As another academic year draws to a close, I would like to take this opportunity to pass on my thanks to you all for the part you have played in making 2018 - 2019 our most successful yet at LEO Academy Trust. In the four years since the formation of our Trust, things have gone from strength to strength. Collectively, far more of our children now reach the Expected Standard at the end of each Key Stage, with large numbers now working at Greater Depth. Together, we provide so many more opportunities for children & staff alike, than each school individually offered back in 2015. Most of all, a real sense of community and the desire to deeply collaborate at all levels of our Trust can be seen across so many of our meetings, events & training programmes.

We can be proud of the opportunities we have provided for our children: our KS2 LEO Music Concert, the Year 6 Summer Celebration, the regular Reading Zone Live video conferences, our many sporting competitions, our LEO Book Week, our Year 4 Times Tables Tournament and more recently our All Stars Cricket Centre in partnership with Surrey Cricket Foundation & the ECB, our Mandarin Programme for Year 4 pupils and our Sister School Exchange Programme with Hangzhou No. 2 Primary School, Ningbo Beilun Xinqi Primary School & Wentao Primary from China to name just a few. Our CPD programmes for staff continue to add value across the Trust and we can be proud to have our own NQT, RQT, middle leaders and aspiring heads programmes. I was proud to see that three of the graduates from our LEO Aspiring Heads programme will be running their own schools as LEO Principals this September. A great example of our commitment to recruit, grow and retain staff of the highest quality. Our children deserve no less.

There has been huge change in 2019 too. Thank you for your support and patience as we develop the Trust’s move into the Cloud with our new partnerships with Google and the London Grid for Learning. Cloud transformation is at the heart of our new five year MAT strategic plan, with the power to have a significant and positive impact on all aspects of Trust life. Our Trust Board are supporting our LEO Digital Strategy even further in 2019/20 by funding a Chromebook for every Year 4 child in the LEO Academy Trust. Children will work on their own Chromebook at home & school in an exciting pilot led by our LEO School Improvement Hub.

In the classroom, each academy provides high quality teaching we can all be proud of and learn from. Strong end of key stage results were maintained at EYFS, KS1 and KS2 in 2019. Genuine support from academy to academy, with a willingness to learn from each other has had a clear impact on pupil outcomes.

At EYFS, 71% of children now reach GLD across the Trust, with 86% passing the Phonics threshold at the end of Year 1. In KS1, 75% of children leave Year 2 having reached the Expected Standard in Reading, Writing & Maths. 82% are now at the expected standard for Reading by the end of KS1 with 78% for Writing & 86% for Maths.

Impressive numbers are also working at Greater Depth within the Expected Standard by the end of KS1 across our Trust in 2019:

✅ Reading - 34%

✅ Writing - 26%

✅ Maths - 31%

✅ RWM - 22%

At KS2, we are also celebrating excellent KS2 National Curriculum Test results at our academies for 2019. Our Reading, Writing & Maths combined MAT average is well above the National average at 80% at Expected Standard & 24% at Greater Depth. 80% reached the Expected Standard in Reading across the Trust, with 86% in Writing & 90% in Maths.

Again, children reached Greater Depth within the Expected Standard in large numbers by the end of KS2 across our Trust in 2019:

✅ Reading - 36%

✅ Writing - 32%

✅ Maths - 49%

✅ RWM - 24%

We have also had a busy end to the year with two Ofsted inspections, one at the end of June at Cheam Park Farm Primary and the other at Brookfield Primary at the start of July. Everyone connected with our Trust will be immensely proud that Cheam Park Farm is an Outstanding School. Huge congratulations to all the children, staff & governors on this incredible and very well deserved achievement. We are still awaiting the publication of Brookfield’s report but I can assure you, it will be worth the wait! If you haven’t read the Cheam Park Farm report already, do please take a look:

https://leoacademytrust.eschools.co.uk/web/cheam_park_farm_primary_academy/323640

So thank you once again to all our pupils, parents, staff, governors, trustees & members across the Trust for your hard work & dedication this year. Everyone can be very proud of our collective achievements and look forward to a very bright future.

