A MESSAGE FROM THE CEO Achievement Through Caring I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong. Abraham Lincoln Our family of schools have journeyed together through a turbulent academic year, and it is with great pride that I report back to you on the strength that exists between us all. The schools have extremely strong bonds which are reflected in the progress they are making together. Throughout this year Headteachers across the Trust have been partnered with a colleague Headteacher from another school to take part in a peer review. The final aspect to this process is the Headteachers swapping schools for almost a week to see what day to day life is like in each other’s schools so that they can celebrate together and offer suggestions about areas that could be better. We believe that by consistently challenging each other to move forwards our family of schools will continue to give the best possible learning experience to our children and young people. Headteachers and their teams have overwhelmingly fed back that being part of the Marches Academy Trust family of schools has made them stronger and able to better face the challenges that this year has brought. They have shown that this strength has enabled them to make great strides forward and we have seen building and maintenance work carried out in each of our schools to improve the environment for learning and our communities. Our Headteachers strive for a quality experience for all, and this is evident in every one of the Trust schools. At Woodlands School, they have continued to transform provision for young people. This year they have amalgamated three sites onto one and made significant improvements to the school grounds and buildings, and visitors are regularly commending the leadership team on the positive ethos that supports the young people to make great learning choices. Longlands Primary
School have successfully brought the nursery back into the school community and we were delighted earlier this year when they achieved the School Games Platinum Mark Award for the 2021/22 to 2022/23 academic year. Oakmeadow CE Primary School were awarded Employer of the Year Award and Apprentice of the Year Award at the County Training awards ceremony. In January, The Grove School was confirmed as the first school in Shropshire to achieve 100% in all eight Gatsby Benchmarks – the Gatsby Benchmark is a framework for good career guidance developed to support secondary schools and colleges in providing students with the best possible careers education, information and advice. Also, at The Grove School we have seen the refurbishment of student toilets as well as many of the outside areas and windows. November saw two new classrooms opened at Tilstock CE Primary School and in April the school gained a Good rating in their Ofsted inspection. Grange Primary School, Tilstock CE Primary School and Longlands Primary School have all been awarded the Department for Education Healthy Schools Mark which is a great achievement. The Marches School have been busy successfully managing an ambitious building project that will provide a new fitness suite and administration centre, that is on track to be ready for the students, staff and the community in September 2022. In April, Sir John Talbot’s School successfully delivered the Whitchurch 10k which brought the whole community together. Shrewsbury Academy were awarded the Rainbow Flag Award which focusses on positive LGBTQ+ inclusion and visibility demonstrating an inclusive curriculum, pastoral support and the incorporation of student voice. Lower Heath CE Primary School achieved their Rest Easy Gold Award which demonstrates their commitment to wellbeing and Grange Primary School received a special visit from RAF Shawbury as part of their Queen's Jubilee Platinum Jubilee celebrations. All of this is enhanced by our extensive enrichment programme across all of our schools. What a year! It is clear to see that our family of schools will continue to strive for the best possible learning environment and learning opportunities for all of our communities. Thank you to everyone who helps us to make these great things happen, from our Trustees, Governors and staff to our communities, volunteers, building contractors and supporters from across Shropshire
Sarah Finch CEO, The Marches Academy Trust
marchesacademytrust.co.uk
@MarchesAcademyTrust
MARCHES ACADEMY TRUST VISION & VALUES
We believe: Empower everyone in our Trust and our communities to live and breathe Achievement Through Caring and reach their full potential.
TRUST MEMBERS & TRUSTEES The Marches Academy Trust is governed by the Board of Trustees. Trustees are appointed by the members.
Members
Anna Burgess
Robert Forrester
David Griffiths
Arthur Walpole The Church of England Central Education Trust
Trustees
Alex Fry Chair
Catherine Bennett Vice Chair
Stuart Cowper
Pam Edwards
Sarah Finch CEO
Mark Liquorish
Angela Cattermole
Arthur Walpole
A MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR OF TRUSTEES Alex Fry | Member and Chair of the Board of Trustees, The Marches Academy Trust We have reached the end of another very challenging year, this time dealing with the repercussions of the pandemic, while trying to get back to the normal rhythm of school life. I am incredibly proud of all the staff, students and young people across the Trust for the way they have gone about achieving this, and want to thank them, and their families and the communities around our schools for supporting them. The impact of Covid is still being seen in all areas of society, and it may well be that this continues for some time. As a Trust, it has brought into focus the importance of schools and the wider role they can play, and it continues challenging us to reassess what normal might mean in the future. I hope that these insights, along with Trust initiatives focused on sustainability, diversity and inclusion, will help us become stronger in the future, by being more firmly rooted in, and integrated with, our local communities. For many, school has only just returned to normal in time to finish this stage of their life in education, either with exams, or in the transition from primary to secondary. We must recognise that their achievements have been particularly hard-won in overcoming the disruption of the last few years, and I look forward to celebrating their success and welcoming many of them into the next phase within our schools. Until then, I hope you enjoy the summer, and that the new school year brings more opportunities to learn and grow together.
EQUALITY, DIVERSITY, INCLUSION AND BELONGING (EDIB) Cavelle Priestley-Bird | Executive Director of the Alliance of Leading Learning
Investing in embedding EDIB as a golden thread across the work of the Trust Equality, diversity, inclusion and belonging is essential for both our workforce and our children and young people. Our vision of Achievement Through Caring means we want to make sure all our staff and learners can thrive and reach their full potential. By raising awareness of the many aspects of diversity, how to eliminate discrimination, promote equality of opportunity and foster good relations, we are empowering our workforce and preparing our children and young people to become good global citizens; appreciating and celebrating the diverse society in which we live.
