S.P.A Newsletter – November 2025
There’s only one way to start this newsletter: thank you for your continuing support. Thank you particularly for the warmth of your welcome when I visit your schools. I have been to 70 since January and hope that I’ll have been in over 100 (and an equal number of maintained and independent schools) by January 2026 – with 15 or more schools being visited on trips to the South East Coast and the North East early in the new year.
Since I last wrote we have enjoyed the most active Partnerships Week I can remember, we have held our Annual Conference (more of which below) and enjoyed ISC’s Celebrating Partnerships reception at the House of Commons. We have seen the launch of the Foundation for Education Development’s National Education Assembly, in which I hope S.P.A. and its members will play a notable part. We have also built on our work with the National Society for Education, introducing its Flourishing programme to more of our members and developing a bespoke programme for those responsible for partnerships
At our Conference I was able to open proceedings by noting that over the last nine months we have made progress in changing the S.P.A. from an independent school body, with some state school members, into a true cross-sector partnership organisation. I am predicting that we will have equal numbers of members from both sectors by the end of this academic year, and we are already reaping the benefits of having powerful advocates among leading MATS and other educational associations.
At the ISC reception in the House of Commons (courtesy of Damian Hinds MP), I was able to suggest that we are witnessing the maturation of partnership work. No longer are most partnership projects examples of ‘outreach’ or the result of simple one-off connections. They grow from sustained and strategically focussed collaborations and alliances. They are more likely to be emerging from partnerships of equals and focussed on support for those children in danger of being left behind in their specific school setting, often as a result of social or economic deprivation.
The major educational news since our last newsletter has been the publication of the long-anticipated Curriculum and Assessment Review (CAR). If all of its aspirations are to be realised there will need to be an encouragement of more collaborative working between schools in all settings.
I also feel the CAR has incentivised S.P.A.’s work as an honest broker between schools and third-party providers of excellent services; for example, in the promotion of the Arts (through Mission Accomplished’s New Generation Creatives), and in the defence of vulnerable subjects (in support of WoLLoW). That is, the CAR offers us opportunities to show the difference a national partnership organisation can make to the holistic education of all children.
Finally, my thanks to the S.P.A. team – Margaret, Janine, Louise and Sara – who are as keen to serve your partnerships needs as I am. Please call on us to support you in your excellent work. We are, indeed, stronger together.
Joe Spence. CEO, School Partnerships Alliance
