Letter from the Principal

THE LEIGH ACADEMY Spring 2020

As I write this letter to you, I reflect on the last two weeks and the last two modules. In the last two weeks, The Leigh Academy's motto of “Opening Minds to Success” has definitely come into play as we have all had to open our minds to very different ways of working, studying, and communicating. Students, parents and staff have risen to the challenges and shown true grit and resilience in facing the current national crisis.

I am so proud of the way in which staff and students, with parents’ support, have quickly adapted to this new way of life and learning, overcoming the obstacles in our path.

Staff have rapidly developed their online teaching skills and are trying out new and inventive ways to deliver lessons and activities. The majority of students (with parents/carers) support are working well and finding their way in the virtual classroom and the virtual academy that we find ourselves in. Well done to everyone! Please do look at the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs sheet) on page 6 which I hope answers the queries raised by parents in the recent parental survey.

Parents and Carers have also recently been sent letters referring to online safety and safeguarding and wellbeing - a summary of contacts can be found on both documents to help ensure your son/daughter remain physically and emotionally well at this time. If you have any worries or concerns in regards to their emotional well being please contact your Head of College or Stuart Lindars the Designated Safeguarding Lead.

Whilst the academy is closed to students and staff, there are a small number of children of key workers who continue to attend the academy when their parents are fighting on the front line against Covid 19. It is important that we continue to provide care for these students whilst we can, to enable their parents to work for the nation. These students were interviewed by the BBC this week, and a report was aired on BBC South East on Wednesday 1st April. This video can be viewed on The Leigh Academy Facebook page. Thank you to all staff who have been supporting this provision by still coming into The Leigh to look after these children despite the difficulties we are all facing at this time.

THE LEIGH ACADEMY Spring 2020

Letter from the Principal continued Contents

Between January and mid March, there was much taking place at The Leigh and we enclose the articles, reports and photos of these events, trips and clubs. I look forward to us all being back together soon so that we can once again offer these opportunities to our Page 3— Mentor Meetings young people to experience. Page 4— History Trip

As we are now moving into the Easter holidays, online learning will not be set by subject Page 6— FAQs for Online Learning teachers. However, Heads of Colleges have set up College Google classrooms that Page 7— Trampolining Competition students can log into to keep in touch with their communities and see activities and Page 8— E-Safety Roadshow challenges, details on Page 4. Page 9— Cycle Safety We will also continue to add challenges and links to activities/resources on the Leigh Page 10— Build a University Academy Facebook page. Next week, a link will also be placed on the Online Learning Page 11— Careers in Construction section of the The Leigh Academy website with Easter activity ideas. I know I’m looking forward to spending time with my family over the break and developing my children’s Page 12—BBC Young Reporters cooking and gardening skills! Page 13— International Women’s Day

Page 14— Made in Bluewater Event I hope that we will all be back together again soon. In the meantime I wish you all well. Stay safe, Stay indoors and let's fight this together. Page 15— Heads of College

Best wishes Mrs Julia Collins Principal

Bromcom—My Child at

A reminder that ‘My Child at School’ gives parents/carers a real-time view on assessment, timetable, rewards and consequences and other key data about your child.

The primary contact for each child has been emailed a user name and password to access the system at: https://www.mychildatschool.com

If you have any questions or issues in accessing the system, please contact [email protected]

Sarah Forde, Head of Chaucer College

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Mentor Meetings & Training

An impressive presentation was delivered at the recent new mentor meeting at the Leigh Academy. Facilitated by the Director of Post-16, Mr Burton, a group of interested local business people attended the academy to find out how they might become a mentor to guide a Post-16 student over the next year. Delegates introduced themselves, explaining why they were interested in working with students and charted their own educational and career achievements. There were some passionate reasons for wanting to participate and most impressive life stories related. Guests came from a diverse range of sectors with several being employed by John Lewis, a business which has been a regular supporter of this scheme since its inception. Mr Burton gave an overview of how this well established scheme works and illustrated one particular success story to emphasise just how life changing having a mentor can be for a young person.

