Everyone has worked exceptionally hard during this uncertain time and we would like to give a special mention to the following groups for all they have done for our children this term:

Parents and Carers

Thank you for all your support with Distance Learning, you have done an amazing job juggling the demands of your own work with that of teaching your children. Also, thank you for all your kind words and encouragement to us during this time, it is very much appreciated.

Safeguarding Teams

The Safeguarding Teams across the Trust have worked tirelessly to ensure that all children have been supported throughout this term. They have gone above and beyond to safeguard both those attending school and those who remained at home. A huge well done to you all and a big thank you from all of us!

Also a sincere thank you to the LEO Safeguarding and SENCo Associate Principal for ensuring timely and efficient coordination of all relevant information for all academies, as well as supporting individual academy's with much needed advice; ensuring a highly effective team response to keeping all LEO children and families safe.

Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Coordinators and Assistants

Supporting children with additional needs during another period of school closure has not been an easy task, but all of our SENDCos and SENDCo assistants have risen to the challenge every step of the way. A huge thank you to you all for your dedication and commitment to ensuring links have been maintained with all children. We appreciate the amount of time and effort you have all put in at a truly difficult time. In addition, thank you for creating our superb Inclusion & Wellbeing online platform to help parents support their children with distance learning this term.

Family Support Workers

A big thank you to our Family Support workers who have been working tirelessly during this term to support both families and children alike. You have been a fantastic support to them but also to our schools. Your flexibility in approach and your willingness to support anywhere you have been needed has been invaluable.

Emotional Literacy Support Assistants

During another period of school closures, many of our ELSAs have risen to the challenge of providing consistency for our children who have been at home. We cannot thank you enough for providing this link for children across the Trust. We know, from feedback, just how much they appreciated contact from you and accessing the resources many of you once again provided. We know it has not been easy, so thank you!

LEO Catering Staff and Midday Supervisors

Our catering staff have continued to provide breakfast, lunch and an after school tea for the children of key workers throughout the time of the school closures. They also quickly adapted to the new safety measures introduced once all children returned to school on 8th March. We also thank our Midday Supervisors and Teaching Assistants, who have stepped in to help out in kitchens during this term.

Premises Teams

The whole of the premises team, including site managers, caretakers and cleaners, as well as our central team premises staff, worked together and with help and support from many other staff in schools to get our sites ready for wider reopening again on 8th March. Sourcing cleaning materials and PPE ready for us to fully reopen all sites was a huge challenge, but they pulled it off! They also took advantage of the time when only the children of key workers were in school, to decorate classrooms and do other refurbishment works, as well as ensuring all our sites were maintained and kept secure on a daily basis. Thank you!

Teachers

Whether working from home or at school, thank you for your team approach and flexibility. Your amazing ability to just get on and find new ways to deliver excellence for our children has been admirable. Your commitment to going the extra mile, to ensure the children’s education continued under any circumstances is astounding. Thank you for finding enthusiasm and positivity in the most difficult times this term. You truly delivered a world class programme of remote education, with a brilliant range of live lessons and online learning resources.

Teaching Assistants

Thank you for just turning your hand to so many things to just support the schools whether from home or at school. Stepping up to lead bubbles, moving schools, supporting teachers and children, lunch cover, leading clubs, as well as supporting the essential cleaning to name a few. Truly excelling in being a member of staff who makes sure everything is covered and children are safe, well and learning. Thank you!

Admin Staff

Thank you for dealing with the new and unknown with a smile. For being the frontline face of each academy and reassuring parents that everything is in hand. Thank you for working with staff to ensure communication is in place for the community and school, to reduce anxiety and help families.

Business Team

Thank you to our Central Business Team who have worked so hard to ensure we have adequate supplies throughout the school closure period. The Business Team has adapted to home working and continued to procure items and has arranged delivery to the homes to enable staff working from home to continue preparing resources for teaching. At the start of the pandemic internet dongles were sourced for families who don't have the internet at home so that pupils would be able to access distance learning. These dongles were then personally delivered to homes across Cheam, Worcester Park, Sutton and as far as Croydon and Thornton Heath. Although schools have been partially closed the invoices and salaries still needed to be paid and the BusinessTeam has continued to complete this essential role efficiently.

