The Young Mayor and Deputy are part of Bewdley Town Council and lead the Bewdley Youth Forum, a driving force for development in the school. They are at the core of a diverse array of project work: Historical research with Bewdley Civic Society; Music at St. George’s Hall, Bewdley’s Festivals and All Saints’ Church; our Rotary Photography Competition, to name a few. The importance of Bewdley Town to the school cannot be measured and the two are interwoven.

As a reflection of this, the school has recently created a formal partnership through The Bewdley School Foundation, which partners the school with Bewdley Festival and Bewdley Civic Society. The purpose of the Foundation is to hold the land and buildings in trust for the school, with a wider brief of developing the site and the school infrastructure, for the benefit of both the school and the community.

Community Action in year 10 cements these partnerships, fuelling our growing links with our business community. The Gatsby benchmarks shape our career planning, with our membership of Hereford and Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce forming an important platform for our work. Our many business partners make immeasurable contributions to our students’ curriculum experiences, ensuring they are practically informed and employability skills are keenly understood.

Beyond school we work closely with many university partners. Sixth Form students are currently partnering the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Birmingham, in a Royal Society ‘Tomorrow’s climate scientists’ project. This involves an exciting funded project to use drones to produce a 3D map of the school site, in order to evaluate areas of greatest flood risk. This is a Discovery Society project, which also holds partnerships with the Abberley and Malvern Hills Geopark Forum and Operation Wallacea.

We partner the University of Worcester in training teachers and in educational research. Educational partnerships span the globe and bring our curriculum to life. Our international curriculum has brought the International Schools Foundation Level Award in its first year. The British Council has facilitated partnership work with many schools, supported by a comprehensive international infrastructure.

Our students join us from primary schools from across the region. The majority join us from Bewdley, St Anne’s CE, Far Forest Lea Memorial CE and Upper Arley C of E Primary Schools. Our partnership with these schools have involved regular Head Teacher meetings, joint training and a comprehensive transition programme. Whilst we work in close partnership with these four key schools, we liaise closely with every school from which children come to join us.