Best Schools - £200k fund to encourage partnerships with private schools and universities

A new £200,000 fund will be announced today to help state schools, private schools and universities create or expand partnerships – but recipients will have to stump up some of their own cash.

Schools and universities can bid for up to £20,000 to build partnerships, but the Department for Education said any bid of over £5,000 will have to match the funding with their own money.

Academies minister Lord Agnew is set to announce the fund at the Schools Together annual conference later today. It comes after the DfE published guidance about partnerships in November to encourage more providers to work together.

The government considered forcing universities and private schools to work with state schools in 2016, but these plans were eventually shelved in favour of a more collaborative approach.

The Independent Schools Council must publish details of partnerships between its members and state schools. Its report showed 1,142 independent schools are in partnerships, with the most common collaboration being sharing sports facilities – including swimming pools and tennis courts – and coaches or taking part in matches (1,031 schools).

Agnew will ask education leaders at the conference to “use this opportunity to bring about a new wave of meaningful partnerships, and to encourage others to think about how similar collaborations could benefit their schools”.

Julie Robinson, chief executive of the ISC, said they were “delighted” that funding was being made available to “support the development of meaningful cross-sector school partnerships”.

Sajid Javid seeks to lift work restrictions on foreign students

Sajid Javid has said he wants to see an end to tough rules on overseas students being allowed to stay in the UK to work, arguing for what he called a more “flexible, sensible attitude” to immigration.

In comments that go against Theresa May’s longstanding approach, the home secretary, who is among a crowded field hoping to succeed her, said he would loosen the current rules, which restrict overseas students to six months of work after finishing their studies.

“I want to see more international students come to our country,” Javid told an event in London organised by the thinktank British Future.

“If they’re coming here, studying in our great universities, if they want to work afterwards we should make it easier for them to stay and work, and not say, you’ve got to go back home, just for the sake of it. We need a more positive attitude to this. I think the country would welcome this.”