In recent weeks, Steve Avis, our Chief Financial Officer has indicated his intention to retire with effect from 31st December 2023. We are grateful that Steve has given such early notice of his plans to enable a thorough search for his successor and careful handover period. Steve has worked for LAT since 2015 and will be a very tough act to follow having had such a positive impact on the Trust over this period of time. An advert will go live in January and we expect strong interest in this vital senior role.

TGTSH

We started September 2022 after an extremely successful first year of operation as one of the DfE’s 87 Teaching School Hubs. There has been much to celebrate, in each area of our delivery. Particular highlights include:

• Our governance being shared as an example of best practice with the wider TSH network - see our ‘governance case study’

• Our ECF Induction delivered to well over 400 ECTs and their mentors, including successful conferences (see our celebration video which has been shared with all of EDT’s delivery partners)

• The development and roll out of AB services to 380+ ECTs, including new processes for assessment and moderation

• Well over 600 participants enrolling on the new suite of NPQ programmes

• Our DfE reported satisfaction rate standing at 100%

We were delighted to receive positive feedback including the quotes below:

‘For my first year of my ECT journey, I have been so supported, everyone has been amazing and the Thames Gateway sessions we have every other module have been a major help.’ ECT 2021

‘The resources are extremely valuable and can be used as CPD for other staff’ Mentor 2021

National Professional Qualifications (NPQs)

In the first year of the new suite of NPQs, we welcomed over 625 delegates across the suite of 6 NPQ qualifications. 32 cohorts of delegates took place across Kent and Medway, with partnership clusters in Canterbury, Thanet, Tenterden, Sittingbourne, Maidstone, Dartford, Gravesend and Medway. We now have a team of over 50 facilitators who have all been part of our QA cycle and are continuing to work with us this year. The assessment window for the first cohorts opened on the 1st November.

We continue to enjoy a strong relationship with LLSE, and last year we renewed our contract with them for the existing NPQ suite, and through them for EDT to deliver the curriculum content for the new NPQs ‘Leading Literacy’ and ‘Early Years Leadership.’ These programmes start in February along with the Spring cohort for our existing qualifications. Registration for these programmes can be completed via https://www.llse.org.uk/npqs-for-you.

Wider Professional Development

This year sees our first formal TGTSH PD offer. We are delighted to be running two courses. Firstly, ‘Making the Difference for Disadvantaged and SEND pupils,’ is an opportunity which is being heavily subsidised by the EEF so that the cost to the school is only £100.

The second course is run in conjunction with the 5 other Teaching School Hubs in the South East South London region, and with the EEF. ‘Supporting pupils with SEN in Mainstream Schools,’ is also subsidised by the EEF and is £300 per participant for a two year course.

In addition to the above two DFE approved courses we will also continue to meet regularly with the Curriculum Hubs in our region. This helps to ensure that we are working together to provide the best access to curriculum based training in our region. As part of this work we regularly hold headteacher briefings and ensure that our bulletin reflects our fantastic offer. Our recent bulletin, and sign up to our opportunities can be accessed using this link.

Term 1 has been incredibly busy for us as we continue supporting all LAT academies, partner organisations and also King Henry School with recruitment activity across a huge range of positions: support roles, teaching and leadership, apprentices and head office staff. We had a large cohort of new starters join us for September 2022 who have settled in well, with many others joining mid-term and more set to join us in January 2023. Vacancies arise not just because of resignations, but also to cover maternity leave, secondments, retirements and promotions.

We continue to support internal movement amongst our family of academies, with over 20% of teaching appointments so far being offered to an existing LAT employee. We promote that across the organisation, we can offer a vast array of career development opportunities whereby staff can thrive in their careers without having to switch employers. All employees can view our vacancies at any time via the following link:

Internal Vacancies - Leigh Academies Trust

The recruitment market is getting back to ‘normal’ post-covid, with many of our favourite recruitment events returning to a face-to-face arrangement once again. This gives us a chance to meet candidates in person and discuss a range of job and career opportunities with them, and to get the great brand and reputation of Leigh Academies Trust out there. Here is some of the team at a recent London Careers Event, held at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Over the next two terms, our newly established Learning & Development team - part of LAT’s People Services Department - will be focussing on developing and improving the following areas;

• Employee onboarding and induction

• Compliance training (e.g. Safeguarding, Health & Safety, GDPR etc)

• Personal growth opportunities (i.e. soft skill development)

• Professional qualifications

• Aspiring Leaders programmes

We will be opening up applications for the second cohort of Aspiring Vice Principals and our first cohort of Aspiring Subject Leaders in January 2023 - more information will be shared soon!