The Marches Academy Trust have therefore begun a robust programme to embed a culture of EDIB. Our Trustees, Local Governing Bodies and our Headteachers have embraced our mission to go beyond compliance and schools have reviewed practice in a consultative-led assessment which will result in a 3-year strategic plan which will go out for consultation in the autumn term Our Ambassadors representing each school and our Shared Services are proving to be enthusiastic and quite inspirational individuals. The group attended a train the trainer programme in June; focussing on going beyond compliance, legal responsibilities, equality impact assessment and the value of how important it is to get policy right. We joined a live webinar with Jeffrey Boakye who discussed dismantling racism in the curriculum and heard John Amaechi explore how to understand resistance and discomfort. We explored how EDIB underpins the curriculum and considered the continuous inclusive curriculum journey we are embarking on as a Trust. The group were also up skilled in being an influencer and leading change and the intense 2-day training led to reflections from the group such as:
Empowering to be part of such a positive, collaborative conference that I feel has real passion and backing…and will therefore have a massive, positive impact on pupils and staff across the Trust. I can tell EDIB is going to be on everyone’s minds over the coming years. Exciting to be part of the Trust inclusive EDIB journey. I have developed the confidence to be empowered as an EDIB Ambassador to help the Trust harness what we already do/know to what else we can/should be doing. The EDIB journey will continually enrich our young people and other stakeholders to identify/inspire and act. An inspirational, thought provoking two days showing Achievement Through Caring on all levels. Cross Trust, cross roles from SLT to the classroom role – the full spectrum of the Trust. In the autumn term our EDIB Ambassadors will begin to provide essential support and influence as we monitor the schools’ / Trust’s progress in embedding the strategy.
ALLIANCE OF LEADING LEARNING Cavelle Priestley-Bird | Executive Director of the Alliance of Leading Learning
People First Focus: We Train Leaders The Marches Academy Trust continues to be driven by our belief that our staff team should be successful, creative, lifelong learners. The Alliance of Leading Learning have underpinned a rigourous, flexible Professional Learning programme bespoke to our Trust, working with our schools to ensure school improvement and impact on the success of our children and young people. In supporting this we have trained over 50 new facilitators and developed over 20 leaders in coaching skills across our Trust to empower our leaders to steer positive change. Delivery of the new suite of National Professional Qualifications (NPQ) is now fully underway as all participants start their second module. The amazing task force of facilitators from our own Trust have fully supported the delivery within the Shropshire and Telford area supporting our work with the Teaching School Hub. A big thank you to Rowena Kaminski, Tracy Whelan, Jasmin Taylor, Elaine Robinson, Hugh Jackson, Lucy Luke, Claire Turner and our CEO Sarah Finch, who have managed to intertwine NPQ delivery alongside their other responsibilities, recognising the importance of investing in our Trust professional learning in leadership. We have a total of 26 employees of the Trust on one of the 6 new NPQ Programmes. We are delighted to see the feedback from our Trust team showing the impact they feel it is already having on their practice.
The NPQLBC has made me consider how I will contribute to the creation of a culture of high expectations across the school. The sessions support you in being able to "walk the walk" consistently and build a strategy to create a clear vison for the school. Steve Cross
On the NPQSL I have found the face-to-face sessions really productive and valuable. There were plenty of opportunities for discussions and reflections on my own practice. Maria Requejo
As the legacy NPQs end, the Alliance of Leading Learning NPQ team can be proud of the achievement that we have supported a total of 1700 participants in receiving their NPQ Awards and have 306 participants in our first year of delivering the newly designed NPQs across the West Midlands and beyond. At Alliance of Leading Learning the Gold standard customer care for all our participants remains our unique selling point as we engage with supporting participants as individuals. An example of this was acknowledged by one participant who recently emailed into our Lead Administrators Gemma Hargreaves and Della Williams to say, ‘you both have also been incredible in your help and support throughout this programme and I will be forever grateful to you both for this and your utter professionalism’. We Train Teachers Our School Direct Programme continues to be a driving force in providing our next generation of teachers and educational leaders. The personal approach our trainee teachers receive is exemplary and proven in the fact that 95% have successfully secured jobs for September. Feedback from this year’s cohort captures the expertise of our School Direct team Elaine Robinson, Lucy Luke and Rob Collier who work tirelessly to ensure a rich and rewarding experience. At the helm is Kate Aspinall, her knowledge and understanding of the needs of our trainees is second to none and the support of the whole team is captured in regular feedback:
I have absolutely loved it, it’s the best experience I have ever had and there is not a thing I would change about it. The programme has been intense and rewarding…giving me all the resources and tools to start my profession confidently. Sonia Robinson – ITT Primary
I have received excellent support at the Alliance, if there is ever a problem someone from the team is always available and they offer sessions on resilience. Charlie Millward – ITT Secondary, Social Sciences
We Develop Talent Through identifying talent across our schools and enabling working parties, we continue to drive change. Our new directory of expertise of Improvement Consultants will be launched in September. They will focus on developing expertise to improve the capacity and capability of schools. Our Improvement Consultants will be deployed within our Trust schools to be part of ongoing work to address school and Trust priorities. The group have now been trained in basic coaching skills and they all reflected positively on how this will support them in working collaboratively with others to contribute significantly to developing the capacity of peer leaders in our schools.
