Leigh Academies Trust
NEWS
Winter 2021 | Issue 22
Contents
A message from the Chief Executive
Leigh Academies Trust (LAT) achieved another UK first this term. In September, Oaks Primary Academy in Maidstone became the only school in the UK to be both accredited by the International Baccalaureate (IB) as a World School offering the Primary Years Programme (PYP) and judged by Ofsted under the latest inspection framework as “Outstanding” in all areas. These twin accolades happened in tight succession and are a remarkable transformation from the academy that joined LAT in 2015 when it was rebrokered from another multi-academy trust.
Not content with that achievement, the Trust pushed boundaries even further in November when Cherry Orchard Primary Academy (COPA), the first new school to open in the Ebbsfleet Garden City in 2017, followed suit. It too is now a fully accredited IB World School and “Outstanding” in all areas according to Ofsted. This is an equally impressive achievement. Staff and pupils at both academies have accomplished remarkable things and we are proud of all of them. This high praise, which comes at a time when the Ofsted performance bar has been raised several fold, confirms the powerful nature of the IB curriculum approach we are taking across the Trust.
In addition to Oaks and COPA, eight more primaries have become IB World Schools since September offering the PYP. These are: Dartford; Peninsula East; Molehill; Tree Tops; Langley Park; Hartley; High Halstow; Hundred of Hoo. Staff and pupils have worked equally hard to achieve this international curriculum accreditation and I see no reason that all of them should not follow in Oaks’ and COPA’s footsteps with an Ofsted “Outstanding” grade under the current framework.
In more inspection success this term, Mascalls Academy and Strood Academy received their routine two-day visits from Ofsted. Whilst their reports are not yet in the public domain I can confirm that we are delighted with judgements at both academies and look forward to celebrating these with all stakeholders in due course. These recent inspections mean that six LAT academies are now judged “Outstanding” overall, twelve have “Outstanding” features accredited through inspection and all LAT academies visited by Ofsted whilst part of the Trust are at least “Good”. This is an enviable track-record to which not many multi-academy trusts can lay claim. It is especially impressive on the back of the heavy disruption we have all experienced and continue to experience from Covid.
On top of this, I would like to commend the staff and all partnership groups of LAT Apprenticeships which received an Ofsted monitoring visit in September. Their leadership was judged to be making “significant progress” en route to their first full inspection in 2-3 years’ time. This type of judgement is currently rare in the apprenticeship sector which has been so badly disrupted by the pandemic.
There is much to celebrate in LAT this autumn term, not just Ofsted inspections and IB verifications. I hope you enjoy reading about all of the other achievements found in this digital newsletter and I wish you all a very happy Christmas.
Simon Beamish,
Chief Executive
Christmas Card Competition Winners
Congratulations to this years winners and well done to everyone that took part.
First Place
Elizabeth
Wilmington Academy
Runner Up
Luka
Marden Primary Academy
Runner Up
Anastasia
Ebbsfleet Academy
KMT
Without doubt, term 2 has always been known as the “toughest term” in education and I think this year that this is an understatement! Along with the dark mornings and long nights, cold weather and exhausted pupils and teachers, academies are also under the pressures of Covid catch-up, illness, pressures of the ECT facilitation and possible Ofsted inspections looming over them.
KMT has noticed more than ever that this is having a significant impact on our trainee teachers with several of them contemplating whether the job is right for them.
As a result, KMT has really gone to town in making sure that our trainees are fully aware of all the layers of support that are available to them. We are continuing to run our full Resilience for ITT programme with Lucy Bailey at Bounce Forward. The success of this was presented at the NASBTT Annual Conference last week by Stuart Russell and Lucy Bailey.
To support this we have also launched a well being resource for all of our trainees so that they can access bespoke support for their own specific needs.
This has been shared with all KMT stakeholders and highlights everything that KMT offers to help trainees on their journey to QTS. The LAT academies are very much part of this support so once again can I thank you all for what you do for our trainees.
KMT Wellbeing document is linked here:
Thames Gateway Teaching School Hub
The first two modules in the life of the Thames Gateway TSH have been busy and exciting. Our offer was officially launched on Tuesday 5th October at Chatham’s Historic Dockyard. This was a wonderful event, shared with our colleagues at Kent TSH. We were delighted to welcome keynote speakers Professor Rob Coe from the Education Endowment Foundation and Heather Fern from Ofsted. This event was shared with our partner Curriculum Hubs and led to many positive and fruitful conversations.
Our 380+ Early Career Teachers, their Mentors and Induction Tutors have made a fantastic start to their induction period. The first face to face events have been well received and we now eagerly anticipate our January Regional conferences, being held at the Detling Showground. These again will be a great opportunity to engage with best practice and to continue to explore the Early Career Framework together. These opportunities are now available to book for both ECTs and Mentors via the EDT platform. We also look forward to receiving December’s first ECT progress reviews. As always please contact jodie.byham@tgtsh.org.uk if you need any support with these programmes.
