Laura Bates and Clarke Carlisle - EDI Conference
More than 100 CST pupils gathered at The University of Chester Queen's Park Campus in September to explore topics surrounding Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.
The group heard from Everyday Sexism activist Laura Bates and former Premier League footballer and mental health campaigner Clarke Carlisle.
Podcast Masterclass
Through our partnership with Storyhouse, more than 20 CST pupils were give the opportunity to take part in a two-day Podcast Masterclass which saw the pupils produce a podcast with the history and culture of the City of Chester at its heart. Students delved into well-known locations, such as the Cathedral and Roman Amphitheatre, in preparation for recording the story of their city.
After an initial focus group session in each school, students came together for two recording days around the city, where they took on the role of a Presenter or a Historian.
You can hear highlights from the podcast here: Chester Schools Together Podcast Project | Storyhouse
His Grace meets CST pupils and headteachers
His Grace The Duke of Westminster DL met pupils and headteachers from the Chester School Together partnership, which is a unique Independent State School Partnership (ISSP) between King’s, Bishops’ Blue Coat School and Blacon High School, Catholic High School Chester and Upton High School.
Originally established in 2018 with two partnership schools, the partnership identifies areas of mutual need or challenge across all five schools and creates a programme of events, projects and initiatives to improve outcomes and broaden the cultural and education horizons of pupils and staff.
The partnership receives generous funding from The Westminster Foundation and The Duke was delighted to speak to pupils who had directly benefitted from recent Chester School Together events.
Members are passionate about removing barriers to an enriched educational experience through an ambitious 5-year-development plan, which will eventually see all state secondary schools in Chester joining Chester Schools Together.
The partnership was delighted to be awarded the title of Highly Commended at The Independent School of the Year Awards for Outstanding Educational Partnerships in recognition of our innovative programme.
Black History Month Talk - Dr Charlie Easmon
As part of Black History Month, we welcomed Dr Charlie Easmon to King’s to lead an assembly about the History of Prejudice.
Dr Easmon is a healthcare professional who developed his thought-provoking talk on prejudice in light of the Black Lives Matter movement. The talk aims to give pupils an opportunity to reflect, think and question their beliefs on the topic and arising issues.
After the engaging assembly, Dr Easmon met with invited students from a number of partnership schools for a Q&A session. Students from King’s, Christleton High School, Catholic High and Upton High School spent an hour discussing what they had heard in the assembly, asking challenging questions and considering the points that Dr Easmon had made.
ADHD Parent and Staff Conference
This day long conference involved speakers from the local Cheshire West and Chester Neurodevelopmental team, the ADHD Foundation and Dr Ravi Jayaram who co-presented Channel 4’s series Born Naughty?
The guest speakers provided evidence-based information on a range of issues which impact the lives of learners with ADHD – both positive and negative; as well as practical tips for supporting children with ADHD at school and home. There was an opportunity for interactive discussions and Q&A sessions with the experts.
Chester Schools Together – Climate Change Symposium at Chester Zoo
More than 100 pupils from across the city gathered at Chester Zoo on May 25, 2023, for a two-day climate change symposium.
The Beyond COP21 Symposium global series started in Dubai in 2016 and this was the 35th Symposium in the global series, which has taken place in 18 different countries since its inception.
The symposium was CST's flagship event for 2023 and brought together Year 8 pupils from King’s, Blacon High School, The Bishops’ Blue Coat Church of England High School and Catholic High School Chester.
The pupils worked together to explore the global themes surrounding climate change and sustainability through workshops, presentations and exhibitions.
They also heard from experts and leaders in the sector.
They included:
- Cheshire West and Chester Council
- The Chester Cycling Campaign
- RECORD wildlife conservation organisation
- Chester Youth Climate Action Network
- Our Dee Estuary
The Chester Zoo Education Team also led the pupils on bespoke zoo trails to build on this knowledge.
Creativity Saturday Masterclasses
Collaboration and creativity were the order of the day when the second series of Chester Schools Together Masterclasses was held over three weekends in January 2020.
The students from King’s, Bishops’ Blue Coat and Blacon High School worked in mix groups in each school, producing some wonderful individual and group work in projects focusing on Journalism (Bishops’), Chemistry (King’s) and DT (Blacon).
Students taking part in the Journalism Masterclass at Bishops’ set up their own busy newsroom and tasked themselves with researching ideas for articles and features for a student newspaper that they felt reflected the issues of interest to their peers.
Over in Blacon High School, students collaborated in small groups to explore the different techniques involved in graphic design and technology, producing some beautiful pieces and using specialist equipment to enhance their designs.
A Chemistry Masterclass in King’s gave students the chance to try their hand at a series of practical experiments, including making their own aspirin. The highlight for many was taking part in an initiative by Lancaster University, which challenged them to construct then propel custard rockets a distance of 8 metres.
Greg, from Bishops’ High School, set the current record of 6.5m!

Head of Chemistry at King’s, Dr Cook, who ran the three sessions alongside a number of colleagues and dedicated Sixth Form helpers, said:
” The students had a great time during the three weekends of the Chester Schools Together programme. In every session, whether they were making molecular models and synthesising aspirin, assembling and firing custard rockets, or researching and carrying out chemistry demonstrations, it was great to see students from different school working well together.”
Mr Hartley added:
“I have always felt that bringing pupils from different schools together to work collaboratively on challenging projects provides exceptionally powerful learning experiences. As well as the technical learning that takes place in the subject and topic itself, the young people involved will also learn a great deal about teamwork, communication and working systematically with perseverance through a complex process to reach a common solution.
It’s also always great to see the pupils enjoying themselves so much in school and making new friends in the process. For most participants, the masterclasses will be really memorable experiences that they will recall fondly in the future, knowing that they played a unique and key role in their personal development and new friendships.”
Diversity and Inclusion Conference
Students were thrilled to attend the Chester Schools Together Diversity and Inclusion Conference, in partnership with the Outreach Team of University of Chester.
The event, held at The Queen’s Park Campus, brought together more than 80 students from four Chester schools, to work in mixed groups and increase their knowledge and awareness of different issues, before agreeing campaign ideas to tackle each area.
The conference was targeted at 80 Year 10 students from The King’s School, Blacon High School, Bishops’ Blue Coat High School and Catholic High School Chester.

A small working group of Sixth Form and Year 11 students from each of the schools met in March and agreed the following four areas of D&I for the conference to focus on:
- Being a member of the LGBTQ+ in school
- The impact of a pupil’s socio-economic backgrounds
- Micro-aggressions
- Gender stereotypes
The conference began with students enjoying a talk and Q&A from an invited speakers in the campus’s lecture theatre, before they broke off into four mixed school groups and were given one of the four strands to discuss.