Newsletter
Issue Two
Message from the Chief Executive News from all academies Meet the HR Team
Chief Executive’s Welcome
This year has seen the Trust team step up its support and challenge to the 5 academies. I have been impressed by the determination shown by staff to deliver improved opportunities and outcomes for our learners. An unannounced Ofsted Section 8 inspection at DMA focussing on the effectiveness of safeguarding arrangements, aspects of the effectiveness of leadership and management and the personal development, behaviour and welfare of pupils at the academy towards the end of term resulted in positive outcomes. I attended a fantastic celebration of success evening at KLA this week. Such events help to build confidence across our communities and inspire learners to further success.
Good progress is being made at Southery Primary School and we remain on target to open the new academy on 1 March 2016. The autumn term is always a long and challenging one and this year has once again been no exception! I’d like to thank all staff for striving to achieve our strategic ambitions. I really appreciate your hard work and professionalism and wish you all a very happy Christmas and a healthy and successful New Year.
It was pleasing to see one of our academies, Eastgate Academy, featuring as one of the best in the county in the recent primary school league tables for adding value. Helping our students to make rapid progress from their starting points is a key focus for the trust. Following a planning day earlier this term, the Trust Board will be reviewing a draft Trust Strategic Plan next week, which I will share with staff early in the New Year. The draft plan includes the following Vision Statement: ‘supporting our local communities by working together to achieve excellence through learning.’
I would like to take this opportunity to wish all CWA Academy Trust staff a happy Christmas and to thank you for your hard work this term. In the last three months I have worked with staff teams from all 5 academies and I have been impressed by the willingness of primary and secondary teams to engage with the academy improvement agenda. I have been listening hard to staff as they share how things can be improved as an academy trust and we are working hard behind the scenes to strengthen our recruitment
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strategy, widen access to high quality training programmes for staff and provide greater opportunities to share good and outstanding practice between the academies in the trust. Duncan Ramsey Consultant Principal
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DMA’s ‘Enterprise Day’ is ‘the business’ Year 11 Business students at Downham Market Academy (DMA) have been putting their business acumen to the test, at their ‘Enterprise Activity Day’. The students have been working hard on their very own retail business plans which culminated in them setting up ‘pop-up’ shops to sell their lovely products to other students. Many of the products for sale were edible, including ‘hot crêpes’. Other products included smoothies, cakes, cookies, non-alcoholic mulled wine and a range of homemade sweets. Business student Kerreanne Edwards (15) was part of a team selling homemade sweets which were proving very popular.
Another business student, Emma Grabowski (16), came up with a ‘Winter Wonderland’ theme for her stall which was selling cakes and sweets. She said: “Everything has sold really well but pick ‘n’ mix sweets have definitely been our best seller.” The Enterprise activity is the final project for the year 11s and will count towards their overall GCSE in Business grade.
Head of Key Stage 4 Business at DMA, Tasleem Ahmad, said: “It is great to see the students take part in the enterprise project, in which they can learn business skills and gain experience of setting up a small business. It’s been a really worthwhile learning experience for them.”
A student with sweet treats
The money raised from the project will be used towards the school summer ball and be shared between the Academy’s chosen charities.
Special visitors mark anti-bullying week
Downham Market Academy students marked anti-bullying week with a visit from a former X Factor contestant and performances from a visiting theatre company. Singer Sam Callahan performed to year 8 students and talked about his own personal experiences with cyber-bullying. Jack Harris, a Head of House at DMA, said students thoroughly enjoyed
meeting Sam, who was happy to share his experiences, pose for photos and chat with the learners.
Also making an appearance was The Take Away Theatre Company, a travelling theatre company who specialise in anti-bullying plays. They held workshops for year 7 students and performed ‘Hope’, a story of “courage, self-empowerment and redemption.”
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Students with Sam Callahan
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Eastgate Academy goes to the big city 18 students from Eastgate Academy set off to London on 24 November to visit the London Eye and the London Aquarium, as part of an enrichment activity.