The coaching session was really helpful in clarifying the difference between mentoring colleagues and empowering them to find solutions. Reflective practitioners make great teachers as we all know. This course reinforced best practise in developing these skills in others. Anna Willis
Loved the structure of the day. Cavelle and Claire worked seamlessly together to deliver an informative, engaging and thought-provoking session. Leah Vigon
We Train our Business Community As the academic year comes to a close, we reflect on how many training courses the Alliance of Leading Learning have run this year. It was a rocky start with Covid still impacting on numbers attending and last-minute cancellations, but we have still managed to run 53 first aid courses with over 400 delegates, 20 safeguarding courses with approximately 150 delegates and several Governor short courses. Delegates come from across Shropshire, Powys, Telford & Wrekin and Wrexham and have been either on-site at The Marches, run virtually through Teams or off-site to suit the needs of the local schools, nurseries and businesses that book our courses. We were thrilled to be recently contacted by The National Trust, who booked their first course with us. They had some really positive feedback seen overleaf:
The course today was excellent, the trainer was great, venue perfect and course content very appropriate and directed to NT situations, which was fabulous. We’ll definitely be using you again in the future. The National Trust Hope House Hospice have also secured a series of five First Aid courses, which are being run at the Hospice and one of our trainers, who is an ex-firefighter, is running a fire awareness session there too, which will include a fire extinguisher demonstration. This is Helen Lloyd’s 15th year of working with the community for their first aid, health and safety and safeguarding needs and strengthening our links and reputation for accessible quality learning year on year. We work in partnership The Alliance of Leading Learning continues to be an imperative part of STEP; the local Teaching School Hub - ensuring confidence that experienced, local experts are delivering a ONE STOP service for our schools within our Shropshire and Telford context. In our first year we have worked with 152 local schools and trained 103 new teachers, 160 leaders on our National Professional Qualifications, supported 179 ECTs and 160 mentors with the Early Careers Framework and up skilled over 50 school colleagues on our mental health programmes and NASENCO Award. Our work with the other three previous teaching schools delivering our joint services is strong and we are recognised in the West Midlands for our joined up positive partnership.
leadinglearning.co.uk
@ALLearning1
SPOTLIGHT ON LEARNING Claire Turner | Director of Learning, The Marches Academy Trust
Developing Pedagogy and Critical Thinking through Action Research: This year in The Marches Academy Trust teachers, access leaders and teaching assistants began a journey to develop their pedagogy in the classroom through an action research project. These projects have been designed in collaboration with the School of Education at The University of Bristol. The work began with staff selecting an area of focus and an issue to investigate. Next staff considered what issue might be explored and what research could be done to underpin the project. Staff thought broadly about how to research the issue they had identified and how to gather evidence to inform their thinking and planning. Schools are incredibly busy places and staff needed to be smart with their action research projects to ensure they were manageable and effective in terms of learning, growth and progress. The projects were designed to provoke critical thinking and promote reflection on the impact of how we do things and what we say in our classrooms.
Case Study | Michael Delicate, Sir John Talbot’s School
Case Study | Muriel Couturier, Sir John Talbot’s School
Michael chose to focus his action research Project on the class that he was finding it most difficult to impact upon. He thought carefully about what was at the root of the issue and saw beyond the symptom of a problem. He wanted to raise attainment in the focus group but knew it was a wider issue that needed to be tackled.
Muriel had identified an issue within her Year 7 French class. The two lessons for her Year 7 class were on a Monday and Tuesday which meant that retention of new learning was compromised by the gap between the Tuesday and the following Monday.
Official aim: Improve recall and retention to raise attainment of disadvantaged boys in Year 11. Elephant in the room: I had to tackle the lack of self belief I saw in those boys. Michael read ‘Boys don’t try’ by Matt Pinkett and Mark Roberts and summarised his research to help inform his questioning and critical thinking. He experimented with ideas broadly to determine what would have the greatest impact. He had to develop this over a sustained period of time as he identified that he needed to re-culture his classroom. His intended learning, discovery and concrete learning are summarised below.
Muriel focused on how to adapt her teaching to ensure that new ‘sound’ learning was retained over time. She explored activities and methods extensively before settling on what worked best and had maximum impact. French sounds are tricky and phonics understanding can not be applied to the pronunciation of French words so her students were struggling. There were many additional benefits to the process that Muriel explored which she had not anticipated, such as the confidence that developed in reading French aloud and the growth in self-esteem. Muriel also noticed that progress was not linear or immediate but that the methods she was using improved performance over time. By developing her teaching resources Muriel was able to focus activities specifically on what the students found most difficult. Sound based reading activities are now threaded into all lessons to embed new and prior learning.
PHYSICAL ACTIVITY UPDATE George Hounsell | Director of Sport, Health & Community
Creating successful opportunities within our schools As we approach the end of this academic year, it is time to pause and look at all the sporting opportunities and achievements that have taken place within our schools. Our growing partnership with Shrewsbury School, has given our students the opportunity to compete at award winning sports facilities. In April, we saw our secondary schools host their Varsity Competition at Shrewsbury School. There, students took part in football, rugby and rowing activities. During April, Shrewsbury School also welcomed our five primary schools with pupils taking part in football and archery competitions. These two events saw just over 170 students attend and represent their schools. Over the past 12 months we have seen our schools successfully achieve sporting accreditations and quality marks. They have included Grange Primary School achieving the gold mark in the Department for Education Healthy Schools Rating and Longlands Primary School becoming the first Trust school to achieve the Platinum Schools Games Mark. During the past academic year, we have celebrated becoming the Barclays Girls' Football Partnership Strategic Lead for the Shrewsbury area. This will see The Marches Academy Trust work closely with the Youth Sport Trust and England Football to support the schools, teachers, and children within our strategic area. This is a funded programme to support schools to get children into football through various programmes. You can keep up to date with the sporting success within The Marches Academy Trust via twitter - @MMATPrimaryPE.