Lee Forcella-Burton, Director of Post-16

Visit to Green-

History students from Year 8 attended an artefact handling session led by expert historians and archivists from Greenwich Maritime Museum. They were deepening their understanding of the Transatlantic Slave Trade as part of their MYP Unit of Study which debates the key question: ‘Was the British Empire a force for good in the world?’. The students learnt about the relatively advanced African Kingdoms which predated the trade. They began to handle equipment used to restrain enslaved people, but also the products made by them to craft mini presentations in groups of 6. They explored the difficulty but eventual success in ending slavery by the British Government. Students were asked to question the evidence they had in front of them in new ways, but also to question how historians gain their evidence and make their claims and opinions clear. This is the type of skill that history students will need to master to prepare for their MYP assessments and eventually in their GCSEs and A-levels. Chris Bradley, History

College Community Classrooms

Colleges have created their own Community Classrooms so that students and staff can keep together during this period of school closure. The codes to join are as follows:

Brunel College— wmxw6a2

Da Vinci College—qofjzdy

Darwin College—7lrksaz

Chaucer College—3ya7ee5

FSB Skills

The Leigh Academy is committed to fully supporting all students to make the best choices for themselves when looking at future possible destinations. Accordingly, the academy was delighted to again host the FSB (Federation ofSmall Businesses) Skills 30:30 event for year 13 students who are looking to enter the workplace at the end of this academic year

Hosted in two parts, participating students enjoyed an insightful workshop with Paul Andrews, CEO of Jobsin Kent. Topics discussed included how the job market has changed, apprenticeships, financial technology, entrepreneurship, applying for a job and using professional platforms such as LinkedIn. Meanwhile, chaired by Alison Parmar of the FSB, a varied group of small business owners and employees met at the academy for a round table discussion. Alison explained the work of the FSB as a business support and lobbying organisation and Mark Parrin of Kent Supported Employment talked about his organisations work with businesses giving access to employment for those with learning difficulties, particularly those with autism. The group was then joined by Director of Post-16 at the academy, Mr Burton who thanked delegates for volunteering their time and explained the journey of his students thus far. He particularly asked guests to give constructive feedback to the students that our guests were then to meet. The event culminated in a facilitated speed networking session where each student had the opportunity to meet and talk with a number of business guests - in effect, a series of mini interviews.

The hour long speed networking passed in what seemed to be no time at all with guests and students keen to talk further!. Thank you to everyone concerned for yet another successful event.

“The students were very involved in finding out about the business I am involved in and my career “The students were so path. Their body language and inspirational. I was eye contact was brilliant!” impressed with the Donna (Business owner) questions they asked..” Gospel (Facilitator)

“What an exceptional bunch of “It's definitely improved young people. Employers my communication skills in want to see passion and these an interview environment” students had it in droves” Megan (Student)

Tony (recruitment professional) “It was really helpful finding out how to further my career.”

Alex (Student)

