Leigh Academies Trust
NEWS
Easter 2024 | Issue 29
Contents
A message from the Chief Executive
Ofsted has visited two of our Medway academies during the Spring Term: Leigh Academy Rainham and The Hundred of Hoo Academy. Both reports - published on the Ofsted website in due course - are extremely positive.
In the case of Rainham, which opened in 2021, it has the strongest Ofsted report of any non-selective secondary in the history of Medway as a unitary authority. At Hoo, inspectors identified many exceptional features so will be returning for a re-inspection within 1-2 years.
Many of you will know that Challenge Partners provide external reviews of our academies on a regular basis. So far this year, four of our academies have achieved the highest review outcome of “Leading” across the board. These are: Cherry Orchard Primary, Oaks Primary, The Halley Academy and Stationers’ Crown Woods Academy. In the case of the first two, these are already Ofsted “Outstanding” as well. In the case of the latter two, they are clearly now very much on the same track.
We have been working hard to finalise new names and logos for our academies ready for September. Several such as Rainham, Tonbridge, Bexley and Blackheath already use the agreed naming convention. Most others will follow suit in September 2024 with ten left to complete a year later. New logos for those changing at the start of next academic year can be found here.
We welcome Leigh Academy Hugh Christie which joins LAT on 1st April as its 32nd academy and 16th secondary. Considerable progress is being made to ensure that Leigh Academy Minster follows on in September becoming LAT academy number thirty-three.
The Trust has received excellent exposure for the work it is doing over recent months in the education media. For those who have missed our articles on the IB curriculum and our Digital Strategy, they can be found below.
When we return after the Easter break, pupils will be finalising preparations for SATs, GCSE and P16 examinations. They and you have worked so hard to ensure they do as well as possible. We will be there every step of the way to support them through to the very last assessment.
Thank you for all of your dedication over the past few weeks. I hope you enjoy some rest over the Easter break and let’s look forward to some nicer weather when we return.
With my very best wishes,
Simon Beamish
Chief Executive
Lord Leigh of Hurley visits The Leigh Academy and Dartford Primary Academy
In December 2023, Lord Leigh of Hurley was appointed Founding Sponsor of Leigh Academies Trust (LAT), taking over from his uncle, Sir Geoffrey Leigh who had held the position since the Trust was created in 2008.
On Friday 22 March, Simon Beamish and Neil Willis welcomed Lord Leigh on his first visit to LAT as he toured The Leigh Academy and Dartford Primary Academy.
Lord Leigh met with staff and students at both sites, taking guided tours with Principals, Julia Collins and Rebecca Roberts. He took time to ask children about their experiences at their LAT schools and their aspirations for the future. The children had some interesting questions to ask of the new Member of the Trust Board too, such as how to become a Lord.
World Book Day 2024
On 7th March, World Book Day was celebrated across Leigh Academies Trust.
World Book Day promotes reading for pleasure, celebrating the joy of reading for every child and young person. Reading for pleasure is the single biggest indicator of a child’s future success – more than their family circumstances, their parents’ educational background or their income. World Book Day's aim is to see more children, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, with a lifelong habit of reading for pleasure and the improved life chances this brings them.
As part of the World Book Day celebrations, students and teachers dress up as their favourite book characters and create colourful displays around the academy buildings to celebrate their love of reading. Take a look at our photo carousel and see how many of the costumes you can identify!
For a more detailed look at what each academy got up to, take a look at our World Book Day site below...
There is much to celebrate in the Leigh Institute, with each strand of our offer providing exciting opportunities for training and development. Please see here for a summary of our work.
Kent and Medway Maths Hub was delighted to recently host its annual LLME development day, welcoming all of our local leaders of maths education to discuss together the findings of Nottingham University’s recent study on the ‘Local Learning Landscape for Professional Development.’ Plans for next academic year are well underway as we continue to provide a long-term professional development offer for our partner schools.
KMT is celebrating the recent DfE sign off on its flagship programmes, set to deliver the new requirements for Initial Teacher Training from September 2024. We still have training spaces available and are busy running school experience days and interview opportunities. Please apply via www.kmtraining.org.uk.
Thames Gateway TSH is delighted to have received re-designation from the DfE to continue in its role, leading DfE funded professional development as the Teaching School Hub for North Kent and its wider partner schools. This secures an additional 4 years of delivery, providing a stable model for the region. Our fabulous ECT (Year 1) conference took place this week, welcoming around 300 recently qualified teachers, supporting their ongoing development journeys.