COMMUNITY CONNECTION George Hounsell | Director of Sport, Health & Community
Building successful partnerships within our communities Over the past 12 months, we have seen our schools start to create and develop their school two-year community plans. The Marches Academy Trust believes that our children are part of our community of learners and as such we work hard to create a sense of belonging and connection in our family of schools. Our Community Lead staff across the Trust work hard to form effective partnerships within each of our local areas; it is this work that makes each school unique as each location has its own character. Following the development of our community plans, we have seen numerous successful events take place. These have included Longlands Primary School holding a community Jubilee afternoon in partnership with The Zone Community Project. The event saw over 80 families come together to celebrate. Along with Longlands' families, we welcomed the Lord Lieutenant of Shropshire who was extremely impressed with the community plan. The Marches School Senior Choir and their Year 7 Junior Choir sung in the ‘Songs for Ukraine’ concert held in Holy Trinity Church in Oswestry. Nine Shropshire schools and choirs came together to provide an outstanding concert and raised over £20,000 for the Disasters Emergency Committee’s Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal. The concert was broadcast live around the world and watched by families in Ukraine. This is just another key example of how our schools support communities locally and globally. Over the next 12 months, our schools will continue to support their communities and ensure schools are at the centre of them.
SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS AND DISABILITIES UPDATE Amy Chevin-Dooley | Deputy Headteacher for Safeguarding, LAC & SEND Lead
The landscape of special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is changing. With the Department for Education's publication of the Green Paper for SEND and Alternative Provision: 'right support, right place, right time' in March 2022, there are changes imminent for SEND education across England. In The Marches Academy Trust, however, we are ahead of the curve and already working hard in each of our settings to ensure there are no barriers to learning, instead, that learning is accessible to all so that ALL children can achieve, whatever their context or need. Four schools in the Trust have been involved in the 'Autism in Schools Project' - the only Trust in Shropshire to do so. Staff from Grange Primary School, Shrewsbury Academy, Oakmeadow CE Primary School and The Marches School, alongside the Director for Inclusion across the Trust, have all participated in the learning and development programme and continue to work to ensure that all children with autism have their needs catered for in their settings. The project has seen environmental changes, children participating in Ignition workshops, and Lead Occupational Therapists and Sensory Integration Practitioners from Bee U Young People & Families Mental Health Service coming into schools to make recommendations and provide support to the children in schools. If you want to read more, the newsletter from the Autism in Schools Project can be found here. One young person from Marches School summarised their experience:
Really helpful to advance my knowledge of Autism. Thank you to Wendy and Emma, as they have helped me to find ways to cope with Autism. It has taught me how to cope with different things.
Also at Grange Primary School, the Headteacher, Charlie Summers, and Learning Support Coordinator, Emily Cotton, completed the Shropshire Virtual School’s 'Nurture Training' - one of few schools across Shropshire selected for the training. Keen to ensure that the training was utilised, the school have now set up a Nurture Group and area where children are supported daily by Mrs Cotton and Miss Wilkes. The first group were asked about their experience of the Nurture provision - see their responses overleaf.
I feel safe and relaxed. I feel happy because it's quiet and I get the help I need.
The Eco Allotment & Social Farm is one of Longlands Primary School's greatest and most unique assets. Children gain practical countryside skills, a knowledge of animal care and how to grow their own produce.
I get to talk lots when I have worries. I feel I can talk to Miss Wilkes and Mrs Cotton and I can concentrate better in a quiet room. One of the key elements of support in all of our schools from September 2022 will be the screening for, and intervention available for speech, language and communication needs. This model has already developed at Oakmeadow where six members of their team have recently completed Talk Boost and Primary Talk training to complement their existing strong speech and language provision. Talk Boost is a targeted intervention for all primary aged children with delayed language development, boosting their language skills to help narrow the gap. As soon as the children join nursery provision at the school, the staff have the skills and necessary experience to identify at the earliest opportunity barriers affecting communication. With the introduction of Talk Boost for Early Years and existing Elklan provision, children can receive support within the setting to target their needs. At Longlands Primary School, work continues to provide an inclusive, broad, and balanced curriculum so that all children including those with SEND are fully integrated into the life of the school, enabling them to maximise their potential as learners and to contribute to the social and cultural activities of the school. For some children, accessing the curriculum can be more of a challenge but with the belief that every child should experience the world beyond the classroom as an essential part of learning and personal development, the team at Longlands offer a provision where children can develop life skills, learn about the world around them and participate in activities where they can achieve and succeed. Longlands' outdoor learning experiences include a Forest School, an Eco Allotment, Eco Orchard and an award-winning Social Farm
Established in February 2019, the Social Farm has residents including chickens, guinea pigs, rabbits, turkeys and goats, with plans constantly evolving to improve the space and welcome more animals into the Social Farm in the coming months. All children spend time on the farm helping out with maintenance, allotment duties, seasonal tasks, cleaning, as well as assisting with the feeding and welfare of the animals during lessons, lunchtimes and during school clubs. Longlands Primary School have recently received the prestigious Platinum Award from The Woodland Trust, following participation in their Green Tree Schools Scheme. The programme encourages outdoor learning through a variety of fun projects, with the aim to educate children about their surrounding environment and wildlife. They have also been busy preparing for their 'L Factor' performances, where children have the opportunity to perform for the judges on stage at the Festival Drayton Centre! This is a lovely opportunity for Longlands children to show off their non-academic talents and build their confidence. The children have always said what a sense of achievement they have for overcoming their nerves and performing in front of an audience.
