Our family of schools are building strong cultures where we demonstrate our care through kindness. In our schools you will see an emphasis on respect; children, young people and adults speaking to and behaving respectfully with each other. Achievement through Caring is seen in action and everyone, both young and old in the Trust, can speak with confidence about their experiences. This was evidenced this term by a visit from Challenge Partners, an external group of CEOs and Executive Leads from across the country. They visited all our schools and commented that “Creating and sharing a dream that ‘together we grow’ is starting to create an essential sense of belonging not just for the children, but also for the communities that the Trust serves.”
The expectation is that our children and young people care about achieving their best, they care about one another, and they care about their schools and communities. At the beginning of the academic year, we held a conference for our children and young people from across the Trust. The conference was held at Aico in Oswestry and using their fantastic conference facilities, ten children and young people from each school attended with Sixth Formers from each secondary school facilitating. The conference challenged the children to lead a change project in their school focusing on either wellbeing or sustainability.
Throughout the year these groups have led the change they wanted to see. On Thursday 11th July the children and young people came together to showcase the changes they have delivered in their schools. This event was held in the dance theatre at Shrewsbury school and each presentation demonstrated how confident our young people are at public speaking. Getting together in one place also gave the children and young people the opportunity to discuss their ideas with peers from across the Trust. Events like these for staff and children and young people are the key drivers that help our Trust to move forward.
Sport across the Trust
“ George Hounsell, Director of Primary Sport and Community
Over the past 12 months, school sport and physical education has continued to grow and make a positive impact across the Marches Academy Trust Below are just a handful of the successes from this academic year:
Varsity Competitions
Through our partnership with Shrewsbury School, all our primary, secondary, and Sixth Form students have participated in varsity competitions. These events have included rowing, fives, cricket, football, and rounders. Over 500 students have participated in events this academic year. In June 2024, with support from the MX Foundation, all five primary schools within the Trust, along with Woodlands School, Cockshutt CE Primary School, and Criftins CE Primary School, all participated in a varsity athletics competition at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham.
Shropshire PE Conference
In October 2023, the Trust held the third Shropshire PE Conference at Shrewsbury Town Football Club. The conference had the highest attendance since the event's inception. Former England Lioness Sue Smith and former British number one gymnast Beth Tweddle MBE attended the conference, delivering inspirational speeches to teachers from across Shropshire.
National Case Study
In partnership with the Youth Sport Trust, the Marches Academy Trust has become a national case study for the Well Schools programme. Well Schools aims to enhance education outcomes by prioritising wellbeing for school staff, senior leaders, and young people. It is not a programme, quality mark, or intervention; rather, it is a collective effort to drive change, share challenges and solutions, and provide support
Primary PE Awards 2024
Linking up with our partners at Shrewsbury School once again, we hosted our Primary PE and School Sport Awards in July 2024. We welcomed two inspiring athletes: former number one archer Mel Clarke and 85-time capped wheelchair basketball player AJ Jackson. They attended the event to speak to children and families about their careers. Each school awarded four honours to recognise outstanding achievements in school sport.
The Shore launches across the Trust
“ Mandy Jones, Associate Executive Director of Education
Beginning a journey in a new place is always a challenge. There are new rules to learn, communication is different and expectations are different. This year we have thought a lot about what it means to belong in our Trust and how everyone is able to grow and flourish.
We recognise that making a strong start whatever your age or stage is a key part of successful learning With this in mind we have made the first steps to establishing this strong start for our Year 7 learners with our new approach to transition called The Shore. The Shore is a place where one journey ends and another begins. This year across our secondaries we have launched a provision where there will be a focus on getting to know our learners and their families in this ‘school within a school’ which we believe will be a spring board to learning for life.
Each school is at a different stage in developing this provision, so we will all have a part to play in shaping the future together. Strong literacy skills form the bedrock of the provision and this is why all learners have had to undertake an adaptive reading test on their transition days so we know how to support everyone from day one We are very excited about the year that lies ahead and I would like to say a huge thank you to all the staff who have been involved in this innovative project so far. Never before have we neede our communities.
Secondary schools are young people, but wh encouragement and s #togetherwegrow.
Teaching and Learning
“ Claire Turner, Executive Director of Education
As a Trust we have collaboratively reflected on the quality of our educational offer. With a flurry of Ofsted visits this year many of our practices have been endorsed, highlighted as good practice and celebrated. There is much to be proud of. However, we continue to strive towards our value of excellence so that all children and young people receive an outstanding curriculum offer.
