We have finally reached the end of a long Autumn Term and a very difficult year for everyone. Despite the challenges we have all faced due to the pandemic, it has been another highly successful year for our Trust. If you haven’t done so already, do read our Annual Impact Report. It represents a fantastic celebration of the achievements of all our children and staff in 2020. You will find our plans for 2021 and beyond in our latest Trust Strategic Plan.

During 2020, we were proud to work alongside several local charities. Thank you for generously supporting the work of St Raphael’s Hospice, Maggie’s at the Marsden, Sutton Foodbank, Epsom Foodbank and Age UK Sutton. Our children have also enjoyed supporting each of the charities, through various citizenship and community projects this year. Well done!

Happy Christmas to all our pupils and families. Thank you for making our school communities such happy places, where learning is fun & everyone feels supported and achieves so much. Thank you to our staff for all they do for our children across the Trust, the impact of their hard work, dedication and commitment has been there for all to see in 2020.

Have a very Happy Christmas and enjoy a well deserved break!

LEO Academy Trust continues to support our local community. Please see our new 'LEO in the Commuity' page on our website.

Staff across the Trust enjoyed participating in our annual LEO Conference which was presented this year via YouTube and Google Meet! The theme for this year's conference was Positive Education & Character Education at the heart of our curriculum, and offered practical support to promote pupil and staff wellbeing. Our aim was to help our children & staff to flourish this year, despite the challenges of the pandemic. We enjoyed inspirational keynote speeches from Educate to Flourish, The Jo Cox Foundation and Teacher Toolkit, alongside workshops presented by Teachappy, Jigsaw, Compassion Matters, Ali McClure, Teacher Toolkit, Art of Brilliance, Education to Flourish and Amazing People Schools. Workshops are available to view on our YouTube Channel. To finish the day we enjoyed an inspiring keynote by Dr Andy Cope from Art of Brilliance.

The entire day was documented by Dr Pen Mendonca:

Following this event we are continuing to focus on the wellbeing of both our staff and our pupils. We are also continuing to work on our community projects to ensure opportunities are available to all.

We would like to thank all staff who worked on the seamless running of this event and the presenters for making the conference so thought provoking and successful. Speeches and workshops from the day are available to watch on our YouTube Channel.

The LEO Pupil Parliament has met twice this term and in both of these meetings we have had a lot to think about and discuss. Throughout the course of the year, our three main purposes for the Pupil Parliament are:

1. To provide a Pupil Voice group that interacts with the Trust Board and the Trust Executive Team, providing direct feedback on our strategic directions and aims.

2. Help to represent the Trust in our local community.

3. Help to develop and run the Trust's wider programme of opportunities for pupils.

The first meeting took place in September where we explored the 5 LEO PRIDE Values. We looked at the various ways in which we use the LEO 5 PRIDE values and we were all incredibly proud to say that often we used the PRIDE values without meaning to. Our attitudes and commitment towards our learning helps us to use these 5 attributes.

We were also super excited to produce a video about why new staff should work for the LEO Academy Trust. To do this, we all suggested different reasons why LEO schools are great and some of the attributes that we like in adults in our schools. Mr Macaulay will be doing some editing to make this into a video that will be used for staff recruitment fairs. We know that there will be lots of adults really keen to work in our schools!

Next term we are working with local charities, companies and organisations to see how we can work together to build an even better community in the local area. This will be part of a project called Sutton Citizens that aims to ensure that every child in Sutton has access to the necessary resources to thrive and excel at everything they do.

In September we launched Seesaw in our EYFS and Year 1 to provide children with a platform to share their learning. Teachers empower children to create, reflect, share, and collaborate in Seesaw. Children “show what they know” using photos, videos, drawings, text, PDFs, links and more. Seesaw is a simple way for teachers and children to document their learning, be creative and learn how to use technology. At the time of writing this across the trust we have had 20,000 posts made on Seesaw by teachers and pupils which is AMAZING!

