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Sapientia NEWSLETTER SAPIENTIA EDUCATION TRUST |JANUARY 2021 | EDITION TWENTY

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Sapientia NEWSLETTER SAPIENTIA EDUCATION TRUST |JANUARY 2021 | EDITION TWENTY Sapientia NEWSLETTER SAPIENTIA EDUCATION TRUST |JANUARY 2021 | EDITION TWENTY Mr Jonathan Taylor - Chief Executive Officer Dear all The Prime Minister’s announcement on 4th Jan 2021 that schools would close except for key worker and vulnerable pupils once again created a number of issues to quickly address. That we have successfully risen to the challenge yet again is testimony to the hard work and dedication of staff across all of our 16 schools. Exceptional things are taking place every single day. Within a very short period of time our secondary schools implemented lateral flow Covid testing, switched to full time remote learning and offered eligible pupils places. Our primaries also implemented their remote learning plans and several are very busy with demand for in-school places, balancing that demand with remote learning. Centrally we have updated all school risk assessments, worked with a number of staff who needed individual assessments, distributed 259 DfE funded laptops and we also faced the prospect of furloughing over 130 staff who work in boarding funded roles at Wymondham College. I make no excuses for insisting on the highest quality remote learning - our pupils are facing educational disruption that is greater than any since World War 2 - anything we can do to help them overcome this disruption is essential. Our efforts are warmly received by pupils and parents too, there have been very many positive comments about what we have provided so far. There are a huge number of ‘live lessons’ being taught across our schools and pupils should be accessing their full curriculum, in many cases this includes assemblies and class/tutor sessions too. Our use of technology has improved too - Microsoft Teams and Google classrooms have been invaluable and several staff have played leading roles in disseminating best practice and ensuring our systems function. Hugely appreciated! Our well-being services continue too. Safeguarding remains an absolute priority and we all play a key role in helping our pupils and colleagues stay safe. Our HR team remains on hand to support any colleagues and our validium employee helpline service is available too, details from Tina are below. Our school improvement work continues and we will shortly be launching our new Trust wide ICT strategy. Likewise, investment in infrastructure continues too, to improve our school environments. Whilst we must deal with the present challenges, we must remain focussed on the future too. The pandemic will change the way we work in the future. Remote learning, new ways of sharing resources and expertise, different attitudes and approaches to ‘homework’, new ways of assessing progress and perhaps changed national systems will all come to the fore. We will be leading the way once pupils return. SET Trust Schools Primary: Old Buckenham Primary School & Nursery | Seething & Mundham Primary School | Rockland St Mary Primary School | Surlingham Community Primary School | Burston Primary School | Tivetshall Primary School |Great Hockham Primary & Nursery School | Ghost Hill Infant & Nursery School |White House Farm Primary School |Wymondham College Prep School Secondary: Wymondham College | Stradbroke High School |Framingham Earl High School | Old Buckenham High School |Attleborough Academy | Fakenham Academy Sapientia NEWSLETTER SAPIENTIA EDUCATION TRUST |JANUARY 2021 | EDITION TWENTY I am immensely proud of what has been achieved since January 4th. Rebecca Osborne’s picture says it all. A heartfelt thank you from me and our trustees, for all you continue to do. With best wishes Mr Jonathan Taylor Chief Executive Officer - Sapientia Education Trust [email protected] Mr Robert Moorhouse - Chief Operations Officer The Autumn Term focus was predominantly about supporting schools to be able to open fully, albeit under restrictions, and to that end Health and Safety support was a key feature of the Trust’s work. However, other work still continued and the Trust had to meet its statutory obligations about reporting at the end of the last financial year (31 August 2020) while continuing to provide Governance functions across all our schools. ESTATE MANAGEMENT Since the beginning of the Autumn Term, the SET Estates Team has continued to provide cleaning materials for all Primary Schools and have visited all Trust Primary Schools on a weekly basis since the beginning of term (in the evening), to provide extra cleaning using the ‘fogging’ machines the Trust purchased. Each secondary school has their own machine to use as required. This work has continued at the start of the Spring Term and the Trust Estates staff are out at Primary Schools every night of the week providing this enhanced cleaning. Works completed since the start of the new academic year include: Attleborough Academy Work on roof repair/replacement started and due for completion in early part of Spring Term. Planning for window replacement work undertaken with work due to start in early part of Spring Term. Fakenham Academy Work on new MUGA provision started. Planning for work to support window replacement project undertaken – likely that concrete repair work will be undertaken in early part of Spring term. Framingham Earl High School Ongoing pricing work for social area at rear of school with a planned work date of Summer 2021. New outdoor benches provided across the site. Ghost Hill Planning for final window replacement work completed with work due in early part of Spring Term. SET Trust Schools Primary: Old Buckenham Primary School & Nursery | Seething & Mundham Primary School | Rockland St Mary Primary School | Surlingham Community Primary School | Burston Primary School | Tivetshall Primary School |Great Hockham Primary & Nursery School | Ghost Hill Infant & Nursery School |White House Farm Primary School |Wymondham College Prep School Secondary: Wymondham College | Stradbroke High School |Framingham Earl High School | Old Buckenham High School |Attleborough Academy | Fakenham Academy Sapientia NEWSLETTER SAPIENTIA EDUCATION TRUST |JANUARY 2021 | EDITION TWENTY Old Buckenham High School West Courtyard – New Canopy completed. MUGA – Installation over course of term – should be completed at early part of Spring term. Old Buckenham Primary School New fencing installed at rear of school Rockland St Mary New building completed at rear of site Seething and Mundham Lights replaced in main hall with new LED units. Planning and costing work carried out for replacement outdoor play equipment. Stradbroke High School Installation of new standby boilers. Wymondham College Refectory Extension - new windows have been installed in the Refectory extension and in the other areas of the Refectory. The inside walls of the Refectory dining room extension have also been completed. The extended kitchen areas are now fully operational. Site – PAT Testing undertaken across boarding. Boarding Houses – H&S works inside boarding houses carried out over the term and this work continues over the course of the academic year. Fry Boarding House – House fully decorated. Wymondham College Prep School Prep School permanent location – the project is progressing well with the steel frame for the main school significantly advanced with the roofing deck installed and road to the front of the school constructed. The work on the boarding house has also advanced significantly with the preparatory concrete works completed and steel work in progress at the start of the Spring Term. IT CEO secured laptops from DfE which have been distributed to all schools across the Trust to aid remote learning. Focus on preparing schools for remote learning. Additional IT resources provided at Primary School level. HEALTH & SAFETY Extensive ongoing H&S work in supporting schools across the Trust to be able to operate safely especially in providing Risk Assessments and guidance on safe operation. SET Trust Schools Primary: Old Buckenham Primary School & Nursery | Seething & Mundham Primary School | Rockland St Mary Primary School | Surlingham Community Primary School | Burston Primary School | Tivetshall Primary School |Great Hockham Primary & Nursery School | Ghost Hill Infant & Nursery School |White House Farm Primary School |Wymondham College Prep School Secondary: Wymondham College | Stradbroke High School |Framingham Earl High School | Old Buckenham High School |Attleborough Academy | Fakenham Academy Sapientia NEWSLETTER SAPIENTIA EDUCATION TRUST |JANUARY 2021 | EDITION TWENTY FINANCE Closure of accounts for the financial year 2019-20 and completion of external audit of 2019-20 annual accounts and submission of Annual Report to DfE before the end of the calendar year. GOVERNANCE Governance at all levels continued to operate across the Trust. Mr Robert Moorhouse Chief Operations Officer [email protected] Mrs Zoe Fisher - DCEO: Director of Education The start of term has again tested resilience, teamwork and creativity all of which have been seen across all of our schools in abundance and has meant that despite last minute changes in guidance from the DfE, our pupils have had a smooth start to the term. As well as testing stations set up and running in secondary schools, remote learning was in place for all pupils in the first week. In addition, many technical challenges were overcome for both staff and students so that some lessons were live and children reunited with their teachers, albeit remotely. There has also been a greater number of children accessing the in-school provision and you have risen to the challenge of ensuring
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