This year we have transformed the culture and environments within primary education. We now use floor books routinely to capture learning in Early Years classrooms and across Keys Stage 1 and 2 where appropriate The floor books capture learning and provide opportunities for language-rich discussions. We encourage children to use the books to reflect on their learning, providing further opportunities for us to check understanding.
In addition our learning environments have changed in response to what we know about how all children learn but in particular how neurodiversity can be negatively impacted by busy learning spaces.
The work we have completed to establish our Assessment Principles and Literacy Principles have brought colleagues together from all of our schools at numerous points across the year. These principles documents build from our Inclusive Curriculum Principles and support all teachers to deliver an excellent curriculum across all educational phases. We are keen to collaborate with parents/carers across our communities to help us understand how we can further shape our approaches to curriculum, assessment and reading, speaking and writing.
Finally, we believe in a broad and rich curriculum offer and are proud of the subjects we offer and the wider opportunities we provide. These opportunities have continued to grow across our Trust this year covering diverse sports, drama, music, science, technology, creativity, enterprise, One Voice, Duke of Edinburgh Awards, residential and overseas visits. These activities focus on developing the whole child and are central to our vision for Achievement through Caring.
Idsall School
“ Michelle King, Headteacher
Idsall School has wrapped up a remarkable year filled with hard work, community engagement, and impressive achievements. A key highlight of the year was our renewed commitment to charity work. The school raised significant funds for several charities, including Help for Heroes through their "Run, Cycle, and Row to Normandy Challenge" and the Race for Life Additionally, the school supported St Basil’s homeless charity by participating in a sleepout event Despite enduring a rainy night in cardboard boxes, the students, staff, Trust members, and governors remained in high spirits, and are now looking forward to the Big Sleep Out in November. These charitable activities underline the school’s core values of belonging and kindness.
The school’s sporting achievements have also been noteworthy. Students have excelled both individually and in teams. Kadisha, a standout athlete, was selected for England Schools to run the 100m. Other sports, including golf, kickboxing, boxing, and swimming, saw students achieve remarkable success. Idsall’s handball players, including Harvey, who was named Under 19 Player of the Year, have represented England with distinction. The school’s athletics teams have consistently displayed a strong competitive spirit, showcasing the talent and dedication of many Idsall students. Staff achievements have been equally impressive. Mrs. Case received the King’s Award for Voluntary Service at two Royal Engagements, honouring her extensive community support efforts. She has involved students in various initiatives, such as Messy Church, Christmas Hampers, the Foodbank, and local charity volunteering, reinforcing the school’s commitment to community service.
The academic year concluded with Prom 2024, a memorable event celebrating the successes of Year 11 students. The prom provided a fitting end to a year characterised by hard work, community involvement, and numerous achievements.
Sir John Talbot's School
“Tim Stonall, Headteacher
It has bee Band play recent th students. own back the day.
sirjohntalbots co uk
@SirJohnTalbotsSchool
The penu p p p “The Thwarting of Baron Bolligrew” by Robert Bolt. This play is a wonderfully comedic medieval tale of Dukes, Knights, dragons, fantastical adventure and good versus evil! Our dedicated cast worked for many hours in rehearsals to bring the show to life, under the guidance of our enthusiastic directors Mr Andy Calderbank and Mrs Victoria Edwards. Notably, the production featured a surprise appearance from the Science Department, with Mr George Stanyard as the dragon, who, upon meeting a grisly end, had his enormous tail carried into the audience by cast and crew! Work has already begun on our next year’s production of Oliver! Show business never sleeps!
For the Bottle Greenhouse Project in Jubilee Park, our students have created an amazing greenhouse using recycled 2 litre plastic bottles threaded onto canes and attached to a sturdy wooden frame. They have patiently washed and removed the tops, labels and bases of around 1200 bottles collected by their fellow students and the townsfolk of Whitchurch. An old conservatory polycarbonate roof which was destined for landfill was repurposed to create the roof.
‘As a keen gardener myself what an outstanding job SJT have done on the bottle greenhouse and what an incredible contribution it is to Jubilee Park I was delighted to have seen it ’ - Community Member
The Marches School
“ Sally Wilmot, Head of School
marchesschool co uk
@MarchesSchool
The Summer term at the Marches School has been packed full of exciting opportunities for our students with so much to celebrate.