We will continue to expand our use of Seesaw as the children grow in confidence in using it. Teachers may use Seesaw to share moments happening in the school day or set work for children to respond to either by drawing, recording or writing their response. The Seesaw app can be accessed on laptops, tablets and any mobile device. Children have their own code to enable them to access and view their journal. Posts in Seesaw will vary depending on your child’s age and classroom but the purpose remains the same across LEO, it is a place to allow children and teachers to share and keep a record of their learning.

We have been amazed to see all the wonderful activities you have been up to both in school and at home and we love providing you with a platform to share your learning at home. If you are not currently linked to your child’s Seesaw please email your classroom teacher.

Last year Cheam Common Junior applied for the DfE EdTech Demonstrator School programme. They were shortlisted and then interviewed. In March they found out that they had been selected to support other schools around the country with the use of technology, supporting them to use this more effectively and to help address the challenges they face.

It also involves supporting schools with their strategic implementation of technology and using technology to support the needs of teachers and supports to improve outcomes. As part of this we were able to recruit two Lead Teachers of Technology for Learning Miss Coathup and Mrs Shirley.

When the programme launched in March, the initial support was looking at school strategy however this quickly shifted to supporting schools with locating devices, online platforms (Google Classroom, Seesaw and Microsoft Teams), setting up and developing Distance Learning websites and delivering training sessions for teachers. So far we have supported 60 schools across the country, both local and far away.

The EdTech Demonstrator programme has not only given us a chance to share our successes and learning with other schools but has also provided extra capacity in the LEO EdTech Team. We have been able to provide more CPD opportunities for staff, 1:1 coaching programme in schools as well as making links with other local schools. It has also allowed us see other schools and their ways of thinking and using technology which in turn has allowed us to continue our own thinking at LEO Academy Trust.

We have received some great feedback form the schools we have worked with:

As we fast approach the end of the Autumn Term, we would like to take this moment and reflect on what has been an incredibly busy, fun and exciting start to the year regarding all things English. Throughout the term, our wonderful schools within the Trust have been able to provide all our children with a bank of exciting opportunities to help further immerse them within the world of Reading, Writing and Grammar. Activities and lessons have allowed children to continue to develop their creativity, develop a flair for writing and (due to the incorporation of ICT) present their work in various and exciting ways.

This term, LEO English celebrated three annual events to much success: National Literacy Day, National Poetry Day and National Nursery Rhyme Day (KS1). Within each of these celebrated days, children took part in creating their own short stories whilst developing their figurative and descriptive language by drafting a host of poems based on the visionary strapline, ‘See It Like a Poet’. Each of these wonderful events culminated in children being able to share their work virtually, not only between classes, but also between schools thanks to Google Hangouts!

In EYFS, children came dressed to school as their favourite nursery rhyme characters. ‘Humpty Dumpty’, ‘Incy Wincy Spider’, ‘Jack and Jill’ and many more descended into class in order to share the fun and exciting retellings of some of their favourite tales. Interactive games and activities, sing-a-long stories and even schools linking up to share their great work all took place, allowing children to have a wonderfully immersive experience. Both teaching staff and children enjoyed celebrating this important day and for many involved, has been the highlight of the year so far. Thank you to all the parents / carers across our LEO schools who supported these events and helped contribute to all our children’s truly amazing costumes.

Across Key Stage Two, LEO Academy has been working closely with a host of literary-based platforms to engage children in an array of exciting competitions, activities and author-based virtual meets. Working alongside Adobe Sparks / Wakelet, children across each of the LEO schools have been hard at work creating short pieces in response to a range of topical issues, including plastic pollution, healthy eating and the current pandemic, as part of the ‘Adobe 200-Word Challenge’. Presenting their work using a range of tech-based apps has not only engaged children but also allowed them to share their work online, which in turn has been recognised by a host of influential twitter stars, including Adobe Trainer and online blogger, Dominic Traynor. As well as this, classes across Key Stage Two, have been able to meet a range of exciting and well-known children’s authors, including Jamie Littler (Frostheart), Humza Arshad (Little Badman) and Robin Stevens (Murder Most Unladylike Mysteries) as part of ‘Puffin Books Live’. Children have been able to listen to the authors explain how they create their wonderful stories, how they develop characters and settings, be able to pose interesting questions and learn how to illustrate their own book characters too!