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FAQs about Online Learning

Why isn’t there a google classroom for my child? There should be a google classroom for every subject. Go onto The Leigh Academy website, go to Independent Learning Online (on the home page) and then click on the link to Independent Learning Online documents for each year group. All google classrooms and codes are listed there. What structure should there be to the learning? Staff are setting work on the days that they would have each class, so your child should be aiming to follow their daily timetable of lessons, logging into the google classrooms for that day and completing the tasks/assignments set. Some subjects, especially with older students, are setting longer projects or tasks that are designed to run over a longer period of time. However, these longer tasks can be completed in sections, using their timetabled lesson time. What do I do if my child finishes the work set in a day too early? If you child finishes their work too early, then ask them to check it and show it to you: is there any more that can be added? If they have finished, they could log into some of the other free online resources available on pages 5 and 6 of the Home Learning Guide for Families on our website. Or check out the resources and challenges on The Leigh Academy Facebook page Or do some other activities - exercise, cooking, arts and crafts, even helping around the house. There are some suggestions on the family learning support guide on the webpage. What if my child doesn’t understand the work that they should be doing? Your child can write a comment to the teacher in the google classroom. They can also email the teacher directly. All teachers’ email addresses can be found on The Leigh Academy website. What if my child is feeling overwhelmed with too much work to do? Then they should stop, have a break and ask for help. They can leave the work and come back to it later. If they need time out, they can do something different and come back to it later. Parents can email staff too and explain that you have chosen to have a break, in order to consider your child’s well-being. Why can’t we have live lessons? It is not possible to have live lessons, due to safeguarding risks. We do not want to put our staff or students at risk by asking them to have live conversations from their homes. It is also not practical, with many staff also looking after their own families during the day and therefore unable to communicate live with students on video. As staff are becoming more confident with online learning (remember much of this is new to us too) they are being asked to consider recording a section of a lesson - perhaps with an explanation or modelling a piece of work - which they will be able to share. This is a work in progress - so please bear with us. I’ve forgotten my password. What should I do? Email [email protected] and ask for your password to be reset.

I’m not sure who to contact for help? Contact your child’s teacher if it is a subject/work issue.

Contact your child’s Head of College if it is a well-being issue. All staff emails are on The Leigh Academy website. Still not sure who to contact? Any queries can be sent to [email protected] and it will be directed to the person who can best help you

Design & Technology Club

DT club have been hard at work making these lovely picture frames! Paige overcame her fear of using the tenon saw and disc sander, we found out that Ben is an amazing coach, Ruby is an instructor extraordinaire and Harry is a perfectionist!

We are really proud of these amazing students who are beginning to show all the attributes of IB learners... especially in risk taking and independence.

Bev Cottingham, Design & Technology

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Cake Craft

During module three of this academic year the Design and Technology department offered students the exciting opportunity to develop their cake craft and decorating skills with an after school club. Students were inspired to be confident with their projects, use of tools and creativity and therefore learnt how to model using fondant icing creating bears and flowers on both large cakes and cupcakes. We explored how to hold and pipe decorative patterns and use techniques such as feathering. During this term we used Valentine’s Day as our theme for the final competition to incorporate the skills learnt throughout this club, some students chose to work in groups and others independently to decorate their final cake submission. The students were given preparation time in which they baked their sponges and crumb coated ready for icing. They then were put under a bake off style challenge to decorate a Valentine's inspired cake within one hour! They rose to the challenge well and exceeded my expectations. They encouraged each other to keep going and helped when others felt the pressure cutting hearts and modelling flowers for each other, was a beautiful display of new friendships and passion for the subject.

Sarah Lawrence & Keely Cliftlands

Trampolining Competition

On Tuesday 4th February, ten students participated in the North Kent Trampolining competition at Dartford Grammar School for girls. Students had to perform two routines in front of a panel of judges and were scored on their routines.

The stand out performance of the day was from Year7 Da Vinci student Paige, who came 1st in the Year7/8 intermediate category which had over 40 participants. Paige has qualified to represent the Leigh Academy at Gillingham Jumpers Rebound Centre on Sunday 15th March.

Please see the results from our students who were a pleasure to take and a real credit to the academy.

Year7/8 Intermediate (total of 25 participants)

Paige: 1st - she also qualifies for the finals on Sunday 15th March

Year7/8 Novice (total of 55 participants)

Amalia 7th

Frances 39th

Ruxandra 40th

Year9/10 Intermediate (total of 40 participants)

Skye 5th

Millie 9th

Freya 13th

Tioluwani 19th

Tallulah 22nd

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Year 10 & 12 Apprenticeship Talks

To mark National Apprenticeship Week , The Leigh Academy was pleased to welcome Rebekah Shaxted of KATO in to speak with two cohorts of students- year 10 and then year 12.