School Leadership Teams & Business Teams

Thank you to our teams who work behind the scenes. Yet again this term, you completed long hours to ensure everything was in place for pupils, parents and staff to feel happy and safe. You waded through daily government guidance and risk assessments to provide clarity and consistency for all. You ensured a visionary commitment to learning, excellence and opportunity, even in the midst of a pandemic. Your vision enabled the stunning distance learning offer. Your dedication saw hundreds of Chromebooks delivered to our EYFS and KS1 families and you provided internet access for our most vulnerable families. Most importantly, you were always there for everyone. Thank you!

The LEO Academy Trust and schools have featured in many publications this term.:

• Google choose LEO as one of only six schools worldwide - they said the provision we have managed to provide for 3500 children is exceptional. We feel very proud of what has been achieved over the last few years. Watch the full video HERE

• During January we featured in an article for 'In Your Area' showing how we had supplied devices and dongles to enable all children to access online learning during the lockdown. Read the article HERE.

• Mrs Dallimore, Associate Principal of Inclusion and Wellbeing, was interviewed for the TES about how to help pupils with SEND prepare for the return to school. Read the article HERE.

• The 'Rudolph Run' charity event that raised £16,000 in support of St Raphael's Hospice was reported by 'This is Local London' and Sutton & Croydon Guardian. Read the article HERE

• Cheam Common Junior Academy features in an article for the EdTech Demonstrator Programme focusing on how school meet the challenges of remote learning. Read the article HERE.

• Mr Macaulay, Director of Technology for Learning, was interviewed for Education Technology. Read the article HERE.

Through our partnership with Google for Education, we were delighted to be one of only two schools in Europe, Middle East and Afrida asked to feature in a global Google event promoting the use of technology during the Covid-19 pandemic. It will come as no surprise to you that staff and pupils across the world have had to shift their approach to teaching and learning at pace and this is no different in LEO. The video produced by a professional film agency is not only a great reflection on our use of technology during periods of school closures but more importantly, everyone’s commitment to providing children with a first class learning experience.

For further information, including the full Learning with Google video click HERE.

During the Spring term, we were delighted to hold two virtual open mornings looking at the use of live lessons during periods of school closures. Across both virtual open mornings, we allowed over 50 visitors into our virtual classrooms - this included Trustees, Governors, Members as well as external visitors from Islington, Camden, Merton, Joskos, LGfL and Canopy CIC.

Staff from across the Cheam and Worcester Park Hub and the North Cheam Hub kindly volunteered to offer visitors the opportunity to watch their lessons and did a truly amazing job. Those who attended saw a range of lessons across all areas of the curriculum and ranged from EYFS to KS2.

Feedback from those who attended included:

Looking to the future, LEO is continuing to work with subject leaders from across London local authorities to edit teaching and learning policies.

Children from across LEO Academies have been very busy continuing to develop their digital skills using G-suite and gaining badges for their digital passports and bookmarks. On 2nd February, children across Key Stage 2 joined Mrs Shirley and Mr Macaulay on a live digital skills event where over 300 badges were earned in just under an hour, bringing our total to date to 5,343 badges! A fantastic effort by everyone!

The Department for Education (DfE) recognises that: “in order to help their children succeed; schools have a role to play in supporting them to be resilient and mentally healthy”. In our opinion, schools need to be a place to provide a nurturing and supportive environment that has the potential to develop self-esteem and give positive experiences for overcoming adversity and building resilience.

With this in mind, the Inclusion and Wellbeing Hub have been working collaboratively on a new pupil wellbeing strategy, HAPPY, which we launched last week.

We recognise that children's mental health is a crucial factor in their overall wellbeing; a happy child is a learning child. We strongly believe that all children have the right to be ‘HAPPY’ and that having positive mental health and strategies for supporting them with this, we will enable them to reach their aspirations.