We will be creating an online Learning Hub which will be a one-stop-shop for all development needs. It’ll include a directory of the best e-learning courses available from National College, Tes Develop and other providers, resources, a calendar of training events, blogs and podcasts, and much more. Content will be easy to navigate depending on your position within the Trust and in what areas you are keen to develop. You’ll also have a dedicated L&D team to contact for advice, guidance and support for yourself or the colleagues you linemanage.

Contact L&D: learning@latrust.org.uk

What an exciting term we have had, here at LAT Apprenticeships! We have seen even more successful completions of our Teaching Assistants and Business Administration apprentices, seeing several achieving a distinction grade. We have been attending a variety of events in order to promote both LAT Apprenticeships and the fantastic calibre of pupils we have across the Trust.

Our recruitment team has been making great connections with a variety of employers to build business links and offer more apprenticeship work placements.

LAT Apprenticeships and Leigh Academy Trust were awarded a covid heroes, public services award at the Dartford business awards 2022, which is another demonstration of the commitment to learning held within the team.

Our apprenticeship numbers are growing and have tripled over the last year, with particular growth within our Business Admin, Teaching Assistant, IT and Engineering programmes. With new programmes being added to the current suite of qualifications, we are always looking for new avenues to explore.

Please feel free to get in touch to discuss all things apprenticeships!

• laura.stratton@latapprenticeships.org.uk

• Jo.buck@latapprenticeships.org.uk

www.latapprenticeships.com

IB Career-related Programme Multi Campus Re-evaluation

In 2017, Wilmington, The Leigh and Leigh UTC academies were authorised to deliver the IBCP, a groundbreaking curriculum development that paved the way for IB programmes to be rolled out across the Trust in all phases, giving LAT the largest IB footprint in Europe.

The IBO has a rigorous set of standards and practices for all of its programmes that authorised schools must adhere to and every five years a team of consultants, often international, visit schools for 2-3 days to verify that the philosophy and expectations are being upheld and that the elements of the programme are being developed to enhance the educational experience of IB students.

We have developed a close and productive partnership with the IB, who asked us to pilot a multi-campus, multi-programme approach to re-evaluation. The team of consultants officially re-evaluated the IBCP and simultaneously reviewed the MYP in the three academies, although the programme is only in its fourth year, the intention being that next time around, both programmes will be officially re-evaluated together.

There are three stages to the IBCP Evaluation process:

• Stage 1 - Documentation Review

• Stage 2 - Self Reflection on Programme Development Plan

• Stage 3 - Evaluation visit

Stage 1 ensures that the academy upholds the standards and practices of the IB through the evidence of policies and website content since the authorisation.

Stage 2 encourages academies to share a significant project conducted since the 5 years of authorisation. For example, at Wilmington Academy the development and use of technology via the Chromebook Scheme and digital strategy.

Stage Evaluation 3 consists of an in person visit between 2-3 days conducted by at least two IB consultants.

The grading ranges from ‘Requirements’, ‘Developing’, ‘Developed’ and ‘Highly Developed’. For the vast majority of aspects we graded ourselves as ‘Developed’ or ‘Highly Developed’ with a few criteria ‘Developed’. Whilst the report may take up to 6 weeks, the verbal feedback was that our academies were ‘Developed’ and ‘Highly Developed’ in all areas.

The Leigh UTC comment from Kevin Watson

'The evaluation team had never experienced having students and staff in the meetings relating to the standards and felt this was a unique and valuable opportunity for all parties to collaborate. The parents' contributions were excellent with the evaluation team stating that they should be used in promotional media for the school and IBCP in general.'

Wilmington Academy comment from Mike Gore

'The IB Consultant from Tennessee stated that he could not believe the IBCP had only been in place for 5 years but more of a school that had IBCP embedded for 10-15 years. The consultants also felt that having the MYP in place meant that both programmes are benefiting each other.'