She ably covered a great deal of information on apprenticeship including salaries, level of apprenticeships and the many varied areas in which apprenticeships can be taken. At all times, she stressed that students should keep their options open in looking for a future career pathway.

A huge thank you to Rebekah for coming in to speak to our students about the opportunities available to them.

Lee Forcella-Burton, Director of Post-16

E Safety Roadshow

On February 10th we were fortunate enough at The Leigh Academy to be visited by the eSafety Roadshow for the second year running. All students from years 7-9 got to experience the “Is it worth it” tour from Kent County Council. Students behaviour was exemplary and they all engaged extremely positively with the vital message that was delivered regarding online safety and keeping themselves safe online and on their smart devices. Students took part in interactive quizzes and discussions and were able to feedback to the Kent eSafety team successfully on the best ways to avoid potential online dangers, and minimise any risks to them and their friends when online. Thank you to the students for their excellent conduct on the day and a big thank you to the KCC eSafety team for joining us once again. We hope to see them again next year.

Below is a link to the survey from KCC eSafety who would really appreciate as many students as possible to provide them with feedback on the roadshow. This allows the team to make modifications to the show to better suit their audiences, and also helps them to gain funding to be able to continue delivering the roadshow next year and onwards.

Survey attached below: https://www.kent-pcc.gov.uk/isitworthit

Below is the link to our Leigh Academy eSafety guidelines for parents and students. http://leighacademy.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/E-Safety-Guide-2.pdf

If you have any eSafety guidance related questions please feel free to contact [email protected]

Matthew Piggott—Assistant Head of Chaucer College

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Cycle

Build a university

On the 25th of February we were visited by a group of second and third year students from The University of Kent. They met with all our Year 7 students in order to place the idea of going to university in their minds. The workshop lasted an hour and provided an introduction to higher education and an insight into life at university. Our students learned about the differences between campus and city universities and they explored the types of facility available by creating their own university.

Mike Williams, Assistant Head of Brunel College

Milestone @ The Leigh Academy

Students at Milestone @ the Leigh have been delighted to have access to the food technology room this year, and we have been making the most of it! Turing Class students have been exploring different countries and cultures around the world. They have then been researching different cuisines and dishes and picking the one they would like to recreate! To help develop our life skills, students have then been writing their own shopping lists and going to Aldi to pick up the right ingredients. One student, Logan, has commented that “buying ingredients for our dishes around the world has been very exciting - I have learnt about food that I have never even heard of!” So far, we have made a variety of dishes, such as patas bravas, chicken ramen, breakfast pancakes and a chicken curry!

Milestone @ the Leigh was thrilled to take part in the Leigh Academy's World Book Day: Comic Con! Students took part in a

Superhero Showdown debate, in order to determine who the best superhero (or villain) is. Congratulations to our debate winner,

Georgia, for her sterling defence of Dabi, a supervillain from the Manga series My Hero Academia.

Kyle Marsh, Milestone School

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Careers in construction

Students from years 10 to 13 at The Leigh Academy who are interested in construction as a possible future career pathway attended a focus on construction event at their academy on March 12th.

Our valued guests were from MACE Construction, B+K and Morgan Sindall Fit Out.

Morgan Sindall Fit Out

Morgan Sindall spoke about their two year HNC rotation programme where employees have the opportunity to work in a number of departments. The company has also previously presented to post 16 students on their amazing degree apprenticeship programme. Particularly relevant to students was that Leigh Academy alumni and degree apprentice Amey Brown was part of the team that visited the academy.

B+K

B+K are currently building fellow LAT academies, Snow- fields Academy and Bearsted Academy. Project Manag- er, Ben, spoke about his own career journey adding that he finds the role most rewarding in seeing a building ready for use, especially when it is for young people- he loves building schools! He stressed that construction is not just about bricks. Jack, a trainee quantity surveyor spoke about earning whilst he is learning and that he will go on to complete his degree whilst at B+K. He has gained a great deal of experience as a trainee including attending client meetings and learning about the fi- nance aspects of building.

