HEART

MattersNews and Views from HEART Academies Trust Shackleton Primary

Cauldwell School Shortstown Primary

Bedford Academy Shackleton Primary Issue 01 | Spring 2019 Cauldwell Primary Shortstown Primary www.heartacademiestrust.co.uk Welcome Welcome to the first ever edition of HEART CONTENTS Academies Trust Newsletter – HEART Matters. The aim of the newsletter is to provide an opportunity for Bedford Academy 4-5 children and families to find out more about the brilliant events • Investor in Careers Award Success for and activities that are happening across all of the HEART Bedford Academy Academies Trust schools, as well as bringing together the amazing • Rising Stars work of all of the staff and pupils across the Trust. • NSPCC Number Day • Year 11 Students impress on Mock Interview Day

Shackleton Primary 6-7 • Harvest Festival Donations New Appointment • Shackleton Choir’s Trip A new Chair of Trustees has been appointed this week. • History Week David Hoare, a former Chair of Ofsted, and currently Chair of the • Charity Days Teenage Cancer Trust has been elected unanimously by the Board to be • World Book Day the new Chairman of the HEART Academies Trust. David has an unparalleled range of experience in guiding schools across Cauldwell School 8-9 the UK and has a clear vision for taking our schools forward. To be able • Table Tennis to bring his level of expertise to the HEART Academies Trust will give us • Exciting Ideas for Outdoor Learning an enormous advantage in helping us become a fantastic school group. He already has a clear sense of key priorities for the HEART Academies • Our trip to the Snozone Trust and he is the right person to take us forward in the next stage of • Communication Friendly Award our development. Shortstown Primary 10-11 Our Headteachers have all met David and welcome his appointment. Two new additional independent Trustees, Kevin Binley and Rebecca • NSPCC Number Day Jarrett, have also recently joined the Trust Board with expertise in • Forest School finance and HR. • Talk about Mental Health Day • Safer Internet Day • Chinese New Year

VOCES8 Event 12

2 HEART Academies Trust | www.heartacademiestrust.co.uk | Spring 2019 Singing their HEARTS out Over 200 pupils from all four HEART Academies Trust schools performed with internationally esteemed vocal group VOCES8 on Monday 25th March at the Corn Exchange. Parents of the performing pupils, staff, trustees and governors In preparation for the concert, singers from the VCM had the opportunity to attend the concert, sponsored by The Foundation, the parent organisation of VOCES8, worked and directed by Paul Smith, CEO of the VCM directly with pupils at each of the schools to teach them the Foundation and co-founder of VOCES8. pieces with the overall aim being to encourage the children to Children performed traditional songs from Ghana, Kenya and develop an appreciation of music and its benefits. South Africa alongside the VOCES8 singers, as well as jazz and Hannah Oldridge, Education Development Advisor at The soul classics, and the world premiere of a new piece composed Harpur Trust, who co-ordinated the project, said “Music is linked by Paul Smith using words and music devised by the pupils, to wellbeing and there is a great deal of evidence to show that called ‘Starburst’. music and singing have an incredible impact on a child’s learning, their wellbeing and their motivation.” HEART ACADEMIES TRUST ACADEMIES HEART

See page 12 for more images of VOCES8 Branding Update Have you seen the new-look prospectus? If not, you will do very soon! All of the schools have now updated their new prospectus. The prospectus fits neatly inside an outer cover that details information about HEART Academies Trust. A big thank you to the schools for all their extra work in putting this together. The next step are new-look websites for each school. Bedford Academy’s new website went live in January and initial feedback has been extremely positive. Cauldwell’s website will be next to go live and all of the schools should have a new website by the end of the summer.

Spring 2019 | www.heartacademiestrust.co.uk | HEART Academies Trust 3 Bedford Academy

