The Marches Academy Trust | Spring Newsletter 2021

ISSUE 16

TRUST

NEWSLETTER

A MESSAGE FROM THE CEO It is with great pride and a depth of gratitude I begin this newsletter. We are so happy to have welcomed back our children and young people to face to face learning. We are thankful to all our staff, parents, carers, and children for all that you have done and continue to do during the last 12 months of a national and worldwide pandemic.

We have a great deal to celebrate as each learning community in the Trust works to regenerate and more importantly develop a bright future. Each school in the Trust have thought hard about the wellbeing of their children, young people, and staff; from the very first week of face to face teaching the curriculum offer has been developed to bear in mind the skills and opportunities that our learners need to support their time in school, so that it is as positive as we can make it.

I am proud to share with you all the work that has continued to improve our schools and engage our children. The Grove School has had a new reception area, Longlands Primary School continues to add to its extensive social farm, and we will begin building work at The Marches School for much needed extra space due to growth in student numbers at Sixth Form. We have also managed to secure funding for various projects across all our schools in the Trust, some of which are shown below: The High Sheriff of Shropshire - £500 towards disadvantaged children at Longlands Primary School and £500 at The Grange Primary School.

Shropshire Council - £4,400 towards Easter Holiday Activities at Longlands Primary School / The Grange Primary School / Woodlands School / Oakmeadow CE Primary School.

Energize Shropshire, Telford, and Wrekin - £4,555 to run the All-In programme across The Marches Academy Trust.

Tesco - £1,000 to support the Social Farm at Longlands Primary School.

Connexus Group - £4,555 to support Social Farm projects across The Marches Academy Trust.

Freemasons - £250 to support animals within the Trust.

Aico Ltd - £1,555 to support animals within the Trust.

Shropshire Football Association - to run the Wildcats Programme at Longlands Primary School (£900), Oakmeadow CE Primary School (£600), Tilstock CE Primary School (£600) and Lower Heath CE Primary School (£600).

Connexus Group - donated 10 laptops to The Marches Academy Trust.

Argos - £100 to support EYFS learning – Longlands Primary School.

I am looking forward to our very first MMATovision competition which will be taking place from 17th to 21st May. Children and staff across the Trust are developing their songs and it looks to be a very exciting event which we will share via school websites and social media.

Finally, we have been celebrating Easter in our schools across the Trust and children have been reflecting on the Easter message and seeing that we too are in a period of rebirth and regeneration! Have a happy, restful, and fun Easter.

MARCHESACADEMYTRUST.CO.UK |

SARAH FINCH CEO, THE MARCHES ACADEMY TRUST

@MARCHESACADEMYTRUST

MARCHES ACADEMY TRUST VISION & VALUES

We believe: Successful creative lifelong learners participate in a journey of self discovery.

They know how to learn, acquire skills and feel safe to take risks with confidence and courage.

A MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR OF TRUSTEES As we mark the anniversary of the start of coronavirus disruption it is easy to look back over the last year and think about everything we have missed out on. In regard to education, this tends towards a focus on making up gaps in progress and knowledge, but this catch-up mentality can be a negative way of framing things, which does not recognise all of the positive efforts and achievements of our children, teachers and families across the Trust during such a difficult period.

The theme of 'Moving Forward' sums up the approach we are taking across the Trust to address this, to build on these achievements and to tackle the continued challenges of Covid with a positive outlook. The start of this has been a successful return to school for all of our children, and the switch back to face-to-face learning, whilst tackling the challenge of regular testing and increased safety measures and mask-wearing, which has once again impressed us all with how resilient, adaptable and responsible the members of our Trust community are.

For our Primary children, the focus is on renewing social skills which have been impacted by long periods of isolation from friends and classmates and ensuring that we have a detailed understanding of the needs of all those children approaching transition to secondary school.

For all those in our Secondaries, and especially those in exam years, it is important to take stock of everything that has been learned over the last year and to use this as a strong foundation for learning through the rest of this academic year and beyond.

The 'Time to Shine' programme which we are running across the Trust will offer every young person the opportunity and support to demonstrate how far they have come in lockdown and what they are capable of in the future, so that we can all move forward with confidence in what will continue to be challenging times for a while to come.

ALEX FRY MEMBER AND CHAIR OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES, THE MARCHES ACADEMY TRUST

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

Bob Pearson

Claire Shaw

Arthur Walpole

Trustees

Alex Fry Chair

Catherine Bennett Vice Chair

Sarah Finch CEO

Stuart Cowper

Pam Edwards

Mark Liquorish

Arthur Walpole

Keith Winter

WE WELCOME WOODLANDS SCHOOL INTO THE TRUST Based in Wem, Woodlands School is a specialist provider of education to local children with social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) needs. By joining The Marches Academy Trust, Woodlands will gain access to local support from the Trust in ensuring the highest standards of education, together with securing the on-going sustainability of the school into the future. The school will in turn, strengthen the SEN expertise within the Trust and continue the wonderful collaboration between schools in all aspects of learning and particularly in supporting students that require additional support with their education.

The Trust will continue to work in partnership with Shropshire Local Authority to ensure that children with SEMH across Shropshire get the best possible provision.

This is a fantastic opportunity for the Trust to grow in strength with a school that has a wealth of SEN expertise, and through the Trust, Woodlands School will continue to build an excellent standard of SEMH education.

Mrs Jules Taylor, Headteacher at Woodlands School added: “This is an exciting prospect for the whole school community. Being part of The Marches Academy Trust will give the students and staff at Woodlands School many more learning experiences and memorable moments that will stay with our children for the rest of their lives and inspire them to become life-long learners. We can share our knowledge to provide excellent learning opportunities and experiences for all students.”

