Community Newsletter

LEIGH COMMUNITY Academies Trust NEWSLETTER Welcome I am delighted to As a successful multi-academy trust, we welcome you to our are being encouraged by the Department first LAT Community for Education to grow further, but Newsletter. Therewill never do so at the expense of the are so many exciting communities we already serve. We have events going on across no intention of expanding beyond the Leigh Academies South East of England. Trust. We wanted to share them with you. We intend to issue I hope you all enjoy reading about what three of these Newsletters a year from is going on in academies throughout the now on: Winter, Spring and Summer. Trust. I wish you all a restful Christmas Each will be posted on our website at and Happy New Year and look forward leighacademiestrust.org.uk. You can also to writing to you again in the Spring follow more regular updates through my with further news from across Leigh @LATCEO Twitter feed, also available Academies Trust. through our website.

All of our academies are judged ‘Good’ Simon Beamish or better by Ofsted. Our mission is to CHIEF EXECUTIVE achieve ‘Outstanding’ in all of our schools. Leigh Academies Trust

Issue 1 • Winter 2014 SHAPING LIVES, TRANSFORMING COMMUNITIES

Our Academies Secondary Academies Primary Academies The Leigh Academy Dartford Primary Academy Longfield Academy (formerly York Road Juniors and St Albans Infants and Nursery) Wilmington Academy Hartley Primary Academy Stationers’ Crown Woods Academy Special Academies The Leigh UTC Milestone Academy

Working across a group of schools gives us access to many more high-quality resources. We regularly share best practice and challenge one another to improve the education of our students.

Our Values Our Features • Removing barriers and providing opportunities • Small-school, ‘human scale’ education. to achieve academic excellence for all. • An enterprising culture. • A ‘can-do’ attitude. • Close partnerships with industry and other • Creating successful, independent and educators. respectful young adults with high levels of • Mixed age learning and a powerful model of integrity. all-through education. • Developing resilience throughout all members • Transferring information and ideas across of the organisation. academies and building internal capacity to • Community focused and outward facing. enhance best practice. • Continuous improvement and innovation. • Forensic analysis of data to personalise educational experiences. NEW SCHOOLS ON BOARD

Leigh UTC Official Opening We were delighted to welcome Lord Baker of Dorking, Richard Noble OBE, Gareth Johnson MP and Sir Geoffrey Leigh to the official opening of The Leigh UTC. It has been an enormously successful start to the academic year with students making outstanding progress already. It was a privilege to have so many guests to share in the early success of our brand new UTC, the first in Kent.

Dartford Primary Academy A New Primary Academy for Dartford More than 90% of students transfer from St Albans Infants to York Road Juniors every year. The two schools have agreed to join together to form an ‘all-through’ primary academy within Leigh Academies Trust (LAT). Karen Major is Principal of the new primary academy. St Albans was judged as ‘Good’ by Ofsted in October 2013. Both Leadership and Behaviour were also judged to be ‘Good’ at York Road in January 2014. The new primary academy will now move rapidly towards ‘Outstanding’. Official Opening of Stationers’

STATIONERS’ Crown Woods Academy CROWN WOODS ACADEMY The new academy joins Leigh Academies Trust with much fanfare following great academic success this Summer. We were joined by Ian Locks, Master of The Stationers’ Company, Clive Efford MP and Sir Geoffrey Leigh at a very busy and successful event. The official opening came with much promise and potential about how the powerful range of partners now joined with the Academy will help it become the most strikingly successful academy in SE London. GOOD NEWS FROM THE TRUST NEC Skills Show Sixth form students studying Engineering were privileged to have the chance to attend the National Skills Show at the Birmingham NEC. The event, a showcase of all aspects of engineering from aviation to plumbing, was a fantastic chance for students to see first hand the best engineering competition in the UK.

At the UTC stand, students saw recent photographs of themselves working at their college, with huge pictures spread across the entire stand. This was a thrill but also a real compliment as to how successful they have been to date in their studies. The event included the chance to spot a celebrity or two if you were quick, with visiting delegates including Theo Pathitis and Nick Clegg.

