councils UK
The Research Councils fund a variety of activities, resources and grant schemes. These are developed for teachers and others delivering science, technology, engineering and maths in schools. See www.RCUK.ac.uk/SIS
Some examples of these activities are:

• Working with the research councils, ASE have put all their e-resources onto www.schoolscience.co.uk The site provides an enormous range of materials to enhance the science curriculum, showing teachers and students how what they have learnt in the classroom relates to the real world.
• Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) has laboratories at Daresbury in Cheshire, Rutherford Appleton (RAL) in Oxfordshire and the UK Astronomy Technology Centre at the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh. The laboratories offer schools a fantastic opportunity to interact with real scientists and real large-scale scientific experimental facilities. All the UK facilities have programmes of school visits, open days, special events and work experience and provide strong programmes of learning support and teacher CPD. See www.scitech.ac.uk
  See Case study 10.

Working with scientists
There are several schemes that enable teachers and students to work directly with scientists, for example Researchers in Residence and the Science and Engineering Ambassadors scheme.
Working directly with ‘real scientists’, whether in school or in their place of work, gives students a picture of what scientists actually do and shows them as people with personalities and interests.
Students begin to see that science is a social activity in which communication is vital and which can involve travel to exotic places! They also experience the enthusiasm of practising scientists for their work and this is very often infectious.
See Case studies 11, 12 and 13.

Federations

The DCSF defines 'hard' federations, which have formal and binding commitments in two different ways:

• the definition as invoked in the 2002 Education Act, which allows for the creation of a single governing body or a joint governing body committee across two or more schools from September 2003 onwards
• a group of schools with a formal (ie written) agreement to work together to raise standards, promote inclusion, find new ways of approaching teaching and learning and build capacity between schools in a coherent manner. This will be brought about in part through structural changes in leadership and management, in many instances through making use of the joint governance arrangements invoked in the 2002 Education Act.

Details of regulations, definitions and examples of good practice in developing federations are available at www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/federations/ and www.innovation-unit.co.uk/collaboration/.

Schools need to take a measured and staged approach to cooperation and collaboration to ensure its long-term impact and success.

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