If the government is considering what sort of help big independent schools should offer to the state sector (as it is inits recent Green Paper), it should talk to a primary like mine, which for years has worked in partnership with private schools.

At my primary school in Hammersmith, west London, where 20 per cent of my intake are disadvantaged, I certainly want to be able to offer the children an education full of opportunity and one that will help them all achieve their potential. As a result of this ambition, I have spent 20 years networking and building relationships with other schools, both in the state and independent sector.

We, like many of my neighbouring schools, work with our local independent school, Latymer Upper, and the support they provide to us is absolutely invaluable in the progress and development of all of our children.  These relationships ensure that children are provided with opportunities to think outside of the four walls they are educated in and see where they are heading in their school career and beyond.

Not only do the children love working with the Latymer sixth-formers, who visit us regularly, but those from more deprived backgrounds have also been provided with opportunities that they would otherwise never have imagined. It has broadened the children’s horizons, encouraged them to be more ambitious in their own expectations and enabled them to take more risks and be more courageous when approaching aspects of their learning that they are not as confident with.

A particular highlight was the support that Latymer’s sixth-formers offered to our Year 6 when my children were preparing a debate about Brexit. We were provided with 12 fervent business and economics A-level students who took two afternoons of study time to coach and prepare our children. The children loved this and, as a result, we were provided with a highly sophisticated, informative and thought-provoking debate delivered by confident and articulate 11-year-olds.

Broadening children’s horizons

Children from Years 5 and 6, particularly the more disadvantaged children, benefit from “Saturday school” at Latymer, offered to 150 children from all local primary schools, where children attend classes in a huge range of subjects including photography, art, Latin, Spanish and cookery. This engages children in learning and helps with the transition from junior to senior school.

Latymer sixth-form students provide my pupils with positive role models, running Primary Debating Club, Latin Club for Year 6 and maths extension clubs. Latymer students with aspirations in medicine or therapy are able to support and work with children who have a range of SEN and, undoubtedly, the Latymer students take away from these experiences as well. The Teaching Children to Swim programme, in Latymer’s state-of-the-art pool, ensures that all our children are developing a vital life skill. 

While the children benefit from these experiences, their parents and members of staff are also developing a powerful growth mind-set; the belief that there are more possibilities and more opportunities than before, building confidence and self-belief that, in turn, will realise aspirations.

But, importantly, none of these things are imposed on us. The relationship we have with Latymer Upper School enables us to seek opportunities for our children, particularly our disadvantaged children, that in other circumstances they would never have access to. Latymer Upper School constantly reviews its provision and work with all local heads to ensure that what they are providing us with is working effectively with our curriculum and the needs of our children.

At no stage in this relationship do they begin to direct or dictate to us what we should be doing or how we should be running our schools. Why? Because, without wanting to cause any offence, they wouldn’t have the first clue on how to do so and they have never pretended to try.

Heads become experts in their field, they learn the ins and outs of running the specific school they want to lead. Leading a school requires passion and a courageous vision. Leading an independent secondary school requires a totally different skill set to running a state primary school. 

This partnership work is delivered very much in the spirit of voluntarism, and it is this which makes it both strong and successful. That should not be changed. Everyone would lose out - crucially, the children.

Jessica Mair is headteacher of John Betts Primary School in Hammersmith

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