In order to continue to raise the profile of English across LEO schools, we have recently launched our very own (virtual) newspaper club as part of The Economist: Burnet News Club project. Children across various LEO schools have been meeting to discuss and debate a range of topical issues, including the recent Presidential election and the effects of Covid, before sharing their views and learning how to respond like journalists. Each week, children are excited to share their favourite news stories and be able to share their views to a wider audience. Should you wish for your child to take part, or if you wish to find out more about this exciting club, talk to your child’s teacher.

Finally, LEO Academy and LEO English are excited to announce the relaunch of LGFL’s Reading Zone Live online reading resource. Working in partnership, this incredible resource has designed in collaboration with English leads across our schools, including Mr Perrott, Ms Williamson and Miss Adams to help create a brand new learning tool for children to develop their reading skills. Drawing upon a bank of over fifty specially commissioned author videos, including Jacqualine Wilson (‘The Illustrated Mum’ & ‘Tracy Beaker’), Michael Morpergo (‘The Butterfly Lion’ & ‘War Horse’) and Jamia Wilson (‘Young, Gifted and Black’), teachers have been working behind the scenes to create specially commissioned comprehension questions and specifically designed tasks to aid children in not only their understanding of the text, but also to continue to develop their love of reading. Such is the success of this project, we are pleased to announce that LEO Academy and LGFL have been nominated for the prestigious BETT awards. So, watch this space for further news!

We eagerly look forward to continuing to celebrate and champion all things English next term, including the exciting ‘World Book Day’ which takes place on Thursday 4th March 2021. In order to keep up to date with all things English related, please continue to follow LEO on twitter @LEOacademies and @LEOenglish0.

After the huge success of #MathsWeekLondon in Summer, children across LEO Academy Trust couldn’t wait to get stuck into another week of problem solving, competition and mathematical challenges! Although all of our plans for it to be a collaborative, in-person event, we weren’t deterred by social distancing measures and embraced learning in our new, virtual world!

What better way to kick start the week than with an assembly highlighting the importance of mathematics during a pandemic. We’re sure you are being constantly bombarded with graphs, bar charts, statistics and experts all ‘number crunching’ about Covid-19. This highlights to us and to our children the importance of trained mathematicians in the real world and where all of the maths learning can take you!

The special assembly, led by our Maths Director, focused on the elusive R number; What is it? How is it calculated? What do different R numbers mean? This was a perfect opportunity to explore this ever-changing ‘number’ and how mathematics is used to work out all of the current restrictions in place.

Even the youngest children took part in LEO Maths Week with their challenge; to create a repeating pattern being as creative as possible! We were amazed by the range of materials and objects used to help with this challenge; from toys and cutlery, food and instruments, to using the children themselves!

It was great to see the range of repeating patterns being sent in, and how each LEO Academy had a different focus. Patterns were created linked to Science and History topics, made in Forest School and even incorporated into music and art lessons. Huge congratulations to everyone who took part and in particular to our winners!

Year 3 and 4 got stuck in by entering into the coloured 100 square competition! The aim- create and design your own pattern and picture using a blank 100 square. The first step was actually filling in a 100 square and children had a variety of methods to do this- counting in ones, filling in columns, or working section by section.

Once the colouring and the creating was done, the maths work continued! Children had to write which numbers were related to which colours in their design. There was plenty of pattern spotting to be done and lots of categorisation of numbers. Check out the winning entries from each school below- from pumpkins, to flags to a variety of animals.