The main focus of the strategy is that we want all children to :

• Be confident in who they are

• Be able to acknowledge their own strengths and have aspirations for the future

• Be emotionally and physically healthy

• Develop Resilience to face challenges

• Have a sense of belonging and feel part of a community

• Understand that ‘they’ matter

How does this fit in with our Pupil outcomes ?

Active Citizens in a Global Community

LEO pupils are local, national & global citizens; they have a strong sense of identity, respect and value the importance of diversity & inclusion and make positive contributions to their community.

Through HAPPY our children are encouraged to:

• be self aware

• understand their strengths and areas of development

• Feel part of a community

• Be active citizens in their local community

• Value the differences between themselves and others

Self-Directed, Collaborative & Confident Learners

LEO pupils develop independence, confidence and character through sport, creativity, performance, volunteering & experiencing the world of work.

Through HAPPY our children are encouraged to:

• Be resilient

• Have strategies for approaching challenges

• Take on roles of responsibility within school (varying levels)

• Be confident to celebrate the ‘you’ part of HAPPY. Who they are and why they are important

Healthy Learners who make small changes with a big impact

LEO pupils have the physical, emotional & social literacy to overcome challenges. They communicate Effectively.

Through HAPPY our children are encouraged to:

• Be emotionally literate- to talk about emotions and understand what strategies they can use to promote positive mental health

• Develop physical and positive mental health and understand the importance of these on life outcomes

• Have their voice heard and understand it can influence change

Leaders of today; life long learners

LEO pupils develop critical thinking, leadership skills, life skills, cultural capital & financial literacy.

Through HAPPY our children are encouraged to:

• Develop life skills that help them cope with anything thrown at them

• Develop leadership skills

All of the above has not been designed with the pandemic in mind, but rather was the thought process pre pandemic. Reflecting on the pandemic has allowed us to realise that our planned approach will provide our children with the skills and attitudes they need to cope with an uncertain world.

Monday- Holistic Support

We want all @LEOacademies children to get the support they need to be the best ‘they’ can be, whatever their needs. We also want them to have lasting life skills to help them cope with any challenges they face! Across the week, some of our children shared the following:

New Life Skills

The children also talked about the importance of communication and learning new life skills. To explore this, all children across the Trust were introduced to communicating through Sign Language. The children learnt how to say hello, goodbye, how are you? , please, thank you and my name is, as well as fingerspelling their own names. It was great to see this in action, not only Monday but throughout the whole week and it is something we look forward to developing further in the future.

Tuesday- Aspirations

We all have hopes & dreams for the future. We want to encourage our children to share their aspirations and support each other to help make their goals achievable. We focused on the importance of small steps, one day at a time leading to the long-term goals.

As part of this, children from across the Trust came dressed as what they want to be when they grow up. We were so impressed by the wealth of aspirations amongst our children.

We also encouarged the children to think about what they might say to their furture self. Early Years/ KS1 children recording themselves messages on SeeSaw and KS2 children wrote themselves letters to read in the future.

Wednesday - Physical Wellbeing

P’ stands for physical well-being. We are educating the children about the importance of being active and how this has a positive impact on a healthy body and mind. With support from the SSP we wanted the children to understand the variety of different ways they can keep both their bodies and their minds active.

Thursday- Positivity

We want children to understand that positive thinking will let you do everything better than negative thinking will. We want them to develop resilience and an 'i can't do it yet' approach.

We also want our children to feel part of our community and to be active in the wider community. So as part of the launch and our drive to be active citizens, the children from across our academies generated artwork around the theme of ‘Hope and Happiness’ to be shared with some of the most vulnerable in our community through our partnership with Age Uk Sutton.

Make Someone Smile

We also launched our Make Someone Smile project for Age UK Sutton. During the lockdown, children from across our academies volunteered to make local, isolated residents smile by putting on a virtual concert for them to enjoy! Take a look here.

Friday - 'You' Matter

The ‘Y’ in HAPPY is ‘You Matter’. We want every child in our Trust to know they do matter to us, that we are here to support them and that their voice is heard.

The children spent the day reflecting on things they want us to know about themselves. There were also lots of prizes given out to those children who are able to demonstrate the HAPPY strategy throughout the week.