MACE Construction

Alex, Quality Director at MACE, talked about many of the iconic buildings that she has worked on that would be familiar to students. She elaborated upon the growth of the company that she’s witnessed since joining (from 500 staff to 6,500) and changes that are likely within the industry in the not so distant future. She talked about the increased use of technology with robots and drones coming to the fore as well as the attributes that the company looks for in its employees.

After the presentations, students had the opportunity to talk one to one with our visitors to ask specific careers questions and many took away useful printed information to further digest.

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BBC Young Reporters

On Tuesday the 14th January The Leigh Academy were delighted to welcome the BBC Young Reporters’ team and a host of students from across Leigh Academies Trust (LAT) to take part in a day of media discovery. An action packed educational day saw all students take part in three bespoke sessions aimed at exploring the media and its impact, and providing information on the vast array of opportunities available for future career choices.

Sixty Year 9 students from six Trust academies came together to immerse themselves in the world of news reporting, radio broad- casting and tackling the difficult task of identifying ‘fake news’. In addition to the BBC Young Reporters team, students were lucky to work alongside Anna Louise Walter from Radio Kent. Creating and recording their own headline stories students also had the chance to hear her first hand experiences of working in radio journalism and presenting prime time radio shows.

Students from across LAT were quick to cease the opportunity to question Natalie Graham BBC South East news presenter, who has 25 years experience in the media. Their questions definitely challenged her, ranging from her favourite interview, scariest news story and her views on the gender pay gap at the BBC. Assistant Editor at Radio Kent, Will Roffey highlighted our students positive ap- proach to the day and was quick to recognise their advance technology skills and ‘can do’ attitude when creating and filming news stories to a tight time deadline.

Charli Napier, Director of Improvement for English across LAT praised the day and the impact it had on the students “Today was such an opportunity for our students to practise, experiment and explore different elements of reporting and journalism. They were encouraged to question their own bias, to take risks, and to develop their confidence.”

The event is part of a series of planned events aimed at highlighting future career options and providing LAT students with real life experience of the world of work.

Faye McGill-Director of Improvement-English

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International Women’s Day

On Monday 9th March 2020, The Leigh Academy held its inaugural International Women’s Day Conference for Year 12 students. Over a hundred students and staff gathered to mark this global event and consider some of the challenges that women face - in the developing and developed worlds - in society’s struggle for gender equality. Councillor Kelly Grehan, an elected member of Dartford Borough Council and former Leigh Academy student, led a workshop on women in public life, the challenges that women face in getting their voices heard in a male-dominated sphere of life and the 50:50 Parliament movement that campaigns for equality of gender representation in all elected bodies in the UK.

Joanna Holland then led her workshop on the fashion industry. Joanna, a Chinese national, studied fashion in China and the USA but then worked in the industry in China, as well as lecturing at Hangzhou University. She now lives full time in the UK, where she runs a successful wedding accessories and photography business, based in Dartford. She explained that 90% of the 170 million Chinese employed in the fashion industry in China are women and face great challenges to be recognised for their contribution in businesses that are still male-led.

Kelly and Joanna then joined Kirsty Marshall and Sandra Shepley, Coordinators of Learning for Post-16 at the academy, and Olivia Wellard and Louise Manley, Year 13 students at the academy, on a panel, where they gave their views of the questions generated by Year 12 students. Oliva is writing her EPQ essay on whether feminism is still relevant in the 21st century and Louise is an active and campaigning member of the Labour Party in Dartford.

Speaking after the event, Kelly said, “Thank you so much for having me. It was a pleasure! I thought it was a really positive event, where the young people were engaged and asked valid and insightful questions. I believe it was important to have the boys, as well as the girls, present and that all contributions were equally valid. The set up allowed for good interaction and I think the morning gave the students a lot to reflect on.” Kelly will be returning to The Leigh for its Political Engagement Day with Year 12 in July. Joanna described the students as “a credit to the school” and hoped that their takeaway message would be that “there are no boundaries to hold them back” and if they tried something and failed, they should simply “keep trying.”