Investor in Careers Award Success BEDFORD ACADEMY BEDFORD for Bedford Academy Bedford Academy is delighted to have been re-awarded The Quality in Careers Standard. The school was re-assessed in thank you for your continued interest and their journey to , further December 2018 by an external support towards Investor in Careers and education and apprenticeships. assessor for the CSW Group and was once again congratulate you on achieving The strong support from the Leadership proud to receive the confirmation re-assessment of the award under the Team and Governors in supporting that it has been accredited as “fully revised standard.” Careers and the enthusiasm and hard meeting all the accreditation criteria Bedford Academy achieved full Investor work of Careers Leader Mandy Green incorporating the Gatsby Benchmarks” in Careers status in December 2015 and and in house Careers Adviser Jon Dawe for the national quality award for its the school was awarded the Careers who plan and deliver it has ensured careers education, information, advice South-West National Best Practice that after three years of the holding the and guidance provision (CEIAG). Award in January 2016. Investor in Careers Award they have The CSW Group, trading as Investors in Rosemary Sutton, Assessor of IIC/QICS, successfully renewed it. Well Done.” Careers, is a Licensed Awarding Body for commented, “Bedford Academy deserves Mandy Green, Careers Leader at the national Quality in Careers Standard its success as the first Academy/School to Bedford Academy, said, “We are the and confirmed the decision made by renew their Investor in Careers with CSW first of the SEMLEP 100 schools to meet the external assessor, Rosemary Sutton, group under the new Quality in Careers all eight Gatsby Benchmarks. I believe following her visit to the school, to re- Standard (14th December 2018). it to be innovative and creative and am award The Quality in Careers Standard As Bedford Academy’s assessor on the proud to be the very first school to be re- from 14th December 2018. day the Careers team along with key assessed under the new Quality in Careers Ed Whitefield, Investors in Careers staff, the Chair of Governors, members of standards. During this time our careers Consultant, stated in his letter, “I their business community and students all provision has developed considerably and I would like to say how impressed we explained and provided excellent evidence am massively proud of the well-structured, are with the continuous quality of your of how they achieved all eight Gatsby high quality careers provision that the CEIAG programme and would like you benchmarks by July 18 and maintained students at Bedford Academy receive. ” to feed this back to the headteacher, all and developed their careers education The award is for a period of up to staff, and governors. and impartial careers guidance to make three years, expiring at the latest on I would like to take this opportunity to sure every student excels and achieves in 14th December 2021.

Students from challenges which tie around a theme. drumming, dancing or mask making King’s Oak, This year’s theme is ‘Nature’ and the before bringing all three together to , Cotton first session focussed around African perform in our Main Hall in front of End, Cauldwell, culture and the celebration of nature, a group of teachers. The students, as Shackleton and taking inspiration from the Disney always, were a credit to their schools Shortstown film The Lion King and the Circle of and a pleasure to work with and we Primary Schools were welcomed to Life. Students, in one hour, worked look forward to our next collaboration. Bedford Academy for our first Rising in groups to either learn African Stars session of the year. Now a staple of the Bedford Academy calendar, the Rising Stars programme is running for the fourth consecutive year. The programme involves around 100 students in total, from Years 5 and 6 in the Primary Schools and Years 7 and 8 here at Bedford Academy, coming together to collaborate on one-off

4 HEART Academies Trust | www.heartacademiestrust.co.uk | Spring 2019 NSPCC Number Day Twenty of Bedford Academy’s best Year 7 and Year 8 Mathematicians took on Mr Marsham in the NSPCC Number Day ‘Who Wants To Be a Mathionaire’ Challenge in support for the NSPCC. Despite beating the students in the Challenge, Mr Marsham lost when challenged to a ‘Double or Quits’ offer which resulted in him having his legs waxed! As well as the Maths challenge, our Sixth Form Charity Committee were able to raise over £80 through their cake sale, ‘Guess the Age of the Teacher’ and ‘Guess How Many Sweets Are In The Jar’ competitions. A big thank you to all of

our Sixth Formers involved, with special ACADEMY BEDFORD thanks to Sabihah Begum, Franka van der Kolk, Alisha Ahir and Ayesha Ahir.

Year 11 Students impress on Mock Interview Day Year 11 students have been carrying out mock interviews, joined by a host of volunteers from Bedford Rotary Club, Lloyds Business Banking and The DWP. Mock interviews have been provided for experience it had been and wishing the photograph this and upload it to their all Year 12 students for the last few years, students all the best for the future. online record of achievement (START). but this is the first year that this unique All students were given personalised Well done to all and many thanks to our experience has been offered to every feedback and have been reminded to team of volunteers. Year 11 student too. Whilst students were a little nervous and apprehensive at first, they performed amazingly well and really stepped up to the challenge. Students themselves commented on how useful the experience had been, saying that the process was extremely useful as it has enabled them to update their CV, as well as develop and improve their interview techniques. Employers were full of compliments for both the Year 11 and Year 12 candidates, feeding back about what an enjoyable

Spring 2019 | www.heartacademiestrust.co.uk | HEART Academies Trust 5 Harvest Festival

SHACKLETON PRIMARY SHACKLETON Donations We would like to say a big ‘THANK YOU’ to all our Parents/Carers for their kind donations to the Harvest Assembly. Bedford foodbank said: “The Harvest donations of 192.1kg will make 457 meals, which will make a BIG difference for people living within Shackleton Choir Trip Children from Shackleton choir went to St Paul’s Church and also sang at Bedford Borough”. Bedford Academy for their annual Xmas Fayre. The children sang marvellously and did us proud!

History Week As part of Shackleton’s History week and to commemorate the centenary anniversary of the end of World War 1, children from the whole school visited Bedford’s War Memorials and laid poppies they made. Parents and carers were also invited to a Remembrance Assembly, to their child’s classroom to view their work and to observe a minute’s silence at the school.

