WHAT’S GOING ON
Spring Edition 2019
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Our Vision: “To open minds creating opportunities for all to believe in themselves, achieve their potential and develop the skills needed to succeed and enjoy life”
Our Values: Ambition, Integrity, Inclusivity, Endeavour, Resilience Evolve Students Recognised for their Bravery Scott Bowskill in Post 16 at the Beech Academy was awarded with the Child of Courage Awards this week at the Mansfield and Ashfield celebration this week. Mr Bunney represented the Academy with Scott and his Mother and presented to the audience the amazing resilience Scott has had to show through adversity, challenges and anxieties. Scott is a credit to the Academy and the Trust and we wish him every success for the future. Ashton Green Year 8 was this year’s Courage Award winner from The Brunts Academy. Ashton received his award at the celebration event held at the Portland College. Well done Scott and Aston!
Claire-Marie Cuthbert, CEO of The Evolve Trust
Welcome to the second edition of the Evolve Trust newsletter that celebrates the many exciting things that are happening across our family of schools. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the people who sent such glowing feedback after the first edition. I was delighted to hear the newsletter was so warmly received. It’s been a busy term at The Evolve Trust as examination season is nearly upon us and I would like to thank parents and carers for their continued support and wish all students at Beech, Bramble and Brunts the very best of luck! We have much to be proud of within our trust and this newsletter gives an insight into some of the amazing things that teachers, colleagues and staff across Evolve are doing day in and day out to support students. My personal highlights this term have to be World Book Day, launching Todays Leaders Tomorrows Heads programme and I was also humbled to receive a nomination for the global teacher prize from Gess. BRUNTS STUDENT’S SWIMMING SUCCESS Heidi has made the final in the 100m backstroke and came 2nd overall for her age group. She came 1st in the 200m backstroke and because of these two amazing swims got on the podium for the overall junior champ. She is currently ranked 5th in the country for her age group and is now working on making it to Glasgow in D e c e m b e r f o r t h e E u ro p e a n Swimming Championships.
The Beech Academy
The Beech Academy enjoyed an amazing World Book Day this year with some multi sensory activities for lessons, which linked to or are based upon extracts from a book, story or poem. These are just a few of the ideas: Maths •Read an extract from the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S Lewis •Select a part of the extract and investigate the most popular words recording information in a tally table and presenting this in a bar chart/pictogram • Share a box of Turkish delight equally between everyone in the group. Cooking • Read an extract from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll • Make Queen of Heart tarts Geography – Read an extract from The Billionaire Boy by David Walliams • Draw a map of Bumfresh Towers and add the different parts / rooms mentioned in Chapter 1, as well as the locations of all of the amazing things that Joe finds- whilst feasting on Millionaire shortbread perhaps? Design Technology – Read an extract from War Horse by Michael Morpurgo • Watch the trailer from the stage production of War Horse. Could you use it as inspiration for creating your own puppets? English – Read an extract from Holes by Louis Sachar •Create a fridge magnet poem called `Diggin It` listening to the track from the film for inspiration! The Bramble Academy For World Book Day we asked our pupils to come to school dressed as their favourite book character and donate £1. We raised a total of £63.80 which was used to buy books for the children’s ward at Kingsmill Hospital. Throughout the day the children took part in some wonderful activities. They did a catwalk to show off their costumes and explain why they chose that character as well as taking part in writing a whole school story, making bookmarks, sharing new books and independently creating their own story settings. A massive thank you to everyone who participated.
Hagg Farm Trip at The Brunts Academy The Hagg Farm trip has been a real success this year! Students have engaged with a range of activities throughout the week and have thoroughly enjoyed themselves!
Robin Hood Lottery Community Fund Grant (RHLCFG) Mansfield District Council has offered the Bramble Academy £700 towards the cost of the workshops they are going to run helping the children to learn different skills and creating a documentary. The Executive Mayor, Kate Allsop, will be meeting with a Bramble representative in the Mayor’s office at the Civic Centre Mansfield, to present Bramble with the cheque and to learn more about this exciting project.
BEECH TRIES TABLE CRICKET Every year we get tremendous support from the Belvoir Cricket and Countryside Trust. Darren Bricknell comes in to teach table cricket to KS3, and the Trust sponsored t-shirts for the team when we qualified for the national finals in 2017, and they host a countryside day in the summer where pupils meet birds of prey and the hounds from the Belvoir Hunt.
