LAT Newsletter | Summer 2024

Leigh Academies Trust

NEWS

Summer 2024 | Issue 30

Primary Academies

Secondary Academies

A message from the Chief Executive

Our primary pupils received their Key Stage 2 SATs results last week. Their achievements are phenomenal and are summarised in the table below versus the national average. All LAT primaries exceeded the national average and two academies received scores over 90%. These were Dartford Primary Academy (97%) and Oaks Primary Academy (92%). A huge congratulations to all of our pupils and staff for making these excellent achievements possible.

We also received our IB results very recently which are our best on record so far. We will be publishing these along with other post-16 results when we receive them in August.

Since our last newsletter Ofsted has published two more inspection reports relating to LAT academies. The first is The Hundred of Hoo Academy in Medway which is LAT’s only all-through mainstream academy and its largest. Inspectors found that the academy is likely to be “outstanding” in all areas and will be returning within 1-2 years for a full graded inspection to validate this judgement. The report can be found here.

Ofsted has also visited Peninsula East Primary Academy (PEPA) for a full graded inspection during the Summer Term. PEPA was formed through the merger of Stoke and Allhallows Primaries which joined LAT in January 2019. Both were struggling educationally and financially, but all of that has now been transformed and the merged primary was awarded four “outstanding” grades. The report can be found here.

LAT continues to receive national attention for its groundbreaking work. Since the last newsletter we have been asked to share the sector-leading work we are doing on T Levels and inclusion. Both articles can be found below.

The Department for Education (DfE) has invited LAT to open its third special school in Swanley from 2026. This will be an all-through special school for 250 pupils with severe and complex learning needs and will be called Leigh Academy Birchwood. We are already working hard with the DfE and Kent County Council on all the various plans required and will keep stakeholders updated as the work continues.

A very considerable project for LAT this year has been to open Leigh Academy Minster. We are delighted that everything is firmly in place to launch the new academy in September. Our mission is to transform educational standards as the children of Sheppey have been badly let down for far too long and we are confident we can make a very big difference.

I hope you all enjoy a restful summer break and we look forward to seeing you all in September for another very successful year ahead.

With my very best wishes,

Simon Beamish,

Chief Executive

It has been a busy and exciting module for the Leigh Institute, with much to celebrate across our inaugural year!

Thames Gateway TSH have been proud to offer a series of big events, welcoming many of our nearly 1000 ECTs to our new training space at Strood Academy. These colleagues have been joined by NPQ delegates and ECF mentors as our current flagship programmes continue, with opportunity for new registrations now open. A particular pleasure was the Medway Primary School’s Prom, hosted in conjunction with our Primary Music lead, held at the Central Theatre.

KMT are in the final stages of the assessment processes for this year’s 230+ Associate Teachers, and eagerly celebrated with those being awarded Qualified Teacher Status at their awards event. Plans for the delivery of the new Quality Requirements for ITT in September are in place, with another huge cohort of new teachers set to start their professional journey with us.

Many new schools have joined the KMT partnership this year, and we look forward to working together to recruit, train and retain teachers across Kent.at their upcoming event. Plans for the delivery of the new curriculum in September are approved and in place, with another huge cohort of new teachers set to start their professional journey with us.

The Kent and Medway Maths Hub are also in the final stages of their 80+ programmes, and gathering evidence of the hundreds of hours of professional learning which have been completed this academic year. Next year promises to be even bigger, with new schools joining our programmes over the coming months, and many options available for existing schools to work with us in new ways.

LAT Apprenticeships has refined its offer to specialise its delivery predominantly on supporting our schools and their learners. Our programmes for Teaching Assistants, Business Administrators and Team Leaders have been reviewed, working alongside our Leigh Institute partners.

We are excited to welcome our new September cohorts, and still have some availability for colleagues to train with us through these flagship programmes.

Together the Leigh Institute has drawn together our professional development offer to bring pathways which offer a huge array of opportunities to all those incredible adults who support our learners. We look forward to the coming year, launching new opportunities for professional development and learning.

Medway Primary School’s Prom, held at the Central Theatre.

Recruitment

This year has been particularly active and successful for our Recruitment Team at Leigh Academies Trust. We are thrilled to announce that we are on course to recruit 370 teachers which reflects one of the busiest and most productive years for our recruitment efforts. Our commitment to aligning each appointment with the Trust’s core values and vision remains unwavering.

Our Recruitment Team's hard work ensures that every new teacher shares our passion for excellence, innovation, and student success. We are excited about the fresh perspectives and expertise these new educators will bring to our schools. Together, we are committed to continuously improving and achieving greater heights as a Trust.

LAT has long operated a successful referral scheme for teaching roles and a number of support positions. To view more information about how you can refer someone please click here.

Digital Learning

Utilising AI effectively at LAT

We have ended the year at LAT digitally with a keen focus on how we are using Artificial Intelligence to support our staff. After the recent purchase of TeachMateAI to support teachers in creating resources and helping with ideation, we continued to support them with live follow up training that was then uploaded to Thrive. In this module particularly we have seen the Report Writer tool used well as a starting point for support with one of the more time consuming tasks for teachers. Underpinning this is the ongoing training and guidance given to staff on how to use AI effectively, appropriately and ethically. Staff have also been making good use of Google Gemini to support them in their role, with training again provided on Thrive. Our students are not to be left out, and some have been using image generating tools to support their writing process. This approach has been really impactful in causing students to think more critically about how they prompt the generative AI to get the pictures they want, and then adapting these prompts with more descriptive language to improve the results.

The Year 6 students at Oaks Primary Academy used this to create cover images for their short stories that they wrote in Book Creator.

Representing LAT at Google

Google has recently been running a series of Leadership Summits across the UK, and LAT had the privilege of sharing about our digital journey at the London Summit. Student and staff representatives from Marden Primary Academy and Leigh Academy Rainham had the opportunity to share how they were using Google tools and Chromebooks to enhance their learning. They also had a tour of the Google offices including the roof terrace overlooking London and the infamous micro-kitchens stocked with many goodies! The staff and students were a great testament to the Trust and many were impressed with how they presented themselves and how our digital strategy was impacting education.

Students sharing how they use Google tools at a Google Leadership Summit.

Curriculum Advisors

LAT Languagenut Competition Winners

Languagenut is an online learning platform to which all of our secondary academies subscribe. In May there was a Trust competition to see which academy could score the most points. We awarded two academies trophies:

Leigh Academy Tonbridge for the highest number of points.
The Leigh UTC for the highest number of points per student when the number of students per academy is taken into account.

Congratulations to Riley T from the UTC who scored the most points (316,800) by an individual student across the whole Trust.

Pictured with their trophies and certificates are students from The Leigh UTC with their Principal, Mr Watson, Coordinator of MFL, Mrs Schakmar-Gilbane and Mr Dearsley, Curriculum Advisor for MFL. Students celebrated with a delicious German breakfast provided by Mrs Schackmar-Gilbane.

Leigh Academy Hugh Christie

In June 2024, 15 Year 9 and 10 students from Leigh Academy Hugh Christie visited Gymnasium Brake, our partner school in Germany. This 6-day trip was fully funded by the Turing Scheme. Students attended lessons with their German buddy, then spent the afternoons visiting the local area, including the Klimahaus in Bremerhaven, the science museum in Bremen and even spent the day attending the Ideenexpo, Europe’s largest youth event for science and technology with their German buddies. The evenings were spent trying German cuisine, with Currywurst getting mixed reviews!

All pupils were a credit to the school, demonstrating excellent manners and enthusiasm. It was lovely to see their German ability improve and their confidence grow. Their teamwork, collaboration and courage demonstrated exactly why exchanges and partnerships with schools abroad are so beneficial to pupils and we are very grateful for the funding from the Turing Scheme. We look forward to maintaining the strong links we have with Gymnasium Brake in the years to come.

L’ensemble scolaire Jean Bosco de Guînes visit The Leigh Academy!

Wednesday 5th June was an exciting day for the Leigh Academy as we had a visit from 45 students and 5 staff from our French partner school. The group arrived at 08:30 following an early morning departure from France. Students and teachers were welcomed by Leigh students and Mrs Collins.The Leigh students were particularly keen to talk in French to “real life French people!!”