WILMINGTON Christmas Community Party 2014 For the past 4 years, the Catering and Business Faculties have collaborated in ACADEMY order to organise a Christmas Community Party. Students are given a budget of £50 and set the task of organising the event, which sees more than 100 people attend from the local community. This year, we held the event in our brand new Lecture Theatre and invited students from Milestone Academy. Guests enjoyed a variety of sweet and savoury dishes, and even had the opportunity to win various prizes kindly supplied by Marks & Spencer, Asda and our very own Horticulture Department, to name but a few. Remembrance Day Ceremony For the first time in its recent history, Milestone Academy hosted an assembly for its entire student body. The assembly, which marked the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War, was attended by students from across the school including Milestone@Wilmington. We were honoured to have Mike Brown represent the Board of Governors, and Rev. Mell Jemett leading us in prayer. Students from Key Stages 3, 4, and 5 laid wreaths and all students participated in hyms led by David Walker, our music teacher.

Year 10 Girls’ Rugby The Year 10 girls’ rugby league team from The Leigh Academy in Dartford are making history yet again. Twelve months ago they became the first girls’ team from the South to win a national title in rugby league’s champion school competition.

They managed to repeat the feat by booking a place in the final against Castleford Academy at Richmond on August 22. But they were not content with just getting to the final. They wanted to win again and enlisted the help of the Capital’s Super League club to help them do just that. Four members of the London Broncos first team visited the school to put the girls though their paces. The result was another stunning final victory. Well done girls. GOOD NEWS FROM THE TRUST

Dartford Primary Academy Christmas CD Dartford Primary Academy have risen to the challenge of providing the perfect Christmas present by producing a CD of carols and festive songs sung by the children and staff. Picking up an initial idea of the Music Coordinator, Mrs Kim Shead, the project was overseen by Office Manager, Pam Thorowgood, to produce a twelve song CD with each class recording their own version of their chosen track.

Following hours of singing practice and a competition to design the CD sleeve (won by Year 5 student Abbi Palmer) the disc was recorded with the final track featuring the staff only, ably led by Principal (and closet Chanteuse), Karen Major. As the first production run of CDs sold out to parents and staff, thoughts have turned to marketing via iTunes in a download version, time (and technology) permitting. Macmillan Coffee Morning r t le a y H The Macmillan Coffee morning was a huge

P r y i m m success. The coffee morning on its own raised a e ry Acad over £200, plus the cake stall after school raised £55. The staff raffle raised £110. The feedback from parents was that we should do a coffee morning more often! Thank you so much to parents, pupils and staff who supported the event and thank you to Mrs Skinner for coordinating all the activities. We doubled our collection from the previous year. Longfield Student Playing for England U15s Ryan (in yellow jersey) lined up with the England U15 team before the match against Northern Ireland.

Following on from his success with the England U15 squad last year, Ryan Sandford has again been selected to represent the country maintaining his place in the squad for the Sky Sports Victory Shield. This competition is against Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Ryan was also in the squad that faced Scotland on 20th November in Yeovil.

Another Exciting Year for us at Leigh Academies Trust It’s been a busy and productive year for Cucina, with a number of exciting initiatives happening around the Trust.

At The Wilmington Academy, Cucina Head Chef Scott McKenzie has continued to collaborate closely with the Academy’s Horticulture Department, working with students to grow food for use in the school kitchen. In October last year, students from the Academy prepared a special harvest box showcasing ‘the food of Kent’ which they presented to the Duchess of Cornwall at the National Harvest Service in Westminster Abbey. LAT ENTERPRISES

We provide facilities for entrepreneurs, strategic thinkers, lifelong learners and community participation. Don’t take our word for it, visit our website, or contact us to arrange a visit. LAT Enterprises is the wholly owned subsidiary of Leigh Academies Trust. The sole purpose of LAT Enterprises is to raise funds to enhance the educational provision we offer our students. Our aim is to engage with business and communities to provide low cost, top quality facilities to hire.

Further information: www.latenterprises.org.uk or email [email protected]

Our Education Partnership with Nuffield Health LAT Enterprises are pleased to announce that on the 1st November 2014 Nuffield Health joined the Leigh Academies Trust, providing gym facilities for our Students and local Community. Longfield and Leigh Academies had a complete makeover and new gyms opened at Wilmington Academy and The Leigh UTC.

Established in 1957, Nuffield Health is the UK’s largest not-for-profit healthcare organisation. The official opening will take place on 29th January 2015.