Principal Linda Hothersall explained that the academy likes to take the Year 2 pupils to London to enrich their educational experience, as an extension of in-class learning. The Eagles class has been studying the Great Fire of London this term and the visit helped bring their lessons to life.
Eastgate Academy staff and students on the London Eye
She said: “The children really enjoyed the train journey and going on the underground. We took the children on the London Eye so we could point
out all the attractions.The children all had a lovely time and will continue to work on projects surrounding aspects of their trip.”
Eastgate Academy set for Three King Finale Students at Eastgate Academy entertained parents and family with the traditional nativity play with a twist. Staff and students have been working hard adding the final touches to what they hope will be a great finale to what has proven to be a very successful 2015. All the usual characters are featured including kings, shepherds, angels and stable animals along with festive song, but the rap song written by the school that features at the play’s finale will really have the audience clapping along. Assistant Principal Wendy Darrell said: “We are really
Eastgate students in their nativity play costumes
proud of the students and staff involved. They have worked really hard to put the production together in a short space of time”.
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The nativity, featuring 90 reception, year 1 and year 2 pupils, took place on Monday 14 December for family and friends. 4
Childhood heroes at KES Academy for Children In Need
Staff and students from KES Academy dressed as their childhood heroes
Staff and students at King Edward VII Academy got into the fancy dress spirit, dressing as their childhood heroes to raise money for BBC’s Children In Need.
Ellen Blade, Assistant Principal, said: “Children in Need provides us with an opportunity for our students to reflect upon children that are not as fortunate as them and realise just how lucky
they are. We had a positive response from our staff and our students which was very pleasing to see. We hope the money raised will contribute to the wellbeing of other young people.”
Spirit of Christmas alive and well at KES Academy On Friday 11th December the staff and students of KES Academy showed their Christmas spirit was alive and well by taking part in a number of different activities to raise money for local and national charities. For many years students from the 6th form have collected sugar at Christmas for the Purfleet trust, the trust use this throughout the year for providing hot drinks to the homeless of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk.
This year they have more than trebled previous efforts by collecting 187kg.
Sixth form students also organised a Christmas jumper day for the whole academy and staff and students donated £1 each so as well as baking and selling cakes at breaks and lunch time and in the process raised money for Text Santa. Rachel Allsop, Assistant Head of 6th form said: “We believe in creating a community within our 6th form and days like
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Sixth formers selling cakes to raise money for Text Santa
today are a fantastic example of what’s possible when all the staff and students work together.” 5
KLA sends over £4000 to Nepal King’s Lynn Academy has raised a total of £4815.84 for the charity Manisha UK, with funds being directed to the academy’s twin school in Nepal.
Manisha UK is a UK based, not-for-profit charity, run entirely by volunteers. It was formally established as a charity in England and Wales in 2010 following several years of support to a Nepalese charity. King’s Lynn Academy is twinned with Shree Amrit Public Secondary School in Nepal, through Manisha UK. This is a community that
is almost fully dependent on agricultural activity and most people are uneducated and in very poor economic circumstances. The pairing came about after the Nepal earthquake, when students at KLA decided with their head of school at the time, Terri Broughton, that they wanted to do their bit to help and have been doing just that ever since. This latest donation was raised through a community day held at KLA, which consisted of activities, stalls, games and a tombola. Terri Broughton, former head of school at King’s Lynn Academy, said: “I am really
Presenting a cheque to Manisha UK
proud of the academy. They are always so forthcoming with donations and in doing their bit with helping to organise charitable events. “The community day raised more than we could have hoped for – a strong example of the academy’s commitment to such events.”
KLA supports the Purfleet Trust Students from King’s Lynn Academy (KLA) have presented local charity, the Purfleet Trust, with items they have collected to be donated to those in need this winter. The Purfleet Trust is a King’s Lynn based charity which supports homeless people in the King’s Lynn and West Norfolk area. KLA have been supporting the trust in their winter brown bag appeal. Lead by Mrs Thomas, Head of Cresswell House, students and staff have been collecting items throughout the term. Items being donated include food parcels, toiletries and gift sets.