A big thank you to all of the Inclusion and Wellbeing Hub team for all your hard work on the strategy and in putting this week together. It was a great way to launch the strategy.

The LEO Pupil Parliament has met half-termly and in all 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 helps to inform wider thinking of the Executive Team and the Trust Board

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 topics that the LEO Pupil Parliament will be focusing on this year include:

• Sustainability

• Ethical, active citizenship

• Technology for Learning and Digital Skills

• Entrepreneurial Activities

• Mental Health & Wellbeing

• Links to local charities

The first meeting took place in September where we explored the five LEO PRIDE Values. We looked at the various ways in which we use the LEO 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 did some editing and this was made into a video which was used for staff recruitment fairs. This worked really well as now all recruitment fairs are virtual, this provided with an authentic pupil voice as to what it is like being part of the LEO Academy Trust community. We know that there will be lots of adults really keen to work in our schools!

Most recently we met with Mrs Dallimore to review the Trust’s Pupil Wellbeing survey and provide some ideas on taking part in this opportunity from a pupil perspective. During the same meeting, we also discussed some of the different ways that we could support local charities.

As the Spring term draws to a close, it has been a wonderfully busy and exciting time for all our children across LEO Academy Trust. Throughout this term, whether it be learning at home via our distance learning platforms or excitedly returning back to school, our dedicated teaching staff have been able to provide all our children with a range of immersive activities and celebrate national events to further immerse them within the world of Reading, Writing and Grammar. Within lessons, opportunities within English have allowed children to continue to expand their creativity, develop a flair for writing and (due to the incorporation of ICT) present work in exciting and innovative new ways.

This term, LEO English has celebrated two annual events to much success: National Storytelling Week and the highly publicised, World Book Day. Both of which were enjoyed by all our children (and teachers alike). During the final week of January, children learnt the power of sharing stories, both familiar and new, as part of National Storytelling Week. Exploring how sharing stories has the ability to make connections, pass on cultural knowledge between generations and express our own thoughts and feelings, children were able to select their favourite stories and retell (in their own words) through a range of drama and oral literacy activities. Whether it be recording an audio book, putting on a performance or creating accompanying art work, children greatly enjoyed bringing the power of storytelling to life.

On Thursday 04th March 2021, children, both at home and in school, came together to celebrate World Book Day: an annual event held across the country to celebrate and champion the love of reading. From Willy Wonka’s ‘Golden Ticket’, Harry Potter and members of Hogwarts Academy, various Mr Men characters to even Doctor Who and his famous Tardis, children used their imagination to come dressed in a variety of famous children’s book characters, bringing the magic of storytelling to life. Such fantastical costumes made the day even more special, as children took part in a host of wonderfully creative activities including book related quizzes, live virtual author and illustrator webinars (including David Walliams himself), drawing and designing their own characters and book covers and retelling their favourite stories to share online. For those at home, the magic of World Book Day did not stop there as they were able to share their work with their classmates virtually, ensuring that everybody was included. This year, as part of our chosen theme, ‘Celebration: Diversity’, children were able to explore a variety of books that championed diversity, inclusivity and equality. From Malala’s Magic Pencil, Hidden Figures to Dracula Spectacular, children were able to immerse themselves in a range of books and share their responses in various ways from drawing and designing their own comic strips to writing their own inspirational poems!

Due to the unfortunate and sudden return to lockdown, LEO English, along with the support of Dominic ‘DigiDom’ Traynor from Adobe Sparks, sprung into action and set up a series of weekly English challenges for children across Key Stage One and Key Stage Two. Each week, children had access to daily stories read by the English leads, as well as weekly writing tasks ranging from drafting short stories, creating a newspaper report to even writing their own set of cookery instructions, which led to children from across the Trust sharing their imaginative recipes and successful cookery attempts, all of which looked incredibly inviting indeed. To accompany these challenges, step-by-step video tutorials by Mr Perrott, Director of Teaching and Learning for English, were shared each week taking children through and supporting them within the writing process. Over the course of this period, children continued to share their excellent pieces of work, all of which can be seen on our @LEOenglish0 Twitter page.