TILSTOCK CE PRIMARY SCHOOL Rowena Kaminski | Headteacher Community Cohesion: Star Artists! Last term our pupils were invited to design a piece of artwork to be displayed in one of the upcoming show homes at the new Gleeson Homes development - Brushwood Gardens on Whitchurch Road (by the Esso petrol station). The design had to incorporate the theme of butterflies, linked to the butterfly conservation area at Prees. This term, we invited Rob Cleary from Gleeson Homes into school so the children could find out more about the new building work in the area and the process of building houses. At the end of the assembly, we found out the winning design. First prize of a £25 Amazon gift card was awarded to Maddison Tyler Jones for her beautiful blue design, and Badger Class also won £50 worth of book tokens for their designs. We are very proud of Maddison, and her design, which will now be used in Gleeson Home's show home in Prees. A portrait good enough for the Queen! A local art competition was set up for children to design a card for the Queen’s Jubilee. Out of all entries in Whitchurch and the surrounding area, our talented pupil Samuel Portas came first with his winning portrait of the Queen! His winning design will now be printed onto a special card and sent to the Queen from the Whitchurch Community – Samuel won an art set and a £20 book voucher. School Trip to York School trips are such a special part of school life. Not only do they support children’s curriculum learning, but they provide cultural enrichment, develop independence and create very special memories for years to come. I am so pleased that this term children from Badger Class were able to go on their first residential trip to York! The children had such an enriching time and Mr Paterson and Mrs Blakemore were extremely proud of our children’s behaviour. We hope that this is the first of many. Reading the Game with Shrewsbury Town in the Community This term, we welcomed Neil Homer from Reading the Game back to our school. Neil has worked with us before and has been brilliant at engaging pupils in reading through sport. The programme aims to inspire pupils to read more and improve their confidence and attitude towards literacy. This includes helping children to improve their reading comprehension and writing skills through football related resources, encouraging children to write match reports, diary entries, letters. Ofsted We were of course delighted with the outcome of our recent 2-day inspection where we were rated good in all areas by Ofsted. This is a fantastic achievement for the whole of our school community. The comments we received in our report show that the improvements we have made at Tilstock are sustained and ones that are positively impacting the lives of our pupils. Our parents and carers were overwhelmingly positive about our school with many saying that the school helps their children to grow socially and emotionally as well as academically. We will continue to work on matching pupil ability and need to ensure they make as much progress as possible while at our school; this will be done via assessment which we have recently implemented. I want to thank everyone for their support; this really is a school community achievement and one which we will enjoy celebrating together.
tilstockprimaryschool.co.uk
@tilstockprimaryschool
LOWER HEATH CE PRIMARY SCHOOL Charlotte Williams | Acting Head of School This term, we have so many great things to celebrate across school and so summarising our standout highlights on one page has been a little challenging! Nursery Growth This term, we have seen our Nursery numbers and income reach the highest on school record. This is a fantastic achievement and it is has been wonderful to see our Nursery provision continue to develop to ensure the best possible start for our youngest pupils. We look forward to continuing with our “Together Time” open sessions in September and are excited to welcome more new children into our school family. Rest Easy Gold Award Since I wrote to you last time, we have achieved our Rest Easy Gold Award. Emily Gearing has worked with our school to ensure that the Rest Easy approach is well-embedded and that wellbeing remains high on our agenda. This year, we have seen several of our older pupils become ‘Rest Easy Ambassadors’ across school. The children involved recently delivered a presentation about Rest Easy to the rest of the school. They have been trained in supporting with Rest Easy during breaktimes and lunchtimes. This half term, our worship theme has been linked to our school value of ‘fellowship’ and we feel that this particular achievement really captures our children’s commitment to building on relationships and sharing experiences with one another. Community Connection This year, one of our greatest achievements has been restoring face-to-face connections with our local community. Our community fundraisers (Easter and Summer Fayres) have provided amazing opportunities for us to work collaboratively to secure valuable funding for our school. This term, we enjoyed hosting our very own Jubilee picnic on the school field; it was lovely to be able to welcome parents and carers to school to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee with us. Enrichment Visits Our staff have been committed to making sure that our enrichment visits and extra-curricular club offer have returned to normal. This year, our children have had so many incredible opportunities to see new places and learn new things outside of their immediate environment. This term, our Reception Class visited SeaQuarium (linked to their overarching theme); our Year 1/2 class visited Knowsley Safari Park (linked to their Geography work); our Year 3/4 class visited Chester (linked to their History work); and all of our Year 5/6 children went on a residential stay in York. We cannot wait to see what next year has in store for us!
