ACE Times – Newsletter of the Atlantic Centre of Excellence Trust Summer 2017 Forest Schooling @ St Columb Major Within ACE we have….. 7 Academies (+2 new academies to join on 01 May 2017) 399 Staff 2,547 Pupils 1 ACE Times – Newsletter of the Atlantic Centre of Excellence Trust Some thoughts from Jennie Walker, our CEO The Spring term was a busy one and I am so proud of all of the exciting opportunities going on throughout our academies. One of the most important processes that did happen last term was the recruitment of three new headteachers to the Trust. I am pleased to announce that we appointed Mark Clutsom at Charlestown, Marie Cameron at St Columb Major and Jess Mills at St Agnes. All of these new heads will take up their new posts in September, although Mark Clutsom is already at Charlestown!! Mark Clutsom is an experienced head who was most recently Executive headteacher over St Kew and Upton Cross schools (just joining ACE). He was seconded to Charlestown in October and has been working hard with staff and governors to move the school forward. We are delighted at his appointment to the substantive role. Marie Cameron is currently Head of School at Grampound CE School, having previously taught in the Truro and St Austell areas. She has an impressive track record and the governors and I were thrilled to appoint her to the team at St Columb Major, our outstanding school. Jess Mills is currently the Co Head of an outstanding Infant school in Dulwich Village, London. Prior to this she was an Assistant Head in an outstanding primary school in Canning Town, London. Jess will be relocating to Cornwall during the Summer holiday. We are very excited that she will joining the team at St Agnes. As the Trust continues to evolve it is great to see the staff development opportunities that are opening up to our staff, at all levels. We have many examples of cross school support and also of leadership opportunities for staff. We currently have ACE teachers developing their experiences in Associate Head, Deputy Head, Leading Teacher and Key Stage leader roles and ACE support staff working in other schools. This is a great way of trialling a role and gaining confidence before applying for a substantive post. If you would be interested in a similar opportunity please let me know. I know that you will all be focussing on the important assessments that are on the horizon this term. I’d like to thank you for all of your hard work and I know that we will see improvements in our results by the end of the term. Outcomes must be at the top of our agenda but do not forget that learning MUST be fun!! Enjoy the Summer term! Jennie Walker Executive Principal ACE is committed to improving the life chances of all children’ 2 ACE Times – Newsletter of the Atlantic Centre of Excellence Trust = ACE Multi Academy trust Our new Director - Gordon Seabright I’m delighted to have joined the board of ACE MAT. I moved to Cornwall three years ago to take up the post of Managing Director of the Eden Project, and I live in Mawgan Porth, surrounded by ACE schools! Eden has been open for sixteen years now, and is often described as an educational charity, with almost 50,000 schoolchildren each year visiting the biomes. The Project has a philosophy of learning through nature, and I believe passionately in the value of children spending time outdoors, learning about the world while having fun and staying healthy. I’m excited that Eden is now working with ACE MAT on the development of a new school at West Carclaze centred on these principles, including a nursery where young children will be learning outdoors all year round. I hope the whole ACE MAT family of schools will be able to benefit, and I’ve already enjoyed visits to most of your schools and seen committed and expert staff working with confident, friendly children. Now I hope to help ensure the success of our schools while providing a link to Eden and some of the other local organisations I support, such as Newquay Community Orchard and Visit Cornwall. It’s great to be aboard and I’m grateful to Phil, Jennie and the team for the warm welcome I’ve received. 