THE BRUNTS ACADEMY IS AWARDED NCS CHAMPION SCHOOL FOR 2017/18 The Brunts Academy has been awarded NCS Champion School 2017/2018 Gold Award. It is a great achievement and the academy’s commitment to the programme reflects on this outcome. Sophia Stewart (Brunts Sixth Form NCS Champion Graduate) opened the event with another NCS Graduate. She was a real ambassador for the Brunts Academy and has certainly gained a lot from the NCS programme. Kay Barnard was their guest speaker. Brunts is the only school in Mansfield to have received the NCS gold championship award. Ashfield was the only other school to get this award. Hally Lockwood, as Head of Year 11, supported Kay with the NCS programme and excelled at motivating Year 11 students to take up NCS and its extracurricular activities during their summer holidays in 2017/2018. Sophia is a great example of the positive outcome of attending such a programme and a credit to the Academy.
In Autumn Two we visited a University to understand the opportunities that were available to us after we leave school. We went to the University of Hull for the day and attended lectures and workshops. On arrival the children got to listen to some information about the history of universities and learnt about the oldest universities in the country (Oxford and Cambridge). The children got to go on a campus tour and visit the library, campus accommodation and also sit in a real lecture theatre. They then got to take part in lectures in architecture designing their own university campuses. At the end of the day, the pupils got to wear caps and gowns and take part in a graduation ceremony, where they got their own degree certificates.
THE BEECH ACADEMY LAUNCHES RECORD OF ACHIEVEMENT Pupils at the Beech Academy will now graduate at the end of the year if they complete their Record of Achievement folders. This ties in to the Beech Scholarship where the pupils have to work towards 10 pledges per year groups which also includes representing the Academy in line with our Core Values. We can’t wait to share these with pupils in the Achievement Assembly in the summer Term.
A DRIVE FOR MORE MEN TO WORK WITH THE YOUNGEST CHILDREN IN EDUCATION A drive is under way to increase the number of men working with the youngest children in the education system, drawing on the success of Norway, which has the highest percentage of male early years professionals in the world. According to the latest statistics, just 2% of the early years education (EYE) workforce in the UK is male – a figure that has remained static for decades, despite previous targets and greater shared childcare between men and women at home. Researchers from Lancaster University and the Fatherhood Institute have launched a two-year study to try to understand the obstacles preventing more men from joining the EYE workforce and identify possible ways to improve gender diversity in early years settings. Male primary teachers have spoken of their fear of being perceived as suspicious for working with young children. GREAT START TO THE TRUST’S CAKE AND JOURNAL CLUB The Trust’s Cake and Journal Club provided an invaluable opportunity to discuss, review, and summarise a research paper each half-term, with a particular focus on its implications for classroom practice. It’s open to all – so please contact jmorrin@brunts.evolvetrust.org. Last week’s meeting was a brilliant start to the Trust’s First Cake and Journal Club, with a range of staff from across the Trust sharing their different views and experiences. A very fruitful discussion on Rosenshine’s (2012) Principles of Instruction took place over plenty of coffee and chocolate cake. It was interesting to see how much of staff day-to-day teaching echoes much of what Rosenshine’s (2012) research indicates. Staff also agreed that there were particular points in the research that they wanted to focus on to assess whether or not it would have a measurable impact on students learning. Particular areas, included: Providing new material in smaller steps; to build in a weekly and monthly review of learning through the use of low risk tests; guide student practice through verbalising the teacher’s thought process.
TAEKWONDO COMES TO BRAMBLE The 25th February 2019 saw Bramble’s first after school club this term, starting with Taekwondo. This was the first of 6 weeks in which David Kacperski will be coming into the Bramble and teaching Taekwondo to the year 3’s, 4’s, 5’s and 6’s. This club has attracted a lot of students, and offers an activity that is unique compared to the rest of the extracurricular. THE EVOLVE TRUST NOMINATED FOR PRESTIGIOUS GESS EDUCATION AWARD The awards highlight and reward the quality and diversity of educational products, resources, services and people as well as the best educational establishments and the most dedicated members of the teaching profession. The GESS Education Awards aim to encourage the raising of educational services & product standards throughout the industry and aims to be recognised throughout the sector as the accolade of excellence. The awards are broken down into two sections those for Suppliers and/or distributors and those for Teachers, Schools and Educational Professionals. We are proud to announce that Claire-Marie Cuthbert and The Evolve Trust have been nominated for the Outstanding contribution to education award!
BRUNTS NETBALL NEWS On an extremely cold January evening year 7 and 8 took part in the first Central Venue Netball League of 2019. Students represented the school extremely well, despite the freezing temperatures and even looked like they were enjoying themselves!! Massive congratulations to all the girls who took part. Results are below. Brunts Year 7 Team Brunts 0 v 0 All Saints Brunts 2 v 0 Samworth
Brunts Year 8 Team Brunts 2 v 8 All Saints Brunts 3 v 7 Samworth
WELCOME TO MELLORS CATERING SERVICES Mellors Catering Services, an award winning-family business, was established back in 1840 as a local bakery and now is the first choice contract caterers for staff restaurants, schools and colleges. The Evolve Trust are pleased to welcome Mellors from April 2019 following a successful tender process completed in January 2019, We are very much looking forward to working with them and rejuvenating our current offering to pupils.
