The Marches Academy Trust | Winter Newsletter 2020

NEWSLETTER | ISSUE 15 NEWSLETTER | ISSUE 15

A MESSAGE FROM THE CEO One Trust, One Team, One Voice.

We have strong foundations that are firmly planted in our collaboration as a Trust. We have seen the schools in our Trust find the strength to deliver an excellent standard of education in the face of adversity. Our team has shown heroic resilience that has helped to provide hope and comfort to our children, young people, parents and communities.

We have seen many examples of staff across the Trust working together to support one another to continue to provide a warm and engaging environment that gives our learning community the ability to Thrive.

Pause a moment‌ It is important to reflect on the many moments this term when our staff have taken the time to listen, support and laugh with colleagues, children, parents and communities. It is these small acts of kindness that strengthens us as one team.

We can be proud that throughout this term staff have taken the time to focus on the gifts, passions, interests and motivations of our children and young people. This has been clearly demonstrated on the school websites and Facebook pages. I can’t help but feel privileged to be part of such an inspiring group of professionals who seek out opportunities that give awe and wonder, which was beautifully exemplified by the Forest School, led by Mrs Finch (no relation!) at Tilstock CE Primary School, the work The Grove School have done with the local food bank, the Varsity competitions led by George Hounsell, the social farm at Longlands Primary School, the Something 4 Tea campaign at Shrewsbury Academy, the creative virtual art gallery at Oakmeadow CE Primary School and the Lockdown Diaries spearheaded by Mr Robinson at The Marches School.

#togetherwegrow

SARAH FINCH CEO, The Marches Academy Trust

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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 I am delighted to introduce myself as the new Chair of Trustees. It is an honour to be invited to take on the role, and I would like to thank Arthur Walpole, on behalf of all of the Trustees, for his long service and strong leadership, and for his diligent help with the transition. I am very pleased that he will remain a Trustee, and that we will continue to benefit from his dependable guidance and experience.

As a parent of children at Sir John Talbot’s school, I have seen first-hand the transformative effect The Marches Academy Trust can have on a school community. I am proud to be involved with an organisation that has grown so quickly and now represents such a broad mix of primary and secondary schools across the county. My main focus in taking on the role of Chair is to ensure that our governance network of school Governors and Trustees is effective at this scale, in its role as the ‘critical friend’, capable of supporting and challenging the leadership to make our schools the best they can be.

This year has seen the resilience of our school communities tested in a way we could hardly have imagined only months ago, and I am immensely proud of the resourcefulness, hard work and care shown by all of our staff, students and parents in rising to the challenge. The situation has tested all of us in so many different ways, yet we have adapted and coped to make sure that every child has been supported in continuing their education, and that existing inequalities were not magnified. I would like to thank everyone for their contribution to this, and hope we only have to keep it up for a little longer as normality slowly returns.

Having said that, adapting to the pandemic has revealed some surprising benefits. We have engaged fully with the potential technology offers for blended learning, our staff feel closer to the parent community than ever before, and we have experimented with new systems and processes which we may not previously have considered. As Trustees, we are keen to take the positive learnings from this period and build them into the way we work going forward. There has never been a better time to question the role education plays in our society, and the way we deliver it, to make sure that it encompasses the full range of needs of our students, preparing them for a world that we now, perhaps, better appreciate can throw up all sorts of unexpected challenges.

If the biggest learning from this period is the value and strength of community, then we should ensure that this is at the heart of everything we do in the future, and that we fully engage with our entire school community of staff, students and parents to understand how best to achieve this. Who knows what ideas we might come up with ALEX FRY between us, and the ways in which Member and Chair of we might progress to make the most the Board of Trustees, of whatever the ‘new normal’ turns The Marches Academy out to be? I am excited to find out.

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

Arthur Walpole

Trustees

Alex Fry Chair

Catherine Bennett Vice Chair

Sarah Finch CEO

Stuart Cowper

Mark Liquorish

Arthur Walpole

Keith Winter

ALLIANCE OF LEADING LEARNING As part of The Marches Academy Trust the Alliance of Leading Learning is continually developing our outward facing, school system led, gold standard professional learning. This is accessed by those new to teaching, schools requiring support and the exemplary educational leaders of the future – ensuring life changing impact on children and young people.

Our work takes us beyond the Trust as we are now a school led inclusive partnership of over 30 schools and trusts representing all phases and school contexts nationally and internationally. Our core team at The Marches Academy Trust have trained over 400 ITT and over 150 School Direct students; we have also led the professional learning of over 5,000 educational leaders and governors.

Through the work we do nationally we are able to reinvest time and money into the work we do with our 9 schools. CPD budgets are tight for our schools and we are able to support our teams with a consistent approach to professional development through our expertise in “exceptional” and “exemplary” (DfE QA review) leadership programmes which are unique to our Trust schools’ needs.

We invest in our staff highly across our teaching and associate staff. We enhance the admirable work our schools are doing to drive improvement and develop outstanding practice. Each year our staff benefit from participating in our bespoke National Professional Qualifications and professional learning twilight training sessions focussed on the outcomes of the standards reviews and needs analysis audits.

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We also continue to “Talent Spot” individuals in our Trust. We identify leadership talent and leadership needs for future succession planning - ensuring relevant and practical leadership development opportunities.

Last year the Alliance of Leading Learning invested significantly in our Agents of Change Conference and The Marches Academy Trust Conference for our staff. This year we have already assigned funds to enable us to continue to run our robust professional learning plan focussing on driving towards our “Schools of the Future”. This includes our Architects of Change and our Trust conference being delivered virtually in December 2020 and February 2021.

It is a privilege to support the work of our committed leaders who are driving school improvement. Due to our continued commitment to engage our staff in enhanced professional learning we continue to grow together as individuals, schools and most importantly as a Trust proving to be nationally recognised and a model of good practice.

CAVELLE PRIESTLEY-BIRD Executive Director of The Alliance of Leading Learning

ALLIANCE OF LEADING LEARNING SCHOOL DIRECT An insight into teacher training When talking to potential applicants for our PGCE course, sometimes over the phone, face to face and now online as well, my first comment is always that “As a Teaching School Alliance and a Trust, our leadership team is totally committed to growing our own teachers of the future.

There is a true moral purpose to our planning and delivery of the School Direct model that the team have developed over time!”

Every year, we recruit a new cohort and take them on their very difficult but rewarding journey to become the teachers of the future. They place their trust in us and believe that we will lead them to their aspirations.

The Trust have been training teachers for more than 20 years. We introduced the School Direct model in 2012 and our first cohorts began training in September 2013. We have always recruited from our cohorts and looking back over that time, we have invited 49 teachers to join the Trust. Some still with us, some have moved on to partner schools but all of them still teaching. The commencement of the School Direct model coincided with the new Sixth Form which gave us the opportunity to keep some of our students and allow them to experience teaching from the other side of the classroom. From 2018, we then were able to invite applications from our own Sixth Form students who had studied a degree and then returned to us to become the teachers of the future!

Rhianne Lloyd was part of the 2018 ITT cohort who was an outstanding student here at The Marches, all the way through to the Sixth Form and was one of the first Sixth Form Presidents. Rhianne now teaches PE at Hadley Learning Community, a partner school!

There are many examples of our ex students who have trained with us and are now employed by the Trust. It is particularly rewarding that these students can reflect on their excellent learning experience and recognise our subject mentors’ ability to train them to become the outstanding teachers of our future. Read about their experience on the following pages.

KATE ASPINALL Teaching School Co-ordinator & Business Development Manager, The Alliance of Leading Learning LEADINGLEARNING.CO.UK |

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Case Studies

My journey with The Marches Academy Trust started before it was an academy, in fact Mrs Finch was being interviewed for her headship the very year I left! I left The Marches in 2009 armed with my GCSEs, best friends I still have to this day - and a positive learning experience. I attended North Shropshire College, before the days of the Marches Sixth Form, knowing I wanted to pursue my passion for History. I attended university in Manchester and knew by my third year that I wanted to gain experience in teaching. The strong bonds with my previous teachers meant I was able to get in contact with my History teacher, Ms Helena Griffiths, who arranged a weekly placement within the Humanities faculty.

Upon graduating with a First Class Honours Degree in History, I was able to get in touch with Kate Aspinall to explore the option of teaching through School Direct. As a local Oswestrian, who was aware of how much the school had an impact on the life chances of the local community, The Alliance of Learning Learning was a perfect fit with my own core values. Training at both The Marches School and Sir John Talbot’s School was the most challenging but enjoyable year. When a job within The Marches Academy Trust became available at Sir John Talbot’s School, I jumped at the chance!

Since joining Sir John Talbot’s School 6 years ago, I have been lucky to be supported and encouraged by my wonderful colleagues right from my first arrival. After finishing my NQT year, I ventured into pastoral as a Head of Year. Roles including Head of History and mentoring NQT teachers allowed me to see all areas of the teaching world and gain greater knowledge. The Trust have invested in my professional development with the NPQML qualification where I benefitted from expert training that gave me the credentials I needed for the next step up into middle leadership. Upon becoming Director of Humanities, I felt I had an arsenal of learning and management techniques to draw upon and if I did not know, I knew some brilliant teachers to ask. Ruth Lloyd, in that first week of School Direct training, told me “peer marking is your friend” and “sometimes a good life anecdote will get you everywhere with a difficult class”.

Now, a few red pens later, and quite a few used toner cartridges, my career has been pushed to new levels as I complete the NPQSL qualification. The Alliance of Leading Learning family still check in and I owe a lot of where I am now to their initial belief in what I could do in the future. I feel very privileged to be part of my school and have been given the opportunity to nurture the students at Sir John Talbot's School.

EMMA BRINKWORTH Sir John Talbot's School

The feeling of giving back is like no other. I am lucky to have that feeling myself, as someone who attended The Marches School for my secondary education, returned for my School Direct Teacher Training and am now working back within The Marches MultiAcademy Trust at Oakmeadow CE Primary School, in my second year of teaching.

Within my secondary education, I met teachers who believed in me. These individuals (some of who I can still hear and see in my mind now) showed me the right path. When I did not fulfil my full potential at times, they strived for my best and instilled self-belief in me too which allowed me to succeed. As I knew from a young age that I wanted to be a teacher, these role models showed me the way and demonstrated the practice and inspiration I wanted to provide to other young people. I knew I wanted to return for my School Direct training as I knew it would be familiar, supportive and a high quality provision where I could complete my PGCE whilst being where I loved to be‌ in schools!

Throughout this year, the professionals we met and the staff that worked with us were fantastic and we learnt a great deal in a short period of time.

Now, I work at a forward-thinking school in a supportive and like-minded Trust. As soon as we joined The Marches Academy Trust, it was clear that there were many opportunities for us to grow and evolve as staff, a community and profession. I immediately became an EFP representative (Ears for Peers) for my school which was organised by the Trust to support staff wellbeing. I love this role and with the brilliant training I received from the Trust, I am able to effectively support other colleagues. Just like my secondary education, it is like being part of one big family where‌ together we grow.

NAOMI LEWIS Oakmeadow CE Primary School

This time last year I was preparing for my interview for the Secondary PGCE course with the Alliance of Leading Learning. After successfully gaining a place to train as a History teacher, I eagerly awaited the following September for the course to begin.

As a former student of both The Marches School and The Marches Sixth Form, I was already well aware of the extremely high teaching standards across the school. It was a perfect fit to return to The Marches School, although this time as an Associate Teacher. As soon as I started the programme it was evident that the people who would be training us to become teachers were friendly faces to me. Elaine Robinson, the Lead Associate Tutor of the Alliance of Leading Learning, who was introducing us to the programme on the first day, had taught me English in Key Stage 3 and for my A Level English Literature. From being a student in her classes, I knew that this was clearly someone who I wanted to learn from!

Having a rapport not only with the Alliance of Leading Learning team, but also with many of the teachers in the Humanities Department at The Marches School made the beginning of my teacher training that much smoother. In a new environment with so much to learn and so much responsibility to shoulder, those pre-existing relationships are invaluable.

Even knowing small things such as where staff briefings happen (in the Library!) is a huge bonus when you are finding your bearings in your first week.

When asked why I chose the Alliance of Leading Learning over another PGCE course provider, my answer was simple; it was not a choice because I never wanted to go anywhere else. Of course, I had applied to other training centres as a part of the UCAS process in case my application to the Alliance of Leading Learning was not successful, but as soon as I had the news that I had gained a place, I cancelled my other applications immediately.

It feels fantastic to back at The Marches School. Now, my goals are to continue to learn how to be an outstanding teacher, work hard, and hope that one day I can resemble the teachers that inspired me at The Marches School all those years ago.

LUCY BURN Initial Trainee Teacher

SPOTLIGHT ON LEARNING Key objectives We want to educate our young people to: Have hope and be equipped with the tools they need to succeed Enjoy learning in many different contexts Be leaders of community change Celebrate their successes Be resilient and able to deal with rapid change

The Marches School: Raise & Praise Fostering an ethic of excellence through positively reinforcing the attitudes and learning behaviours that lead to success.

At The Marches School we believe that by celebrating success we can have a positive impact on student and staff motivation.

Our aim is to create an environment where excellence, in all aspects of school life both within and beyond the building, are recognised and promoted.

High profile raise and praise boards are visible around the school and often bring about much interest and excitement from all. Students and staff are eager to see if they have been mentioned!

Departments are developing their raise and praise boards to capture and facilitate an ‘Ethic of Excellence’ in teaching and learning. This is part of a wider initiative to reinvigorate our displays and to fully utilise learning environments to raise aspirations and promote excellence.

SPOTLIGHT ON LEARNING Learning and the broader curriculum - Futures Week At The Marches School we are immensely proud of our Futures Pathway Curriculum. As this year has progressed it has become clear that the curriculum has offered the flexibility to cater for the needs of our learners both pre and post lockdown.

Recovery Curriculum - Wellbeing First Aid A wide range of opportunities were presented to our students to enable them to explore and experience learning and aid a deeper engagement with themes presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. Students were provided with space to explore their own thoughts, emotions and feelings and collaborate to build a sense of togetherness and community.

In Science, students and staff produced crosscurricular pieces of artwork which explored the complex theme of vaccine production. The session led to much debate and discussion amongst staff and students. There was a real ‘buzz’ about learning.

“During the futures week we all got to work together and learnt about the importance of vaccines in Science. We learnt how to apply skills of creativity because we made models and we learnt that everyone’s ideas matter when working in a team” - Max Lloyd, Year 8.

“It was a pleasure to organise the event for Year 8.

They were engaged, enthusiastic and they produced a wide variety of scientific models. It was great to see their creative and problem solving skills being used in a scientific setting” Miss Brown, Science Teacher and Year 8 Tutor.

Further exciting learning opportunities explored include 'A Culture of Peace' and 'The Lockdown Diaries'.

SPOTLIGHT ON LEARNING Tilstock CE Primary School: Progettazioni In the Reception and Nursery Class at Tilstock CE Primary School we follow the Reggio Emilia principles. Here is an example of how we use ‘progettazioni’ during our afternoon sessions.

We use varied provocations to find out children’s interests and curiosities. Then we document children’s ideas by asking them to represent their ideas in drawings. Recently one child found a knitted mouse in the autumn provocation area.

One child said that mice live under the ground and eat cheese. Through questioning and ‘teaching in the moment’ we learned together about mice, carefully ensuring we covered the EYFS learning objectives, and then the child represented their new ideas using drawings and models. “A mouse’s tail is as long as their body and they like to live in holes”. The drawing is much more detailed and the child has acquired new knowledge.

Our children’s projects are valued and protected, so that they can return to them continuously for as long as they want. The children have lots of questions they want to answer and are motivated to learn.

Building on this the children will be able to explore further questions, such as 'what other creatures live in holes'. Through these discussions they are able to broaden their knowledge.

SPOTLIGHT ON LEARNING Sir John Talbot's School: Oracy Focus 'Speech is power: speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel.’ - Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Oracy is a fundamental skill for our students to master in order that they can excel in the world of work and progress to be our future thinkers and leaders. Students in Years 7 to 9 at Sir John Talbot's School have been developing their communication skills through a range of engaging speaking tasks. Year 7 students constructed and performed speeches centred around Jurassic Park whilst Year 8 marketed their own housing developments and then created and delivered a speech to Parliament on an important issue of their choice. Students researched their selected topic and then crafted their piece to present. Year 9 students took inspiration from their GCSE Literature studies and engaged in a court room drama. Speeches to a class or year group give the students opportunities to grow in confidence and give their teachers time to assess their written and verbal progress simultaneously – the kind of efficiency we need at the moment!

The Grove School: Continued Professional Development As part of our commitment to improving Teaching and Learning, our first Grove Teaching and Learning CPD session focused on areas such as Stretch and Challenge, Active Engagement, SEND chunking, Literacy and Teams. All of these areas had been highlighted by staff as personal Teaching and Learning priorities. Sessions were led by colleagues and feedback has been really positive. Feeling you can contribute with a strategy or give your idea for Teaching and Learning is vital to your self worth. Nurturing staff and students should be what Teaching and Learning is all about. Magpie-ing is all part of helping teachers in the classroom risk take and create new ways in for students. It was good for colleagues to spend time in smaller groups discussing best practice, to get ideas to implement into their own teaching. Teaching and Learning sessions, run by colleagues, should be a priority as ideas can be shared effectively. Some of the ideas that staff have taken away from these sessions included: Differentiated entry cards Considering the data from ART testing on how to present information to students Consider how we can use more oracy in lessons The missing letter task and the link up mind maps

SEND UPDATE Zones of Regulation

Zones of Regulation are now being adopted widely across the primary schools within The Marches Academy Trust, supporting children with their recognition and regulation of emotions. As the systems and practices become further embedded we can see how both our children and schools are going to benefit immensely. As the Spring term progresses, we hope to be able to start to share this valuable work with our families through workshops in order that our ethos can have far wider impact supporting within the home.

What is self-regulation?

Self-regulation is the ability to manage your emotions and behaviour in accordance with the demands of the situation. It includes being able to resist highly emotional reactions to upsetting stimuli, to calm yourself down when you get upset, to adjust to a change in expectations, and to handle frustration without an outburst. It is a set of skills that enables children, as they mature, to direct their own behaviour towards a goal, despite the unpredictability of the world and our own feelings.

How do we teach self-regulation skills?

We know that acting out is essentially an ineffective response to a stimulus. As schools we understand the need to help the child slow down and more carefully choose an effective response instead of being impulsive.

We approach self-regulation skills in the same way we approach other skills, academic or social: isolate that skill and provide practice. When you think of it as a skill to be taught — rather than, say, just bad behaviour — it changes the tone and content of the feedback you give children. The key to learning self-regulation skills, is not to avoid situations that are difficult for children to handle, but to coach children through them and provide a supportive framework — clinicians call it “scaffolding” the behaviour you want to encourage — until they can handle these challenges on their own.

Check out this interesting watch - 'The Science of Early Childhood Development'.

Please click here to view.

PRIMARY SPORT UPDATE All pupils in Key Stage 2 from across the primary schools within The Marches Academy Trust have been taking part in a Virtual Varsity Competition during November.

The event saw the children participate in an archery arrows style event with them all learning new skills in the sport.

The final results were as follows: 1st Longlands Primary School 2nd Lower Heath CE Primary School 3rd Tilstock CE Primary School 4th Oakmeadow CE Primary School 5th The Grange Primary School A huge well done to all the pupils and staff involved, it was a brilliant day which we enjoyed hosting and now look forward to the next competition!

TILSTOCK CE PRIMARY SCHOOL We have welcomed a new member to the staff team at Tilstock – Bony Tony! Many of our science units, including ‘The human body’ is a unit that is regularly revisited throughout each school year. Having daily visible access to high quality resources around the school, ensures that children are regularly exposed to key scientific knowledge and are more likely to feel inspired and want to explore. At the moment, the children’s challenge is to label Tony’s bones.

They know quite a few bone names already! In each classroom you will find a selection of houseplants for the children to care for daily, which reinforces the key knowledge required for the repeating unit of ‘plants’ throughout the school.

Over the summer we spent considerable time carefully planning our EYFS classroom. We undertook lots of research reading about EYFS schools worldwide and pioneers of early years education, pulling out the golden threads that we thought would work for our school. As a result, we have a calm, purposeful and inviting classroom. Children can explore through different ‘zones’ of learning such as the maths area or construction area to facilitate their own learning. Rather than have resources away in cupboards or drawers, we ensure that these are all accessible on open shelving. The classroom is decorated in neutral colours and with lots of natural light. However, it is not just the classroom - our timetable and planning has also been adapted to observe the key principles of the Reggio Emilia approach. Children still have specific core skills taught, such as phonics, writing and maths, but rather than having the register taken, the children self-register and spend time in the mornings exploring the classroom and having discussions with each other. Our afternoons are now our ‘project’ afternoons or ‘Progettazione’ as it is known in Reggio schools, whereby we teach in the moment led by the children’s interests or through provocations. Their emotional and wellbeing needs have been our key priority and we are led by our children’s interests. The impact of this has been that we have a calm, settled cohort of Reception children who enjoy coming in to learn.

Writing at Tilstock School has been a key priority for us this term. We know that when children first learn to write, they require firm foundations in phonics, vocabulary, letter formation, spelling and punctuation. These physical and basic processes need to be mastered, so that children develop a flow and stamina for writing throughout their writing journey with us. One of these processes is the process of spelling and so we have designed and planned termly whole school spelling bees to raise the profile of spelling. This is something the whole school is involved in, including parents. As a result, parents and children know what words their child should be able to spell by the end of each term and are motivated to learn them. With whole school competitions, children’s achievements are recognised and celebrated.

We are so lucky to have Mrs Finch our trained Forest School Leader in school. As part of our ‘Recovery Curriculum’ Mrs Finch has ensured that every child in every class has an engaging Forest School session from Nursery to Year 6. Each session has been tailored to meet the wellbeing needs of each class alongside developing knowledge and skills across the curriculum. Children and staff have been building dens, creating art, making fires and searching for bugs. During these sessions children are learning how to work as a team and are developing social and leadership skills.

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LOWER HEATH CE PRIMARY SCHOOL We are so proud of all of our children for the calm, mature way in which they have handled the return to school and the necessary adaptations made. To support wellbeing, all children have participated in Friday mindfulness and PSHE sessions. They have responded really well to these and we have loved seeing some of the crafts and work produced.

Each year, we take part in a special Remembrance Day service. This year was slightly different, but with the support of Mrs Sadler and Mrs Gallimore-Johnson, we took part in some lovely activities. We held a virtual service and silence, and all of the classes produced beautiful artwork and presentations to share with the school community.

On Friday 27th November 2020, we all enjoyed coming to school dressed as rockstars as part of our relaunch day. Ziggy Edwardson and Riki Van-Fleet (also known as Mr Holt-Williams and Mr Davies) delivered a virtual launch assembly and competed in an arena game. Everybody enjoyed getting a slot using the iPads/laptops to use NumBots/TTRS and we loved giving out the ‘best dressed’ certificates!

Once a term, we have a worship/RE day where children have chance to complete practical and hands-on activities, all linked to a theme. On Thursday 10th December, we participated in a three-part workshop using poetry and music to explore Advent, creating Christingles and an ‘Unwrapping Christmas’ story with task.

Everybody knows that we love cake, so we were absolutely thrilled to find out that two of our pupils won 1st and 3rd prize in The Marches Academy Trust, TrustMaster Festive Bake Off! Well done to Lauren and Emilia, we are really proud of you!

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LONGLANDS PRIMARY SCHOOL It has been a really busy term, with staff and pupils working creatively to ensure that learning is productive and that the children get the most out of their education. The school is looking very festive following our best dressed door competition and is helping to bring the school community together. Despite us being in separate bubbles, we are determined to cultivate a sense of normality to ensure that our pupils are able to enjoy the normal events of the year.

The children enjoyed the pumpkin in the window trail, which our community participated in during October; we also put in place a virtual nativity, to showcase the talents of our Reception children.

All pupils have really benefitted from learning in the outdoor spaces, which has been an effective way of boosting morale and improving mental health and wellbeing amongst the children and staff. Our Social Farm has continued to be a vital facility within our school recovery curriculum. The children visit the area regularly to learn practical skills on how to grow plants and care for animals. In addition, we have purchased lots of new outdoor reading materials, to enrich the pupil’s knowledge further.

The school site manager Chris and our community volunteer Mr Jones, have been working hard to continually develop our Social Farm, creating raised beds, a new rabbit area and a fantastic quail zone. Our pupils very were excited to find out one of our rabbits, Gumball, had given birth to some new kittens and we will soon be introducing them to Hoppy our male rabbit.

This term we have introduced a new art programme which is proving very popular and is helping the children hone their observation skills and experiment with different art techniques. We have also invested in new science resources, that we are excited to use in the new year.

Mrs Cope and Mrs Taylor, the Headteacher at The Grove School, have been working together on a ‘Schools of the Future’ project, which will enable children from both schools to work collaboratively on some exciting projects in the near future.

Earlier this month, Longlands launched 'Active Drayton'. Following a survey prior to Covid-19, Mrs Cope and Mr Hounsell felt that the community could benefit from a wider variety of sporting activities to stay active during weekends and school holidays. In November, Active Drayton launched its first two community sessions. To ensure local sporting clubs could continue to grow, the community project linked up with Market Drayton Tigers and Market Drayton Rugby Club to run the sessions. These two sessions have been funded by Sport England and have been supported by Joe Lockley from Energize Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin.

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It has been an exciting and busy term at The Grange and so wonderful to have all of our children back in school from September. There have been lots of exciting activities taking place across school and although we are in bubbles our school family have pulled together to support our community.

This year at The Grange we are continuing to develop our curriculum. Our knowledge driver for our Autumn 2 topics was history. Our children have been studying a variety of subjects ranging from dinosaurs to space! Teachers have worked hard to create engaging memorable experiences for children to ‘hook’ their learning on to. We have also been developing Knowledge Organisers so children know what they need to learn in a unit and any specific vocabulary.

A whole school focus has been raising the standard of presentation in our books. Children have been working hard to apply their handwriting practice into their everyday writing. Mrs Summers has been choosing books of people who have improved their presentation to show in her weekly vlog.

To mark Remembrance Day, we held a twominute silence and did some special activities to help us think about why we wear our poppies. All of our work was made into a whole school display.

GRANGE PRIMARY SCHOOL A focus for us this half-term has been developing the use of Zones of Regulation in our classrooms. We have based this on the story The Colour Monster. The story helps children to identify their emotions and feelings based on colours. We then learn how to deal with different types of feelings. Each class has created a display and have a way for children to check in with how they are feeling at different points of the day.

We have also taken part in Anti-Bullying Week and NSPCC day to enhance our PSHE curriculum. Another event which we took part in was The Marches Academy Trust archery competition. The children thoroughly enjoyed developing a new skill and competing against other primary schools in the Trust.

We recently filmed our virtual nativity across school. Each class acted out a different part of the nativity story and sang a Christmas Carol. This was pieced together into one video and published on our school Facebook page for parents to watch in the last week of term.

Teachers are busy preparing topics for an exciting start to the Spring term for the children. A massive thank you to all of our amazing school staff for making this term at The Grange a special one.

GRANGEPRIMARYSHREWSBURY.CO.UK |

@GRANGEPRIMARYSCHOOLSHREWSBURY

OAKMEADOW CE PRIMARY SCHOOL It has been a very busy term here at Oakmeadow, with staff working hard to ensure that our children had the most exciting and productive start to the year! We have been keen to continue the feeling of a whole school community here at school despite being in our bubbles, and so have worked on some lovely projects which have been combined together with some really special outcomes. To mark Remembrance Day this year, we worked as a school to explore and produce work based on different aspects which were then pieced together in a video which was shared on 11th November. We have continued to focus on our curriculum at Oakmeadow to ensure it is tailored to the needs of our children. This month we asked the children to produce some art work based on our curriculum drivers that underpin all of our learning. As we could not invite parents in to view the art work, we then asked local photographer and videographer Doc Ward to put all of the fantastic pieces into a virtual art gallery for all to see! It really excited the children to see Thank you Oakmeadow for all of their work together in one virtual place! making this term at school so We have also taken part in Healthy Eating week enjoyable for our children and Anti-Bullying week as enhancements to they’re always full of enthusiasm our curriculum. We also planned a Winter about their experiences at school.

Wonderland walk, and classes worked hard on I am so grateful for the time you scenes and dances which we then filmed to have invested in carefully create a Christmas production which parents planning their return to school were able to watch in the final week of and the communication term! We are so proud of regarding this has been our children and staff faultless. for the fantastic start made to the year and cannot wait to embark We feel very fortunate that upon a Spring our children attend such an term just as incredible school. School have exciting! done an amazing job with Well done continuing a sense of normality Oakmeadow, you’re for the kids, adapting events so doing a fab job as they can still take place so always, we feel very they’re not missing out. It’s so lucky to be part of important right now to keep the such a fantastic magic alive for them after what supportive school. has been a difficult year for everyone!

OAKMEADOWPRIMARY.CO.UK |

@OAKMEADOWCESCHOOL

SIR JOHN TALBOT'S SCHOOL We started the term with three key words: Consistency, Curriculum and Community. As a school, we have risen to the challenge faced upon us by the pandemic. Staff have worked incredibly hard and students have been a credit to themselves. As highlighted below, despite the restrictions, our curriculum continues to creatively innovate and we have embraced opportunities to work with our community.

In September, we were delighted to launch our Student Pledge. In addition to lessons, this affords students the chance to acquire skills and have experiences which will enrich and broaden their education and learning journey. Our aim is to ensure that students progress beyond the taught curriculum, develop their character and contribute to the community. We look forward to celebrating progress throughout the year with certificates and prize draws.

This term saw our first virtual careers fest. The weeklong initiative saw a full programme of events planned for Year 7 and 9 students, which included live virtual forums with businesses and employers. The student response to this was fantastic and the quality of their questioning was excellent. We were delighted that The Mayor of London, Sadiq Kahn even gave us a special mention!

Our school community have been championing several causes throughout this term. We have collected donations for the local food bank; staff managed to raise funds for BBC Children in Need via a Virtual Duck Race Sweepstake and as part of Anti-Bullying week the whole school took part in Odd Socks Day allowing everyone to express themselves and celebrate their individuality and uniqueness.

For Remembrance Day, as is tradition at Sir John Talbot’s School, students who are in the Cadets, Scouts and Guides along with ex-military staff were invited to wear their associated uniform. They gathered around the cenotaph in the school hall to lay a wreath in commemoration to the fallen, while the names of past students who courageously fought, but sadly fell in the conflicts were read out. We were also incredibly proud of students for their Remembrance fundraising, notably Charlotte Perkins and Amelia Elsley who both created and sold felt and crochet poppies respectively.

After a long Autumn term, we would like to wish our community a very Merry Christmas. We hope that families can enjoy some quality time together. Staff have been smiling with the Staff Advent Calendar showing hilarious videos for each day of advent so far. We look forward to welcoming our students back in 2021.

SIRJOHNTALBOTS.CO.UK |

@SIRJOHNTALBOTSSCHOOL

This term has been a full one! From the start we were keen to ensure our students were returning ready for learning; wellbeing and recovery was the theme for the first half term as well as a focus on our RADY (Raising Standards for Disadvantaged Youth) students. Creativity has been on the table with Battle of the Bands as our first House competition, run by the students and utilising a new piece of kit in the Performing Arts department to allow for silent practice. Students have taken part in all year groups and all enjoyed our Christmas on-screen assembly where they had the opportunity to hear and vote for the winners. The atmosphere was electric as there was also a play off between some staff bands.

Our Futures Week focused on wellbeing and Year 7 held a colour run, demonstrating empathy, running for the NHS or a person they know who has been affected by Covid-19, raising £2000 in the process.

Excellence has been illustrated in so many ways – our Sixth Form has continued to grow and the staff team have made school life feel normal for the students again with new routines now the norm. Our new look Rewards Shop has just opened online with a vast array of events available from staff this year – mocktails lunch, mountain biking, pizza and more. The team have also adapted to online parents' evenings and had a strong review.

THE MARCHES SCHOOL This half term our theme has been Peace and we hosted the High Sheriff alongside Dr Phil Gittins’ Peace Project for two immersive days. Students explored Youth exclusion, Intolerance and County lines, Year 10 and Year 9 both demonstrated their Integrity with our guests, who left us highly impressed.

Students have also been empathetic members of the local community, collecting for the food bank and taking part in a major consultation – Oswestry Futures, working with a consultancy firm online to share the youth view of the town and developments that could be made to improve it. Furthermore as a school we sought to connect and engage with the local community, in order to creatively reflect on what COVID-19 has meant to Oswestry. The work gathered as part of our Lockdown Diaries project will be a record for future generations to look back on and reflect about how as a community for the first time in living memory everything stopped and explore how we adapted to this situation.

We have much to celebrate this term and look forward to the next one with its longer hours of day light and new opportunities.

MARCHESSCHOOL.CO.UK |

@MARCHESSCHOOL

What a fantastic first term we have had at The Grove School! It is entirely understandable that your thoughts about school life might automatically be dominated by the well-known national situation and a temptation to look back on what may have been, but at The Grove we have taken this term to dream big and embrace our vision for our School of the Future. Here is how we have already made steps on this journey.

Clearly, the use of technology has been a major part of how education has adapted recently and it will undoubtedly shape what we can expect in the future. We have made extensive use of apps such as Microsoft Teams, Hegarty, Seneca and GCSE Pod to support home learning and to continue delivering engaging lessons. As well as this, the introduction of the Unifrog program gives students the power to explore their interests and record their interactions inside and outside of school, so that they can shape their own path to a career that they will thrive in. The school has adapted to ensure that students have control in how they access their learning, whether that be within the classroom or outside of school, and we have already provided students with virtual events including a careers Q&A involving eighteen different local employers, direct online presentations from careers advisors and national talks from everyone from NASA scientists to YouTube stars.

THE GROVE SCHOOL Another element we are working hard to grow is our work within the community. You will probably be aware that over the summer we took part in a ‘5K Challenge’ which included local residents and raised over £1,500 for the local food bank. The newly formed Student Leadership Group has spent the last few weeks organising a ‘reversed’ advent calendar which has seen hundreds of donations to create packages that cater for a wide range of needs, including personal welfare, baby necessities and healthy eating. All of these packages have also been provided to the local food bank. We are very proud of our role within the community and we hope you feel proud too; certainly, the recent awarding of an official Guinness World Record to the school was something we celebrated and which helped to cement the unique reputation of Market Drayton.

In the School of the Future, students will have a host of activities that they will be engaged in to support their personal development outside of their academic progress. We are pleased to say that this has long been a part of what we offer at The Grove School. Year 7s have an afterschool PE club which offers a diverse range of activities to promote fitness and good wellbeing, including ‘Couch to 5k’, dance, the weekly Magical Mystery Activity and handball.

Tutor time activities have been dedicated to a wide range of personal growth opportunities and there are specific sessions on emotional regulation (covering themes such as forgiveness, positivity and sabotage) as well as boosting vocabulary and exploring what makes a text or speaker trustworthy. Our students who are currently engaged in the STEM Potential project (run via Imperial College London) are learning wonderful things they could have never imagined, whilst forging links that will last them well beyond their school lives.

GROVESCHOOLMARKETDRAYTON.CO.UK |

@GROVESCHOOLSHROPSHIRE

SHREWSBURY ACADEMY Staff at Shrewsbury Academy have worked together this term on creating ideas on our school for the future. Five themes became our focus to drive the school forward, these were: Children, Technology, Staff, Environment and Community. Here are some of the ways we have focused on creating positive links with the community.

This term has seen the incredible setting up of a school-based scheme to support our local community. Sue Thomas, the organiser and brains behind this initiative, proposed to staff the idea of staff donating food to a scheme where we support families with food donations. Staff have been incredible in donating food and asked to extend the donation to allow money to be donated to enable school to also purchase food for our families.

This scheme has extended more than expected and we are now receiving donations from local businesses including Bookers, the local Food Hub, families, staff family members and neighbours, Severn Hospice, local football teams including Shrewsbury Coracle Colts and Shrewsbury Junior School. The scheme has been an example of Shrewsbury Academy is the beating how we, as a school and as a community, work heart of the community. We know together to support each other. The success of this who our community is, what it scheme has also seen an amazing donation of money needs and what it wants. We strive from our local church Holy Spirit Church to purchase to work together as a partnership items to support families in need. We would like to and to serve our community in take this opportunity to thank all who have supported order to make the school and this scheme and continue to do so. We enjoyed community a better place for packaging our Christmas Food parcels and young people and their delivering them to our community ready for the Christmas families. break.

We have seen the arrival of a Thermo imaging station this term, a full donation from ABP. The station includes, thermo-imaging camera alongside technology to support this and a container to enable testing to take place. The station enables all visitors to school site, staff and in some cases students to have their temperature tested whilst walking through the specialist equipment prior to entering the school building, thus reducing possible risks associated with COVID-19. We would like to thank ABP for this donation, which supports our school and local community.

We have over the past term established stronger links with Shrewsbury Town in The Community and now have the support of two staff members from the football club. Nigel Wellings and Tom Peevor are now based at the school 4 days a week, supporting students with mentoring on a 1:1 basis, leading the Football Studies course, running alternative provision 4 afternoons a week and managing our football teams. This partnership has seen our students attend Shrewsbury Town games to help on the side-line, which is a great opportunity for all.

We are very proud of this partnership and look forward to new developments.

SHREWSBURYACADEMY.CO.UK |

@SHREWSBURYACADEMY

TRUSTMASTER CHALLENGES This term The Marches Academy Trust set a collection of competitions, known as the 'TrustMaster Challenges' for students and staff across the Trust to partake in.

The aim of the initiative was to boost morale and help all within our school communities get through lockdown with some fun activities.

RUST T Y M CADE A S E H NITY MARC U M M CO

CHRISTMAS CARD COMPETITION

For our annual Christmas Card Competition students were encouraged to get creative by drawing, painting or digitally creating their own festive card design.

The winner of each school gained the honour of having their entry used for their school's own Christmas card. The finalists then went head to head, with the overall winning design being used for The Marches Academy Trust Christmas card. A big congratulations to Georgia McConaghy, who attends Tilstock CE Primary School who was chosen as the overall Trust winner!

SIR JOHN TALBOT'S SCHOOL Abbey Griffiths

THE MARCHES SCHOOL Jaime Dodd

SHREWSBURY ACADEMY Kadence Clegg

TILSTOCK CE PRIMARY Georgia McConaghy

THE GRANGE PRIMARY Isla Spencer

LONGLANDS PRIMARY Lylah Williams

THE GROVE SCHOOL Rhianna Neville

LOWER HEATH CE PRIMARY Eliza Kaminski

OAKMEADOW CE PRIMARY Charlie Bruton

500 WORDS OF THANKS

We joined the nation in saying 'thank you' by creating our own Trust stories/words of thanks.

Our school communities were encouraged to write 500 words of thanks or film a short video. We really did have some truly brilliant pieces entered! Congratulations to our winners who were the lucky recipients of a £100 National Book Voucher. Judges feedback below:

This is a truly personal and moving tribute to the people that we become - and to those instrumental in getting us there.

Carys’ discussion of David Attenborough’s contributions are heartfelt and empathetic to the world at the moment.

This is a fantastic reimagining of Edgar’s story with a really important moral - ‘We may only get through things when we think as we, not me.’

STAFF WINNER Leah Vigon

SECONDARY SCHOOL WINNER Carys Binnion

PRIMARY SCHOOL WINNER Hayden Taylor

THE BIG BAKE OFF COMPETITION

Inspired by the Great British Bake Off, competitors were challenged to bake a cake and then decorate it in the theme of Christmas. Monetary prizes were awarded to our fabulous 1st, 2nd and 3rd placings. Take a look at our incredible winner's entries.

STAFF WINNER Justine Holdsworth

SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENT WINNER Grace Burlison-Wortley

PRIMARY SCHOOL PUPIL WINNER Emilia Bennett

#TOGETHERWEGROW

01691 664400 |

TRUSTADMIN@MMAT.ORG.UK

MARCHESACADEMYTRUST.CO.UK |

@MARCHESACADEMYTRUST