ALLIANCE OF LEADING LEARNING CAVELLE PRIESTLEY-BIRD | EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE ALLIANCE OF LEADING LEARNING Each year the Trust and the Alliance of Leading Learning invest heavily in driving school improvement through the professional learning of our staff teams. We are committed to providing opportunities to develop talent and ensuring we move forwards as a Trust learning community.

We are therefore excited to announce our Architects of Change Conference on 12th July 2021.

“Building a Bold Learning Community” The conference will be hosted in each school and will consider how we, as a Trust, develop our young people to be Resilient, Confident and Independent learners.

Our architects have a specialist area that has been linked to our drive forward to the school of the future. We have a creative agenda that will lead into school projects that will in turn support your school’s development plan.

The conference will be current and cutting edge covering “Developing Sport Values and Character” - Learning and enhancing skill sets for the future from sport; “Creating effective communicators in our communities” - empowering our young people in the life skills of communication; "Imagineers of the Future" - Developing young people to lean into their future with courage and passion; "Future Women Leaders" - an equal and empowered future for all; "Emotional Coaching and Regulation" - supporting young people to develop their skills in emotional regulation and self-expression and "Reflective Learners" - creating lifelong learners.

Our line up of virtual Keynote speakers supporting our architects is nothing short of impressive.

Our Main Keynote Speaker is Richard Gerver. Richard will look at Phases of Change - How has education changed and how will it change? Embracing change, creating tomorrow, using what has happened in the pandemic to embrace an exciting new future.

Richard Gerver

Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon

We are thrilled to also have Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon linked to Future Women Leaders. Anne-Marie’s wealth of experience and pioneering spirit led her to co-found the Stemettes, https://stemettes.org/ an award-winning social initiative dedicated to inspiring and promoting the next generation of young women in the STEM sectors. Since its inception 8 years ago, it has exposed almost 50,000 young people across Europe to Anne-Marie’s vision for a more diverse and balanced science and tech community.

Our strong line up also includes David Didau for Effective Communicators, Mick Waters for Imagineers, Jamie Edwards from Shrewsbury Town FC for Developing Sports’ values and Jason Bangbala for Behaviour and Emotional Regulation.

The conference promises to be both informative and inspiring – supporting us all as we venture towards building a Trust of the future.

LEADINGLEARNING.CO.UK |

@ALLEARNING1

ALLIANCE OF LEADING LEARNING SCHOOL DIRECT

2020 has certainly presented its challenges for our Initial Teaching Training provision! Our feedback suggests that one of our most notable USPs is to encourage peer support and offer the student teachers the space and time to share their experience together to scaffold their learning and development.

We were determined to provide face to face teaching for as long as possible in contrast to many providers who commenced their courses online and kept student teachers out of schools for the first term. It is testament to our Trust schools and partner schools that they were still able to offer teaching placements in September which has undoubtedly given our students an advantage at this stage of the course. Many student teachers are just now accessing face to face teaching with a handful of weeks remaining before they are due to be cast off as newly qualified teachers.

We switched to online teaching in January and discovered that there were advantages.

Sessions could be recorded to offer flexibility for the students. Tutors could deliver sessions without the need to travel.

The ability to interview students online has been a revelation and even though we had the opportunity to interview face to face in September, we have continued to interview online. It has given us the opportunity to interview several applicants who were overseas at the time and applicants who were all over the UK. We have been able to record the interviews which will serve as valuable evidence for the quality of our recruitment. We have been able to respond to applications much quicker and virtually meet individuals prior to an interview to stress the benefits of training to teach with us. This is reflecting in our recruitment statistics which show that we are 20% ahead with confirmed applicants but only 4% ahead on applications received.

As we transition back to a ‘face to face learning platform’ there are elements of remote learning which will continue to allow us to develop and grow our provision.

KATE ASPINALL TEACHING SCHOOL CO-ORDINATOR & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER, THE ALLIANCE OF LEADING LEARNING

LEADINGLEARNING.CO.UK |

@ALLEARNING1

ALLIANCE OF LEADING LEARNING CASE STUDY

2020 was going to be a transformative year for me. Having taught overseas as an unqualified teacher, I had finally taken the adult decision of improving my teaching practice and career opportunities. I was excited to start my PGCE and return to the UK after 7 years abroad. 2020, however had different ideas! As the pandemic worsened worldwide, returning home for September was looking ever more doubtful, finally after weeks of anxiety, I received the email I had been dreading. My flight and all future flights had been cancelled until further notice. The realisation that I was not going to be back in time to begin my course felt particularly cruel.

Despite the obvious disadvantages of not being able to return home, it was not all doom and gloom. I am happy to report that I was able to begin my PGCE and feel part of the cohort as well as developing my teaching practice. I was lucky that the Alliance of Leading Learning was so understanding and made adjustments for me.

There were some real benefits for me conducting the start of my PGCE online. Sessions were recorded so I could watch, take notes and complete assignments at a time that suited me. This was invaluable as I was in a different time zone, had to maintain a full-time teaching job and look after a 9-month-old. I cannot overstate the importance of the flexibility in those early stages of my PGCE. I am happy to report that I was able to return to Shropshire in early November and commence my placement with Hadley Learning Community where I have been fortunate to secure a teaching role for September.

PHILLIP RILEY INITIAL TRAINEE TEACHER

LEADINGLEARNING.CO.UK |

@ALLEARNING1

TRUST UNSUNG HERO...

What did you do before joining The Marches Academy Trust?

I have a career spanning over 40 years: Working in both private and public sectors covering a wide range of management disciplines; QHSE, Facilities Management, Project Management, Contracts Management, Production Planning and Customer Services. In the Public Sector I have worked for The Stoke-on-Trent Youth Offending Services and North Staffordshire PCT (Public Health). In the Private Sectors I worked for Johnson Matthey a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index (25 years) and immediately before joining The Marches Academy Trust at The Grove School I worked for a company responsible for managing military contracts. This involved tendering for multi-million pound contracts supporting our Armed Forces in Afghanistan and the National Emergency Mortuary Arrangements (NEMA); it was this role that fine tuned my Risk Assessment and Project Management skills.

What made you want to join The Marches Academy Trust?

I have always loved work, the structure, community and feeling of belonging it provides. I worked for JM for 25 years and am eternally grateful for the training opportunities the company provided enabling me to develop and progress from an Office Junior to a Senior Business Manager, but after taking voluntary redundancy in 2004 I wanted to experience different sector cultures and secured a position as Office Manager for the Youth Offending Services. I found both sectors completely different the first driving forward innovative thinking and development, the second providing an insight into society which blew my perceived ideas of good and bad people right out of the window. When I read the job advertisement for the Facilities Manager post at The Grove School I thought – wow! This looks like it is a job that will not only give me the opportunity to use all my experience and skills but also fulfil aspects of my character which need to drive forward change and yet consider the human side of life, the grey areas where nothing is absolute – I was not wrong, this job is, yes stressful and demanding but I totally love it. The opportunity to make a difference is, for me, the definition of job satisfaction.

What does your current role in the Trust entail?

I think it would be easier to say what my job does not entail! It is a role that works across the entire school community, parents, students, teachers, support staff, contractors, visitors. In a nutshell I would say it is my job to provide a safe and fit-forpurpose environment for all stakeholders of the school community to thrive and push forward to make our education settings ready for a new world. I also am responsible for ensuring that staff under my charge are encouraged and supported to find their best selves.

How has COVID-19 impacted your role?

It challenged me in a way I have never experienced before, drawing upon all my previous work experience to assess and evaluate risk, to develop control measures using local and national guidance, to plan and implement procedures and to effectively communicate. All of this as well as “the day job” has been totally life absorbing. There have been areas which I have not been able to tackle e.g. taking time to develop stronger relationships with local business partners – I look forward to focusing on this in the not too distant future.

What have you learnt over the past year?

We really are at our best when we work together with a common goal. The collaboration of parents, students, teachers, support and site staff has shown the way forward and clear concise communication and involvement has been key to our success.

How do you see schools moving forwards?

There is still a place for the developments made in remote learning to support face to face lessons, this really is an opportunity for no child to be left behind. Having worked with the Youth Offending Services I saw how effective multi-agency initiatives can be in affecting change for young people. Bringing together Education, Health, Social Care, Police and Mentoring Services would provide a holistic approach to support our young people and I would like to see dedicated resources available to capture struggling students before patterns of behaviour are formed. School premises need to stimulate our students to want to learn; the environment we create for them needs to reflect their inner curiosities and sense of adventure.

LINDA AUSTIN OPERATIONS MANAGER FOR THE GROVE SCHOOL AND LONGLANDS PRIMARY SCHOOL

SPOTLIGHT ON LEARNING

SARAH FINCH | CEO THE MARCHES ACADEMY TRUST

You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step

MARTIN LUTHER KING JNR It is hard to believe our first national lockdown began over a year ago. On March 20th 2020 we entered unchartered territory. We certainly could not see the whole staircase as we tentatively took our first steps. In March 2020 school leaders, teachers and support staff across the country rolled up their sleeves and took up the reins, leading children confidently through one of the most challenging periods in global education. There was much uncertainty as the pandemic rocked our world but The Marches Academy Trust community knew how to dig in!

So where are we now, a year on and what have we learnt?

RESILIENCE We have learnt that the resilience of our children is boundless.

We have always been astounded by the resilience of youth.

Children pick themselves up, dust themselves down, and get on in a way that adults always admire. However, during the past year our children have demonstrated incredible resilience in all aspects of learning. Their ‘normal’ learning environment had gone and been replaced with a virtual world. Their usual patterns and methods of learning had been replaced with strategies that they had never seen before. Assessment for learning moved from mini white boards, verbal feedback and red, amber, green cards to ‘likes in the chat’, polls or online quizzes. Their paper timetables were replaced by digital calendars. Lessons were not in classrooms but in Teams and Zoom. Every aspect of their learning shifted to a virtual equivalent.

Learning moved so quickly that it is now hard to comprehend the enormous resilience children demonstrated as they entered what must have been a very daunting first national lockdown. We then moved through a year-long pattern in and out of lockdown and our children moved with us demonstrating flexibility, resilience and wisdom beyond their years.

SPOTLIGHT ON LEARNING INDEPENDENCE

It is not what you do for your children, but what you have taught them to do for themselves that will make them successful human beings

ANN LANDERS During periods of lockdown children have been required to do much more for themselves. For many, this has been in all aspects of their lives but especially within their education. Children have been taught how to logon and access virtual lessons independently.

They have had to watch the clock and make sure they have not missed an assembly, a lesson or a meeting. Through their use of technology they have been trusted to become independent and they have enjoyed the feelings of accomplishment and responsibility that this has brought. As educators we have learnt that children can not only survive but thrive independently when virtual or physical environments are secure, fully prepared and supportive.

TEACHING OLD DOGS NEW TRICKS Who would have thought that an army of teachers, access leaders and teaching assistants could surf a tsunami of technology to confidently deliver their curriculum, enthusiastically sharing expertise and ideas whilst not even in the school buildings? Who would have known that all support services within our schools could successfully navigate the virtual world in lightning speed to reach out to our children in need? We expect children to be adaptable and flexible in the fast-paced world of technology but our staff proved that through a combination of shared knowledge, a willingness to learn quickly and a single-minded determination to support young people, they could truly lead by example, break down barriers and continue to bring learning to life for all children in their care.

PRODUCTIVITY As a Trust, one of our many strengths is to share and collaborate. No employee, subject or school is an island. We all have colleagues who we can contact for support and we understand our role in supporting others. There is nothing quite like a face to face conversations and the experience of lockdown has made these even more precious. Reading body language and non-verbal communication adds essence to any verbal exchange. However, schools are busy places and children always come first so cross school meetings (before lockdown) felt rushed as we got in our cars and raced to meet colleagues at the ends of busy school days. Our newfound virtual meeting rooms have provided a sense of calm and brought renewed focus to these meetings. We are no longer rushing but dialling in from quiet corners of schools and the meetings are more productive and more targeted and more efficient. The pandemic has ensured that time is more precious to us all.

SPOTLIGHT ON LEARNING SPRING IS IN THE AIR What bright new seedlings have emerged from the roots of change? What will we retain and what will we discard? We know that great things never come from comfort zones and so we stride confidently towards the future equipped with what we have learnt over the past twelve months and ready to flex with the inevitable change of the future. We know that we can provide education from many locations. We can support children when we are not physically with them. We can be flexible, creative and inventive in order to provide stimulating learning experiences for all children. We can think outside the box and we can reframe our ideals in the knowledge that we can remove barriers if we think hard to find solutions. We have developed an even greater understanding of the power of personal development alongside academic growth and our provision will continue to develop and carefully intertwine these elements.

Children have shown us how they can interpret, infer, innovate, think deeply and problem solve when we provide platforms from which they can spring.

REIMAGINING OUR FUTURE Thanks to the shared experience of the past year education is experiencing an exciting rebirth. This Renaissance is causing us to stop and question our decisions and choices in education. For example, why are we assessing like this? Why do we assess at that point? Is there a different way to assess this unit of study? Can we assess more effectively? More efficiently? More strategically? The notion of time being precious elevates the importance of effective decision making, improves efficiency and eradicates waste.

Because of our shared experiences, we have pulled together in our school communities. Communication is strong and we feel the human connection or our shared experience. We are committed to retaining this and we value the support and unity we have felt from families and the wider community.

My vision for the ‘school of the future’ is for us to pull together as a village to raise our children. The pandemic has undoubtedly brought tragedy, pain and suffering but in its wake, we are more committed than ever to creating our school of the future and to raising every child by immersing them in a bright, stimulating, dynamic curriculum where they can explore, develop personal characteristics, grow, flourish and shine. The pandemic has inadvertently brought us even closer to this goal.

SPOTLIGHT ON LEARNING THE MARCHES SCHOOL How students have embraced digital learning through art at The Marches School The Art Department at The Marches School have seized the opportunity to embrace digital art during our online provision period. KS3 students have made huge strides in their drawing skills utilising free and easily accessible online software. We set our students the challenge of creating their own tutorial guides to support their peers when creating digital drawings and the response was overwhelming. These student led tutorials alongside WAGOLLS (What a Good One Looks Like) were used throughout lockdown to drive progress and improve levels of engagement. Students have welcomed receiving guidance from their peers.

Going forward, the Art Department has exciting plans in the pipeline to build on this success and incorporate new technologies and student-led learning into provision. Here are a few examples of the work we received from some of our talented students.

Challenging students thinking and raising aspirations during lockdown in Science In Science 59 students have opted to attend Science Lectures with Shrewsbury High School during lunchtimes on Teams once a month. This has enabled this group of learners to gain a knowledge of different career options available within the subject. Three of our Year 11 students completed their application for Scholarships in Engineering. They fully utilised Microsoft Teams to share ideas for applications and receive feedback. Year 12 students have completed Physics Olympiads online with all achieving certificates. We have ensured that STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) club has started during lockdown and students are engaging positively.

Adjacent is Eliza Stonehouse with the parachute that she made independently.

SPOTLIGHT ON LEARNING SHREWSBURY ACADEMY

As we moved to the virtual classroom we came to rely on new methods of teaching and learning. Some of the methods and tools are highly effective in remote learning but also in our physical classrooms so we will be continuing to use them and explore them throughout this year.

CLASS NOTEBOOK One such tool is Microsoft Class Notebook which ensures classwork and home learning can be effectively and efficiently organised.

Class Notebook can be used as a digital exercise book, ultimately eradicating the need for physical exercise books in some subjects. Feedback can be easily given and the intuitive software makes it user-friendly for students and teachers. It also allows students to see the bands of marks they can achieve for coursework and it gives them specific success criteria that they have achieved or can aspire towards. This means teachers can instantly check the marks and students can get more detailed feedback, straight away.

This enables a much clearer dialogue for feedback, rather than more finite marking in an exercise book.

TOOLS TO SUPPORT STUDENTS: Immersive Reader For our dyslexic students this button provides the facility for: Coloured overlays Enlarged and highlighted texts Text to be read out loud Speeding up the speech Slowing down the speech Changing the voice Changing the language Changing the font so it is more legible for students

SPOTLIGHT ON LEARNING The Dictate Function Teachers can talk through feedback and record it for students. It will transcribe what has been said so that time can be efficiently used. Voice recorded feedback can also be provided for students through the Class Notebook.

Visualisers These have been invaluable during remote learning in providing a whiteboard function from home but are just as useful in the classrooms at school for modelling demonstrations in practical subjects or sharing good work/ errors immediately.

QUALITY FIRST TEACHING Teams enables all isolating or poorly students to join lessons whilst everyone else is in the classroom. Using the Class Notebook 'digital exercise book' with online assignments that can be completed at the student’s own pace ensures that quality first teaching can continue and students can learn remotely.

For staff who are shielding, the technology enables them to still teach live. The continuity that this provides is invaluable for staff and students alike.

We feel really proud of what we have achieved so far with our use of technology and we will continue to embrace new approaches in hybrid blended learning in order to provide the best possible teaching and learning experience for our students.

SEND UPDATE

AMY CHEVIN-DOOLEY | DEPUTY HEADTEACHER FOR SAFEGUARDING, LAC & SEND LEAD Adaptability [noun]: the quality of being able to adjust to new conditions.

Throughout 2020/2021, this word has never felt more important. After a year of adaptations: working from home, partially closed schools, Teams teaching, new ways of learning, parentteacher roles, lessons through a screen, discussions via messages… we have all had to be adaptable to survive and thrive in the pandemic. This noun, however, is always pertinent for students with, and teachers of, special educational needs and/or a disability (SEND); with the pandemic has come a greater spotlight on the needs of students for whom adaptability is always a key component of their vocabulary.

In January 2021, I was appointed as Deputy Headteacher across The Marches Academy Trust, with responsibility for Safeguarding, Looked After Children (LAC) and SEND. Along with my colleague, Jan Jones, appointed as part-time SEND Education Improvement Officer in September 2020, we have had the pleasure of visiting (some times remotely) the nine schools across the Trust throughout the national Lockdown, to see the great work being carried out by the SEND teams within each setting, in some of the most challenging circumstances.

SEND, as we know, did not ‘pause’ due to a pandemic; all settings have, as per the SEND Code of Practice: 0-25 Years ensured that as far as possible, all additional support and measures have continued, or further adaptations have been implemented to continue the education for our SEND students. All schools have seen large numbers of students attending, particularly those with EHCPs, and the work of teaching assistants, access leaders, learning mentors and teachers has continued both on-site and remotely. We have seen students accessing differentiated learning, interventions, assessments and bespoke provision to support them throughout this time, and now schools have returned to full reopening, these provisions have continued and time is being taken to reflect on the excellent practice during the Lockdown, and what learning we can take from the experience to further enhance the provision across our Trust for SEND learners.

For the remainder of the academic year, as a school improvement team within the Trust, we are working with SENDCos, learning support staff, senior leadership groups, teachers, students, parents, and outside agencies to evaluate the strengths of SEND provision across the Trust schools, and look for ways to develop this further in the future. As much as the pandemic presented challenges and forced a greater level of adaptability, it also offered time to reflect and this is not an opportunity, as a Trust striving to be the very best for all learners, we are going to miss.

Therefore, if you would be interested as a member of The Marches Academy Trust community, in working towards a better provision for learners with SEND, we value your input.

In our next newsletter, information will be shared regarding this process, and so should you be interested, please email: chevin-dooley.a@mmat.org.uk expressing your interest.

I look forward to feeding back to you about the exciting developments.

SOCIAL FARM PROJECT UPDATE GEORGE HOUNSELL | TRUST PRIMARY PE LEAD The animal family within The Marches Academy Trust continues to grow...

Longlands Primary School have been supporting schools within the Trust to welcome animals into their schools. In 2017, Longlands decided to create space for a Social Farm and now have rabbits, guinea pigs, chickens, cockerels, a hamster, tortoise, an African giant snail, Teddy the school dog and are soon set to welcome 2 billy goats. Over the past two years, the staff, pupils and community have seen how therapy animals can make such as huge difference to mental health and wellbeing.

Recently, more animal members have joined The Marches Academy Trust with Tilstock CE Primary School, Lower Heath CE Primary School and The Grange Primary School all welcoming guinea pigs into their schools. In March 2021, Woodlands School rehomed a corn snake and she is currently living in the Science room! Already she is building a fantastic relationship with the pupils and staff members.

With funding support from the High Sheriff of Shropshire, Connexus Group and Oswestry based company Aico, plans are in place to create projects similar to those at Longlands for The Grange Primary School and Woodlands School.

To keep up to date on the Longlands Social Farm project, please follow them on Twitter: @LonglandsEco

MOVING FORWARD UPDATE

CARLA WHELAN | EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF PRIMARY EDUCATION Across our schools we have been very focused on ensuring all our children are able and ready to learn. Since March last year there have been many considerations in relation to this. In autumn we implemented a recovery curriculum, based around social emotional learning that would support reintegration and help get our children back into their learning mindset in school and this has remained a huge priority for us at the Trust.

Throughout the media there is a high coverage on ‘catch up’. However we feel in our primaries the word choices we use to support our children moving forward after this last year are essential. The pressure of feeling they need to catch up would be counteractive to supporting their next learning journey with us at the Trust. So we are concentrating now on ‘Moving forward’, re-establishing their connection with their school and looking to the future.

Recovering hope and ambition is important now. We are moving forward with a confidence that our children will gain the key learning they need through our carefully considered curriculums, and not focusing on the idea they have ‘lost’ a year. It is a time for us to help the children see how the pandemic has given us reflection, has offered an opportunity to pause and helped grow the resilience inside us all! We cannot dismiss the hardship it has brought, but we can reignite the excitement for the future.

PRIMARY SPORT UPDATE GEORGE HOUNSELL | TRUST PRIMARY PE LEAD

Continuing to thrive in Physical Education during lockdown 3.0 During the recent Covid-19 lockdown restrictions, we have been overwhelmed with the participation in our Virtual PE Lessons. In the first week, we had over 190 pupils attend our Clubbercise session with instructor Mel Mansell and had over 120 attending our boxing and fitness workshop with Joe Lockley from Bright Star Boxing Academy.

We have been lucky to have sporting athletes support The Marches Academy Trust by providing challenges to our pupils to keep them active. Former skeleton racer and Olympic gold medalist Amy Williams MBE; former Manchester United footballer Reece Brown and current Team GB Pole Vaulter Holly Bradshaw have all sent challenges during the recent lockdown.

Just wanted to say how amazing it is that you are giving all of the young people so many opportunities. More that I’ve seen from any other school or Trust. The pupils have been fantastic and are a credit to you.

JOE LOCKLEY BRIGHT STAR BOXING ACADEMY

I've loved every class and meeting the children. They are an amazing bunch and have been a pleasure to teach!

MEL MANSELL CLUBBERCISE & ZUMBA INSTRUCTOR

Moving forward and away from Virtual Sessions…

We have won funding - £3,500 from Sport England for our Active Drayton project!

The Marches Academy Trust are proud to be working with the newly created Actio Consortium. Shropshire Council, Energize and PACC who make up the Actio Consortium have agreed to fund our Primary PE Team to run outdoor learning activities for children with SEND needs.

Activities will include canoeing, body boarding, skiing and mountain climbing. To follow this journey, please follow our Primary Physical Education Team on Twitter: @MMATPrimaryPE.

TILSTOCK CE PRIMARY SCHOOL ROWENA KAMINSKI | HEAD OF SCHOOL

At Tilstock CE Primary School we know how important literacy, including reading, writing, speaking and drama, is to our children. Literacy underpins every aspect of the teaching and learning that children are exposed to, across all year groups, across all subjects.

We want to strengthen their acquisition, understanding and use of language with a consistent exposure to rich vocabulary. We want to teach our children a variety of strategies, so they may talk with confidence, passion, expression and purpose. We want to extend our children’s thinking and advance their learning and understanding of our language in a way that develops a desire to be heard. We have therefore taken part in the ‘Poetry by Heart’ initiative. Poetry by Heart is a national poetry recitation competition for schools and colleges in England. It is also a website for teaching and learning about poetry – by heart and out loud, and with plenty of choice for young people to explore poems and find the ones they love.

Poetry is the distillation of language into its purest form, and this conciseness not only makes it a perfect example for children to see how words are chosen with careful precision, but it is also a very manageable way for children to learn skills in punctuation, and grammar, who may otherwise feel daunted by or have a lack of stamina for reading and writing. We have a lot of EAL children and children with speech and language difficulties, so being such a small amount of writing, poetry is less intimidating. It has been wonderful to see children, with English as an additional language, recite poems that they have learnt by heart. But also, It is enjoyable - the national curriculum tells us that pupils should ‘establish an appreciation and love of reading’ and we as a school believe that children should enjoy reading and poetry should be a part of that. We have really enjoyed having fun with poems - the children have been very creative - adding their own actions, expression and personal take on them. And even though the event is aimed at children in KS2 and KS3, in our school, children as young as 4 took part in the competition.

Each class chooses one poem per term to learn by heart. Copies of these poems were sent home, practised each day in class and uploaded onto our website. At the end of each term, children have the opportunity to perform their poem as an individual or as a group and enter the national poetry recitation competition. Throughout their learning process, children learn the skills of speaking to an audience, expression, acquisition and understanding of new vocabulary and a passion for poetry. By the time our children have left our school, they will have acquired a bank of special poems to cherish for a lifetime.

Recently, Dr Tim Shortis (co-director of Poetry by Heart) and Julie Blake have contacted the school, keen to work with Tilstock children. They have donated free poetry calendars to every child and provided bespoke CPD to all our staff. Working with specialists such as Tim and Julie, have provided unique curriculum support alongside a network of professionals, working together for our children’s education. To find out more about 'Poetry by Heart' please visit www.poetrybyheart.org.uk

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LOWER HEATH CE PRIMARY SCHOOL

DEBORAH SADLER | HEADTEACHER

Pets in School When Lower Heath CE Primary School reopened to all pupils on 8th March, the children had two new members of our school community waiting to greet them! The school have been kindly supported by a grant from the High Sheriff of Shropshire to introduce animals in school, and the guinea pigs will form part of the school's provision for mental health and wellbeing, as well as teaching children the important skills of caring for animals and the world around them. Along with a Giant African Snail which will soon be joining us, children will access the animals as part of pet therapy and they will learn a greater sense of responsibility and independence through caring for the pets. All of these things can improve both behaviour and wellbeing.

Zones of Regulation This term, children are being introduced to a new way of self-regulating and managing their feelings and behaviour, using the Zones of Regulation shared with Trust primaries by Oakmeadow CE Primary School. Zones of Regulation is a whole-school approach that works brilliantly alongside the Class Dojo reward system and alongside the Rest Easy method which is well-embedded across the school. The 'zones' help children to become more aware of their feelings and emotions, providing them with a toolkit to access independently when they are experiencing more challenging feelings. As children are more able to identify and discuss their emotions, they can learn to manage them in a way that means they are kind and respectful to their peers, and able to quickly return to a state where they are happy and ready to learn. At Lower Heath, staff are looking forward to embedding this with the pupils, and a number of staff are working hard to train to deliver this as an intervention for children who require additional support managing their behaviour and/or emotions, alongside the introduction of further supportive interventions such as 'No Worries' and 'ELSA'.

Rain Before Rainbows Children across the school have returned from the second national lockdown to a recovery curriculum heavily focused on their wellbeing. Their afternoons have focused on the beautiful book ‘Rain Before Rainbows’, completing activities such as creating worry pools, and the book reminds us all that we can find optimism even in the most difficult times, and that after the darkness of a storm, we find a way out into the light of a rainbow. This was the perfect book to introduce pupils back to school following lockdown.

A welcome return to music and drama The children of Lower Heath love to sing and perform, and after months of restrictions they have very much enjoyed being able to prepare for an online Easter service and performance.

All children across the school will be performing for their parents in a service which will be recorded and shared with members of the school community, from the oldest children in Owl Class performing an Easter story called ‘The Three Trees’, right down to our youngest children in Early Years creating Easter bonnets and singing whilst they complete their parade!

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LONGLANDS PRIMARY SCHOOL

ZILLAH COPE | HEADTEACHER

Back at Longlands Primary School, teachers are making the most of outdoor learning opportunities to minimise time spent in crowded classrooms. We want to create a new generation that have a thirst for knowledge about the natural world, that care deeply about the environment and will grow up to do all they can to look after our planet.

As part of this, we are excited to announce that we are teaming up with the Royal Horticultural Society to review and strengthen our outdoor learning environment and work with the school staff to plan an exciting outdoor learning curriculum where children can learn from hands on experiences and apply their knowledge and skills in a cross curricular way.