Futures Pathway
We have had two inspiring themes as part of our Futures Pathway – the first half of the term focused on Diversity and the second half on Enterprise, Thinking Big and Aspirations We have had anti racism workshops, wheelchair sports, baking classes celebrating recipes from around the word, a visit from a guide dog and much more. We ended the Diversity theme with our 3rd Annual Marches School Pride March and even joined in the celebrations in the community by taking part in the Oswestry Pride March.
A highlight of the Thinking Big half term was the Enterprise day for Year 8. The year group developed their skills in becoming successful entrepreneurs by working together to design and create products.
Prom
We have been so impressed with the work ethic and relentless positive attitude our Year 11 and Year 13 students have shown throughout the exam season. It was a delight to celebrate with them at Prom
Awards
We held our annual Presentation Evening and Governors Awards night this term. An absolute pleasure to celebrate with our students and their families.
Sporting Success
There has been some excellent sporting success this term with some of our teams being crowned champions. We have seen success in rounders, football and we ended the year as the North Shropshire Athletics Champions – well done to our sporting stars!
Singing with the Community
The Marches School Choir took part in the Orthopaedic Male Voice Choir concert Freya Howes - Year 8 said ”I loved the opportunity to perform with my friends as this is a career I would like to take. The Male Voice choir were really good especially when they all harmonised. I was so surprised at the amazing volume that they could sing at! My favourite song they sang was the Rose! ”
Shrewsbury Academy
“ Jim Taylor, Headteacher
This term has been particular erected on the current school of the art STEM building and f celebrate - here is a flavour of
In collaboration with West retained our accreditation
This year has been filled with positivity at Shrewsbury Academy and whilst we were sorry to see them leave, we celebrated our class of 2024, with a final goodbye to our Year 11 students at Prom, held at Hawkstone Park.
We have celebrated great sporting achievement this year, with students completing their Sports Leaders programme, enabling them to lead PE sessions and team building activities for Key Stage 2 students, which have been delivered at the Grange Primary School.
Year 7 students participated in the local rounders tournament, highlighting some shining stars for the future, whilst our Year 7 and 8 students represented us at the Shropshire Schools Athletics Championships, with fantastic achievements.
Our very own Ffion has signed a contract with TNS Football Club. Ffion is a fabulous Year 9 student who represents school for many different sporting events however, football is her passion
Students showcased their baking prowess and represented their different cultures by delivering a number of dedicated days over the term, to embrace diversity across our school, by recognising Rainbow Friday and Culturecon amongst other events.
The Grove School
“ Mitch Allsopp, Headteacher
Unbelievably, we have find ourselves in the closing moments of year. Since my arrival at the start of 2024, time really has flown b tried to capture the progress we have made this academic year.
Most profoundly, there has been a significant cultural shift over which has prioritised our fantastic students and staff and focuse narrative’ of Team Grove, ensuring that there is a culture of posi running through every decision Though there is much work to b real sense of optimism and change from all areas of our community. Thank you for the continued messages of support in all that we are doing – our journey to being a truly great school will only be possible with your support.
Some of the notable achievements this year are:
The launching of an innovative transition project called The Shore, based in our historic Grove House.
The redevelopment of a Sixth Form centre which has been designed, partially by our students, to reflect the workspaces of high education.
Our fantastic students have visited landmarks in Europe, explored different experiences across the United Kingdom and have also began to get even more immersed in our local community
Several of our students have had stand-out achievements too – from representing sports at elite level in swimming, cricket and football, through to local sporting success in netball and distance running.
Increased rewards for our students culminating in over 250 members of Team Grove attending a day out at the beach!
There has been much work undertaken, and much, much more yet to come. Have a fantastic summer, we will see you all again in September for another chapter in our exciting journey.
“This year, Grove school has had major improvements Behaviour, attitude and respect for peers has greatly improved, helping others to feel like they belong Grove has now got new ways to include others in activities, helping them to make friends and lifelong relationships. Team Grove is a place everyone is welcome to feel safe, happy and supported Our new headteacher Mr Allsopp has made our school much more our own allowing us to speak out on how we would like our school environment to be. The changes made have been extremely effective and have boosted good behaviour We follow the 2% mindset where we strive for excellence” Lilly Bentley - Year7
Woodlands School
“Julia Taylor, Headteacher
It’s been a busy and very rewarding time for all of us at Woodlands school. This year has been filled with remarkable achievements. Our students have excelled in their academic work, sports and extracurricular activities demonstrating the values of our Trust.
