Leigh Academy Tonbridge

Christmas Newsletter

Welcome from the Principal

As we come to the end of another busy and successful term, I want to take a moment to reflect on just how proud I am of our students.

This week’s College Celebrations provided a wonderful opportunity to recognise the remarkable achievements, effort and personal growth shown by so many of our young people. It is always a privilege to celebrate their successes, and the maturity and positivity on display throughout the week was a credit to them all.

One particularly powerful highlight was the visit from Daz Saunderson, who delivered Connor’s Story to our students on Friday. Daz spoke with immense courage about the tragic loss of her son Connor at the age of 19, following a single punch to the head. She delivered her presentation five times across the day, and on every occasion our students responded with warmth, kindness and extraordinary empathy. Their attentiveness, respect and compassion were genuinely moving and spoke volumes about the values they demonstrate every day in our academy.

Beyond the classroom, our students continue to do us proud in so many different ways — representing the school in sporting fixtures and tournaments, supporting one another, and consistently conducting themselves with maturity and integrity. Whether in lessons, on the sports field, or out in the community, they are excellent ambassadors for Leigh Academy Tonbridge.

Thank you, as always, for your continued support this term. I hope you and your families enjoy a restful and joyful Christmas break, and I wish you a very happy New Year. We look forward to welcoming students back in the new term and building on the many successes of this one.

With warmest wishes

Michael Crow
Principal

I shall leave you with the lyrics of a song that has just been very 'enthusiastically' sung in our Christmas assembly!

Christmas Jumper Day/ Christmas Lunch

Our school community has been amazingly generous this festive season and has donated over £634 for Save The Children Fund Christmas Jumper Day.

Thank you to everyone who donated directly to the charity - we and they are incredibly grateful for your generosity.

Here are some phestive photos from the day!

Connor's Story

We were delighted to welcome The Connor Saunders Foundation to the school in December, they are a UK-based charity started by Shaun and Darran Saunders in memory of their son, Connor, who died from a single punch in 2012. It promotes organ donation awareness, anti-violence (especially "one-punch" incidents), and provides defibrillators and football coaching for children, aiming to create a "Heart Safe Community" and inspire positive action from tragedy.

Darran gave 5 heartfelt assemblies to all of our students who were fully engaged by her story and message, the school will make a generous donation to this worthy cause.

Here is the feedback from Darran's daughter:

"Mum has been in many schools but the kind and attention you guys gave her will sit in her heart forever. Thank you."

Trips

Our students have been rewarded with a variety of fabulous and fun trips including Matilda the Musical, Ice Skating in Calverley Park and Bowling.

100 watched Matilda the Musical

160 tried to get strikes at bowling

80 became the next Torvill and Dean

Year 13 British Film Institute Trip

In November our year 13 Spanish students went to London to take part in a study day on 'el Laberinto del Fauno' (Pan's Labyrinth) which is the film that they study as part of the course. Our students took part in a lecture in Spanish from a Bristol university lecturer which covered the social and historical background of the film which is set just after the Spanish Civil War as well as analysing the techniques employed by the director. It was a really interesting day and we look forward to seeing the students applying the new ideas to their essays!

GCSE PE

As part of the students practical assessment Ms Gray accompanies our students to The Hilden Golf Range where they are coached and trained in the fine art of golf!

Key Dates and Social Media

Last day of term (Early finish) Friday 19th December

Years 7/ 8 and 9 - 12.40pm

Years 10/ 11/ 12 and 13 - 12.10pm

Inset dates 2025/2026 - Monday 5th January 2026

Friday 13th February 2026

Please use the following link for all of our key dates - https://leighacademytonbridge.org.uk/academy-life/term-dates/

Golden Tickets

We are so proud to celebrate the incredible achievements of our students who have earned GOLDEN TICKETS. Your hard work, determination, and positive spirit have truly shone through. You have all shown what it means to lead with excellence, and integrity.

This term has seen 36723 positive points awarded, and 33 Golden Tickets.

Well done to Theo, Ray, Sarah, Misha, Josh, Jack, Maryam, Tom, Nick, Albert, Pippa, Caelan, Aurora, Harriet and Riley 👏and all of the other children who have received positive points and tickets this term.

Positive points = 36723

Golden Tickets = 33

Year 7 Tackle Big Global Issues!

This term, our Year 7 geographers have been exploring some of the world’s most pressing challenges, from climate change and flooding in Bangladesh, to plastic pollution in the Philippines and access to clean water in Kenya. These are complex global issues, but our students rose to the challenge, showing curiosity, critical thinking, and creativity throughout the unit.

Students have learned about the causes and consequences of these problems at both local and global scales. They went on to produce some very impressive infographics and articles to communicate their findings and made some difficult decisions about how these challenging issues are best solved. Using technology to research and represent information was an important part of this project and students gained experience in using a variety of digital tools.

This project perfectly coincided with COP 30 discussions which gave students a real sense of how these issues are debated globally. Their outstanding work is now on display in the school foyer, showcasing their deep MYP thinking as global citizens.

We are incredibly proud of Year 7 for their hard work, resilience, and thoughtful contributions — and we can’t wait to see how they continue to explore and understand our changing world!

Football

In November the Y10 football team, well, a very revised version of it, had just returned to school, along with interim manager, Matthew McCloud. Debuts were given to Caleb Benson, Mikey Martin and Onur Elaman.

The game kicked off and within 6 minutes Onur Elaman had scored two very well taken goals. LATon maintained control and by the 1/4 hour mark Mikey Martin slotted the third goal of the game. Matthew kept tinkering with rolling subs ensuring that everyone stayed fresh and had plenty of opportunities to rotate positions and see the game from a different perspective; his calm and humble manner on the sideline, along with his exceptional tactical understanding, allowed the new look lineup to play with confidence and another five goals were added before the full time whistle. Tom 'twinkle toes' Woodhams got two, Eli Fitzer-Best gave the gloves to Jake Shoebridge at half time and added one, Dexter Turner-Sales was driving down the left wing and spotted the 'keeper had left an opening on the front post and he finished from an incredibly tight angle, and finally, we finished smartly after some very intricate play between two players including Matthew ...well, you can't deny a player minutes, he was on the pitch for about 8 minutes and turned down the dial to about 2 and was withdrawn again to manage the team, so he was technically interim player/manager🥳

The final score was 8-0 to LATon and all the boys represented the school exceptionally well and I was incredibly proud about how they carried themselves through the game and treated the opposition, they were a credit to our community. If you see these lads tomorrow, please make a fuss of them, they deserve it for this:

Well done to the year 7 boys football team who played St Greg's this week. We only had 9 players meaning we had no subs!

However, despite this and with 2 players making their debut we still managed to beat St Greg's 4-3 with all 4 goals being amazing. Dominic was given man of the match for his amount of awesome saves and all 9 boys played to their absolute best 👏⚽

Well done to the year 7 and 8/9 girls who played Mascalls yesterday. Both teams played with great determination with the year 8/9 team winning 6-2.

The year 7s played with great courage due to having to play against a majority year 8 team, the score was so close and they rose to the challenge. It was a pleasure to watch the girls play and let's hope it is the first of many fixtures.

Remembrance

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month we remembered them.

Nourish Food Bank

We are incredibly proud of our Sixth Form Leaders for their inspiring act of service this morning!

They delivered two full car loads of essential items to the Nourish Food Bank, thanks entirely to the phenomenal response from our school community.

Your generous donations will make a real difference to local families. This initiative beautifully highlights our core values and the compassion within our community. Thank you for making us so proud!