We also plan to begin a community project during the summer where some KS2 pupils will have the opportunity to buddy up with a more elderly member of the community to undertake various projects together in the garden and on the farm.

The children and parents really enjoyed the remote PE challenges and we will continue to improve our PE offer by providing the children with frequent opportunities to work remotely with dance, boxing and Zumba coaches.

One thing that the pandemic has taught us all is that we need to pause and be more in the present. We as a school will certainly build in more opportunities to practice mindfulness and to help improve focus and attention at school, help pupils regulate their mood and emotions, and use their tools to feel calmer and more relaxed.

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GRANGE PRIMARY SCHOOL

CHARLOTTE SUMMERS | HEADTEACHER

In the challenging times over the last few months The Grange Primary School has shown its support and commitment to our local community through the unwavering support we have provided. Staying connected with our children and families was a priority during lockdown; we kept in touch with our pupils, with each receiving a telephone call at least once a week.

Our teachers worked hard throughout the closure to produce personalised teaching videos for the children. This has led to more engagement with our remote learning. Staff also took turns filming themselves reading stories, which were enjoyed by both children at home and those of key workers in school. As a school community we continued to find workarounds to celebrate key events – for World Book Day, we had a virtual visit from best-selling children's author Cat Weatherill. During the day children at home and in school joined together on Zoom to take part in a virtual story telling workshop. When pupils have been lacking the right IT equipment, school has supported by providing laptops and iPads to allow the children to get the most out of their time during homelearning. We also supported our school community by delivering much welcomed food hampers to families in need.

We would like to give our thanks to Morrisons who have continued to support us throughout the closure by generously donating food, books and fancy dress costumes for the children to enjoy. We are also grateful to the Rotary Society who kindly gifted laptops to families in need and our thanks to the High Sheriff who provided funding to support our vulnerable families.

There is an exciting future ahead for The Grange Primary School. Our next projects include 'The Nest' - our new wrap-around care service starting from September and 'The Grange Farm' where children will get to look after animals on site in our very own farm!

We would like to thank our Grange community for their resilience, engagement and support in these challenging last few months. We look forward to taking you with us into the bright future of The Grange as we begin our next chapter.

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"Thank you for all of your hard work, time and effort this week. It’s been much appreciated."

"I just wanted to say a big thank you for all your hard work and support at the moment - making sure my child and the other children don't fall behind in their education."

"Not only the videos and home learning but the commenting on posts on Class Dojo – must take staff hours! The girls love seeing and hearing their teachers' voices, keeps them going."

"Thank you for making World Book Day so exciting - we loved it!"

PARENT/CARER FEEDBACK

We are so pleased to have welcomed back our remaining children to school after what has been a long break away from the building for some.

Nothing is better than seeing all our children together again and seeing their smiling faces! As they did in the Autumn, the pupils have quickly adapted back into the routines of school life.

We have been working hard to think about how we can best support this transition back to full classes and have again considered our curriculum response to enable us to move forward positively. On the return to school, our pupils are receiving a mixture of basic skills teaching, to ensure their academic progress is promoted, and crucially underpinning all of this is a thorough programme of social and emotional learning to help our children reconnect with one another and re-establish their love of learning. Teachers are planning and delivering opportunities which promote critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork, physical activity and mental health and wellbeing.

OAKMEADOW CE PRIMARY SCHOOL SAMANTHA HILL | HEAD OF SCHOOL

The first week back was a week of ‘wow’ moments and dramatic enquiry! The first day, children walked onto site to find archaeological digs, uncovered castle ruins, Viking relics hidden in the earth and a Teepee on site! These have set up the learning for the remainder of the term and it has been so lovely to see how excited the children have been by these and how it has sparked their imagination.

Our hope now is that we can focus on moving forward in this exciting way and for a little more certainty for the future as the roadmap out of Covid continues!

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@OAKMEADOWCESCHOOL

Socratic Discussions Shrewsbury Academy's English Department have been researching and developing the pedagogy of Socratic questions and discussion through the first lockdown and beyond. Our use of Socratic Discussion has provided us with a wealth of resources for our chosen GCSE texts that we can use in different ways in the classroom, to support flipped learning and students' revision. Socratic Discussion has supported us in building active learning and listening skills, the discussions promote critical thinking and allow students to witness issues in-depth. The discussions promote independent thinking and we have clearly seen an impact within students’ extended writing as discussion ideas are developed and promoted in their analytical writing. We are currently developing these discussions to make a truly interactive experience for our students in terms of building our own Shrewsbury Academy English specific website that will run full courses centred around our Socratic discussions! Please visit 'SAYouTube' to catch a glimpse of some of the fabulous and engaging discussions the English Department (with guests) have had about characters from An Inspector Calls, Jekyll and Hyde, Power and Conflict Poetry and Lady Macbeth!

Something 4 Tea Our ‘S4T’ scheme is still proving very successful with many families accessing our bags of food.

We have received some very kind donations from Morrisons, the residents of Shrawardine, the parents in our community and our staff. Screwfix have also donated a trolley to us make our lives a lot easier! A very big thank you to you all. Weekly texts are being sent out to our families offering our service. If you would like to receive a bag of food please contact the school by emailing r.powell@sa.sat.coop or l.howells@sa.sat.coop and we will be more than happy to help.

SHREWSBURY ACADEMY JULIE JOHNSON | HEAD OF SCHOOL

The Shropshire Parent and Carer Council (PACC) PACC is working with The Marches Academy Trust to support the development of parent/carer participation in schools. Participation is about developing a working partnership, in this case between families which include children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and the school they attend. By working together, listening to and understanding each other, better outcomes are achieved for everyone. PACC are a parent/carer run, registered charity and a member of the National Network of Parent/Carer Forums. PACC works with families of children and young people, aged 0-25 years, with any additional need or disability, to ensure their knowledge and experience informs local, regional and national decision making. This project aims to develop positive partnerships between schools and their SEND community, to ensure effective communication and an improved experience for everyone. This will be achieved by establishing SEND parent/carer engagement groups in schools where they can hear from families directly to inform and influence practice across the school, The Marches Academy Trust, and wider SEND systems. If you want to know more about the work of PACC please visit their website: www.paccshropshire.org.uk. You can also follow them on Facebook or Twitter @ShropsPACC.

