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Partner Schools


Bottisham Village College

The College was opened in 1937 as the second of the Cambridgeshire village colleges; these schools were the brainchild of the then Director of Education, Henry Morris: his vision was to provide a good quality of education for local children, but also to provide adult classes for local adults in the evenings and at weekends. Morris also had a passion for the Arts, and the colleges served as the local picture house, hall and theatre too.We are still proud of the concept of the village college, and we do all that we can to live up to Morris’s ideals: anyone who visits the college in the evening will usually find the car-parks full and the corridors buzzing with adults on their way to study, sing, act or do some welding. Bottisham 'is an outstanding college, where a very strong ethos of community, high quality learning and aspirational academic achievement exists throughout. One student commented: “Bottisham is inspirational. The college helps individuals to shape well, giving us the confidence, determination and skills to succeed.” (Ofsted, 2012).

Read more about Bottisham here.


Dunmow Primary Consortium

Dunmow Primary Consortium is a group of rural primary schools, close to Stansted Airport in Essex, that have worked collaboratively, to provide CPD for their teachers, thus enhancing outcomes for their pupils. Recent examples of CPD include ‘Assessment for Learning’ with Shirley Clarke, ‘Talk for Writing’ with Pi Corbett and ‘Outstanding Teaching’ with Jonathon Bond. These initiatives have had a significant impact on the schools as evidenced in their OFSTED reports. The schools joined SUPER in the autumn term of 2013 in order to collaborate further in their research.


The Dunmow Consortium of schools has been involved in previous research, including the value of ‘talk partners’ and the theme of ‘closing the gap’ in our schools. As a consortium, we focused on how boys learn and the possibility of a gender gap and explored how we can raise the achievement for all pupils. The consortium undertook CPD focusing on how boys perform in Primary schools and this included working with Gary Wilson.


In the Autumn Term of 2016 we began work on a wide scale research project as part of our involvement with SUPER. Our research question is ‘How do we promote character, resilience & wellbeing in an educational climate of outcome accountability?’ We conducted a series of workshops designed to promote the pupils’ self-esteem and resilience by developing their problem solving and coping strategies. To measure the impact of the workshops the pupils completed self-efficacy questionnaire before and after the workshops. The activities included knot tying, origami, sketching, tower building, jelly and chopsticks and sewing. Each school piloted the workshops with a different year group. We adapted the workshop activities to meet the needs of the pupils involved.


Following this research, we have found that resilience does not necessarily correspond with ability. Whilst many children improved their resilience and began to benefit from its development across the curriculum, the least resilient children continued to struggle. This has raised further questions for us to investigate and we will be continuing our research this year.

Read more about our schools here:
Dunmow St Mary’s Primary
Felsted Primary
Great Dunmow Primary
Rodings Primary
Stebbing Primary




Impington Village College

Although only members of SUPER since 2009, Impington Village College (IVC) has a rich research history. Student consultation has long been an integral part of the IVC ethos. Over recent years several research projects have been carried out in this area. Since joining the SUPER partnership in 2009 a gradually increasing number of staff have been involved in practitioner research projects and have benefitted from the expert guidance of the University of Cambridge Faculty of Education. Research includes:

  • Morgan and Porter (2011) ‘Student researchers exploring teaching and learning: processes and issues’
  • A study of the factors influencing students’ decision making about post-16 education
  • Student engagement project
  • Does membership of a youth cult affect a young person’s attitude to learning?

Read more about Impington here.



Samuel Whitbread Academy

A member of the Bedfordshire East Schools Trust, and the Bedfordshire East Multi-Academy Trust, Samuel Whitbread serves the rural communities around the small market town of Shefford in Mid-Bedfordshire. As well as a popular and expanding comprehensive school with Specialist Engineering Status, it contains the BEST nursery school and facilities for adult education.

Read more about Samuel Whitbread here.



Soham Village College Academy

Soham Village College is a large mixed 11-16 academy serving the town of Soham and the surrounding area. A popular and oversubscribed school, it forms part of the Staploe trust along with two feeder primary schools. Soham achieved Academy status in April 2010 but has been part of the SUPER partnership for seven years, developing a shared history of educational research.

Read more about Soham here.