Yesterday I was a guest in a webinar 'The New Educational Landscape' hosted by the School Partnerships Alliance in which a number of respected luminaries from the education sector (and me) talked about the potential for partnerships between schools across the world of education, and other organisations, to improve outcomes for children.
At these type of events there is always an understanding that independent and maintained schools are different, an outside observer might uncharitably suggest that there is an element of "them and us", but what becomes clear when you start talking is that there is common conviction that everyone working in education is fundamentally working for a common goal. Progress. A better world for our children.
Whilst there are differences amongst us, as the late MP Jo Cox said during her maiden speech "we are far more united and have far more in common than that which divides us."
Isn't exploring those things that we have in common and turning them into something productive what partnerships is, ultimately, all about?
One of the largest challenges in delivering partnerships is being able to quantify whether they are worthwhile. In a world of ticking boxes we are always urged to measure outcomes, and simply put, when a partnership is just one aspect of a child's life quantifying success is often impossible.
But sometimes success isn't about a grade or a check box. It's about a feeling or a memory that can swerve outcomes, even if sometimes in only a small way.
It's about the qualitative, and not always the quantitative.
I'm sure there is another truism at work here too. It doesn't matter whether you work in the independent or state education sector you understand that experiences often matter as much as the measurable. We have that in common.
Collectively what we must do is get better at explaining that to a wider audience. And that very much includes policy and decision makers.