lowerheath.co.uk
@lowerheathcofeprimaryschool
LONGLANDS PRIMARY SCHOOL Zillah Cope | Headteacher It has been lovely to be able to welcome our parents and community back to all our events. The Jubilee Picnic, run by The Zone and Longlands, was a huge success with over 400 attending from all over Market Drayton including a visit from Anna Turner JP, The Queen’s Lieutenant. She will be reporting on events within our county directly to The Queen herself! We know that the children will hold these memories of special events like this for the rest of their lives. It has been a joy to finally take over the running of the nursery. The Early Years staff across school and in the nursery have worked hard to ensure high quality provision and progression for all our very young children. The new Stay and Play provision is thriving and helping to boost numbers in the nursery. We are very proud to announce that we have been awarded the School Games Platinum Mark this year. This award acknowledges schools that have maintained consistently high standards with their sports provision. Our pupils demonstrate great resilience and exemplary sportsmanship and it is fantastic to see their skills and talents developing during PE sessions and at competitions. By the end of academic year, every pupil in Key Stage 2 will have represented Longlands in at least one sporting event or competition. We have also moved from a Bronze to a Gold Healthy Schools rating awarded by the Department for Education this year. We have heavily invested in IT this year ensuring that every classroom has an interactive smart screen for teaching and learning. The staff are excited to explore the many features available in order to enhance the provision for the children. As the year draws to an end, we have enjoyed celebrating our L-Factor performances at the local theatre, an Arthog outreach day and our sleepovers in school for Year 2 and Year 6.
longlandsprimaryschool.co.uk
@LonglandsPrimarySchool
OAKMEADOW CE PRIMARY SCHOOL Samantha Hill | Headteacher As we look back upon this academic year, we are proud of what we have been able to provide for our children and our community. For the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee we felt it was important for us to be a part of the village celebrations for this special occasion. For our families we held a Jubilee Picnic which was a great success and it was wonderful to have all on site again. For a village Jubilee Trail our Year 5 pupils designed and painted some artwork which was displayed on the school fence. We also had a group of prefects take part in a Sunday parade – even though it was raining it was fantastic to join local organisations to walk and finish with the service at our link church, Christchurch Bayston Hill. A village Jubilee Picnic was held and Oakmeadow staff ran a penalty shoot-out – it was a great success and lovely to see so many familiar faces outside of school! At the end of last month, a choir from Oakmeadow were asked to take part in the Music For Zimbabwe concert at our local church. A group of Key Stage 2 children attended and sung five songs. It was a pleasure to be part of such a worthwhile event and to help raise money for such a good cause. We received cards of thanks from local residents which meant a lot to the children! We are particularly proud of the achievements of the children academically and how we have managed to enrich their curriculum this term. School have welcomed visitors into school to add excitement to their learning – Year 6 have taken part in the Elevate Programme with local residents and Year 1 have had a clay workshop take place. Year 4 have welcomed a roman soldier and Reception have been on a trip to Park Hall Farm whilst Years 4, 5 and 6 have been on their long awaited residential trips to the Pioneer Centre in Kidderminster. The resilience and enthusiasm our children demonstrated during this experience was a joy to watch. As the summer term ends we have helped Year 6 to reflect on their achievements across their time at Oakmeadow. With a leavers production, activity day and party celebration and awards we have given this cohort the send off they deserve and we wish them all the best at secondary! We end the year grateful for our connections with our families, wider community and the Trust who have all supported Oakmeadow in making this year a success and we look forward to continued relationships next academic year to help our children succeed.
oakmeadowprimary.co.uk
@oakmeadowceschool
GRANGE PRIMARY SCHOOL Charlotte Summers | Headteacher It has been another busy and productive term at Grange Primary School. We are continuing to embed our school values – try our best, honesty, kindness, curiosity and respect. These are becoming threaded throughout our curriculum and used constantly in dialogue with the children. We have seen some positive shifts in attitudes and behaviour since the implementation of the Granger Code earlier in the year. Our Nest provision for children with SEMH needs continues to run in the afternoon, providing a valuable provision for these children. In the summer term, we also set up a nurture provision in the morning which has run successfully throughout the term. Our children have enjoyed attending a range of events held at schools across The Marches Academy Trust this term. These have included the Spelling Bee and taking part virtually in the poetry recital. Our Year 6 children had a fantastic time at Arthog. They enjoyed a range of outdoor activities such as climbing, gorge walking, orienteering and many more. Year 2 visited a local farm to support their work on the environment and enjoyed feeding the lambs and pond-dipping. EYFS visited Home Farm and did a range of activities such as meeting animals. As well as trips offsite, we continue to enjoy a range of cross-curricular events and activities that supplement and support our curriculum - such as Ready Steady Read week this term. An unforgettable event this term was our celebration for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. We had the honour of an RAF helicopter landing on the school field to mark the occasion. A tree was planted to commemorate this special event at school. This day will be remembered by children and staff for many years to come. Our Granger community of parents and carers are a massive part of life at school. It was wonderful to see everyone at the Family Fun Day. Thank you for your ongoing support of the school. On transition day, we had a picnic lunch and contributed towards a whole school piece of art. This will be entered into a Trust wide competition. Grange continues to receive the support of the Trust to improve outcomes and raise standards across school. Our staff attend meetings with other specialists across the Trust to raise standards in their curriculum area. Teachers have been working hard to ensure children have the best possible learning experiences while they are with us. This term we have been working on our curriculum and refining the way we give feedback to children. Staff are determined to do everything they can to ensure that all Grange children dream big and fly high.
grangeprimaryshrewsbury.co.uk
@grangeprimaryschoolshrewsbury
WOODLANDS SCHOOL Julia Taylor | Headteacher Woodlands has achieved so much this academic year, our first full year with all phases on one site, with many cross-phase enrichment activities and lots of achievements to celebrate. Our football team, which spans from Year 6 up to Year 11, competed in a number of league matches which led them to play at Aston Villa Football Club! Across the year, in all their matches, they have been a credit to the school in their sportsmanship. Taking each moment in their stride, with some low points and lots of high points, including a brilliant 15-3 win on one occasion. As well as football, this term we have all been on reward trips to celebrate our achievements in school, with a focus on our regulation and prosocial behaviour. We visited Waterworld, Go Ape and Airea51. These trips challenged our anxieties and boosted our confidence in realising we can do so much, whether that be facing our fears in the treetops or dropping from a great height on the Thunderbolt! All the children (and adults!) enjoyed achieving and learning in a different way. We also celebrated our achievements with an assembly where all the children received various accolades for their commitment and dedication to Woodlands School life. This varied from football awards, to best reader and spiciest sausage eater at Forest School! As we reach the end of the summer term, we look back on the many achievements throughout the year and look forward to the GCSE achievements this summer. We are all so proud of the academic and social achievements all our Year 11’s make here at Woodlands and wish them all the luck as they move forward in to the next chapter of their life. Congratulations Year 11, you will always be part of the Woodlands family.
