Outreach - Blue Coat School

BCS Outreach

The original Blue Coat School, built on the eastern side of the churchyard surrounding St. Philip’s Cathedral, dated from 1722 and its purpose was to educate children aged nine to fourteen from poor families within the city. Whilst the school has evolved since those early days and we are now a fee-paying independent school, we remain committed to educating children from all backgrounds and the BCS Outreach Programme is just one way in which we fulfil this ambition.

Pupils also engage with the local community to use their skills and passions to enhance their local area from singing to litter picking.

A teacher shows a group of pupils how to use video editing software on Apple iMacs during an enrichment day with a partner school.

Enrichment Days

The Blue Coat School provide Enrichment Days across a range of subjects including Science, ICT, French, Creative Arts and Sport.

The programme is aimed at Schools in Birmingham which have a high proportion of pupils who are eligible for Pupil Premium funding.

Our subject leaders will design a bespoke programme for each school which meets their curriculum aims and fulfil passions the children cannot access within their own setting making an impressionable, positive difference on the children.

700

Pupils from more than 10 schools have experienced an enrichment day at The Blue Coat School since 2021

100%

of visiting staff said they would recommend the enrichment days to another school

95%

of the children said that they would like to pursue further opportunities in the subject that they took part in

Thank you so much for arranging these opportunities for us and to the staff who have worked so hard to make them such memorable days. The link we have set up has really benefited the children and provided them with experiences and access to resources that they wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to use.

– Thornton Primary School

Three girls in Blue Coat School uniform using a litter picker in a woodland area during a community litter picking project.

Community Projects

The Blue Coat School is fortunately located in a diversity and thriving community, in between Edgbaston and Harborne.

The School encourages pupils to engage with community projects to share their skills. Recent projects include:

The school collaborated with The Harborne Litter Pickers and collected four bags full of rubbish.
Pupils cleared and planted flowers along a 100-metre stretch of bank on the Harborne Walkway.

Choral Community

Singing is an integral part of life at BCS so we love to share this with our local community.

The Chapel Choir perform at St Philip’s Cathedral in Birmingham City Centre at numerous events throughout the year. The Senior Choir have a busy festive season with performances at local care homes and the University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust. The Senior Choir have also visited local care homes to sing to residents.

The BCS Chapel Choir sing an array of Christmas carols for the people of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

Partnership with Birmingham Diocesan Multi-Academy Trust

In January 2023, Mrs Kavanagh-Finch took on the role of Teaching and Learning Advisor working with Birmingham Diocesan Multi-Academy Trust.She works in the Trust’s high priority schools, some of which are located in areas with high levels of deprivation.

Working with the School Improvement Team, Mrs. Kavanagh Finch aids strategic planning to provide support to senior leaders and middle leaders, by working on curriculum developments, devising and delivering training packages and implementing evaluation processes.

A key development has been a bespoke coaching and mentoring programme to support many of the Trust’s Early Career Teachers (ECTs). This package champions ECTs to build confidence, knowledge and skills, with a good understanding of the pedagogies in which they engage, through an in-depth exploration of the Early Career Framework; this ensures these newly qualified practitioners have the tools to meet the diverse needs of the pupils they serve.

The partnership schools have seen impressive developments including improved Ofsted inspections, successful ECT inductions and the successful completion of a Teacher Apprenticeship.

The Blue Coat School funds this role as part of our outreach and community work to improve education beyond The Blue Coat School’s grounds, working with schools in Birmingham and North Warwickshire.

Contact Us

If you would like to find out more about The Blue Coat School’s outreach work, contact Mr Baden Hulbert, Outreach Coordinator.