Partnership modules
Focused work for each moment in a child’s journey
Short, focused modules for the people in your cluster whose work sits at a particular point in a child’s life, chosen to match the priorities you set in Catalyst.
These modules are indicative
The Partnership offer changes each year, shaped by what clusters tell us they need and what we learn alongside them. Some modules will change, merge or be replaced, and new ones will be added. Use this page to get a feel for the offer, not as a fixed menu.
How choosing works
Start with the essentials, then follow your priorities
Beyond the essentials, we’d encourage restraint. Choose modules that match the windows of opportunity you found during the Catalyst phase, rather than everything that looks interesting.
- Post-Catalyst leadershipFor cluster leaders: working as a team and building the backbone that sustains the work
- Key stage 2 to 3 transitionThe move most leaders already see as their shared responsibility
- Strengthening relationships with familiesThe foundation for almost everything else
Across a child’s journey
Modules for each stage
Early childhood
The first 1001 days
Working with health visitors, early years settings and family services on the period from pregnancy to age two.
School readiness
Joining up home, nursery and reception so children arrive at school known and ready to learn.
Childhood
Educational coherence: reading
A reading curriculum that carries on from one phase to the next, so children don’t start again.
Key stage 2 to 3 transition
Designing the move from primary to secondary around the child, not the timetable.
Adolescence
Youth leadership
Real roles for young people in shaping their neighbourhood and the support around them.
Young adulthood
Futures: post-16
Making sure every young person has a real option after 16, in their own place.
Across the whole journey
Modules that strengthen how your cluster works, whatever stage you’re focused on.
Strengthening relationships with families
Trusting, lasting relationships with families that hold across schools and settings.
Culture that connects
A shared culture of belonging that children recognise wherever they are in your cluster.
The power of listening
Structured listening to families and communities, and acting on what you hear.
Convening for collective impact
Bringing services and organisations together around shared priorities.
Schools as place-makers
Using schools’ buildings, staff and standing to strengthen the wider neighbourhood.
For cluster leaders
A leadership strand that runs alongside the modules for as long as you’re in the Partnership. At its heart is building a backbone function: the coordination, shared plans, data and routines that get the work started in your neighbourhood and keep it going when people move on.
Post-Catalyst leadership
Working as a team across your neighbourhood, leading and convening others, and setting up your backbone function: who coordinates, how you plan together and how you track progress.
Ongoing leadership
For experienced cluster leaders: strengthening your backbone so the work survives changes of staff, alongside cluster strategy and learning from other neighbourhoods.
Your leadership as a place-based leader
A more personal strand for leaders who want to look closely at how they lead beyond their own school.
How modules work
Short, focused and mostly online
Time-bound
Each module runs over a term or so, with a clear start and finish.
Mostly online
Live sessions online, with in-person time kept for when being together matters most.
For the right people
Taken by the colleagues whose work sits at that moment in a child’s journey.
Not sure which modules fit?
Your Catalyst priorities are the best guide. If you’re not in Catalyst yet, start with a conversation.
Leonie Ratty leads the Cradle-to-Career Partnership. A first call is a conversation about your neighbourhood, not a sales pitch.