In order to continue to raise the profile of English across LEO schools, our (virtual) newspaper club as part of The Economist: Burnet News Club project, continues to grow from strength to strength. Children across each of our LEO schools have been meeting each week to discuss and debate a range of topical issues, including the power of protest to the power of the media, 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. Due to the ever growing success of our live virtual news clubs, schools across LEO Academy have been awarded several awards, including the prestigious ‘Thought Leader Discussion’ award, with children’s comments being featured in their half termly newsletter. Congratulations and well done to all our children. We look forward to continuing to develop this club and next half term, children will be taking part in the Burnet News Club ‘Global Conversation Live’, connecting children from across the globe in a live debate regarding climate change and how to help the world post-pandemic.

Finally, LEO English are proud to share that due to our recent and successful collaboration with LGFL regarding the relaunch of the new Reading Zone Live platform, we have been shortlisted for the finals of the prestigious BETT awards. Results are to be announced later this summer!

As we head into the Summer term, we eagerly look forward to continuing to celebrate and champion all things English, including the launch of our very first LEO ‘Spelling Bee’ competition. In order to keep up to date with all things English related, please continue to follow LEO on twitter @LEOacademies and @LEOenglish0.

As we approach the Easter holidays, it is a very good chance for us to reflect on the very different Spring term that we have had. As we are all aware, learning went online for the majority of children in January. Our excellent teachers across the LEO Trust, rose to the challenge of teaching online and continued their provision for all learners. We saw whole class lessons, break out rooms for small groups and intervention groups which meant that we could continue our high standards ‘as normal’ even through the partial school closures.

Now that children have returned to school, everyone is getting stuck back into their learning!

Maths Week

During the week beginning 25th January, we had our termly LEO Maths Week. The maths leads across the trust put together a whole host of activities for the children to take part in including live events and different competitions.

Our KS1 and KS2 competition consisted of creating a board game to help practise a particular mathematical skill. KS1 largely focused on learning times tables whereas KS2 could pick from a whole range of different skills. We had some fantastic entries which you can see below:

During the week, we also had two very exciting events. KS1 took part in a shape investigation where they had to work out the different shapes from a variety of clues and spot different shapes within pictures. In KS2, children completed a visual maths challenge which consisted of different puzzles.

We had a very successful dressing up day on the Friday where children (and adults!) were invited to dress up as something maths related. Children could choose to incorporate a number or maths symbol, a famous mathematician, a Maths-No Problem! character or anything to do with Maths!

Each school selected a winner and they were presented with trophies.

Thank you so much to all who made this week possible both in school and at home.

24 Game

Throughout lockdown and beyond, we have provided the 24 game on twitter which consists of different levelled cards where the objective is to use all of the numbers on the cards and any of the four operations to try to reach the number 24. We have had great interaction from across the globe with children and adults enjoying this mathematical challenge. Be sure to check it out on twitter @LEO_Maths and have a go yourself!

Online Apps

We have been really pleased to see children across the trust using the different online platforms to support their maths learning. These include Doodle and Times Table Rockstars. Children are able to access these applications frequently and we have been able to see an improvement in their fluency and problem solving skills as a result. We have really enjoyed seeing which children have made it to their 100 day streak on Doodle and which class has won each week.

Each week, we look out for the children who are ‘Pupil Leaders’ within their year groups on Times Table Rockstars. These are the children who have the most correct answers within the week within that year group. We also love seeing the children taking part in various competitions on Times Table Rockstars and were especially proud when they took part in one that raised money for Comic Relief. Well done to everyone who took part.

Upcoming Events

We have lots of upcoming events related to maths. We have been working with the Mayors Fund for London on their Count on Us Primary Challenge. Children from year 4 and 5 have been invited to take part in a very fun maths club at Manor Park, Cheam Common Junior, Cheam Park Farm, Brookfield and Cheam Fields where they will take on a range of different challenges using pentominoes, tangrams and the 24 game.

In May, a selection of children from each of the schools will take on the Count on Us heats. We are keeping our fingers crossed that there will be at least one of the LEO schools in the finals in June.

