Community

School Partnerships

Orchard is very much a school at the heart of the community. Our priority is the best possible education for our children but our mission goes well beyond the classroom. The school actively works with community groups, developing partnerships with different organisations.

By working in partnerships, we:

provide enriching experiences for our students who learn how important their community is, and how they can make a difference in the future - this builds their own sense of agency.
raise our students' aspirations and broaden their horizons to the opportunities available to them.
support the continual professional development of our staff, ensuring best practice is shared
support our students' own families and the wider community
support city-wide initiatives and priorities

We are very lucky that our community supports the school providing us with volunteers who provide mentoring, aspirations and reading support for our students. We are also indebted to all the local companies that provide our students with work experience opportunities and in school support with events such as our mock interview days and careers events.

Want to work with us?

We are always interested in working with individuals and organisations in our community, so if you are keen to find out more, please contact our Events Administrator, Sarah Sadler, on events@orchard.tila.school

Our partnerships

Bath Spa University
Bridge Learning Campus
Bristol Education Partnership
Bristol Women's Commission
Bristol Works
Brook
Chartered College of Teaching
Creative Youth Network
Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme
Empire Fighting Chance
Engineering Development Trust Enterprise Advisors and Coordinators from WECA
Filton Avenue Primary School
Future Quest
Lockleaze Youth and Play Partnership
Love Horfield
Love Lockleaze
North Bristol Post-16 Centre
Parson Street Primary School
Range of local employers e.g. Geneco, PWC, the NHS, Erwin Mitchell, BAE Systems and St Monica's Trust
University of Bristol
University of the West of England
and the list is growing...

Charities

Each year the school supports a charity and makes efforts to fund-raise for the charity.

Our current charity for 2024-2025 is Off The Record https://www.otrbristol.org.uk/

Off The Record is a mental health charity for young people aged 11-25 living in Bristol and South Gloucestershire.

We have signed the City of Sanctuary Pledge.

“We support the ‘City of Sanctuary’ vision that the UK will be a welcoming place of safety for all and proud to offer sanctuary to people fleeing violence and persecution.

We endorse the City of Sanctuary Charter, and agree to act in accordance with City of Sanctuary values and apply the network principles within our work (as far as our specific context enables us to).

We recognise the contribution of people seeking sanctuary. Sanctuary seekers are welcomed, included and supported within our context. We expect our branches or local groups (if any) to support their local City of Sanctuary group if one exists, and will facilitate contact between them and their local City of Sanctuary group.”

In recent years, we have also supported:

North Bristol Food Bank
Wallace and Gromit Grand Appeal - supporting Bristol Children's Hospital
Mind - supporting mental health
Shelter - supporting homelessness
Islamic Relief UK - an independent non-governmental organisation founded in the UK by medical doctors and activities to save and transform the lives of people caught in disasters across the world, as well as working with local communities - regardless of race, religion or gender.

Bristol Education Partnership (BEP)

https://www.bristollearningcity.com/education/bristol-education-partnership/

The Bristol Education Partnership was set up in 2019 with the aim of broadening young people’s experience of education, opening up new opportunities and overcoming disadvantage. It is a collaborative arrangement involving six state secondary schools, seven independent schools, St Brendan’s Sixth Form College, University of Bristol, University of the West of England and Bristol City Council. Working together we want to enrich education and improve outcomes for children and young people in the city.

Orchard School Bristol is proud to be a partner school; projects we are taking part in include:

The BEP Year 7 Spelling Bee (first Grand Final hosted at Orchard School in 2023)

BEP Youth Talks public speaking competition, supported by TedxBristol.

BEP Climate Challenge

Bristol Teacherfest

In addition, each year we have students who complete the BEP Student Leadership Training Programme and we have two BEP Student Partnership Board Members.

BEP have collated and published Climate Challenge work across Bristol schools - see their update here, where we are featured on page 7!

bep towards net zero report 2022 final.pdf