Keep spreading our LEO PRIDE values in all aspects of school life and thank you for keeping our vision at the heart of all we do:

Learning. Excellence. Opportunity.

I look forward to seeing you all at our annual LEO Conference on 28th October at Epsom College.

Have a wonderful Summer,

Phillip Hedger

Chief Executive

Governance Development Programme

As part of the LEO Governance Development Programme, trustees & governors from across the Trust have attended further training sessions this term, including:

• Exploring the role of the Local Governing Body and how this important aspect of governance strengthens school improvement and quality assurance.
• Looking at the EYFS Framework and to discussing the importance of Characteristics of Effective Learning and the end of year expectations for children in Nursery and Reception.

At the LEO Academy Trust we are proud to be a group of six primary schools working in collaboration as one entity to improve and maintain high educational standards across our Trust. We have a single legal and moral purpose: to advance education for the public benefit.

What are school Trusts?

• Academy and Multi-Academy Trusts are education charities that run schools to give children a better future
• Over half of pupils in state schools attend academies
• We help our local communities thrive by giving children the best opportunities to learn inside and outside the classroom
• A trust is a group of schools working in collaboration as one entity to improve and maintain high educational standards across the group.
• A trust has a single legal and moral purpose: to advance education for the public benefit.

For Parents

• As a family of schools, we improve your child's education by sharing ideas and expertise with each other
• Like any other state school, our schools are free to attend, we're inspected in the same way, and children take the same tests and exams
• We help our local communities thrive by giving children the best opportunities to learn inside and outside the classroom

For Teachers

• As a family of schools, we work closely together and share expertise, which created great opportunities for children and teachers
• We also offer structured career pathways for teachers, supported by high-quality professional development so teachers and leaders learn together
• We help teachers and leaders spend more of their time focused on the one thing that counts the most - the education of children
• The support we provide to schools - HR, finance, IT marketing - makes this possible

For maintained schools thinking about forming or joining a trust

The wrong question to ask:

• 'Should my school become an academy?

The right question to ask:

• How can my school best collaborate with others in a strong and resilient structure to ensure that each child is a powerful learner and that adults have the opportunities to learn and develop as teachers and leaders?

RE:CODE London Challenge

On Thursday 13th June a group of children from Years 5 and 6 across the Trust took part in a computing workshop entitled RE:CODE London Challenge at the Imagination Lab in London. The children used their imaginations and showed great perseverance whilst creating a programmable animal using technology from Lego. The children enjoyed building their animal and writing the code to make it move. It was lovely to see them collaborating in their teams and across the Trust. Have a look at one of our creations in action.

Year 6 Transition to High School

As part of their transition and preparation for moving onto High School, Year 6 children across the Trust took part in two workshops. During the workshops, Year 6 children worked with the organisation ‘Crowded Room’ and saw a production called ‘The Listening Room’. The workshops and play focused on the exploration of life, death and justice and featured elements of true stories in which peoples’ lives have been transformed by crime. Children were also visited by representatives from The Chris Donovan Trust which helped them develop their understanding of the consequences of crime, and the ripple effect every crime has not just on the victim but their family and the community too.

Art Week At Cheam Common Infants'

During Art Week the Year 2 children had an amazing time creating a variety of different pieces of art. After school the parents enjoyed the chance to appreciate the art work around the school.

STEAM School Summer Project

The Year 5 children at Cheam Common Junior have have taken part in the STEAM School Summer Project. This is a collaboration between LGfL and STEAM School. STEAM School is based in Liverpool and inspires students to develop a new awareness about how rapid technological change is transforming the world in which we live by showcasing the stories of young innovators, discussing tech trends and scientific breakthroughs.

The project provided a series of live broadcasts with leading tech entrepreneurs, giving a unique behind the scenes insight into exciting industries like video gaming. The live broadcasts were greatly enjoyed by the children and gave them the opportunity to explore jobs they may like to do in the future and think about the skill set they would need to do these jobs.