The new suite of fully funded NPQ programmes have also begun, with over 330 delegates starting a November cohort in one of the 6 reformed qualifications. At this point around 500 colleagues have expressed an interest in working with us over the coming academic year. Early indications are that these new programmes are already being appreciated, and we look forward to seeing the impact they make in school, influencing our partners, their colleagues and learners. Please do email faye.mcgill@tgtsh.org.uk for further information on this offer.
Our overarching aim, to provide excellent development opportunities which support educators as they shape the lives of every child in our region, has also been served by our wider networking offer. As well as welcoming a number of keynote speakers ourselves, both in person and online, we have been delighted to be able to point colleagues to wider CPD opportunities, offered both in conjunction with LAT and with our wider partners. Full details of our offer can be found in our latest Bulletin. Most recently we partnered with Gads Hill school and Primary First Trust to offer a well received Primary Moderation event.
This was a fantastic opportunity to be back together, with the progress of our learners at the heart of our conversations.
For details on our full offer please see This was a fantastic opportunity to be back together, with the progress of our learners at the heart of our conversations.
For details on our full offer, use this link to visit our website:
Our professional development offer is complemented and supported by the work of our regional curriculum hubs. Our own Kent and Medway Maths Hub is privileged to be supporting schools across the region, and a huge number of schools have either started a new partnership with us, or continued to work with us, in our 2021/2022 programmes. The addition of the Mastering Number opportunity has seen over 150 schools come together, and many new schools are joining our comprehensive Teaching for Mastery programmes.
We are also pleased to be specifically supporting a number of Maths teachers and leaders in our new funded opportunities for ECTs, TAs, and teachers in EYFS, Primary, Secondary and Post 16 settings. Our full offer can be found on our website link below:
For further information on any of our Maths Hub offers, please contact vicky.a.vincent@kandmmathshub.org.uk.
We look forward to continuing to work with you!
The Thames Gateway Teaching School Hub is one of the DfE’s school-led centres of excellence for teacher and leadership training and development.
LAT Talent Team
It has been a busy term so far for the Talent Team with appointments made across all departments within the organisation; senior leaders, teachers, apprentices, support staff and central office staff. This is unsurprising given the growth of LAT and the scope of job opportunities across our 31 academies.
Working in collaboration with Kent & Medway Training, we have also recruited our first trainee teachers who will enrol onto the teacher training programme next September.
We would like to take this opportunity to make you aware that over 20% of vacancies across the Trust are offered to existing LAT employees. This demonstrates the real drive that the organisation has to retain our staff and provide you with opportunities either within your original academy or elsewhere, and the chance to develop in your career.
To view our internal vacancies, visit the link to Leigh Academies Trust page on Job Train:
We would also like to remind you of the Trust’s Refer-a-Teacher Scheme which is open for everyone to use. If you know a great teacher who is not already working for the Trust, let us know by filling out this form. Over 50 teachers across LAT found their jobs through the referral scheme! To fill out our form, visit our Refer-a-Teacher Scheme on our Trust website, linked below:
Finally, the team is working closely with the Web and Graphics Teams at Head Office to give the ‘Careers’ section of the website and all associated marketing material a much needed refresh. The project will be launched in early January 2022. We look forward to showing you what we’ve created and hope it gives all prospective candidates and employees a better user experience.
LAT Apprenticeships
LAT Apprenticeships have had a busy and exciting time so far this year, starting with the appointment of several new staff members to support the growing number of learners who are accessing apprenticeships through LAT. Our Business Relationship Manager has been working tirelessly to promote our services to external employers, who have been recognising the business advantages to recruiting an apprentice.
We have also widened our scope of internal employees who have taken the opportunity to upskill themselves by undertaking an apprenticeship.
Our growing business connections and learning opportunities are providing fantastic progression routes for both LAT school leavers and external candidates looking to launch exciting new careers.
At the start of October we underwent an Ofsted inspection, the results of which were incredibly positive. Ofsted stated:
“Leaders and managers are highly ambitious for their apprentices to develop the skills, knowledge and behaviours they need for their current and future roles. Apprentices are equally ambitious.”
We have successfully implemented two new programmes, Information Communications Technician (ICT) and Engineering - Technical Support Technician and we are delighted to have guided a number of our learners through their End Point Assessment and the successful completion of their apprenticeship journeys.
We were also delighted to see such an influx of new Teaching Assistants starting their apprenticeship training - 23 since September!!