The highlight of the week certainly came with getting all of Year 5 and Year 6 together for a LIVE, virtual Times Table Event. Over one thousand children joined in for the collaborative event, surpassing all expectations of participation! Classrooms joined Mrs Dolling who was hosting the event on Google Meet, while individual children logged on using their chromebooks to a Kahoot quiz. This is a fantastic example of technology for learning; for all of our previous planned events we could never have dreamed of having so many participants from every LEO Academy joining in together.

Every LEO academy was represented as they worked their way through basic times table facts, identifying prime numbers, working out what square numbers were, then finishing off with some tricky problem solving questions.

LEO Maths Week once again proved that no matter what current circumstances, we can all still come together to celebrate this diverse, rich, creative and core subject! Even for us adults, maths has never been so crucial and important as we navigate our way through statistics and figures and try to make sense of all of the numerical facts.

The top players from each school did incredibly well to all place within the top 20, a huge achievement when competing against every other child in the Trust. They have all set an incredibly high standard for future live events and all had very tough scores to compete against.

LEO Maths Week once again proved that no matter what current circumstances, we can all still come together to celebrate this diverse, rich, creative and core subject! Even for us adults, maths has never been so crucial and important as we navigate our way through statistics and figures and try to make sense of all of the numerical facts.

We eagerly anticipate the next LEO Maths Week in Spring term and will be incorporating the live events into the younger year groups so they can join in the experience as well. Please keep up to date with everything maths at LEO on twitter @LEO_maths.

It has been great to see and hear a variety of music being made across our schools (and homes!) over the past term. Despite the pandemic, all classes across the Trust have been able to access a variety of musical experiences and activities. Listen to Charlotte from Cheam Common Juniors playing the piano.

Year 3 pupils have thoroughly enjoyed their drumming lessons this term. They have been learning about Samba and have had the opportunity to play traditional samba instruments such as the surdo, agogo bells, tamborims and ganzas. I was blown away when I visited Manor Park and watched Year 3 and Year 6 pupils practising for a performance that was going to be recorded and sent out to parents to show the progress they had made.

Year 4 pupils have welcomed back tutors from Sutton Music Service to facilitate their whole class ensemble tuition. The children have been learning how to play a variety of instruments including trumpets, baritones, violins, cellos, clarinets and saxophones. Of course, the lessons have had to take on a new structure due to the pandemic. Some classes have been split into smaller groups whilst others have made use of school halls to allow for social distancing measures. The tutors and children alike have been amazing in adapting to the new way of doing things, the ‘new normal!’

The majority of individual lessons or small group lessons have also resumed through these trying times with teachers using online platforms such as zoom and google meet to facilitate lessons at home. Listen to Daniel from BF Moonstone Class playing his guitar.

All other year groups have enjoyed a weekly music lesson which have covered a range of activities including performing, composing, improvising and reading music notation.

Singing has continued where possible with the playground becoming a favourite platform for this! Pupils are more than happy to don their winter woolies in order to have a good sing song! This activity has been particularly prevalent over the last few weeks as classes from across the Trust have been preparing Christmas songs and performances to be sent out to parents to replace our usual festive concerts.

During December, children from across the Trust usually visit local care homes and hospices. Unfortunately, this year, we were not able to do this due to Covid restrictions. However, LEO pupils and staff were still keen to spread a little festive cheer and bring smiles to the faces of residents in our local community. St Raphael's Hospice and other local care homes have received a virtual Christmas performance made by pupils from all of our schools.

St Raphael's Light up a Life ceremony

There has been a fantastic response to our ‘Make Someone Smile’ project. So many pupils have sent in recordings that will be shared with local care homes in the New Year. A big thank you to all the pupils who have participated in this project.

Despite all the odds music is still very much at the heart of each LEO school, it is a subject that brings pupils together and allows them to express their thoughts and feelings and most importantly have fun!

It’s been a busy and fun Autumn term at Forest School. The children have settled in nicely. We have been really lucky with the weather so lots of outdoor learning has been achieved.

The younger children started the term exploring Autumn and the changes it brings, we have done lots of art activities using leaves and exploring the different colours. This then led into investigating minibeasts and their habitats.