KLA students and the winter brown bags
assistant Victoria Smith, in an assembly at the academy on Thursday 3 December 2015.
Significant donations were presented to Georgie Futter, intensive support worker at the Purfleet Trust and their administrative CWA Academy Trust | Newsletter
The organisation relies on charitable donations from the local community.
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Nelson students take part in nativity Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) pupils from Nelson Academy in Downham Market are performing their annual Christmas nativity play this week. The EYFS children, aged 3 to 5 years old, performed a rendition of ‘A Miracle in Town’ to family and friends on Monday 7 December. More than 60 pupils were involved in the production ranging from narrators to angels and even a camel.The nativity included a range of Christmas-themed songs and
Nelson students in their nativity play costumes
concluded with a performance of We Wish You a Merry Christmas.
Becky Gipp and Coleen Todd, teaching assistants at Nelson Academy, have been behind the production of the play.
Celebrating Christmas in style! Friends of Nelson Academy and academy staff organised a Christmas Fair with the academy students on Friday 11 December. During the day each class through the school was able to spend time with the 2 real reindeer that came to visit as part of a very busy fortnight of Christmas celebrations.
After school each class worked together to run a fundraising stall in the hall. Stalls included ‘Pick a snowman’s nose’, ‘Put the nose on Rudolf’, chocolate reindeer cookies, and those selling jewellery and craft items the children had made as well as face painting. The hall was
decorated with giant baubles collaboratively produced by the children in each class too. Staff at Nelson Academy worked in conjunction with Helen Miller and other friends of Nelson Academy to co-ordinate the very successful event. Gill Sekatawa, reception class teacher, said: “The nice thing about the Christmas Fayre is everyone works together. We are very lucky to have such amazing families who support events by coming along and spending their money which ultimately goes back to the students in the form of equipment, trips and special events.”
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Meet the HR team
From 1 November, the Trust took in-house the HR service which, to date, had been provided on a contract basis by the County Council. Many of you will already have seen or heard of us as we are already working with the staff and management in the Academies. We provide general advice and guidance, support for absence and ill-health, recruitment and selection, pensions administration etc. In addition to the support outlined above, we are currently actively working on the implementation of a computerised HR system which will enable you to see the information held by us on you and change information such as addresses or phone numbers online. This will help us to more actively review staff data, manage information and pensions and will ultimately be a link through to our payroll service. We hope that being here locally we can provide a better service. Please contact us by telephone or email as set out below. If you would like to meet, please just get in contact and we can arrange that with you. Rosy Lord, HR Manager Responsible for strategic HR, organisational change, policies and procedures, specialist HR, Trust level union consultation and negotiation, crossacademy training, benefits, contract management e.g. payroll, TUPE, contracts and terms and conditions, new initiatives and liaison with the Trust Board Gemma Everitt, HR Business Partner HR advice and guidance, Teachers’ Pension administration, general queries, recruitment, policies and procedure information, payroll liaison, HR system maintenance, specialist reports
Gemma Everitt, Lois Hyland and Jennie Sharrocks
Jennie Sharrocks, HR Administrator General administration including production of contracts and contract change letters, Teachers’ Pension administration, queries, payroll liaison, Single Central Record, personnel files, HR system maintenance Lois Hyland, Administrator HR system administration and management, website maintenance, general administrative support If you have a query, it does not matter how big or small it is, contact us on 01553 611807. We are working with the leadership in each Academy to provide the best support we can to you to help promote the achievement of our students.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year - see you in 2016! The newsletter is designed to provide an overall team update as well as providing an insight as to what’s going on at our other academies. If you have any ideas or suggestions for future editions of the CWA Academy Trust Newsletter, please contact lois.hyland@cwaacademytrust.co.uk CWA Academy Trust | Newsletter
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