Student feedback was very positive, with praise for the excellent content from the two workshop leaders. Some female students felt reassured that they would be able to become mothers and still progress in the other parts of their lives, while some of the male students began to realise things that they hadn’t before: “Feminism has always been a scary word to me but today has helped me to start to realise that it doesn’t have to be - it’s just about equality.”

Lee Forcella-Burton, Director of Post-16

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Made in Bluewater

In January a group of year 10 students started their journey in a joint Design & Technology and Business Studies design and marketing competition hosted by Bluewater. The students participated in lectures, presentations and were given a guided tour around Bluewater to better understand the history, ethos and environmental values of Bluewater in order to fulfil the brief of the competition. Students were then given 6 weeks to fulfill the brief of designing a logo that fully represents Bluewater which could be professionally printed onto a reusable Chilly’s bottle, a supporting media campaign and an accompanying sales pitch. This is all in order to promote Lansdsec’s ‘Refill Me’ campaign, whereby, wherever you see the ‘Refill Me’ logo, you can fill up your water bottle for free to avoid the purchase and use of single use plastic bottles.

This was a cross LAT Trust competition against The Leigh UTC and Longfield Academy, The Leigh entered 3 groups in to the competition; ‘Bluewater Bottled’ comprised of Sophie Booker, Ryan Goodger, Kieren Martin, Kai Maunders, Adnana Moraru and Harry Steer; ‘Every Bottle Counts’ comprised of Maciej Dygner, Reece Lilley, Heather Saxton and Gurjodh Singh and ‘The Leigh Design Lab’ comprised of Samuel Adams, Liam Barfoot-Mills, Liam Kemp, Tyler Hassan, Rachel Holder and Kiera McHugh.

Once the students returned from the initial visit they worked tirelessly on their own campaigns and designs, part way through, they were visited by an external mentor from Bluewater to discuss their progress and ensure they were on the right track. The approaches of all the 3 groups were totally different and really showcased the talents and individual personalities of the groups. The 6 weeks passed extremely fast and before they knew it the students were back in Bluewater to present their campaigns against the judging panel and all of the competition participants.

The 3 groups did an amazing job during their presentations and each was highly commended; Bluewater Bottled for their videography skills and understanding of social media, Every Bottle Counts for their vision, graphic work and understanding of sales and LDL for their audience engagement and design development.

All groups were extremely professional, confident and a real asset to The Leigh Academy. Students learnt what it was like to work as part of a successful team, working to a strict brief and deadline, whilst experiencing first hand the real world of business and presenting publicly.

The tensions were rising whilst the judges took time to deliberate all 8 presentations from across the Trust as nobody could call who would win. Before the judges announced the winners; they commented on the professionalism of the presentations, the detail evidenced in the research and media campaigns and the development of the logos. They then revealed that Every Bottle Counts were the winners! The judges were hugely impressed with Every Bottle Counts logo and that it managed to encapsulate so many features of Bluewater whilst looking so striking and invited the winning students to return to the store in due course to sell their winning design once it has been professionally printed.

All students were really pleased for their peers and also personally proud of their own achievements.

The experience to date has been a great opportunity for all those involved but it is not yet over for Maciej, Reece, Heather and Gurjodh of Every Bottle Counts, so watch this space.

Charlotte Gibson, Design & Technology

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Keeping in touch

During this period of national school closure, it is important that the school community keeps in touch with each other. As well as the academy website, you can also follow The Leigh Academy on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Here you will find latest news, messages to parents/carers and students, as well as other updates.

@theleighacademy @theleighacademy @LeighAcademy

Heads of College

The Heads of College wanted to share with you some of the things they have been doing, including: • Home schooling their own children • Taking an hour of daily exercise • Supporting children of key workers in school • Doing an online assembly • Doing sporting challenges

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Covid-19 Advice