Our next Maths Week will be during the week beginning Monday 28th June. Look out for information in the future about this fun filled week!

We welcomed the majority of the children back into school on 8th March which was the start of Science Week. The children started the week with assemblies to launch Science week. The week was full of exciting activities and opportunities:

Spring term has been an amazing time for our EYFS children, seeing them all settle back into their schools since full school reopening. It has been great to see them continue their love of learning within their school settings.

On 18th january, to celebrate the birthday of Winnie the Pooh's creator, A.A.Milne, children across the Trust took part in a Winnie the Pooh Day. The focus of this day was ‘kindness’ and what we can do to make others feel positive about themselves, as well as realising how being kind to others makes us feel. the children took part in kindness challenges, read Winnie the Pooh quotes and discussed their meaning and held a teddy bears picnic!

The learning platform Seesaw is now being used by all of the schools in the Trust, continuing to strengthen our partnerships with parents more successfully. Seesaw was introduced in the Autumn term and since then over 12,000 posts have been made by parents and teachers across the trust! During lockdown the children have really developed their digital skills. The Nursery children engaged well on Seesaw, completing games and watching videos. The children in Reception have completed digital skills lessons, learning how to use the different tools, such as the move and pen tool, as well as the camera and microphone to take photos and record their voice. At Cheam Fields, they celebrated their final class Google Meet by joining in with a live cooking lesson, making biscuits. The children thoroughly enjoyed this activity and it was a wonderful experience to share via Google Meet. Since returning to school, the children have been excited to engage in learning across all the areas of the curriculum. Lots of exploration has taken place across the schools as they all took part in Science Week. Children engaged in a wealth of activities such as floating and sinking, changes and experiments. The Nursery children at Brookfield have been creating mini beast loose part pictures, by collecting objects from around the classroom. The parents of Reception children loved the surprise of their recorded message for Mother’s Day for one of the digital skills lessons, taking a selfie and recording their mummy a message using the microphone.

The maths learning that has been taking place is amazing. The children at Manor Park have been exploring money and created their own shops. They created price tags for items to sell and used coins to pay for the items they bought. Some children even bought 2 different items, adding 2 amounts together. Reception children at Cheam Park Farm have been completing subtraction calculations, recording them on a number line. Some children even made their own number lines!

With the warming weather on it’s way, it has been lovely to see the children spending lots of time in the outside area, developing their physical skills and talking about the changes in the weather.

So lovely to welcome back the children to Forest School, It has been so great to hear that so many children enjoyed the online lessons, they have been sharing their favourite ones with us.

Over the school year the children have been working towards two awards; the RHS School Gardening Level One and the RSBP Wild Challenge Bronze Award. We started back in September doing different activities and some of the online lessons also went towards the awards. We are pleased to say that Brookfields, Cheam Fields, Cheam Park Farm, Cheam Common infants and Cheam Common Juniors have all completed their Level One RHS School Gardening award. Well done to the children for all their hard work. We are now busy finishing off the RSBP wild Challenge Award.

This term the children have settled back and we have been studying the frogs in our school ponds and waiting to see if we are lucky to have some frogspawn again this year,. After Easter we will start planting and this year we are hoping to grow so vegetables.

Winter Photography Competition

Thank you to everyone who entered our Forest School Winter Photography Competition. As you can see the standard was very high. Congratulations to our winners:

Despite all of the restrictions in place for organised sports, we still have lots of sports activities to report on. We also have lots to look forward to the upcoming summer term with all pupils being back in school and the return of outdoor sports!

We hope that during the lockdown month's LEO pupils were all able to make the most of our LEO PE at Home page on the distance learning website, which still has lots of physical activities for pupils to take part in. As well as the real PE at Home learning opportunities through your Jasmine logins provided by your schools. The LEO Academy Trust PE & Sports team have worked incredibly hard to provide you with lots of fun activities to do from home through our LEO PE YouTube channel, virtual competitions and our LEO health & fitness week. As well as providing lots of PE and physical activities for key worker children in school.