woodlands.school
@WoodlandsShropshire
THE MARCHES SCHOOL Alison Pearson | Headteacher This term has been packed with adventure and achievement and choosing highlights has been a challenge. Year 8 held the baton for fundraising and, with almost every student involved, we walked the distance from Oswestry to Kiev – 1574 miles or 479 hours. Sporting achievement has come in thick and fast, culminating in, “An amazing day at the track at Quensway for the North Shropshire Athletics Event. Our students were such good company on the day and worked so hard to be successful in events.” Josh Burnett in Year 10 said; “It was electrifying to equal the school record in the high jump and I'm going to try to break it on Sports Day.” The boys’ teams smashed the relays at the end of the day and our teams finished as Year 7/8 boys winners, Year 9/10 boys winners, Year 7/8 girls second and Year 9/10 girls 4th which made Marches overall winners on the day. Getting out to see the world has continued with our first Duke of Edinburgh expedition for three years, trips to Whittington Castle and the Year 10 geographers enjoying the best of British weather in Liverpool for their field trip, with the best quote of the day being; “It’s actually quite nice here, I might come to uni here”. Our Futures week theme this term has been Living in a Diverse Community, and we took the opportunity to go big and celebrate Pride with a whole school video collaboration – with every student beautifully coordinated to turn a rainbow flag into our M logo, all captured by a drone – a real achievement, quickly followed by our Pride March through the school and into the town to share postcards of friendship. Media students were given a brief from a food company and a bento box company to deliver Pride month photos and TikTok videos to promote their products – the outcomes were amazingly professional and have been used on social media, with students totally engaged in a real-world project. Music and the arts have been strong again this term with the Big Sing, a slot at the party in the park and representation in the Shropshire Young Musician of the Year competition. Our performance, this year moved back to the summer due to Covid turbulence in the spring was a musical, Lock Down, written in-house, a first for the school and an amazing achievement to pull off, with the largest cast we have ever had, it was wonderful. With the end of year, our house competition culminated in Sports Day, before the house winners were revealed – it was a close event again. Our new Year 7 spent three days with us and over 100 future Year 12 students had their pre-enrolment day as we look ahead, after the summer break, to start the fun all over again!
marchesschool.co.uk
@MarchesSchool
THE GROVE SCHOOL Sonia Taylor | Headteacher This academic year has been a real success for The Grove. We are pleased to have spent the whole year in school with students focusing our energies on recovering from the disruption from the last two years by experiencing great learning and welcoming back different enrichment opportunities. This term saw us welcoming the community back into the school whilst also letting our students go and experience the world of work. On the 18th May 2022, our Year 8 students welcomed 15 representatives from a range of local and national business, such as Bentley, Addo (Palethorpes), the Shropshire Wildlife Trust, West Mercia Police and Marie Speight Consulting to name just a few. In a speed networking event, all students had the opportunity to ask questions to employers about what they do and how they got to their current roles, as part of our commitment to careers and ‘Futures’ at The Grove. It was great to feel the buzz of excitement in the school library and also hear students starting to talk about what they wanted to do themselves when they finished school. We have also seen our Year 10 and Year 12 students go out and experience work for themselves as we have returned to our Work Experience programme this July. Through either visiting a placement linked to their own career aspirations, or having a meaningful virtual work experience linked to a range of career paths, all of our students in these year groups have gained a real appreciation for what it is like to engage in the world beyond Grove School and start to prepare for life beyond either GCSEs or Sixth Form. We’d like to thank all members of the Market Drayton community for supporting us with placing our students and thank you for the positive experiences and memories that you have provided them. We would also like to thank all of our students for being such amazing ambassadors for the school and for themselves. Visits to The Birks have returned this term. Our Year 8 students have had a wonderful time walking in the Lake District, taking in the most amazing scenery, living in an old barn with absolutely no mobile phone reception for days at a time meaning they have had to interact without technology or televisions. They have loved it and proved to themselves there is life outside of social media! The Grove School have also made a concerted effort to ensure that our school attendance returns to its historic high levels. We have relayed our high expectations to students and parents and ensured that students who have gone above and beyond to be in school every day are recognized. Our school attendance figures have improved significantly since this initiative, and consequently we have an attendance figure above that of the average figures seen in secondary schools nationally. A massive congratulations needs to be shared with all the parents, students and staff that have ensured students attend school every day to reach this goal. All students that have had 100% attendance and good attendance will be rewarded at the end of the year to mark this achievement. We are also celebrating our Year 11 and Year 13 students who have successfully completed their external exams. They are the first cohorts to do so after the pandemic. Their hard work cannot be under-estimated and should result in some fantastic opportunities for them moving forward. A huge thanks goes to our team of staff who have worked tirelessly to ensure our students are fully prepared academically and emotionally to rise to the challenge of their examinations. We very much look forward to seeing our students on the results days in August. We are busy preparing for the next academic year, looking forward to giving all staff and students many more exciting learning opportunities.