Sports day was filled with energy, enthusiasm and healthy competition. Our students participated in various events including javelin, shot putt and high jump. Congratulations to all participants and winners for their outstanding sportsmanship and effort.
Our talented young artists displayed their work in Wem Town Centre shop windows, their work is a colourful array of paintings and digital art. We are incredibly proud of the creativity and passion our students have shown.
The Woodlands football team faced formidable opponents and challenges over the course of this year’s season. Through it all, they remained undeterred they learnt the values of teamwork, perseverance and resilience This taught them that football was not just about scoring goals, but about working together as a unit, supporting each other and never giving up As the final whistle blew, they won their league The victory was not just a testament to their skill and talent, but a tribute to their spirit, their unity and their unwavering belief in themselves
This year we have seen our students demonstrate exceptional dedication and perseverance, applying all their learning to their exams and one student being the first to take an AS-Level at Woodlands. Their achievements and their aspirations of continuing at college achieved, come as an inspiration to other students, demonstrating that with hard work and commitment, you can overcome any academic challenge.
It is a real pleasure to reflect on Lower Heath’s achievements. We are always sad to bid farewell to our Year 6 children but are proud to send them off onto the next stage of their education journey. This year’s celebrations involved a whole school family picnic which was a fantastic community celebration and an exciting trip to Alderford Lake – well done to Mr Holt-Williams and Miss Lewis for donning their wetsuits and diving in!
All of our children have enjoyed some wonderful extra curricular activities this term: Owl Class ventured off to York for a two-day residential, Kingfisher Class spent a beautiful sunny day at Attingham Park and our youngsters in Robin and Skylark Classes took a trip to RAF Cosford to support their learning about how we learned to fly Huge thanks go to our staff and parents for organising and supporting these inspirational experiences Other enrichment experiences we have organised this term include bikeability, ‘Read the Game’, a whole school skipping workshop and a Futures Focus day to inspire children to think about what they would like to be when they grow up.
Community and history continue to be an important part of Lower Heath. Our summer fair was incredibly well supported, raising over £1000 to go towards our proposed outdoor gym. At the event, Mr Holt-Williams led our Year 6 children in the Lower Heath tradition of Maypole dancing – they were fabulous! They then took their dance display to the Fauls’ Summer Fair. It was a joy to see their smiling faces as they created the spider’s web and the maypole plait!
As part of the Marches Academy Trust, we are hugely grateful for some of the activities our children experience. Our Owl Class children were given the opportunity to showcase their One Voice projects with other Trust schools, visit Alexandra Stadium for an Athletics event and we proudly watched some of our children receive their Primary PE and Sports Awards at Shrewsbury School. The exciting times are set to continue as we were delighted to be approved to accept two-year-olds in our Nursery. As a result, our Lower Heath family is set to expand from November 2024.
Have a wonderful summer everyone!
Helen
Oakmeadow CE Primary School
“Samantha Hill, Headteacher
This year we have focused on embedding our vision for our diverse and wonderfully unique set of pupils. Our vision is centred around developing the whole child and encouraging them to ‘live life it all its fullness’. For us this means nurturing and enabling every child to live a full life. As part of this the children understand this as seizing opportunity, making the most of every day and recognising that life isn’t always easy but through living out our values we can achieve anything.
Sporting success has been a key focus of our term – through our sports days, all children have had the opportunity to try a variety of athletics activities Our Under 10s girls football team won the Trust PE Awards ‘Team of the Year’ and we have won many competitions including the Trust Varsity Rounders event At Area Athletics, our children represented the school wonderfully with pupils winning medals in high jump and running, and Year 5 finished second place in full programme of track and field events at Alexander Stadium in Birmingham.
We have also focused this year on our creative curriculum – providing opportunities for children to learn outside the classroom to nurture and develop the whole child. Year 1 visited Blists Hill as an opportunity to delve more into their History theme of ‘changes in living memory’. Year 3 and 4 had a VR workshop as part of their Geography curriculum which enabled them to virtually visit countries all over the world. Year 6 took part in Crucial Crew where they learned valuable life skills to enhance their social awareness and through Fieldwork Fortnight, children have been using our local area to answer enquiry questions.
We opened our Oaklands Community Hub which aims to support the local offer by providing a space that can be rented by groups who run activities for children, young people and adults. This supports our vision of playing a key role in our local area.