Well done to the hundreds of LEO pupils who joined in with our PE Staff’s virtual Winter Sports Day and Fitness challenge this term. Our Fitness challenge was a part of our LEO Health and Fitness week, that showed lots of different ways to stay healthy. These included:

• exercising regularly

• eating healthily

• having a happy attitude

• having a healthy sleep schedule.

Our Fitness timetable for the week certainly gave us plenty of different forms of exercise throughout the week.

The Highlight of our Health and fitness week had to be the inspirational assemblies and virtual live lessons from professional athletes Lauren Williams and Antonio Infantano. We had 1200 KS2 children from across the Academy taking part in the virtual assembly and live lessons which is absolutely incredible! If you want to relive any of the sessions with Lauren (KS1) and Antonio (KS2) feel free to enjoy here.

Another big well done goes to the pupils of Cheam Fields Primary who were Chance to Shine’s cricket school of the week, with their lesson getting streamed out nationally! Well done to everyone that took part in any of our live lessons or virtual competitions this term!!

Our PE staff have also been training hard, completing the Level 5 Primary School PE Specialism and PE Subject Leadership course thanks to the delivery by the Sutton Schools Sports Partnership. As well as inspiring other schools by passing on virtual physical activity ideas, presenting at the ChallengePartners, Sutton and Croydon Sports Partnership teachmeets.

Children's Mental Health Week 2021 took place from 1-7 February 2021. This year's theme was Express Yourself. The children at Cheam Fields enjoyed listening to Lucy's Blue Day, a story about emotions and that it is okay not to be okay. Click HERE to listen to the story. Children across KS2 enjoyed special Mental Health Week themed French lessons from Sarah at Lingotot.

Fairtrade Fortnight took place from 22nd February to 7th March and this year's theme was 'Choose The Workd You Want'. Pupils had the opportunity to discover how their choices can impact people around the world and also the planet that we live on. Children took part in a range of actities including creating their own recipies, baking with Fairtrade ingredients, creating posters and artworks, designing their own Fairtrade logo and slogan and completing a Fairtrade Quiz on Kahoot. Cheam Common Juniors held a cake sale selling cakes that they had made using some of the Fairtrade recepies.

Despite the challenges of Covid-19 the Trust Board and our LEO Chairs' Forum has continued to meet virtually throughout this term. We have also held our second joint meeting for governors across the trust.

It has been a busy time as well with a number of new and existing Governors being appointed / reappointed.

We welcome the following new Parent Governors:

• Tanvi Limbachia and Caroline Hadland at Brookfield

• Prerana Chhaya and Danielle Chidwick at Cheam Park Farm

• Humera Yasmeen at Manor Park

The Trust Board has also approved new terms of office for the following Governors :

• Peter Cook Deborah Harris, Simon Ellingham and Shabry Fuard at Cheam Park Farm

• Nicola Houston and Ed Laccohee at Cheam Fields

We also welcome Craig Edmunds to Cheam Fields as a Trust Board approved Governor, Craig was previously a Parent Governor at Brookfield.

Finally in the Summer Term the Confederation of School Trusts (CST) will perform a governance review across the Trust. As well as observing some meetings they will also speak with Members, Trustees, Governors and members of the Executive and Leadership Teams.

The Spring Term proved to be another busy one for @LEOTraining5! We have continued to offer a wide variety of professional development opportunities for all staff, including coaching and mentoring support for Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs) and numerous training programmes and events for staff across the Trust. 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 four training sessions this term which have included sessions on: Mathematics, Physical Education, Effective Classroom Practice and Phonics and Reading. These sessions have included lots of opportunities for NQTs to collaborate and to learn alongside one another as well as exploring lots of great practical teaching and learning strategies from members of the LEO Central Team and Sutton Sports Partnership. Our NQTs still have lots of professional development opportunities to look forward to in the summer term which include training in the following areas: Adaptive Teaching, Making effective use of Assessment, Being a Learning Professional and also a final celebration session at the end of the academic year.