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@SHREWSBURYACADEMY

"It has been fantastic to provide key worker students at Shrewsbury Academy a chance to enjoy time away from a screen and play a variety of sports during Lockdown 3.0. Through providing one to one mentoring sessions we have been able to help students deal with the different challenges the current situation presents."

SHREWSBURY TOWN FC

SIR JOHN TALBOT'S SCHOOL TIM STONALL | HEAD OF SCHOOL

Covid-19 Rapid “Self” Testing National media interest in school testing resulted in the Sir John Talbot’s School and its students featuring on the BBC news, and once again the students were a credit to our school.

You can see the story in full on the BBC website here: www.bbc.co.uk/news/education56169407 The testing, whilst logistically challenging, has demonstrated the value of a close-knit team working within the school. Thanks and praise should be reserved for the following staff, who have seamlessly facilitated the self-testing process, in addition to their main roles and responsibilities.

Team Leader / Quality Lead – Howard Prince Registration and results – Sarah Downward Swabbing guidance and supervision – Keith Robinson, Tom Sheridan Processors – Alison Rastelli, Ewa Wlodarczyk, Kathryn Whitfield, Sofia Santos, Tom Sheridan Furthermore, the process has been supported by valuable assistance from Anna Sanderson, Nancy Whitfield, Colin Hackett, Jane Perkins and Linda Chapman who are more usually present within the school as Invigilators.

All our testing was carried out in the school Gymnasium which was transformed into a securely controlled and sanitised test station, from early January 2021 to test our “key worker” and “HUB” students and staff. This initial period of testing proved to be an invaluable experience for the bigger challenge that lay ahead of us from the 8th of March.

As with staff, students have now been issued with home test kits and will be encouraged to test twice weekly, it is not anticipated that any students will struggle with the process but testing within school will remain as an option, should it prove necessary.

Examples of Student Work During the latest lockdown we posted some wonderful examples of student work on YouTube.

Please have a look at them here: https://youtu.be/vDS84m-EZYM

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@SIRJOHNTALBOTSSCHOOL

Welcome parents and carers to your headlines from The Grove School. I wonder how you are feeling since your children returned to school? A sincere thank you from the staff (and on behalf of students) for everything you have done to support the students whilst they were learning from home; you will be pleased to know that we have made the absolute most of your effort and started back with a bang.

We are proud to say that The Grove School has been fully accredited as a Safer Remote Education School, ensuring that we have deepened our expertise in areas such as delivering effective blended and remote learning, supporting student wellbeing and safeguarding remote learners. Along with this, access to learning never stopped at The Grove, with all students’ timetables being accessible via Microsoft Teams along with their actual teacher in front of them on screen at the start of each lesson. We have taken the challenges of the last year and used them to help us adapt our practice and curriculum further, so that students are even better equipped to thrive and become important members of society, able to take on the everchanging nature of the world.

THE GROVE SCHOOL SONIA TAYLOR | HEADTEACHER

As well as learning, the wider benefits of life at The Grove have continued too. We celebrated International Women’s Day with a wonderful piece from one of our own students and this month we welcome Helen Steers, a Partner at private equity giants Pantheon. Helen is co-founder and Board member of Level 20, an organisation set up to encourage women to succeed in the private equity industry, and we look forward to learning from her experience. We are very proud of the students who completed vocal exams with the London College of Music, as well as the team that represented us virtually at the Churchill Public Speaking Competition. Virtual celebrations of students and their work continued both in faculties and year groups, tutors phoned weekly to speak with their tutees and families, and we provided weekly activities to support reading for pleasure at home. Our STEM potential students are meeting virtually with current undergraduates at Imperial College and careers guidance for Year 11 has continued apace, with careers interviews being held virtually.

The partnership between school and home has never felt stronger. We have received numerous messages of support which we really value, attendance since we returned has been outstanding and we have Covid-19 tested over 90% of the school. Our students have returned with gusto and it is lovely to see them enjoying the practical subjects now they are back. There are many exciting things happening at The Grove next term and we look forward to seeing our students develop their ‘mind set to succeed’, as well as to working with parents and carers in shaping our school of the future.

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@GROVESCHOOLSHROPSHIRE

THE MARCHES SCHOOL ALISON PEARSON | HEADTEACHER

The school has achieved much over the last term – our skills with online learning has increased ten-fold. We all understand and are proficient in the use of “Assignments” and more, and how a community can continue to learn online but also to keep coming together for rewards and even a Virtual Fete.

We have learned to communicate online, continuing to welcome guest speakers and the Future Oswestry group looking at future town development. We have also confirmed that as a school we can cope with challenge – not least in setting up our 12 bay testing centre in a week.

During the return, we have been reflecting on how our LORIC (Leadership, Organisation, Resilience, Initiative, Communication) skills have developed at home and setting some goals: Year 10 – “Over lockdown I have developed more initiative skill because I started to revise at home.”

“I have developed organisation and initiative as I needed to be in my lessons on time with my equipment ready to do my work.”

“I am more resilient, doing as much work as I can manage at a time without over working or stressing myself out. Going forward, I need to develop communication, as even online, I was worried about messaging a teacher even if I felt I really needed to.”

Year 8 – “I aim to always stay positive and resilient when things get tough.”

We look forward positively to the future music and drama productions we will be sharing, the team sports and the summer Varsity games, the launch of trips abroad again and visits to a theatre. They are coming.

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