We are now looking forward to welcoming many more apprentices on board in 2022 and are taking expressions of interest for our next Teaching Assistant cohorts in January, April and September. If you have any current or future apprenticeship vacancies planned for TAs or LSAs or want to find out more about our programme, please get in touch with Jo Buck, jo.buck@latapprenticeships.org.uk
LAT Apprenticeships are constantly striving to improve the quality of the service and programmes that we offer, with the intention of being the first choice for future apprentices and supporting the positive growth of our academies and external employers alike. Your feedback is very important to us!
PYP
We are delighted to report that by the 4th December 2021 the following academies will have successfully achieved IB World School and authorisation to deliver the IB Primary Years Programme:
Oaks Primary Academy
Dartford Primary Academy
Cherry Orchard Primary Academy
Peninsula East Primary Academy
Tree Tops Primary Academy
Molehill Primary Academy
The Hundred of Hoo Primary Academy
High Halstow Primary Academy
Hartley Primary Academy
Langley Park Primary Academy
Eastcote, Paddock Wood, Horsmonden and Bearsted Primary Academies are all hot on the trail and will complete their pre-authorisation visits in the Spring and will join our internationally recognised academies.
We are equally thrilled to acknowledge that Marden Primary Academy’s application to become an IB Candidate school has been accepted. They are already collaborating across the Trust and are excited to officially begin their IB journey.
In the recent Ofsted Inspections at Oaks and Cherry Orchard Inspectors recognised the ‘highly ambitious and well-thought out’ curriculum in our academies.
It is clear that the flexible approach to the PYP Curriculum Framework has enabled our academies to accommodate the demands of the National Curriculum in its widest context. The many positives that our teachers, support staff, pupils and parents see every day continue to strengthen the rich educational opportunities and experiences provided across the Trust.
All of our primary academies have engaged with at least one British Council connecting classrooms project to drive international mindedness with several of them pursuing the International Schools Award. In addition, our leaders are pursuing opportunities to increase collaboration with overseas schools and groups of schools to share best practice and develop intercultural understanding for our younger students.
The IB PYP has truly been transformational for children and adults alike and they should be congratulated on their successes so far. We would also take this opportunity to thank our Governors and Trustees for their encouragement and support in all matters IB!
Digital Learning
Throughout the last 18 months the Trust and its academies supported our learners throughout the various periods of lockdown and periods of year group or class ‘bubble’ isolation by swiftly deploying devices to ensure that no LAT child was without access to the vital technology they needed to access their learning at home.
LAT’s belief is that all learners should have access to digital technology and this started long before the pandemic. The challenges of lockdowns, isolating, and bubbles highlighted how this was a necessity. The use of digital technology is not restricted to these extreme circumstances, we believe it is crucial to the principles that underpin our all-age curricular vision, which is based upon the International Baccalaureate (IB). In our academies, leaders, teachers and students work together to find and develop new approaches to learning by blending traditional and digital pedagogies together.
Digital technology becomes an integral part in supporting and transforming our students’ learning journey. We know that the use of technology will enhance learning and progress students make as they journey through the curriculum, supplementing their learning through the development of their digital skills and digital literacy. At LAT, we are committed to ensuring students and teachers can employ the most appropriate tools for learning at the right time, including when they are not in the academy itself.
To achieve this we provide every LAT student access to a tablet or laptop via a one-to-one device scheme. Over this module alone we have completed the delivery of Chromebooks to nearly all students in year 3 and above across our primary, secondary and special academies. This was in addition to the thousands that were deployed last year. We have also supplied our nursery to year 2 students with class sets of iPads to support their development.
All LAT staff are committed to the vision for an integrated digital ecosystem and demonstrate this by mastering the Google tools needed both within and outside the classroom. This is demonstrated by all teachers achieving their Google Level 1 Educator Certification. Across the Trust over 90% of all staff have achieved this and we are now progressing with Level 2 certification for many, as well as learning about other digital tools that work alongside the Google environment.
This module, the LAT Digital Teaching Leads came together with the Trust’s Digital Engagement Lead to share ideas around best practice, to learn about recommended digital tools, to discuss the effective roll out of student devices and to look into areas such as assessment, book scrutiny and knowledge organisers. Alongside the Digital Leads, we have also been developing the roles of Digital Coaches and Innovators in each academy. These positions are themselves quite innovative in this field but demonstrate the importance we see in bringing the best use of technology into our classrooms.
To drive our on-going vision, 13 digital expectations have been set for each academy to fulfill in the coming year to ensure that the use of technology is consistent and effective across the Trust. As well as practical expectations around the use of devices, we are also looking at how we develop student digital skills, support them in careers development, provide accessible online learning resources, and promote good digital citizenship amongst all our staff and students. For this we are also seeking to provide quality CPD for our staff and making use of online platforms to make this learning easily accessible.