As well as running our LEO NQT programme, we have continued to run our Recently Qualified Teacher Programme (RQT) this year for staff across the Trust. This term our RQTs have enjoyed exploring the benefits of coaching to further develop teaching and learning within their area of leadership. They also developed their confidence in providing feedback and how to manage difficult conversations. Our Middle Leaders training programme has also continued to run successfully and participants have been working hard to evaluate their area of responsibility and to develop their understanding of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in their area of leadership. Participants of the School Leaders Development programme have also had a positive start to the Spring term with an interesting session focused on Leading School Safeguarding. Members, Trustees and Governors have also benefited from a bespoke training programme which has included sessions in the following areas: Mathematics at LEO, Physical Education Activity and Sport and English at LEO.

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. You can find out more about the training that has been on offer this term in our LEO Spring CPD brochure. This term we have also continued to work in partnership with Olevi Alliance and have offered the opportunity for Senior Leaders to become facilitators in a variety of the Olevi programmes, watch this space for more details on this in our Summer Term CPD brochure.

This term has also been a busy one for the Challenge Partners South West London Hub. Members of the Hub have benefited from two brilliant training sessions focused on wellbeing. The first session was led by Adrian Bethune, Teacher, Author of Wellbeing in the Primary Classroom, Co-author 'Teacher Wellbeing & Self care and founder of Teachappy. This session focused on pupil and parent wellbeing and explored the following areas: Positive relationships, Mindfulness, Physical activity, The science of kindness, Growth mindset, Developing optimism and Support for parents. The second session was led by Amber Harper, Creator of Burned-In Teacher Coaching and the author of the #1 Amazon Best Seller: Hacking Teacher Burnout. During Amber's session, she highlighted the BURNED-IN Process which encompaases 8-steps to help staff to process their burnout in a way that helps them take proactive next steps that are best for them. If you would like to find out more about this process then please click here.

Thank you to all those who have led training sessions this term and to those who have taken part in those sessions. There are lots more training and professional development opportunities on offer in the summer term and a brand new Summer Term CPD brochure will soon be available! A final well done to our NQTs this term for completing their spring term assessments, you have worked really hard and should be proud of the progress you have made.

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.

• Follow @LEOtraining5 on Twitter for updates.

LEO Academy Trust is celebrating a flying start to the Kickstart Scheme, a Government-led programme that helps 18–24-year-olds find long-term employment, having offered 35 job placements to young people in the community across the Trust’s administration, catering, premises, PE and learning support.

Our Trust is committed to high-quality learning, excellence and opportunity for all children and young people. With this vision and dedication to lifelong learning opportunities, the Trust is proud to be taking part in the Kickstart Scheme and empowering young people with accessible employment opportunities.

As part of the Scheme, we have been awarded a grant that covers the full cost of employing a young person for 25 hours per week over a period of six months. Since launching the scheme in mid-January, we have seen an incredible response from young people in the local community who have been eager to get involved, with more than 250 referrals to date.

Through the Kickstart Scheme, LEO Academy Trust empowers young people in Sutton who might typically be at risk for unemployment to raise their career aspirations and access equal job opportunities at our schools.

Following a successful start to the programme, 35 young people from a variety of backgrounds and special educational needs have already secured paid placements at LEO Academy Trust schools. We are currently in the process of recruiting for more positions and are hoping to reach 30 placements by the Easter break with plans to increase the number of Kickstart placements we can offer.

With Covid-19 presenting challenges and opportunities for many young people and businesses, making hands-on training and development opportunities more accessible in local communities has never felt more appropriate. Programmes such as the Kickstart Scheme are a great way to provide young people with on-the-job work experience while giving employers an opportunity to nurture, and benefit from, a ready-trained workforce who can learn about the company’s vision, values and ethos during their apprenticeship.

LEO Academy Trust has also developed a comprehensive apprenticeship programme that runs alongside the Kickstart Scheme, supporting 16-24-year olds with further education and employment. The LEO apprenticeship programme allows young people to experience working in a variety of industries first-hand, from digital marketing to sports coaching, teaching and administration. Since launching the programme in December 2018, eight apprentices have gone on to be employed by LEO Academy Trust itself.

Have a look at the new LEO Catering menus for the Summer Term: