Partnership & Outreach
Beyond the Classroom
St Mark’s Partnership
Roedean has worked closely with St Mark’s Primary School in Brighton since 2016, in a partnership of mutual benefit in a range of different ways, including weekly enrichment at Roedean, lunchtime activities every Wednesday, and the building of a library from scratch.
Each of the Year 4-6 cohorts comes to Roedean on Thursdays for a term each of sporting and academic enrichment, after which they stay for lunch. They enjoy our sporting facilities, as well as discrete academic lessons, taught by Roedean staff, which are designed to spark the pupils’ curiosity. The Joint Head of Maths also goes to St Mark’s once a week to work with the Gifted and Talented pupils in Year 6.
Year 9 students travel to St Mark’s once a week to act as Reading Buddies, listening to the children read in a safe and supportive environment. At the same time, pupils for whom English is not their first language are paired where possible with Language Buddies of the same background from Roedean, giving them a chance to chat in their own language and help with any communication issues.
“It’s inspirational and enjoyable to support young children who need our help. It has made me think differently about how I interact with young people.”
— Isla (Yr9) —
Roedean Academy
The aim of the Academy is to bring together like-minded students with high aspirations from the local area, to debate and discuss, as a preparation for Sixth Form study. About 120 students from 7 local state schools come to the School on a weekly basis to join with Roedean girls for an enrichment programme which lasts eight weeks in the Spring term, as well attending other activities in the Autumn and Summer terms. In each session, the students have a choice of 5-6 supra-curricular modules, offered by Roedean staff, including topics about languages, science, classics, history, and politics. They also present academic papers to an audience of their peers, having undertaken research independently over the course of the year.
Community Action Plan (CAP)
Every student in Year 12 takes part in Roedean’s Community Action Programme on Wednesday afternoons. Not only does this help them to develop skills which will be valuable beyond School, but it ensures that our students are fully embedded in the local community, doing what they can to effect positive change.
So that the programme can have the greatest impact, there are twelve activities with a range of partners, from which the students can choose the one which most suits their interests and skills. Examples include:
- BSL in the Community
- Junior Roedean Academy
- Rockinghorse and Royal Alex Children’s Hospital
- Community Cooking
- Sports’ Leaders
- St Mark’s TA Support and Choir
Junior Roedean Academy
The Junior Roedean Academy is one of the twelve strands within CAP, and it has been running for 2 years. It brings 140 children from three or four local state primaries to Roedean for 90 minutes of academic enrichment on Wednesdays for an 8-week block.
The Year 12 watch and learn how to teach a large class of primary children, and then take over the teaching themselves, sharing their passions with the children – the experience is an exciting learning opportunity for both parties!
“Pupils of all ages are socially aware, working effectively with others to solve problems and achieve common goals.”
— ISI 2021 —
Charity Overview
The Roedean community undertakes numerous activities to raise funds for causes, with each year group having a chosen charity. This year these charities include:
We also send food each week to our local partner charity, Off the Fence, which works with the homeless in Brighton.
Ukrainian Refugee Scholarships at Roedean
In response to the crisis, Roedean was keen to support refugees from Ukraine and 9 students who are living with host families locally have been awarded day places with 110% funding over two years.image
