Welcome to the BSP
Partners for Excellence – The BSP is an established network of Brent schools, who for many years have worked together collectively to share best practice and drive school improvement for the communities we serve. We are a not-for-profit schools owned company - led by schools, for schools, with schools. Our aim is to continually improve educational provision throughout our schools ensuring all children and young people flourish. We have grown as a collaboration, and now warmly welcome like-minded schools to join our partnership from other boroughs across London and beyond.
The BSP’s aim is for schools to set the agenda and for our School Improvement Specialists (SIS) to facilitate the work. Our SIS team is well diverse in knowing how to provide support, development and appropriate challenge at any level leading to real growth. Where appropriate, we try implementing an appreciative inquiry approach and build on the good work that is already happening in our schools. Our team is skilled at enabling Senior Teams to identify areas of strengths and areas for further development.
School-to-school support, peer moderation and working, participating in research and sharing improvement practices are areas the BSP would like to keep as a core focus within the partnership. This is based on feedback from our schools and leaders within the membership. The BSP Board recognises an area to develop even further across the partnership is to have all our schools’ confident in utilising research with development opportunities and collaborating in evidence-based practice.
You may buy into core packages where membership is then free of charge or you may purchase a membership to receive discounts. You can also decide to access our services and attend events as a non-member.
The BSP has additional services available, which include a highly-rated GDPR service and governance reviews. Further additional and bespoke services can be facilitated through the BSP and the school improvement specialists.
In whatever capacity you choose to engage with our partnership, we aim for everyone to find us welcoming, supportive and highly effective at adding value to your school improvement journey. Please get in touch if you would like more information, have any questions or would just like to have a conversation about how the partnership may support your school.
Beth Kobel
Strategic Lead
The BSP
Tel: 0203 829 4700
Our Packages and Services
School Improvement Specialists and School Support (Core Package A)
The BSP aims to ensure that every school in the partnership is “improving on their previous best” and achieving the best possible outcomes for all their pupils. Effective school improvement requires constant evaluation, review, challenge, strategy-planning and implementation. An honest, Reliable and objective assessment from an external person can be an incredibly valuable part of this process.
Successful schools are run by governors, headteachers and management teams who are aware of their strengths and areas for development. Of equal importance is a clear vision and direction to which everyone subscribes. Schools with challenging goals, high expectations and excellent standards are well prepared for the various demands placed upon them. Our team of School Improvement Specialists work with Headteachers and Leadership (including governors) to enrich the educational provision in our schools.
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Our SIS team can support in many ways:
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School health check
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Review with specific focus
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Leadership support and continual improvement
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Recruitment or headteacher performance reviews
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Policy reviews and implementation.
Senior Leadership Networking and Development (Core Package B)
We realise how demanding leading a school in today’s climate is and the pressure on the senior teams, including governors. Staying up to date with a moving landscape and ensuring continual school improvement is no easy task. Therefore, we aim to provide support, networking and development that will alleviate pressure from the Senior Leaders as well as make them most effective in their roles.
We provide the following:
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Weekly briefing papers on national policy updates
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Coaching and mentoring, shadowing programmes
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Leadership seminars for Governors, Headteachers, Deputy Headteachers, Assistant Headteachers, and SENDCOs.
Middle Leaders Network and CPD programmes (Core Package C)
Middle leaders need to be able to come together to see what practice is taking place across other schools. This networking and CPD is vital for a middle leaders role. We also realise that secondary schools tend to use Networks Meetings based around subject and Exam Boards. Therefore this package is tailored to EYFS, KS1 and KS2.
Every term we cary out a Network and CPD meeting for leaders in the areas or subjects listed below. Our Network and CPD meeting will have some didactic input for CPD, sharing of good practice, scrutiny of pupil work and appropriate policy/subject updates. Our Network and CPD meetings are half-day events and they are face to face hosted by one of our member schools. The only exception is Computing, which is a full-day event. We carry out these termly events in the following subjects: Assessment; EYFS; English; Maths; Science; Computing; History; Geography; MFL.
​Peer Review Programme
This programme is for Headteachers only and shaped by the Headteachers. Our Peer Review Programme includes a full day of training and networking on the agreed Peer Review Process. Each Headteacher joins a triad of schools and hosts a Peer Review at their home school led by the BSP SIS allocated to the triad. Headteachers are then able to take part in two full days of external Peer Reviews.
Other Bespoke School Improvement Services
Within our website you will find a variety of Bespoke School Improvement Services. Some examples are listed below. These services can be bought as non-members or at a discounted rate for schools with BSP membership. Please get in touch if you would like more information, have any questions on specific ideas or needs for your school or would just like to have a conversation about how we can tailor support.
Examples of bespoke services:
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Headteachers’ performance review
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Governance reviews, bespoke training
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Leadership training
​General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Service
As part of their statutory duties and obligations as Data Controllers and public authorities, Schools are required to designate a Data Protection Officer (DPO) in order to comply with the GDPR and the DPA 2018. A school may designate an internal DPO from existing staff, or designate an external DPO to act for a group of schools. The DPO is responsible for managing compliance with the school’s Data Protection Policy. The BSP offers an overarching Data Protection service to help schools fulfil their duties and obligations as Data Controller.
A key part of this service is the designation of a named Data Protection Officer (DPO) for the school who is:
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the notified individual to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) and published within a public register
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the named individual for direct contact by Data Subjects
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the main contact with the ICO to support communications regarding all complaints and breaches.
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Click here to visit our GDPR page.
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As a member of the BSP, you will also be able to participant in a School Visit Programme we are putting together this year. The intention is to design a programme that will provide an opportunity for Learning visits to take place in host schools. We are hoping to keep this at no additional charge. However, this programme will be dependant on availability and local context.
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Other bespoke courses or conferences not included here that arise throughout the year will be charged at a minimal cost for our members. For example: Preparing for the Ofsted Phone Call or Monitoring Made Meaningful. These events will be advertised as ‘chargeable events’ which will include the cost in it’s advertising.