groveschoolmarketdrayton.co.uk
@GroveSchoolShropshire
SIR JOHN TALBOT'S SCHOOL Tim Stonall | Headteacher The summer term took time to warm up weather wise, but we hit the ground running with a busy exam season. Students in Years 10, 11 and 13 conducted themselves exceptionally and finished the year with a great send off. We look forward to celebrating their achievements in August. As one year group moves on another takes their place. Following a formal interview process with myself, along with our Head of Sixth Form and Chair of Governors, three current Year 12 students were successfully appointed to the Senior Student Leadership team. Our congratulations go to: Student President, Jack Bebbington; Deputy Student President, Andrew Cundiff and Sixth Form Ambassador, Harry Corney. Each will play a specific role as part of the Senior Student Body as they move to their final year in the Sixth Form. They will also be ambassadors for SJT across varied activities and events, play a role in ensuring that student voices are heard and act as both role models and mentors to the rest of the school - we welcome them to their roles. We were proud of our Year 8s this term who had the opportunity to partake in a Model United Nations Day. Students divided into twelve countries to research the impact of climate change upon their nation, before deciding if enough was done at the COP26 summit in Glasgow to tackle the climate emergency. A conference was then held where each student team embodying their country gave a speech, which was followed by an audience question and answer session. Thanks go to Obsidian Analytics, who kindly sponsored the event and to Gareth Von Dinther, Vice Chair for his support on the day and to Mrs Elms, Progress Leader, for its success, resulting in fantastic feedback.
Year 8 fully embraced the spirit of the United Nations by working cooperatively with their teammates towards their common goal of tackling the climate emergency. The posters that were produced and the speeches that were drafted were of the highest quality. The passion and zeal from those that presented and the probing questions from the audience were simply incredible. The strength of the curriculum and the quality of the teaching at Sir John Talbot's School helped to equip the students with all of the key knowledge and skills that they needed to make this Model United Nations a resounding success. To celebrate the success of our students Duke of Edinburgh’s Awards, we recently hosted our awards evening at the Macdonald Hill Valley Hotel. We were excited to welcome Her Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Shropshire, Anna Turner who kindly agreed to present students with their accolades on our behalf. Anna later wrote a thank you letter to Ms Morcumb where she commented on having the pleasure of witnessing all those students that had achieved so much under her guidance. During this term we have took part in several initiatives to help equip students with further skills to be ready for the 'real world' when they leave school. Speaking skills are a core part of the English curriculum and reading aloud through reciting poetry is a great way to improve confidence and presentation skills. Well done to Eddie Luft and Maisy Dalziel who represented our school against fellow Marches Academy Trust schools in the Trust Poetry By Heart competition. Our Year 9 students also had the opportunity to experience real world roles in product marketing management, completing various tasks they gained an insight into developing creative advertising campaigns to promote a new brand for Kellogg's. Finally, we were pleased to invite Year 6 students from over twenty local primary schools to join us for a three-day transition event. It was a great opportunity to get a feel for secondary school and ask any questions ahead of becoming Year 7. We wish you all a lovey summer break and look forward to welcoming all students back in September.
sirjohntalbots.co.uk
@SirJohnTalbotsSchool
SHREWSBURY ACADEMY Julie Johnson | Headteacher Department for Education Expansion Project Alongside the Department for Education approved building contractor and architects, Shrewsbury Academy hosted the expansion project, community engagement evening on the 29th of June 2022. Our school hall was arranged to display multiple images of the new build expansion as well as the development of the old Sundorne Infants site. We were lucky enough to present a virtual plan of the new build, enabling staff, parents, carers, and visitors to circumnavigate their way around the new build project. Many members of our local community attended as well as several parents, teachers, and members of the Student Council. We were also lucky enough to host the Mayor of Shrewsbury who was extremely positive about our new development, specifically our new SEND facility. The feedback received from visitors was incredibly positive with most remarking that Shrewsbury Academy is long overdue an upgrade and that the new facilities will hugely improve outcomes for students attending our school. The provision of a new learning resource centre (library), something we currently do not have onsite, was positively received as one of the most impressive areas of the development project. Transition It was absolutely fantastic to welcome our Class of 2027 to Shrewsbury Academy for their two transition days this term. Despite some nerves to begin with everybody had a memorable time. Students were able to spend time in their tutor groups, navigate the school site and make some new friends. They took part in a variety of lessons including English, Science, Performing Arts and Technology. The Duke of Edinburgh's Award As part of The Duke of Edinburgh's Award, a group of students have recently visited Pulverbatch and have thoroughly enjoyed the adventure, alongside Duke of Edinburgh Leads, Adrian Parker and Sarah Newey. World Champion visits Shrewsbury Academy Shrewsbury Academy have recently hosted Richie Woodhall, former Boxing Super Middleweight Champion of the World and Olympic Medalist. Richie gave an inspirational talk to our students about his rise to victory and the dedication and commitment required to reach our life goals. Following this, Richie held a meet and greet opportunity with the students and staff, who were able to have their photographs taken. This was positively received by the students involved and the message was clear..."Dedication + Perseverance + Self-Belief = Success". Accolade for Shrewsbury Academy Following our attendance at the Mayoral Awards, Shrewsbury Academy were delighted to receive the accolade of Youth Award, in recognition of achievements towards enhancing the life and wellbeing of Young People in the area. We have been pleased to share this with all parents/carers, students and the wider community.
shrewsburyacademy.co.uk
@ShrewsburyAcademy
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