Primary Futures Careers Morning

A fantastic Careers Morning was held a Brookfield on 19th June. The volunteers from Primary Futures were amazing! The children loved the ‘What’s My Line Assembly’ and this event has further broadened the children’s horizons. Thank you to everyone involved in today’s event.

Year 2 Trip to Bird World

As part of their topic ‘Wriggle and Crawl’, the Year 2 children at Manor Park went on a trip to Birdworld. The children enjoyed seeing all of the different types of birds including flamingos, laughing thrush and toucans. They especially enjoyed the workshop where they got to learn about different animals’ habitats and how animals have adapted to their environment. The children got the chance to stroke a snake, an African land snail and a chinchilla.

What Would Be The Best School Ever?

On Wednesday 26th June members, trustees, governors and staff and governors from across the LEO Academy Trust attended and event evening at Greenwich. They joined with staff from Maritime, REAch2 and Learning in Harmony to hear to attend a unique event and networking opportunity, learning from all of the research and experience of Dr. Becky Allen and Laura McInerney, looking at what would be their Best School Ever!

Becky Allen is Chief Analyst and a co-founder of Teacher Tapp, the largest teacher survey and professional development tool in the UK.

Laura McInerney is an education journalist, former teacher, and co-founder of Teacher Tapp, an app revealing previously unknown insights about teachers’ lives. For example, it recently found that teachers working in Outstanding schools are more likely to go to the pub together on a Friday (though causation is not yet proven!)

Some of the key points raised and discussed were:

• Fluency, knowledge and joy makes the perfect curriculum.
• Should children learn a foreign language?
• Primary school must be enjoyable!
• Parents prefer meetings to reports.
• 40% of teachers mark in front of TV, but does marking have impact on pupils’ attainment?
• Be realistic when balancing parental expectation and staff welfare.
• Working collaboratively, only way to go moving forwards.
• Great working environments for staff = better staff retention.

Year 4 Music Festival

For many years now, Sutton Music Service has been celebrating the achievements of Sutton's First Access pupils in an annual KS2 Festival. The festival, which is aimed at children who participate in Whole Class Ensemble Tuition (WCET), took place across five evenings at St Andrew’s Church, Cheam at the beginning of this month. Pupils from Brookfield, Manor Park Primary, Cheam Fields, Cheam Common Junior and Cheam Park Farm featured in three of the concerts, showcasing their many talents on an array of different instruments. All of the schools involved perform extremely well and played with confidence to large and very appreciative audiences. Well done to all who took part, we really are very proud of all of the children who attended for all of their hard work.

Welcoming New Nursery and Reception Children

Cheam Common Infants' had a wonderful morning welcoming all their new Nursery and Reception children to the school. The children particularly enjoyed the outdoor!

LEO NQT Programme

Our LEO NQTs have all completed their final term with great success.The highlights of the term have been classroom observations across LEO schools. Our NQTs felt that these sessions were extremely useful and had the most impact on their development. Thank you to all the schools for hosting these days over the year. We look forward to the LEO NQTS 19/20 cohort visiting next academic year.

Congratulations to all the NQTS and we would like to wish you lots of luck for your RQT year.

LEO Music Conference

On Wednesday 10^th July LEO Academy Trust held its annual concert in St Andrew’s Church, Cheam. After a full day of rehearsals over 200 pupils from Cheam Common Junior, Cheam Park Farm, Cheam Fields and Brookfield came together to perform in this musical extravaganza. The children entertained the audience with an array of individual and combined musical items. The combined choir made up of over one hundred pupils sang beautifully and the mass orchestra of seventy played brilliantly. It was wonderful to see so many children from the schools across the trust involved, coming together to showcase their many talents. These included singing, playing the recorder, orchestral instruments, African drums and even saucepans, dustbins and plastic bags! The concert was a true celebration of all the wonderful music making that takes place across LEO Academy Trust. Congratulations to all who took part!

Year 6 Productions

The Year 6 pupils in schools across the Trust have put on some fantastic end of year productions. It has been lovely to see the children performing so confidently and we wish them all the very best as they move on to their Secondary schools in September.

