Forest at the forefront of Outreach and Partnerships

Forest has long taken a leading role in working with maintained sector schools to help the most disadvantaged achieve their aspirations and appointed a Director of Outreach in 2017 to widen and strengthen our networks.

The impact of partnerships between the state and independent sectors has been recognised by DfE and has recently been championed by Baroness Berridge of the Vale of Catmose, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for the School System.

The Independent Schools Council’s (ISC) Schools Together Group is a collaboration between Independent Schools that share partnerships and other initiatives with the maintained schools.  Forest is a regular and active contributor to this group and participates in a committee focuses on how best to measure and evaluate impact.

As one of the founding partners in The London Academy of Excellence Stratford (LAE) that was established in 2012 in one of the country’s most deprived boroughs, Forest also featured in Schools Together’ s Missing 2000 Report published last year which highlighted the success of the range of targeted support provided by LAE’s co-sponsor schools.

This report explores the comparison of nearly 6000 students born in 1991-2, some in disadvantaged homes and others in the top 20% of families in socio-economic terms that found that 2,000 students from disadvantaged backgrounds were not achieving their full potential at 18.

Fast forward to 2021 and 37 LAE Stratford students have been offered places at Oxford or Cambridge.  Forest is proud of its contribution to the drive to increase access to top universities for disadvantaged students.