The older children have been learning about tools and how to use them safely, we started a project making wood cookies where the children used a saw and hand drill, others have been using potato peelers to whittle sticks which have been made into stars. The end results were amazing and the children are very proud.

Fire lighting has been a huge hit and the children are getting to grips with the flint and steels showing great perseverance. We have had a few fires where we toasted marshmallows and cooked popcorn followed by a good old sing song. Thank you to the parents who donated marshmallows!

Don't forget to follow us on Twitter @LEOforestschool to see what the children are up to.

Cheam Park Farm launched their Financial Education curriculum last year and embarked on a journey to become a Centre of Excellence. This journey involved creating a vision for the school, developing engaging and inspiring lessons, alongside staff development and training for teachers. The aim is that all children leave school with the knowledge, skills and confidence to be able to make informed and independent financial decisions.

Financial Education lessons were taught explicitly and also embedded within other areas of the curriculum such as maths and PSHE. A new pupil voice group was introduced called the Money Ambassadors who helped develop Financial Education lessons and initiatives across the school. This included the popular ‘Fruity Fridays’ in Key Stage 2, where Money Ambassadors bought and sold fruit at break time with a focus on budgeting and making a small profit.

Working in partnership with Banks such as Natwest and Metro Bank, free, virtual workshops and lessons were delivered in school. Children really engaged with the virtual workshop leader who helped bring Financial Education to life and linked their learning to real life contexts.

After the success of developing Financial Education at Cheam Park Farm, planning and resources were shared with all Schools within the Trust before the Summer break. LEO Schools have now appointed Financial Education Leaders who are developing their Financial Education curriculums within their own schools. Autumn term lessons, displays and learning in schools have already been celebrated on Twitter for the wider community to see.

The childen at Brookfield and Cheam Park Farm took part in Road Safety Week. They learned how to cross the road safely and made fabulous road safety posters. The children in Year 5 made a road safety quiz using the Kahoot app on their Chromebooks and the Year 5 and 6 children completed the week with a road safey survey.

Children and staff across the trust joined in with the annual Chidren in Need fundraiser with a yellow themed Mufti Day. Our catering teams joined in with Pudsey themed cakes that tasted every bit a delicious as they looked!

Here we are again at the end of another term and what a busy term it has been! The training on offer for staff continues to grow from strength to strength as we continue to offer a variety of CPD sessions for all staff, coaching and mentoring support for Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs) and numerous training programmes to attend. Please read on to find out more about the training and professional development opportunities that have been on offer this term.

NQTs from across the Trust have taken part in three training sessions so far this academic year, which have included sessions on: Building a Productive Classroom Environment, How Pupils Learn and Digital Transformation and Innovation. Our NQT programme values the importance of group work and the sharing of ideas and practices and as such there have been ample opportunities provided for NQTs to collaborate and to learn alongside one another. All sessions have been highly interactive and packed full of lots of practical teaching and learning strategies for NQTs to take away and use in their own classrooms. Our NQTs have been spotted using many of the strategies they have gained from these sessions in their own classrooms, which has been rewarding to see. They still have lots of professional development opportunities to look forward to in the new year which will include training in the following areas next term: Effective Classroom Practice, PE, Making Effective Use of Assessment and English.

As well as running our NQT Programme, we have also continued to run our RQT programme this year for staff across the Trust. The RQT Programme aims to bring teachers together early on in their career, to enable them to develop their practice as well as provide a support network across the Trust. RQTs have attended two training sessions so far this academic year, which have included sessions on: Leadership and Management and Monitoring Techniques. RQTs still have a wealth of content to cover this academic year including: A ‘How to’ guide on lesson observations, Data analysis and Reporting and Evaluation techniques and strategies.