3 ACE Times – Newsletter of the Atlantic Centre of Excellence Trust LGPS and Teachers pensions seminars – dates for your diary • Monday 24th April ROBARTES & BEACON ACE ACADEMIES – joint • Monday 8th May ST COLUMB MINOR ACADEMY • Thursday 18th May CHARLESTOWN For schools that have not yet held their session with Milsted Langdon we would urge you to encourage staff to attend these wherever possible as it’s a great opportunity for them to find out and ask questions about their pension rights from the experts. We appreciate it’s not an exciting topic but it’s only an hour session and should be informative and useful! If you have any suggestions on how we could do this better, please let Jane King in the ACE Business team know. St Columb Major A huge well done to our Complete Core Challenge Team who attended an activity morning at Treviglas last term and won the 1st place trophy. We appreciate the opportunities our pupils are given to attend these activities. Our school choir took part in the Songfest 2017 concert at the Hall for Cornwall, joining with 12 other schools, taking everyone around the world with their repertoire. It was also lovely to meet those supporting the children. Congratulations to them all! Our School Choir also had the most exciting time touring London and the Classes 11 & 12 have received First Aid Houses of Parliament before taking Training with St Johns Ambulance this part in the VIAM 2017 Concert at week learning essential lifesaving skills. Wembley Arena where they sang with It has been a delight watching them all thousands of voices to help ‘Make a grow in confidence Difference’ for the charity ‘Adoption UK’. 4 ACE Times – Newsletter of the Atlantic Centre of Excellence Trust Our School Councillors watched in awe the installation of a Silver Ball Time Capsule on the bell turret of the Town. Pupils had the opportunity to make & collate items and information to place inside the capsule, which was expertly made by lead worker, Tim Fuge. The School Council really enjoyed being a part of St Columb’s history. All pupils have been involved in some fun learning with our Number and Science themed days. Welcome to our new Business team members David Houghton - Business Operations Manager [email protected] 01637 839594 Amy Roberts - Finance/HR Administrator [email protected] 01637 873958 Social Media… Follow us on Twitter @aceacademies t 01637 873958 e [email protected] w: www.aceacademies.co.uk 5 ACE Times – Newsletter of the Atlantic Centre of Excellence Trust Sky ACE Academy and Eden Project Nursery Our plans for a new primary school and nursery have been given the green light by the Department for Education. Our school will be part of the West Carclaze Eco- Community and this project represents a partnership with the Eden Project and Eco Bos Development, the company behind the West Carclaze Eco-Community. The school will cater for 420 pupils but will build up from Foundation Stage in the first year of opening from September 2019. The Nursery, will be led by Eden and involve children being outside for 80 per cent of their time. This outdoor learning ethos is the key first step for the youngest children of the West Carclaze Eco-Community in becoming globally and environmentally aware and fully prepared for life and learning in the 21st Century. We are excited that the DfE acknowledge the importance of an outdoor learning approach as we believe that it leads to significant benefits for children's health, happiness, well-being and development, in their relationship to nature and each other. This is fantastic news for our Trust and we are really pleased with the announcement. We will put our heart and soul into providing an outstanding education for the children of the new school. The building will enhance our ethos of sustainability and we will use the fantastic environment to create unrivalled outdoor based learning. Approval of the school is the culmination of many months of dedication and hard work. Our thanks to the ACE Business Team, Directors and everyone involved for their efforts so far. Exciting times ahead! Pictured right: Melissa Bunt – winner of the Ipad draw with Jennie Walker & Gordon Seabright 6 ACE Times – Newsletter of the Atlantic Centre of Excellence Trust Gatehouse ACE Academy What a busy Spring term we have had at Gatehouse! All of the children have been kept busy learning new topics and further developing their skills across the curriculum. Some pupils have been involved in local sporting events, competing against other schools within the Dawlish area. From cross country running to netball and dodgeball, our children competed exceptionally well and were a credit to the school due to the level of sportsmanship they displayed. Our School parliament attended a Fair children are actively planting trees and Trade Conference, where they met a shrubs to look after, with a view to cocoa farmer from Ghana who helped start planting some vegetables to them to understand the importance of harvest later in the year. In addition to global fair trade. They thoroughly this we have been looking at how we enjoyed the event, particularly the may use our lovely grounds to tasting of the chocolate! Their next enhance the learning experiences for step will be to plan events in school our children.