 I'm currently proud to be the head teacher of one of the fastest improving schools in Wales, serving one of the most challenged communities, and certainly our collaboration has been fundamental towards that. Cardiff High enables us to be a better school, and they even say we're helping them be a better school because we're offering them something special as well. I think it's that relationships you have to get right very early on in order to be able to then form the right strategies for improvement across the school. I definitely made a lot of new friends from Cardiff High, and we sometimes still talk on Facebook and stuff like that. I didn't think there would be, like, how they were. It was different, but it was a good different, not a bad different. I think Cardiff High School and Willows bonded really well, and actually I made some friends and one of them's in my rugby club now. I felt that I was already me deep and snowed under. We're trying to raise standards in the school from a very low starting point, but at the same time wanting to develop more strategy to be able to then, in the more long term, take the school even further forward. I knew I couldn't do that on my own, so the prospect of being able to work with one of the highest performing schools in the country was very attractive to me. Cardiff High's worked in partnership with many schools for a number of years. This has certainly been the most complex in terms of the organisation and planning, but actually the most productive as well in terms of the outcomes we've got. When the heritage changed, everything changed, how we teach, how we check our progress, everything literally is a new score. Also, when our partners with Cardiff High come, there's more opportunities and more doors open for other pupils because they know there's another school there waiting for them to take them on. From a personal perspective, it's certainly been challenging to my staff. I've been able to put staff into perhaps roles that they were not accustomed to in environments that they were not used to, and I think that has enhanced Cardiff High School and it's enhanced the ability of the staff that are within the schools. Much of the work that we've been undertaking outside of the more strategic stuff to do with teaching and learning, middle leadership development has been around pupils. A series of our pupils from Year 9 recently went on a residential with some Cardiff High School pupils to sort of de-familiarise the differences that they see between each other. It was just a completely new experience because we were able to do things which we normally wouldn't be able to jump in off a pier. It wasn't exactly a jump, we just walked off. The best bit was the Gorge War because it was challenging and teamwork. My favourite part of the trip was meeting new people and making new friends. We all got a bit scared at first because we were a bit wary of the Cardiff High, of all the rumours and stuff, but they turned out nicer than what we heard about them. Pupils actually have been very successful working at Llesongside. Pupils that traditionally in the past haven't been. Likewise, Cardiff High School also came in to talk to our pupils and some of our pupils have gone there about six form opportunities for them. I'm applying for Cardiff High because I think it's a great achievement and it's a great chance for me and other pupils in Willows. I also see it as a good thing because as Willows we are not popular as being a good school but that's being stereotypical because we are. I want to apply there because I want to be an underdog basically. I want to go there, do good stuff and be a good name for the school so that other people can go there and do the same thing. The outcomes in terms of performance certainly would be raising attainment within both schools and importantly actually raising attainment faster than we might have done if we had been working and left to our own devices. I think it's a good thing that we've had the opportunity to apply for Cardiff High because it's definitely opened the longer doors for us, for our futures and it's given us a lot more opportunities and more choice. I think it's a good idea partner in Cardiff High because they're a really good school and they can push us to do more. I think it's good because they're bonding and when they do that you could get some good ideas flowing between schools, not just one to the other. Both of them are really good schools and if you put them together you could become one of the best schools in the UK or something like that. I don't know in the world or something. I think this partnership is brilliant and a lot of our teachers talk about Cardiff High and a lot of them know it's a brilliant school and Willow's is trying to reach its feet. Willow's are improving massively and working together they'll hopefully help us be a much better school because I've been to Cardiff High, their result is magnificent and Willow's results two years ago were completely awful. It's definitely bad to say but it's improved massively so for us to work together and we can hopefully combine their results and hopefully reach where they've reached. I feel as if I've developed a trust relationship with Cardiff High School that will be long lasting, in fact lasting beyond my time as a head teacher of this school. We have now a special relationship and a bond which will go beyond the actual remit of this particular project and the timeframe so where next is very much a close relationship between us and Willow's for the foreseeable future which will continue to have benefits for pupils and staff in both schools.