Our Middle Leaders training also continues to run successfully. Middle Leaders from across the Trust have taken part in a recent session which focused on reflecting on their current leadership behaviours, exploring the difference between leadership and management and considering some of the challenges of middle leadership. Our School Leaders Development programme, which is delivered and led in accordance with Judicium Education, has also had a positive start with great feedback from many of our senior leaders within the Trust. Members, Trustees and Governors have also benefited from their bespoke training programme with sessions which have explored the following areas: Annual Safeguarding and Child Protection, Technology for Learning Strategy, Recovering the Curriculum and Assessment and LEO 5 Pupil Outcomes.

Alongside our core training programmes, we have also offered a wide range of curriculum training sessions and safeguarding and inclusion training sessions led by our wonderful Directors and Associate Principals. This term we have begun to work in partnership with Olevi Alliance. OLEVI Alliance, is an International Awarding Body for the Accreditation of Facilitation and Coaching. Their overarching vision is that ‘Every student, in every school will enjoy an outstanding teaching and learning experience’ and their Mission is ‘to create high performing people who challenge thinking and learning, and value building a growth culture’. In the Autumn term we have offered the opportunity for staff across the Trust to take part in the Olevi Outstanding Teacher Programme and we have also offered our Senior Leaders the opportunity to take part in the Outstanding Facilitator Programme. We look forward to seeing this partnership grow and develop across this academic year.

We would also like to formally welcome schools from the Sutton Education Trust (SET), who have joined us as part of the Challenge Partners South West London Hub. Our focus this term has been to work together in the development of our Hub Action Plan which we look forward to putting into action next term. Through membership of the Challenge Partners South West London Hub, we play a central role in improving practice to raise standards of teaching, achievement and leadership across the group. Our aim is to support the development of sustainable improvements so that all pupils receive an education of excellence. We are looking forward to working in partnership this year with Sutton Education Trust to help us to achieve this common goal.

If you would like to find out more about training and professional development opportunities available at LEO Academy Trust why not try the following:

• Take a look at our LEO Academy Trust CPD website

• Subscribe to our LEO Academies YouTube Channel to find out when new training videos are added.

• Read our fortnightly LEO Training and Professional Development Newsletter.

• Browse our LEO Academy Trust CPD Brochure 2020-2021, we’d love you to join us!

Follow @LEOtraining5 on Twitter for updates.

With the postponement of all inter school sport and competitive fixtures, Autumn 2020 has been a term like no other. Despite all the challenges everyone has undertaken, we have tried to keep the pupils of LEO as physically active as we possibly can. We began the new term by providing our own monthly virtual sports competitions to provide LEO pupils with the opportunity to keep physically active at home. We built on this by creating our very own virtual sports clubs and competed in national, local and trust wide events.

Our monthly virtual sports competitions have proven more and more popular as the months have gone on, with over 1000 LEO pupils taking part in our October competition! A huge congratulations to Manor Park Primary, Cheam Park Farm Primary and Cheam Fields for winning September, October and November competitions respectfully. Thank you to all those pupils who have taken part so far, we hope you enjoy taking part in school and at home. Another huge thank you goes to those who donated to Maggie’s during our November Sports Competition. We used this month's virtual sports competition to raise awareness and funds to support the charity at the Royal Marsden Hospital. This was a fantastic way to get pupils physically active and raise money.

Our sports team has worked incredibly hard to create our LEO virtual clubs programme. They have created eight, six-week programs ranging from athletics to strength and conditioning clubs. These are available to all LEO pupils on our LEO YouTube channel. If you haven’t already, please take a look. We hope that there is a club for everyone to enjoy. Details of our virtual clubs are on the website.

This year we have continued to maintain our partnership with Surrey Cricket and the Chance to Shine program. Each school has been given a six-week program with a Surrey Cricket coach providing CPD to up-skill class teachers, in turn giving great cricket experiences to the pupils of LEO. Additionally, Surrey Cricket have offered us a free Cricket day designed specifically for pupils with disabilities. To adhere to our social distancing measures, each year group in KS2 will be given a one hour lesson outside with Surrey Crickets Disability officer, taking part in specifically designed cricket activities.