LEO Year 6 Summer Celebration

Our annual LEO Year 6 Summer Celebration was held this year on Thursday 4^th July at Cheam Fields Primary Academy. Over 400 Year 6 children from Cheam Common, Cheam Park Farm, Manor Park, Brookfield and Cheam Fields gathered together to celebrate their hard work throughout the year and wish them well as they move on to their secondary schools in September. Throughout the day, the children took part in a range of activities including archery, korfball, tennis, football, problem solving and making friendship bracelets, all whilst accompanied by a soundtrack of songs from a fantastic DJ and brilliant sunshine. One of the highlights was the creation of our own LEO lions, where the manes were made up of the children’s comments about what being part of LEO has meant to them.

At lunchtime all of the children came together and socialised on the grass for a picnic lunch, and even enjoyed an ice-lolly. Finally the time came for a couple of last songs from the DJ to finish off an amazing day. We are incredibly proud of all our Year 6 children and the PRIDE values they have shown this year. We wish them all the best for the future.

An event like this does not happen without a great deal of planning and organisation so we would like to say a big thank you to Cheam Fields for their hard work, and to everyone who gave up their time to come and support them on the day. A special mention must go to Mrs Mann, Miss Elkins, Mrs Barry and Mrs McGahan from Cheam Fields who were crucial in coming up with all of the activities, and in bringing this spectacular event to life.

Mandarin Lessons

This term sixty pupils from Brookfield Primary, Cheam Common Junior, Cheam Fields and Cheam Park Farm have been taking part in weekly Mandarin lessons. Each week they connect with a Chinese Teacher via a video link to learn the language.They have been learning to understand and communicate using the following vocabulary and topics; basic greetings, introducing themselves, asking how old others are, wishing others happy birthday, how to count from 1 to 10 and practiced writing some basic Chinese characters.

In the culture part of the lessons, they have learnt about; Beijing, Spring Festival, the Panda, the Chinese Zodiac and Chinese names. They have also taken part in two activities related to Chinese culture; making a ‘hong bao’ (red envelope) and singing happy birthday in Chinese. The children have been working very hard to learn the new language are are enjoying the fantastic opportunity. They are looking forward to continuing in the Autumn term.

Pupils From China Visit LEO Academy Trust Schools

This term we welcomed Chinese pupils to the LEO Academy Trust from Wentao Primary School, Hangzhou Cuiyuan NO. 2 Primary School and also Ningbo Beilun Xinqi Primary School. It has been a fantastic opportunity for LEO pupils to engage in conversation with our friends from China and has given our Y4 pupils a chance to practise their Mandarin. The pupils from China have had great fun joining in with lessons, visiting local attractions such as Whitehall and participating in after school clubs too. The children from China successfully joined the 144 Club and received their certificates and badges.

During Mandarin Club one week, pupils were joined not only by our 'My Chinese Tutor' via video link from Beijing but also by our visitors who helped our pupils to practise how to greet someone on a special occasion.

The LEO Catering Teams were happy to welcome our visitors to our dining halls across the Trust where they enjoyed the meal of the day and were very enthusiastic about the food offered.

At the goodbye ceremonies we were lucky enough to experience the talents and skills of the Chinese pupils as well as share our own. We have really enjoyed meeting the pupils and teachers from our link Chinese schools and we can’t wait for some of our children to visit China in Autumn 2020 thanks to the Sister School Programme with True Education Partnerships.

Residential Visits

Many residential visits have taken place across the Trust this term:

• The children at Cheam Common Junior have had visits to the Isle of Wight and High Ashurst.
• The children at Cheam Park Farm went to the Isle of Wight, France and High Ashurst.
• At Manor Park residential visits have taken place at Activity Centres in Staffordshire and at Juniper Hall in Dorking.
• The children at Cheam Fields have been to PGL at Hindhead and had a 'chocolate' sleepover at school.
• At Brookfield the children have visited PGL at Hindhead and camped out over night on the school field.