The Leigh Academy comment from Julia Collins

'The IB consultants stated that 'You have a lovely school - it is a caring, open-minded and respectful academy. It has been a real pleasure meeting and engaging with students, staff and parents.' They picked out the following highlights of the academy: the celebration of culture, diversity, honouring individual and cultural differences, inclusive practice and belief in community as well as the match between our mission and that of the IB, international mindedness and inclusion as a pedagogical principle. They stated that students articulate and demonstrate their commitment to their community and to wider community service and have as high expectations of themselves and their potential as their teachers have of them. Since authorisation 5 years ago, the school has clearly raised aspirations for students and this was tangible in lesson visits and interactions with students.

The visits which took place at the beginning of module 2 and the re-evaluation process as a whole was a huge success for which our principals and their teams are to be congratulated.'

IB Primary Years Programme

At the beginning of this academic year, we were extremely fortunate that the Trust was able to facilitate the delivery of both Category 1 and 2 training for our primary academies, including Milestone. The workshops were delivered in person over a two day period, by experienced IB workshop leaders from around the world. Not only were we able to ensure that all staff have taken part in Category 1 training, a compulsory element of authorisation, we were also able to deliver Category 2 training for our authorised academies. This was a fantastic opportunity to further enhance and embed the PYP within our academies but also to share good practice.

At the end of Module 1, a few lucky staff members from across the Trust were able to attend the IB global conference at The Hague. The theme this year was “Embracing Innovation, Inspiring Action”. This was an opportunity for them to network with teachers from across the globe, learn skills for the classroom and gain further insights into the IB.

As of January all of our primary academies will be authorised IB schools. This is a significant accomplishment for the Trust and our primaries. As we continue to develop on our IB journey, academies will be focusing on their five year journey and their development plans.

In addition, Milestone Academy is now a candidacy school. They are working extremely closely with the IB to develop a bespoke pathway for specialist provisions.

It is encouraging to see the development of digital teams in our academies with the established Digital Lead and Digital Champion roles, but also the new Digital Trainer role. In December we will have representatives from each academy begin their application to become Google Trainers. There are currently around 9,000 Google Trainers in the world (308 in the UK), so adding 31 amongst that number just from LAT is quite an achievement. This builds on the already unprecedented number of Google Certified Educators we have in the Trust.

We rolled out the use of the Read&Write toolbar at the beginning of September and are slowly beginning to see the impact this is having with students. We are excited to see the impact this tool will have, especially in the areas of accessibility to learning, literacy, and languages.

We have also seen some great use of Book Creator over the last two modules. This is a great tool to develop our students' communication, creativity and critical thinking skills. I have seen examples including the Pillars of Islam in Primary and Macbeth in Secondary. Many support staff are also now using this tool to communicate with colleagues, and some academies are using it with parents too.

This module we were able to run STEM Lego workshops for our Maidstone primaries. It was great to see students connecting this well known toy with the world of engineering and coding.

Many of our academies have also begun to undertake a digital innovation project. This recognises how technology can transform the opportunities for our students. We look forward to sharing these with you over the coming months.

It is safe to say that the use of digital tools is well established across LAT but we continue to press on to make the best use of technology for learning and equip our academies with a world class digital strategy.

The International School Award from the British Council

Over the past year and a half, all academies in the Leigh Academies Trust have been working towards The International School Award, which is awarded by the British Council. The International School Award rewards schools that have shown a commitment to embedding international awareness and understanding within their class or school.

Schools work on completing collaborative, curriculum-based work with a number of international partner schools and involvement of the wider community.The International School Award is available in 16 countries and is well-regarded by school inspection bodies and ministries of education globally. As IB world schools LAT academies are well placed to apply for one of the award levels.

Participants can work towards one of three award levels, Foundation, Intermediate or Full Accreditation. All successful applicants for the Foundation and Intermediate levels receive a certificate of achievement, expert feedback and guidance on improving and sustaining their international work. Schools which are awarded top-level accreditation also receive an award logo to display on their school website and communications, media packs to help raise awareness of the school's international work as well as a branded ISA flag and plaque.

Some of the LAT academies which have been awarded the full accreditation are: Sir Joseph Williamson’s Mathematical School, The Halley Academy, Tree Tops Primary Academy and Wilmington Academy.