JP MORGAN WORK EXPERIENCE PROGRAMME Year 10 & Year 12 students from The Brunts Academy at the launch of the JP Morgan work experience programme. The 6th largest investment bank in the world offering amazing opportunities to our talented students.
The Beech Academy applied and has been selected as the only Special School in the country to be involved with the Politics Project. The pupils will be involved with and lead debates with politicians including Ben Bradley via a live link up to Westminster in the coming weeks. Thank you to Mr Bunney for organising the successful bid.
Motivational Story from Steve Judge, Paratriathalon World Champion
Fantastic to see Steve Judge with our Year 11’s today, helping raise aspirations through his inspiring personal story and encouraging us all to fight to achieve our goals. Steve’s uplifting, poignant and yet humorous performance helped students to realise their own goals and turn adversities into golden opportunities within their personal and social life. As a Motivational Speaker he took Year 11 on an inspiring journey following his commitment and achievements through rehabilitation from being told that he may never walk again when both of his legs were crushed. £1m new build at The Brunts Academy An official opening of a new £1million building at the Brunts Academy took place on Monday 28th January 2019 by Ben Bradley MP for Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. The Byron Building was named by staff and students in the academy who are delighted to have a state of the art building housing 9 new classrooms. Ben Bradley commented “It’s been a real pleasure to be able to formally open the building which represents a huge investment in the futures of young people at Brunts and in Mansfield. This place leads the way in delivering great education locally and the Bryon building will help that to continue long into the future. “ The opening was attended by Members, Trustees and Governors of the Evolve Trust, together with representation from the academy’s student council. Dominic Swift, Chair of Trustees
compared the building to a greenhouse, somewhere the students could grow experiencing their first taste of Shakespeare or falling in love with poetry. The Evolve Trust are delighted to confirm that the building project is now completed at the Brunts Academy. This build is a modular structure that was designed and constructed with the help of Elliott UK, Surveyors to Education and KJ Taylor Consulting Limited. The building consists of 9 new classrooms to replace the old mobile classrooms and will house Humanities and Languages.
10% BRAVER – BOOK LAUNCH! Launched on the 9th March 2019 - starring our very own CEO Members of the Evolve Trust supported the CEO at the 10% Braver book launch. Claire co-authored Chapter 6 of this ultimate guide for women in education. Written by leading members of the grassroots #WomenEd movement, it offers guidance on how to attain and succeed in leadership positions, alongside nuanced analysis and debate of topics including: the gender pay gap, gender stereotyping in schools and beyond, the realities experienced by BME leaders and how flexible working cultures can redress inequities. Each chapter gives advice on how we can all change things for the better, as individuals, in our schools, and across the system, and how you can be part of the #WomenEd movement to improve equality in education for everyone.
YEAR 8 FOOTBALL TEAM MAKE THE FINALS! Well done to the Year 8 football boys who represented Brunts in the Year 8 MACUP at Sutton Lawn winning the league winning 2, drawing 1 and losing 1, to go through to the semi-finals. In the semi finals they came up against Joseph Whittaker with the result at full time 0-0. On to the penalty shootout with the best of 3, Noah Szczesny saving the final penalty to send Brunts through to the Final on 22nd March!
  SKI TRIP FOR BRUNTS STUDENTS Staff and students departed for a ski trip earlier this year. The trip included -12 degree conditions, plenty of snow, the introduction of Olaf the onesie for the silliest skier and a
trip to Salzburg. Also, an off piste disaster and pizza evening!
Students in the SDC at Brunts have recently emba rked on a literacy project - All About Pets. During the early stages, students have been looking at the basic needs of a human being and then linked this to how we would care for pets, including an external visit to bring the project to life.