Another fantastic partnership we have continued is with Panathlon. Panathlon Challenge is a children's charity that helps to provide sports competitions and training days for young people with disabilities and special educational needs. Our LEO Sports Development Officer is leading a Games Day at each LEO school giving SEN pupils the opportunity to compete in the National Virtual Competition. The competing children will receive medals, certificates and the opportunity for local and National trophies - as well as a virtual visit from a top Paralympic athlete!

Our staff have been provided with various sports CPD programmes this term. This has included our continuing development with the real PE legacy programme and team teaching opportunities with the LEO Sports Development Officer and Sutton Schools Sports Partnership. The Sutton Schools Sports Partnership will be continuing to work closely with the LEO Academy Trust in the spring term by providing the level five and six subject management course.

Although virtually we’ve managed to take part in many sports competitions so far in the autumn term, all our LEO schools took part in this year's London Mini Marathon, where KS2 pupils had to run/walk 2.6 miles! In October, Sutton schools participated in the London Youth Virtual Games and won a Bronze medal. Congratulations goes to all our schools who contributed and a massive well done also goes out to Brookfield Primary for being the top primary school in London! The London Youth Games will continue from the summer providing us with monthly challenges to compete against the different London Boroughs. Other competitions include the Sutton Schools Cross Country Championships and the Sutton Schools Virtual Athletics Competitions for KS1, Year 3&4 and Year 5&6.

Coming up in the spring term we hope to further our partnership with The Cycle Coach, who offer cycling lessons in a traffic free environment. Cheam Common Juniors have enjoyed some very successful taster sessions and hope to provide an after school club next term. We hope this successful partnership can be rolled out to other Trust schools soon. This will help improve many of our pupils cycling ability and we hope to inspire more pupils to work towards taking on the Bikeabilty course, which has also been rolled out across all our schools again this year.

We hope that the Spring Term can bring the return of competitive school sport that we all know and love. Until then we will continue to help keep the pupils of LEO as physically active in as many different ways as we can.

Following on from the success of our LEO themed events during the Summer term, we have continued with these throughout the Autumn term. You will have already read about some of these in other articles in this newsletter; here is a summary of the rest of the events.

News posts are now being created on our website for any events or special days that take place and we also celebrate each half term with a photo album on the website.

At LEO Academyy Trust, we believe it is very important for everyone’s voice to be heard, which is why we have pupil parliaments. During the week pupils had the oportunity to run for a variety of positions of responsibility and represent the pupils of the school, Democracy Day activities included:

• Discussion of the key issues facing democracy. Including how to promote mutual respect and dialogue with opponents, honest governance, accessible and accountable parliamentarians and parliaments, the effective participation of women, the young and minorities in local, regional and national politics, and how to make elected officials more responsive to voters' demands and expectations.

• An assembly to explore democracy and why it is important to celebrate it.

• Writing a letter to the local MP about something the pupils would like to change e.g. pollution, equalities, litter or anything they felt ws relevant to the community.

• Role-play activity exploring the different emotions associated with making decisions, including working with others who may have different opinions.

Throughout the years, millions of people have been active on Peace Day in every country of the world, and hundreds of organisations have carried out life-saving activities in areas of conflict. Our Peace One Day activities included:

• Acknowledgement of the link between Peace and Sustainability. #DoYourPeace by choosing and performing a small act for peace, and a small act for sustainability within your family. Reflecting upon the impact of your actions and the wider importance of ‘Peace & Sustainability’ in the world.

• Expressing your thoughts and feelings through art. Pinwheels are a simple and wonderful way to create a small symbol of peace.

• Using imaginative language to express feelings and ideas in written form. by creating a poem and reading it aloud. #DoYourPeace!

• Getting creative with Pizza and Peace, combined! This was a great way to educate informally, while introducing (or practicing) 'active listening’. Pupils shared photos of their pizzas positioned like the Peace One Day logo.

The Anti-Bullying Alliance provided a variety of resources to aid pupils in their understanding and in taking action against bullying. They also ran a fundraising ‘Odd Socks Day’ on Monday 16th November and a competition for the children to take part in.