We first made contact with this French school in January this year when we spent a wonderful afternoon with them during our trip to France. Since January many of the Leigh students have been in regular contact with the French students they met. Next January we are going to visit the French school again.

The students were put into groups and assisted by 8 Leigh students baked scones, whilst the rest of the group toured our school. French teachers and students alike were very impressed with our school. French and English students played a game of rounders. The French students enjoyed this new game that they had never played before.

Design and Technology

The 2025 LAT Bake Off brief has been decided and all documentation is available on google drive. Please use the class code t6rk4mp to join.

The final will be held at Strood Academy on the 26th March 2025.

We would like as many academies to join as possible so that secondary and primary can be judged in their own categories. Please contact Holly Maxwell and Kayleigh Goldstone if you have any questions.

History

This module we hosted the inaugural LAT Secondary Historical Writing Competition which saw students across our secondary academies in Years 7-10 compete to produce the best piece of fictional creative writing based on an historical event or period at least 40 years or more in the past. The quality of entries was very high, spanning a huge range of historical events from the murder of Julius Caesar, to the disappearance of the princes in the tower in Medieval England, to the campaigning of the Suffragists. Many of the entries focused on an aspect of Civil Rights or the struggle of minorities to achieve equality, which was both inspirational and a mark of the importance of capturing the stories of those who might otherwise not have a voice.

It was very difficult to decide upon winners for each category given the quality of the entries, and LAT would like to commend all those students who participated as well as the teachers who supported them in their historical writing endeavours.

The winning students and runners up are listed below. Please click here to read the winning entry from both categories. Congratulations all!

Category 1 - Years 7 & 8

Winner:

Adam X (Year 8), Wilmington Academy

Runner up:

Chloe K (Year 7), The Hundred of Hoo Academy

Category 2 - Years 9 & 10

Winner:

Jewel K (Year 9), Ebbsfleet Academy

Runners up:

Mars C (Year 10), The Halley Academy
Leon A (Year 9), Ebbsfleet Academy
Rachel R (Year 9), Ebbsfleet Academy

Year 5 Maths Tournament

Congratulations to the 138 teams who joined the 2024 LAT Year 5 Maths Tournament. Every primary academy was represented in our grand final and the children were amazing, demonstrating their mathematical skills and understanding for a wide range of mathematical questions. ‘The Mathematicians’ were the highest scoring team in the final, so Horsmonden Primary Academy get to proudly display the LAT shield until next year’s tournament.

Thank you to Ebbsfleet Academy and Cherry Orchard Primary Academy for being our maths trail blazers, trialling a cross-phase problem solving project. The Year 7 pupils from Ebbsfleet did a brilliant job leading problem solving activities for the Year 3 pupils at Cherry Orchard, who demonstrated their resilience and mathematical understanding well in the tasks set.

Business

Business is booming at Strood Academy with The Young Entrepreneurs Programme. Students from across all year groups have the opportunity to develop and demonstrate their entrepreneurial skills through their extra curricular enrichment sessions.

A number of businesses have been set up to include “Too Shady'', a Year 9 business taking advantage of the summer season to sell sunglasses. Other businesses include: “Scrunch IT” selling a range of handmade scrunchies; “Trends” which was set up by a Year 12 student focused on selling trending items aimed at teenagers to include stickers, keyrings, USB handheld fans and USB wireless mice for use with Chromebooks; “Creativa” sells novelty stationery; and “Posi’s Collection“ selling handmade bracelets and anklets.

All of these students have learnt the fundamentals of what makes a successful business during their enrichment sessions and had to complete and submit a business plan for approval before being given the go ahead to trade. Crucially, these learners have shown a true flare for business and entrepreneurship and have demonstrated skills such as leadership, financial capability, creativity and problem solving.

The Leigh UTC has been thrilled to offer its Year 12 students a ‘Routes to Success’ programme. This has enabled students to gain insights into careers, higher education pathways and the business world.

At the heart of this programme lies a series of exclusive company talks from industry giants such as BAE Systems, FM Conway, DMA Group, Cosonas, ASN, and Flourish. Also adding an invaluable dimension have been our accomplished alumni to share their experiences. These former students have offered authentic, relatable insights into how Leigh UTC's initiatives have shaped their career paths. Their success stories serve as powerful inspiration.

Mr Neil Lasher, a distinguished business mentor, kindly delivered an enlightening presentation on the use of AI in employment applications. This forward-thinking session sparked great interest among our students, with many seeking further mentorship from Neil.

What truly sets ‘Routes to Success’ apart, is its emphasis on real-world application. Students will have the extraordinary opportunity to apply for actual company roles and participate in interviews at these firms. Students have commented on and are clearly motivated by, the interaction with employers and this has added a new dimension to their learning.

LAT Sports

Primary Sports Day

On Monday we held the Primary Sports Day at Dartford Harriers athletics track. It was an amazing day for the students. The sportsmanship, determination, courage and abilities shown by all students was heart-warming and the pupils and staff were a credit to themselves and their academies.

Medals were awarded to every participant for their efforts and engagement, along with sportsmanship trophies for a girl and a boy from each academy. There were also beautiful new shiny trophies awarded for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place overall.

Congratulations goes to Paddock Wood as winners for the second year in a row! Congratulations also to Hartley who were 2nd and High Halstow 3rd. Please see here for all placings.

Primary Cricket Festival

This was an amazing day where our students from all the primary academies were able to demonstrate their skills and sportsmanship in a different environment with the usual exceptional standard in evidence. They thoroughly enjoyed themselves - and the cake - thank you to all schools who donated them.

The final was highly competitive with Paddock Wood beating Marden by only a few runs. It was a pleasure to witness some superb cricket. Thanks to our hosts, SJWMS. The staff and sports leaders were fantastic and were integral in making the event a huge success.

Secondary Sports Day

Despite the poor weather on Tuesday, the standard of athletics from Year 7 and 8 pupils was as good as ever. There were some amazing individual performances in track and field, and team performances in the relays.

Congratulations to The Leigh Academy Year 7 girls, Leigh Academy Blackheath Year 8 girls and SJWMS Year 7 and 8 boys for winning their age group categories.

On Friday it was the turn of the Year 9 and 10 girls and boys. The weather was far kinder and the athletes didn't disappoint. It was a fantastic event with lots of really close contests and an incredibly high standard of athletics.

Congratulations to SJWMS and The Leigh Academy for winning the overall boys’ and girls’ categories.

Also, well done to Hundred of Hoo Academy for winning the Year 9 girls’ team prize, The Leigh Academy for placing first in the Year 10 girls’ team prize and SJWMS for winning the Year 9 and 10 boys’ prizes.

Special congratulations must go to the athletes and to the PE staff at SJWMS and The Leigh for such a dominating performance, and for their committed approach to training and preparation for the event. The scores are getting closer year after year and we’re seeing other academies becoming more competitive at the top of the table, which is great for the event!

Special thanks to The Leigh Academy for their support in running the event and to all of the academies for making it possible for your teams to attend.

Please see here for a full results breakdown.

LAT Awards

Celebrating Excellence: The LAT Awards Ceremony 2024

On 11th July, Leigh Academies Trust held its annual Awards Ceremony, a vibrant event that highlighted the exceptional dedication and commitment within our Trust. This year’s ceremony saw an impressive turnout, with 180 staff members and guests gathering to celebrate the achievements of our academies’ teams.

Over 500 members of our staff were nominated across 21 categories, showcasing the wide range of talent and hard work that characterises our Trust.

At the ceremony, Simon Beamish, our CEO, extended his heartfelt thanks to all nominees, those shortlisted, and the award winners. His words echoed the sentiment of gratitude and recognition for the relentless effort and dedication that our staff bring to their roles, contributing significantly to the Trust’s mission of providing "education for a better world."

We are especially grateful to our sponsors, whose generous support made this event possible. Their commitment helps us continue to celebrate the hard work and achievements of our staff in a manner that truly reflects the values of our Trust.

The LAT Awards Ceremony is a cornerstone event that not only acknowledges individual and team successes but also strengthens the bond within our Trust community. It is a testament to our collective commitment to excellence and our ongoing effort to create a nurturing and supportive work environment.

Thank you to everyone who participated and contributed to making the 2024 LAT Awards Ceremony a memorable and inspiring occasion.