Children in Need & Save The Children Charity Days On Friday 16th November, Shackleton On Friday 14th December, we Primary hosted a pyjama day. For a supported ‘Save the Children’ by hosting donation of £1, children and staff came a Christmas Jumper Day. Children and dressed in their PJ’s and helped raise staff were invited to wear a festive money for Pudsey. Pudsey ears were jumper or top for a donation of £1. also on sale at the end of each day for a The school raised £258. week. The school raised £971.45.

6 HEART Academies Trust | www.heartacademiestrust.co.uk | Spring 2019 World Book Day The children and staff had a great time celebrating World Book Day on the 7th March. There were some amazing costumes to be seen! The children thoroughly enjoyed designing new book covers for their favourite books, sharing stories with each other and creating their own

books, amongst many PRIMARY SHACKLETON other exciting activities.

Spring 2019 | www.heartacademiestrust.co.uk | HEART Academies Trust 7 Table Tennis The investment in new table tennis This year, our Year 6 girls’ teams came Our KS2 boys finished third and fourth tables last year at Cauldwell has first and third in the local district in their district competition. Fantastic

CAULDWELL SCHOOL CAULDWELL really allowed our children to competition and finished a brilliant achievements! develop their skills and flair in this third in the County championships! sport, with some amazing results.

Exciting Ideas for Outdoor Learning This year, Cauldwell School is hoping to fund a new outdoor learning space using the PE and Sports Premium Funding. The staff are very excited and have come up with lots of fantastic ideas about how this space could be used for active, outdoor learning across the whole curriculum. They have looked at the space, equipment and resources needed, the types of activities and learning that could take place and the training requirements needed to deliver this type of learning. Quotes are currently being sourced so watch this space!

8 HEART Academies Trust | www.heartacademiestrust.co.uk | Spring 2019 Our trip to the Snozone Our topic this term in Years 2 and 3 is ‘Ice and Fire’. We have learnt all about the Artic and Antarctica. We were lucky enough to go on an amazing trip to the Snozone in Milton Keynes. It was freezing cold, but we soon warmed up because after fetching our sledge and listening to the instructions, we had to walk up the slope ready to sledge back down. Some of us were a little nervous, but after being brave and having a go, we all felt confident and started whizzing down before climbing back up to have lots more goes. Even the teachers had a go! CAULDWELL SCHOOL CAULDWELL It was the best fun ever!

Communication Friendly Award We are delighted to report that Cauldwell School now holds the ‘Communication Friendly Award.’ This means that the high priority that we place on effective, purposeful communication is also recognised nationally. Staff at Cauldwell are trained to deliver a curriculum that is rich in language and promotes speaking and listening across all subjects. In this way, we ensure that all learners are included, involved and important, including those with English as a second language or have additional educational or emotional needs. We know and believe that effective communication is essential to ensure that all our learners achieve the high expectations that we have of them.

Spring 2019 | www.heartacademiestrust.co.uk | HEART Academies Trust 9 NSPCC Number Day On Friday 1st February pupils and staff dressed up in digit-related outfits for SHORTSTOWN PRIMARY SHORTSTOWN this charity event, with the Head Teacher sporting a rather amusing combination of dart- board and dominoes! Pupils worked on numeracy themed activities throughout the day. We raised £178!

Forest School Shortstown is developing their Forest area and currently have 2 members of staff qualified as Forest School Leaders. There are more staff currently being trained, which will help support outdoor learning and education. One thing which the leaders are able to do involves fires and fire pits. The Year 1 children were learning about the Great Fire of London and were able to test their houses to see which materials burnt quickest.

10 HEART Academies Trust | www.heartacademiestrust.co.uk | Spring 2019 Talk about Mental Health Day On Thursday 7th February we changed the seating layout in the staff room and shared pizzas, whilst getting to know each other better. It was a lovely opportunity to talk with someone different and learn more about the differences in our lives.

CHUMS On Friday 8th of February we collected donations in support of CHUMS charity by wearing it bright. The children raised an amazing £210! SHORTSTOWN PRIMARY SHORTSTOWN

Safer Internet Day On Tuesday 5th February the E-safety coordinator presented SID assemblies to Years R-2 and Years 3-6 and pupils discussed what consent means when they go online. Our digital leaders filmed and presented short videos about this and pupils carried out quick activities in their classrooms.

Chinese New Year Reception celebrated Chinese New Year with a Dragon walk around the school.

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Spring 2019 | www.heartacademiestrust.co.uk | HEART Academies Trust 11 VOCES8

The students took rehearsals very seriously

OUR ACADEMIES www.heartacademiestrust.co.uk

Bedford Academy Cauldwell Primary Shackleton Primary Shortstown Primary Mile Road Edward Road Pearcey Road Beauvais Square Bedford Bedford Bedford Shortstown, Bedford MK42 9TR MK42 9DR MK42 9LZ MK42 0GS

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