THE BEECH ACADEMY GETS INTO POLITICS The pupils in Years 8 and 10 at Beech have embarked on a politics project where they get to have live web links with local and national figures. Mayor Kate Allsop was welcomed and a live link to Westminster was set up to speak to MP Ben Bradley. Both representatives have gratefully accepted the challenge of being questioned by the pupils who generated the questions independently The pupils excelled themselves, put forward their questions and demonstrated our values in ever y aspect whilst representing the Academy. READATHON We are delighted to have taken part in Readathon, the UK’s biggest national sponsored reading event that helps children develop a life-long love of reading for pleasure. All pupils in Years 7, 8 and 9 took part in this event and it was closely linked to activities completed within English lessons to celebrate World Book Day on Thursday 7th March. Readathon works with CLIC Sargent and the Roald Dahl Foundation to support children and young people suffering from cancer, Hodgkin’s disease , leukaemia, blood disorders, epilepsy or acquired brain injury. The money we raise from the Readathon will be donated to these worthwhile charities. Also, the school will receive free b ook s wor t h 2 0 % of ou r sc h ool ’s sponsorship total. Last year we raised a fantastic £1,352, and hope to beat this amount this year!
range of fantastic competitions and activities to promote reading for pleasure.
Todays Leaders, Tomorrows Heads Programme A group of Evolve aspirant Headteachers have embarked on an extremely challenging training pathway to become Headteachers of the future. Blending transformational training with learning directly from the CEO and Director of School Improvement, this programme is equipping the cohort with the skills to be an effective Headteacher. Bespoke, evidence-based, face-to-face training unpicks what it really means to be an Evolve Headteacher. This is an intensive leadership programme based on the latest research and provides the opportunity to put theory into practice through challenging and thought provoking practical assignments and training sessions. The group have been engaging with the latest research on leadership and have been planning for the challenge of leading a virtual school. Additionally, participants are developing individual projects within their schools which will impact directly on the learning experiences of student in their schools. While this training is concerned with the future of leadership across the Trust the programme is also designed to enhance participants’ current practice and make a direct impact on their school and, in particular, developing the confidence to lead teaching and learning.
Also, as part of the celebrations, students took part in special World Book Day lessons and had the opportunity to participate in a
INCREASE IN STUDENTS TAKING SPANISH Spanish could overtake French as the UK's most popular language at A- level in 2019, the authors of a new report have said. Teaching Spanish in the UK, which was launched at the Spanish Embassy in London, analyses trends which have also seen French and German in decline. The authors said the popularity of Spain as a tourist destination is driving the subject’s “extraordinar y and spectacular growth”.
Ben Laker Visits The Evolve Trust The Trust welcomed Dr Ben Laker for a second visit on 20th March 2019 to work with a range of senior and executive Trust leaders. Dr. Ben Laker is Professor of Leadership at Henley Business School and expert commentator on global affairs for Bloomberg and Sky News. He advises governments and corporations worldwide and writes extensively for Harvard Business Review and The Telegraph. He co-founded the Centre for High Performance, a research institute that works with British Cycling, Eton College, NASA, the New Zealand All Blacks, Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Art and Royal Shakespeare Company. In 2018 he joined Henley Business School and was recognised by Thinkers50 as one of the world's top thinkers. Middle and senior leaders have benefitted massively from his thinking, particularly around how to fully embed the Trust’s vision and values and how we live the Trust values in everything we do. The Evolve Trust takes the development of its staff extremely seriously and working with Dr Ben Laker ensures the very latest research is applied in everything we do so that our young people receive the best possible education throughout the Trust.
Pupils at The Bramble Academy - University Visit We visited the university that Miss Toyne and Mr Wilson graduated from. We completed a treasure hunt around campus and explored different university buildings. We read books in their fantastic children's library and completed a fun 'design your own university' challenge! After lunch we walked to Lincoln Cathedral. On the way we saw The Red Arrows! We were excited to find out that there was a graduation happening at the cathedral and we watched the professors walking into the cathedral in their caps and gowns! Some even gave us a high five!
SCHOOL INSET DAYS 2018-19 5th July 2019 2019-20 30th August 2019 2nd September 2019 18th October 2019 6th January 2020 3rd July 2020 2020-2021 1st September 2020 16th October 2020 4th January 2021 22nd February 2021 1st July 2021
Governance
The Evolve Trust have taken the opportunity to change the way in which our academies are governed. We have introduced five scrutiny boards; Personal Development, Behaviour and Wellbeing; Achievement and Standards; Business, Finance and Staffing; Estates and Health and Community, who will work across the Trust. The boards include trustees, a mix of Evolve and non-Evolve experts appropriate for each board.
The Trust would like to say a fond farewell to Fiona Stagg, Trustee of the Board who has been offered an exciting opportunity as Head of Governance.
Welcome to Hannah Rees who has joined the Board of Trustees. Hannah co-founded her own education social enterprise, Think for the Future, which focuses on building social and emotional resilience for secondary school aged young people. Her role has seen her work with hundreds of young people and schools across the East Midlands, developing successful educational programmes and community projects that helps students to capitalise on new opportunities that instil habits for future success.
Happy Easter from The Evolve Trust
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