Next year we are planning to extend the residential trips offered by Brookfield and Cheam Fields to give the children even more opportunities.

Forest Schools

Children across the Trust have continued to enjoy taking part in Forest Schools with Mrs Haddock and Mrs Joseph.

Mrs Haddock will be retiring at the end of the term and we would like to say a big thank you from all the staff and children for all the exciting outdoor learning the children have enjoyed. We are pleased that Mrs Joseph will be continuing with Forest School and look forward to see what activities she has planned for the children next year.

The Fiver Challenge

Year 6 children from across the Trust have taken part in the Fiver Challenge. The children were given £5 each and worked together in small teams to decide what product or service they would invest their fivers in. The teams then sourced materials or products, prepared sales pitches and planned their selling events. Well done to all the Year 6 pupils who have taken part in this challenge we have seen an amazing selection of businesses and stalls and have been impressed with the children's creativity, enterprise and dedication. Thank you to everyone who has supported the children; they have really enjoyed the whole experience. Now we are at the end of the Challenge pupils will repay their £5 and decide how to spend or donate their profit.

Apprenticeship For Teaching Assistants or Business Administration

We still have vacancies for apprenticeships for Teaching Assistants or Business Administration. If you know of anyone who is interested, please ask them to apply by 29th July through eteach.

Cheam Common Junior Boys' Football Team

Congratulations to Cheam Common Junior Boys' Football Team who qualified for not one but two National Finals this term! At the beginning of May the team played at ESFA U11 Danone Nations Cup National Finals and proudly received medals for finishing in third place nationally. Later in the month the boys’ travelled to Wolverhampton ahead of the Premier League Primary Stars National Finals. They had the chance to experience the thrill of being treated like top-flight footballers! Congratulations to all the boys who have played in these finals this is a fantastic achievement.

Hockey at Cheam Common Juniors

Year 5 and 6 children at Cheam Common Junior had the wonderful opportunity to receive a free day of coaching with Great Britain Hockey at The Stoop, home of the Harlequins, and to experience playing on the innovative pitch currently installed at Twickenham. They met a special guest - Sam Beveridge, manager of the England Hockey U21 team.

Swimming Gala

Schools from across the Trust have competed in the Borough Swimming Gala. The children swam well and many medals were won. Well done to all the children who have represented their school in the competition, we are very proud of you all.

Korfball

Korfball has been a great success again this year with schools across the Trust taking part this year. Thank you to the Nomads for providing such fantastic support to all our schools this year, the children have really enjoyed it. Cheam Fields were again successful in qualifying for the national final at the Copperbox Arena at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London and completed against the other seven schools who qualified across the country. Although the team played very well, they lost their first two games; they won their final game to finish the competition on a high. We are all incredibly proud of their achievements in Korfball this year. They have shown perseverance, respect, imagination, dedication and encouragement throughout the season. Well done to all the children who have played Korfball this team!

Cricket

Cheam Park Farm's sporting success continues as their cricket squad qualified for the Surrey County hard ball cricket finals. Well done to everyone involved!

National Schools Sports Week at Cheam Fields

What an amazing time Cheam Fields had during National Sports Week! The children experienced a range of new sports and activities. The Junior Supremos supported and led Sports Week amazingly well providing support at both the Infants and Nursery sports days. They also developed their leadership skills when delivering a sports assault course to both KS1 and KS2 children. Cheam Fields is very proud of the leaders they have become over the week.

On Tuesday New Malden Squash Club came in to school to teach the children how to play Squash. The They thoroughly enjoyed learning a new sport.

In the afternoon, children from KS2 demonstrated their athletics skills when competing against other schools in the borough at the District Sports afternoon held at The David Weir Centre. The children competed extremely well, with many of the children managing to qualify for a final.

Wednesday was a busy day; in the morning Cheam Fields welcomed parents to Cheam Fields Cove for their pirate themed Sports Day. The children took part in a range of pirate themed activities such as ‘capture the flag’, ‘travel to shore’ and ‘wash the ship’.

Throughout the day on Wednesday, