Latest News From Across The Trust Community Newsletter April 2019

Schools top league tables Page 4 Page

Leadership conference Page 6 Page

School updates Page 7-11 Page LATEST NEWS FROM ACROSS THE TRUST

TOGETHER TOWARDS EXCELLENCE AMBITION AND INSPIRATION Our Trust has grown and developed over time, but remains committed to a clear vision and values. While each school operates independently and has established relationships with the local community, it is important to know that the vision and values is what unites our schools in partnership and allows us to offer more support and opportunities to our communities.

know what makes them happy and how to stay that Our Vision way; know the importance of humour; know how to look after themselves and live healthy fulfilling Our vision is to educate, empower and inspire lives and know how to support others and how they generations of children through a network of can contribute to making society a better place for outstanding schools that are recognised at a local, themselves, others and future generations. regional and national level as being the absolute benchmark in teaching and learning. The Trust will do this by offering them a first class education within each individual , and by Our schools will be recognised as the most forward offering outstanding enrichment opportunities which thinking and innovative organisations within the will offer them unique experiences and see them truly communities that they serve, and all children will stand apart from others. leave our care as well rounded individuals who have achieved high levels of academic success and are well prepared for life in modern Britain. Valuing our students

Our Values We passionately believe that all children and young people, however challenging their circumstances and The Chiltern Learning Trust is characterised by its whatever their background, can achieve. Our students passionate and unrelenting drive to ensure that every will practise the values of integrity, compassion, one of its students makes extraordinary progress, understanding and tolerance. achieves exceptional standards and realises his or her huge potential within schools where best practice is commonplace, and which pride themselves at being at Valuing our staff the cutting edge of innovation and best practice. We are passionate about our staff, as we are about The Trust is committed to developing the whole our students. We want to employ and create person so that young people know what they care outstanding teachers, leaders and non-teaching staff, about in life and what drives them; know their who genuinely aspire to excellence, are truly excited strengths and aspirations; know how to remain by challenge, love to take risks, and have a passion to optimistic and bounce back from setbacks; know co-develop and co-construct best practice with their how to deal with their emotions; students and fellow practitioners.

Dallow Primary School

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Introduction from the CEO

All our secondary schools have secured Progress 8 scores of either well-above average, above average or average. This is a great achievement and would like to thank our fantastic team of staff and students for their hard work and dedication.

Congratulations to Lark Rise Academy; they achieved the highest KS2 outcomes in Central . In Luton, Dallow Primary School pupils are also making huge progress.

Alongside academic achievements, our schools have continued to give back to their communities, raising money for charity. I am so proud of the efforts being made to try and make a difference to the lives of others.

I am pleased that our schools have also taken part in a variety of extra-curricular events, locally, regionally and nationally. The Trust has also hosted a variety of Trust-wide tournaments to foster collaboration I hope you all had a restful Easter break and are between our schools. It was fantastic to see everyone excited to start the summer term. This term can be an taking part and making new friends. Last term, anxious time for many students completing their SATs, we brought together Headteachers and Chairs of GCSEs and A Levels. I know that our students have Governors from across the Trust to discuss further worked extremely hard to prepare for their exams. opportunities for collaboration. It was insightful and I wish you all the best of luck in the coming months shows what an exciting time this is for the Chiltern and please reach out to staff if you need any support. Learning Trust.

As we begin the new term, it is a great opportunity On this note, I wish everyone a positive and successful to reflect on the successes and achievements of our term. I know staff and students alike will continue students and staff over the last few months. It is safe to strive for excellence and make the most of to say our schools have been incredibly busy, taking the opportunities available. part in a range of activities and events, all aimed at Adrian Rogers helping our students to develop into independent Chief Executive of Chiltern Learning Trust (CLT) and capable individuals.

I am particularly pleased that our secondary schools topped the local education league tables again. These results, which have been verified by the Department for Education, reflect the high-quality education on offer across our schools.

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Table-topping performances from CLT Secondary schools

We are proud of our secondary schools who have once again placed at the top of the local education league tables. The Department for Education validated the results, showing the hard work of all the schools and students.

Denbigh High School has placed among the very best 1% of secondary schools in the country for their Progress 8 scores and at the top of the Luton and Bedfordshire league tables.

Challney High School for Girls recorded excellent results with above average Progress 8 scores, placing them in the top three schools in Luton and Bedfordshire.

Challney High School for Boys showed an impressive 6% increase from last year in those students achieving Level 4 or above in both English and Maths.

Cedars topped the Central Bedfordshire A-Level league tables for the percentage of students securing the highest AAB grades in rigorous A Level subjects.

Putteridge High School secured an 11% improvement on their 2017 results, with 62% of students achieving a good pass in both English and Maths.

These are brilliant achievements for all our schools. We would like to thank everyone for their ongoing hard work and support and a huge well done to our secondary schools.

United Nations visit for mobile learning week

Last year, Denbigh High School, and the Trust more widely, were recognised by UNESCO as being a worldwide example of best practice in using mobile learning. This is an outstanding achievement and shows the high level of innovative technology being used.

In early March, two staff members from the Trust went to Paris as guests at the United Nations flagship ICT in education event, “Mobile Learning Week”. Jess and Emma presented to representatives from a range of countries, explaining how schools across the Trust use educational technologies to support learning for all ages and abilities.

The Denbigh High School and Chiltern Learning Trust Case Study will be published later this year on the UNESCO website and in a publication that will be sent to governments and policymakers across the globe.

This is an amazing achievement for the Trust, and we are very proud to have our fantastic work for education acknowledged.

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Trust welcomes apprentices

We strive to offer opportunities to young people in the Our newest recruit is on the Property Maintenance community to enable them to progress smoothly into Apprenticeship scheme. They are based at Dallow Primary the world of work. We are delighted to be providing School and work across all our schools under the close apprenticeships across guidance of our Director of Operations and Estates Manager. many of our schools, in partnership with Central We are looking forward to welcoming a Teaching Assistant Bedfordshire College. Apprentice who starts this September. We are also hoping to find a suitable apprentice to work in the Business While the College is providing the tutorial support to students, Administration Central Team and support a current member we are providing hands-on and practical experience within our of the CLT team in their studies for the Chartered Manager schools. This gives the apprentices a professional, academic Degree Apprenticeship. setting to fully immerse themselves in work.

Debating teams make it to the quarter-finals

Students across the Trust have been taking part in the Luton The debating tournament scores students on their abilities inter-schools Debating Tournament at . in four areas: Reasoning and Evidence, Organisation and Prioritisation, Listening and Response, and Expression and Delivery. The inter-schools tournament has been a great extra-curricular activity to enhance our students’ learning and experience.

The teams at and Challney High School for Girls are both through to the quarter-finals. Well done to the teams for getting this far and all students for representing the Trust so well.

A term for sports across the Trust

We held a range of Trust-wide events this term to how to bowl fast and engaged in a workshop from Public encourage our students to work together and make new Health about Health Lifestyles. friends. It was a great chance for our schools to come together as one community. It’s great to see all the students getting involved in sport and representing their schools so well. Our schools competed in a Trust-wide football tournament. Well done to all the schools that took part and organised this exciting event. Special congratulations to our winners - the Linslade School boys team and Marston Vale Middle School girls team!

Students were also very excited to attend the ICC Cricket World Cup Trophy Tour hosted at Putteridge High School in February half term. The Cricket World Cup came to Putteridge as part of the 100-day tour of and Wales. The students loved hearing from English cricketers about

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Training and development opportunities across the Trust

We strive to support our staff’s professional development in all aspects, through the Chiltern Teaching School Alliance (CTSA) and the Chiltern Training Group (CTG).

Students lead wellbeing workshop for Trust We know that the wellbeing of both our staff and students is of utmost importance. Last term a student- led wellbeing conference shone a spotlight on the great work taking place across the Trust and provided an opportunity to share new ideas.

The conference was attended by all our schools and it was brilliant to see everyone getting involved. We also incredibly insightful for teachers and provided schools welcomed other schools in the area and had over 120 with a chance to understand student perspectives on pupils in attendance. mental health and what can be done to support them.

The conference included seminars and activities around We were very proud of how well the students behaved mental health and wellbeing. It was led by students and and how valuable their contributions were. This was a teachers in the area. The students themselves talked conference for students, by students and it was great about their experiences of wellbeing at school. This was to see collaboration across our community.

CTSA wow with leadership conference Last term, we hosted the Leadership Conference, We were also fortunate ‘Building Capacity for School Improvements’, at Challney to welcome a number High School for Girls. The event was organised and led of dignitaries. This by Headteacher, Jo Mylles. The conference was attended included Chris Davis who by both leaders and stakeholders from the Luton and is a Headteacher from Bedfordshire area as well as specialists from around the UK. Manchester, a representative from Hertfordshire County It was a brilliant opportunity to bring leaders together to Council and Claire Robin share best practice, explore new ideas and collaborate. from Sir John Lawes School. The event was very popular and made a new record for Claire was the first note- the number of people attending. We were delighted to speaker at the event and welcome almost 100 leaders. inspired our attendees as she Throughout the event, we held workshops and facilitated talked about moving into discussions around leadership in the area. For example, leadership positions. there were workshops on ‘Women in Leadership’, ‘First Year Overall, it was a great event and we are pleased it was so of Headship’ and ‘Building Collaborative Cultures: The Role well received by our community. of Middle and Senior Leaders’ to name a few.

If you are interested in training to become a teacher with us, please visit: www.ctg.ac.uk. Alternatively, please contact Claire McMaster on 01582 599921 (ext 362) or email [email protected].

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Dallow Primary School Dallow Primary School

The school enjoyed lots of success last term. We are thrilled that our School Improvement Strategies have been recognised as Outstanding in our Challenge Partners Quality Assurance review. To share the great work going on at Dallow, we hosted several school collaborations with teachers and senior leaders from schools across Luton and Northamptonshire. It was a great opportunity to share best practice with other schools in our community.

Our students also enjoyed extra-curricular activities. On Red Nose Day, our students helped to raise a brilliant £1193 through a variety of exciting activities. Students had lots of fun taking part in our Red Nose Hunt, Red Nose design competition, apple bobbing and a cake sale, while some very brave teachers volunteered to get soaked at lunchtime. Thank you to everyone for their charitable efforts.

Our ‘Smiley Choir’ were invited to showcase their singing and smiles at the Luton & Dunstable Hospital for their 80th Birthday Celebrations. We received a special feature on the National Music Mark website about our musical achievements across the school. Well done to our choir, who are using music positively to build friendships.

Our students have also been busy writing poems for the Young Writers competition. Well done to the students that have been selected to have their poems published in June!

Lark Rise Academy

We took part in lots of national celebrations last term. On World Book Day, our new Key Stage Book Corners were enjoyed by the children, who read a variety of books to boost their imagination. The celebratory day also saw some amazing characters being showcased, including princesses, wizards, and animals!

We also enjoyed celebrating National Science Week, taking part in a variety of events to learn more about the subject. For instance, the Wildlife Trust Education Service visited the school and showed our students some fascinating fossils to educate them about prehistoric Earth. Upper Key Stage 2 experienced an eye-opening trip to the Amazon Fulfilment Centre where they learned about how robotic systems operate in the warehouse. All the students thoroughly enjoyed learning more about science outside of the classroom.

For Red Nose Day, the children and staff took part in a red-themed dress down day to raise money. We also held a bake sale that had lots of wonderful cakes made and brought in by the students and staff.

It’s been great to see all our students get involved and make the most of the activities!

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Linslade School

Last term our students were busy getting creative. Our Year 7s enjoyed their Shakespeare unit, working hard to produce analytical writing of the subject. Our Year 8s also used their creativity to draw the Gothic Horror Projects to a conclusion, with some gruesome and fun stories. Over in textiles, our Year 6 and Year 8 students finished making their cushions and are pleased with the results.

Our love for creativity has been matched by our charitable efforts, with lots of activities taking place to raise money for the Miscarriage Association. We’ve held cake sales where students and staff got involved to raise money for the charity. Well done to all the students for their commitment to charity and best of luck to Mrs Mead in running the London Marathon.

Outside of the classroom, some students took part in the Chiltern Learning Trust’s wellbeing conference. The students enjoyed lots of activities that promoted wellbeing across the Trust, such as an archery lesson and a nature walk.

Students also put their research skills to the test, with our Year 8s exploring Francophone countries and our Year 6s attending The Big Bag Fair to learn about Science and Maths.

Best of luck to Cedars and Linslade Equestrian Team in the National Schools Equestrian Association Finals, competing for the Prelim Country Champions title.

Marston Vale Middle School

Our Year 7 and 8 students had an exciting visit to the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham to take part in ‘The Big Bang UK Young Scientists & Engineers Fair’. Students were grateful to have the chance to learn more about different careers in the field and how they can get involved with science in the future, beyond their education.

To explore their futures further, our students were inspired when visiting Bedford College to learn more about careers and how to be prepared for the next steps after their GCSEs. The students appreciated the chance to listen in a careers talk and take part in Q&A sessions with advisors. The students also enjoyed exploring the Performing Arts and Design Department at the College.

Our students developed their innovation skills in Design & Technology, designing Inclusive Trainers for people with disabilities. Once the students finalised their design, they participated in a Dragons Den scenario, which involved planning and giving a pitch to a Teacher and a Teaching Assistant. This was a great experience for our students and helped to build their confidence, teamwork and public speaking skills.

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Challney High School for Boys

Our charitable efforts last term were fantastic, and we are so proud of our students who donated almost 11,000 tins to the Luton Foodbank! In aid of Comic Relief this year, we have raised £2,000 so far with more events and donations still to come. An excellent effort from all students and staff.

Our success hasn’t just been in charity, as our students have also been busy in PE. From preparations for the Denbigh Gym and Dance show to our Year 7 football team winning their match against Icknield. Our students that have shown excellence in PE enjoyed a trip to the ice hockey as a reward for their hard work.

In January we appointed our new Student Executives. They have been showing brilliant leadership skills in their roles so far. This initiative and the launch of the Student Voice has ensured that improvements can be made from student insights. Well done to all our Student Executives for their excellent efforts and for starting the year so well.

Our students also took part in a range of exciting trips and celebrations, including a visit to the Imperial War Museum, the WE Day at the SSE arena, and a farm visit. Our students proudly represented the school and thoroughly enjoyed their activities.

Challney High School for Girls

Our students enjoyed a day out at the Festival of Science and Technology last term, hearing about influential women with STEM careers. The day provided a great chance for the girls to explore the field of science. They learnt how to extract DNA from strawberries and looking at cheek cells. Overall, the event was a great way to learn about the subject outside of the classroom.

We also took part in ‘put your best book forward’ campaign which encouraged reading and healthy competition across the school. The activities included an inter-form Scrabble, ‘create a book scene in a jam jar’ and ‘read your way through history’ competitions. Alongside this, we enjoyed ‘Drop Everything and Read’, where students and staff stop for a different period each week for 15 minutes to read and share their readings with their peers.

The girls have welcomed the new House system at the school. Debbie College has been pleased with the new initiative, with the students showing support through the system and holding a strong sense of loyalty to their Houses. This has also proven a great chance to make new friendships.

Our girls have been working hard in the debate club alongside Mrs Mills and Mr Malik, securing a place in the quarter-finals of the local debate competition. The team are set to face Cardinal Newman in the next stage. Best of luck girls!

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Denbigh High School

We are thrilled that, after being reviewed under the SSAT’s Framework for Exceptional Education, we have been accredited for our efforts in transforming educational practice. This is a great success for the school, well done to everyone for all of your hard work and commitment.

Our Year 10 students took part in the Business Education Skills Partnership Event, launched by Luton Borough Council. This involved a careers speed networking event with various employers, seeking to boost awareness of the working world. The event allowed students to find out more about the qualifications needed, effective employability skills, career progression and day to day roles in different careers.

Our students also had the chance to showcase their talents at the Gym & Dance Show. They really enjoyed this year’s Disney theme. The students and staff worked extremely hard, producing performances to The Incredibles, the Lion King and High School Musical. The show was a great opportunity for students to make friends and have fun with other students from across the Trust. Well done to all the students for their brilliant performances.

Year 7 French and Spanish students took part in a very exciting Spelling Bee competition. There were three winners on the day, demonstrating their confidence and commitment by learning how to spell 50 new words in the languages. Congratulations to all that took part and our winners!

Putteridge High School

We are thrilled to have been awarded the British Council’s prestigious International School Award. This award shows our commitment to bringing the world into the classroom, exploring languages, culture and taking part in Erasmus programmes. We are pleased that our international values have been recognised and can’t wait to share our practices with other schools across the Trust.

The focus of our student-led assembly last term was being safe online. On Safer Internet Day, five of our Year 9s worked with their teacher to spread the word to other students. They emphasised individual responsibility in creating a “kinder” internet, ensuring that they think of others before posting and interacting on social media. Students were given reminders of consent and asked to consider whether they always had permission to share or post things relating to others.

Together with the Trust, we hosted a mini Cricket World Cup during February half term. We were delighted to hold this event for our students, and they were so excited to take part, especially as they got to see the World Cup Trophy! Our Year 9 students were the winners of the Cricket World Cup and received a prize from “Wicketz” as a result of their brilliant effort.

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Cedars Upper School

We celebrated Pi Day last term and took part in various challenges such as guessing the surface area of pies and cakes. In a challenge set to recite as many digits of Pi as they could, one student beat the school record of 314 digits with an amazing 1201 digits completely from memory. This is a fantastic achievement, well done!

Our annual Maths and Adventure trip to Snowdonia took place. Our students experienced a range of activities such as abseiling, rock climbing and river gorge walks. The trip involved a variety of Maths problems, with angles of cliff elevations found, route problems solved and tide heights with trigonometric graphs investigated to find the safest time to go coasteering.

Our Year 12 students attended a UCAS event on the 26th March to research their futures, learning about universities, apprenticeships and the Armed Forces.

Best of luck to the Cedars and Linslade Equestrian Team who are set to compete for Prelim County Champions at the National Schools Equestrian Association Finals on Saturday 20th April. The team placed first for Bedfordshire at the NSEA Prelim County Qualifiers.

Chiltern Academy

Last term, we had three teams compete in the ‘Formula 1 In Schools’ Regional Final competition. Formula 1 in Schools is a programme aimed at changing the perceptions of young people around science, technology, maths and engineering. They do this by providing fun and engaging challenges including using software to design, manufacture and race miniature cars.

Our three teams were hands-on and produced a portfolio to explain the engineering and design behind their car. They also gave a verbal presentation, before racing their car. The Dragonettes and Mad About Carz each won awards based on their achievements across the day. Well done to all the teams for their excellent efforts!

In other exciting news, the whole school enjoyed a trip to Birmingham for the National Big Bang STEM fair at the National Exhibition Centre. The fair showcased a range of exciting STEM-based displays, shows and competitions. From holding large cockroaches to using virtual reality, the students appreciated the chance to engage with STEM and learn more about its role in our everyday lives.

We also thoroughly enjoyed performances from the students at the Grove Theatre. The students showcased various acts including solo performances, a moving Grenfell Tower piece and the Greatest Showman. A massive thank you to families and friends for coming together to make this a huge success for our students.

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