Grange Primary School
“Charlotte Summers, Headteacher
grangeprimaryshrewsbury co uk
@grangeprimaryschoolshrewsbury
As the summer term and another wonderful year at school draws to a close, we have many reasons to celebrate our community of Grangers. The summer term has seen our children take part in many creative and exciting extra-curricular activities. We have enjoyed taking part in a range of sports events such as rounders, football, athletics and swimming. Our children have also been using their Granger value of curiosity in the trip to Cosford – where we certainly learnt about dreaming big and flying high! Our reception children took a walk on the wild side with a visit from The Animal Man and made all sorts of new, exotic friends. It is always wonderful to welcome the wider Grange community through our doors and it was a pleasure to have so many in attendance at out Father’s/Special person event. We spent an industrious afternoon doing a range of construction activities from building the tallest tower to designing and making our own paper aeroplanes. Part of being Granger is knowing how to keep ourselves safe in and outside of school. Years 5 and 6 have recently had a very informative talk about Safety in the Community by the Police. The children asked lots of great questions and gained a lot from the experience. We learned some valuable life skills when the West Midlands Ambulance service came in to do CPR training. We talked about the procedures in an emergency and the children were given basic training that could save somebody’s life. We continue to enjoy working with our wider community of schools within the Trust and it was a pleasure for the Grange ONEVoice team to stand up and represent the school at the recent showcase. Trying our best is one of our values that certainly came to life on Sports Day. It was great to see all the children taking part and cheering on their teams, with parents and carers showing their support too. We even enjoyed a celebratory picnic on the field afterwards Congratulations to our Year 6 children on a fantastic end of year performance! We wish you all the luck in the world for secondary school and hope you carry your Granger values with you as you step into your next exciting chapter I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of our Grangers, staff, parents/carers and the wider community a happy and safe summer holiday.
Longlands Prima School
“Lisa Millington, Headteacher
The summer term at Longlands Primary Sch exciting events both for the pupils and for our wider community.
Visit: longlandsprimaryschool co uk @LonglandsPrimarySchool
Many of the classes have taken part in visits or had visitors to the classroom throughout the term, including Years 5 and 6’s design and technology visits to Enginuity, Year 4’s History visit to Blists Hill, Year 2’s visit to Parkhill Farm for pond dipping and Year 3’s Exotic Zoo visit The children all greatly enjoyed these visits which are a very important part of our curriculum, providing all of the children with opportunities that enrich their learning. We have also had a number of visitors into school providing even more enrichment.
Mia Jones, Year 4, said, “When we visited Blists Hill, it smelt like smoke. We went into the school with the teacher, Miss McCallum, who was very strict. We weren’t even allowed to look at her as this was rude in Victorian times. I really enjoyed the visit and learnt a lot.”
Our community is very important to us and we have been delighted to support a number of community and fundraising events and we are always so grateful for our families who generously support these events as well. This term, events have included supporting deaf awareness, community litter picking, a visit from our Hatton Court friends and a 4 All Foundation charity Wear Orange Day in support of our local community hub, The Zone. The L Factor performance and Summer Fair, which are firm favourites with our children, staff, families and community, have also made their annual appearances bringing even more fun and enjoyment to the summer term.
instilling these values, we have created a unified community where every pupil feels a deep sense of belonging and purpose. This term the children were fully immersed in the values of Aspire and Joy. Every half-term we have a special worship at Christ Church Tilstock with Reverend Armstrong to present children in each year group the star value award to celebrate children across the school who have shown our school values in their behaviour and actions.
The Joy of Trips
School trips provide our children and young people with hands-on experiences that go beyond books, photos and videos. These trips allow our children to see, touch, and explore real-world contexts related to their learning. Children learn to navigate new environments and develop resilience, positively impacting on their emotional well-being and self-confidence. At the beginning of term, the children in Squirrels visited the Maritime Museum in Liverpool to consolidate and deepen their understanding of their Titanic topic. The children took part in an immersive storytelling workshop and explored the Titanic exhibition. Otter class were so lucky to complete a school trip to Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery. This enabled our children to really delve deeper into our topic on the Tudors, writing with a quill, dressing up as a Tudor and creating a Tudor house structure with wattle and daub. Badgers recently went to Shrewsbury Prison to develop their chronological knowledge as part of their History topic Crime and Punishment through the ages The pupils got to experience some Victorian yard activities as well as ask questions to a former Prison guard Our Year 2 children did us proud, visiting Birmingham Athletic Stadium to take part in the Trust Athletics Varsity What an inspirational day for our children!