LAT Apprenticeships has particularly focused on ensuring its educational programmes provide exceptional delivery for support staff in our schools. Our L3 apprenticeship for Teaching Assistants provides a foundation for excellent practice in supporting teaching and learning. Alongside this, our Business Administrator programme is being used by schools across the region to support new and existing staff in educational settings, as well as a number of programmes for our wider partners. See here for more information about our educational offer.
Each member organisation of the Leigh Institute has benefited from collaboration and a shared approach to professional development. We are looking forward to sharing an enhanced offer of training and development with you in the coming weeks.
Digital Learning
Google Showcase at Leigh Academy Blackheath
On 20th March a group of 30 Irish school leaders flew over to London to visit Leigh Academy Blackheath, to learn all about the LAT approach to digital learning. These schools are in the early days of their own digital journey so they were interested to see what technology in LAT schools looks like and to learn from our experiences.
The day started with a welcome by Principal Emma Smith who shared about the academy and their journey so far. Daniel Bull shared about LAT’s journey, how we approach pedagogical integration, one-to-one device schemes, digital progression, training, and AI.
The highlight of these days is always student interaction. Alissia Philips, LAB’s Digital Lead, organised a wonderful selection of students to come and showcase the digital projects they were involved in and their experience of learning digitally. This was followed by some classroom visits where we saw great integration of technology in art to develop ideas, how SEND students were using technology to access learning, and students researching and working on digital templates.
We ended the day with a teacher showcase that focussed on pre & post learning, AI, and annotation tools. Isabel Ruthven from the Halley Academy also came to share their approach and key initiatives. This further demonstrated the strength of our Trust wide strategy and standards that support digital learning.
The feedback from the event sponsors, Google and Wriggle, was overwhelmingly positive which showed again that LAT continues to be an industry leader in the use of technology in education. We look forward to further opportunities in the future if other academies are interested in hosting similar events.
Curriculum Advisors
Modern Foreign Languages
By Lewis, Year 11
In early February, a group of GCSE French students from Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School had the opportunity to go on a four day visit to Paris, to experience the culture and customs of France, and to get a chance to get excellent, real life practice of speaking the French language.
We stayed at the Hotel Meininger, just 30 minutes from the Eiffel Tower. The hotel rooms were lovely, with an amazing breakfast! Dinner at Flunch was enjoyed by most, with the opportunity to try many different French foods.
Naturally, the best parts of the trip for most of us were the vast number of landmarks we visited, and the cultural experiences. While the Eiffel Tower and Le Louvre museum were of course excellent, with the incredible chance to see the Mona Lisa in person, the highlights of the trip were definitely the several interactive experiences. The tour of Stade de France was the favourite of many; we were given the opportunity to learn about the iconic football matches and concerts held there, and to explore all parts of the stadium, including the dressing rooms & training facilities. The tour of Cinéma Rex was excellent, and my personal favourite; while learning about the history of the cinema, we all got a chance to engage in immersive activities, all centred around the processes of film making.
This being a language trip, it was of course important that we got plenty of opportunity to practise speaking French; every day, for lunch, we got free time to explore the local areas, restaurants, and shops, which gave us plenty of chances to talk to the locals. As well as this, most people spoke among themselves in French, so everyone really took advantage of the trip to keep their language skills up.
Overall, everyone had an extremely enjoyable trip, spending four days practising the language, and, most importantly, absorbing the fantastic culture of Paris!
Visual Arts Competition
Following the submission of some incredible artwork by students over the last couple of months, our panel of judges are delighted to announce the winners and runners up in this year's LAT Visual Arts Competition are:
EYFS
Winner: Archer - Reception (Marden Primary Academy)
Runner up: Grasshopper class - Reception (High Halstow Primary Academy)
KS1
Winner: Alexey - Year 1 (Cherry Orchard Primary Academy)
Runner up: Logan - Year 2 (Bearsted Primary Academy)
KS2
Winner: Emeka - Year 6 (Cherry Orchard Primary Academy)
Runner up: Louisa - Year 5 (Molehill Primary Academy)
KS3
Winner: Olivia - Year 9 (Leigh Academy Rainham)
Runner up: Zara - Year 9 (Stationers' Crown Woods Academy)
KS4
Winner: Mary Louise - Year 10 (Leigh Academy Bexley)
Runner up: Robert - Year 10 (Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School)
KS5
Winner: Lily - Year 12 (Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School)
Runner up: Amelia - Year 12 (The Leigh Academy)
We received a staggering 433 entries and it was incredibly difficult for the judges to pick winners from such a range of excellence. There was no theme this year so students were encouraged to submit work that demonstrated imagination, originality and skill. Students responded in a range of ways, using different media, techniques and processes. Please do view the work in our LAT galleries here. A huge well done to all students and staff involved!
LAT Maths Feast
Our very first LAT Maths Feast took place on Wednesday 13th March; it was a huge success. Year 10 students from all 15 LAT secondaries competed in four rounds of challenging maths puzzles including a logical dilemma, a collaborative cross-number and geometric origami! It was a joy to see so many students collaborating and enjoying maths together and they were all a credit to their academies. Certificates were awarded to the round winners, the good all rounders and those who demonstrated exceptional teamwork and collaboration. Congratulations to The Halley who were the overall winners! Leigh Academy Tonbridge came a close second, with Strood Academy and The Leigh UTC not far behind. Special thanks to the Advanced Maths Support Programme and to all of the accompanying teachers, LSAs, minibus drivers and of course to Ebbsfleet Academy for being incredible hosts. We look forward to welcoming Leigh Academy Rainham and Leigh Academy Hugh Christie at next year’s event.
LAT Bake Off
After difficult deliberations, teachers chose their finalists for the first Leigh Academy Trust Bake Off. This year, the brief was pastry and students could choose which pastry dish they wanted to bake on the day.
Keen bakers from primary and secondary academies had 1 hour and 45 minutes to bake their final pastry dish, ready to be judged by the panel. Every single student was driven, passionate and professional in the kitchen, and determined to bake their outcomes to the highest standards!
It was a very difficult decision, but 1st, 2nd and 3rd place were eventually crowned!
First place
William from Wilmington Academy, who baked delicious chicken, pesto and sundried tomato filo pastry parcels.
Second place
Tanaya from Bearsted Academy, who baked perfectly seasoned tuna and potato parcels.
Third place
Fearne from Strood Academy, who baked a very technical and beautiful mille feuille.
Many thanks to those who organised and supported the students throughout the competition and on the final judgement day. Thank you also to Leigh Academy Rainham for hosting the competition.
It was a huge success, and we’re already looking forward to the next one!
New Capital Developments
Hundred of Hoo Secondary Academy
Planning permission has been submitted for the construction of a new teaching block. Funded by Medway Council, the new 8 classroom teaching block, common room and associated facilities, subject to planning approval, will be completed ready for use in September 2025.
Horsmonden Year 5 & Year 6 Classrooms
Works have been completed at Horsmonden Primary Academy to improve the acoustic properties, thermal performance and the overall look and feel of the Year 5 and 6 classrooms. Works included the installation of a new ceiling grid including insulation to both the underside of the metal profiled roof and top of the ceiling grid, new LED lighting, new kitchenettes and a full redecoration.
Before
After
Leigh Academy Bexley
Phase 1, the full refurbishment of four science laboratories and the creation of two classrooms, has been completed at Leigh Academy Bexley. Works provide significant upgrades to the previous science facilities as well as the creation of two large classrooms. Phase 2 is due for completion at the end of April.
Molehill Primary Academy
We are delighted to confirm the appointment of ESP Play to complete the construction works to the EYFS outdoor space at Molehill Primary Academy. The new outdoor equipment will not only engage the children in high quality physical activity, but also assist with their learning and development. Works are due for completion after the Easter Holiday.
Tree Tops Primary Academy
We are delighted to confirm the appointment of ESP Play to complete the construction works to the Nursery and EYFS outdoor spaces at Tree Tops Primary Academy. The new outdoor equipment will not only engage the children in high quality physical activity, but also assist with their learning and development. Works are due for completion after the Easter Holiday.
LAT Careers
So far, 2024 has been busy for the recruitment team. As we enter our main recruitment period, we are already working hard trying to find high quality candidates for September opportunities. If you would like to view our current vacancies, please click here.
We’re also excited to announce the arrival of our new Recruitment Advisor, Amy Wenban:
‘Joining the LAT Recruitment Team has been a fantastic experience. The recruitment team and wider LAT colleagues have really made me feel welcome. My onboarding and training have been seamless and there has been a great sense of collaboration. I'm excited to be working alongside my talented colleagues throughout the Trust.'
We would like to take the opportunity to remind you of the Employee Referral Scheme that everyone can make use of. Let us know of a great teacher, not currently working for Leigh Academies Trust, and you’ll get up to £300 as a ‘thank you’ if they are appointed! We also have a referral opportunity for teaching assistants, facilities assistants and technicians. Note that terms and conditions apply which can be found on the Careers website.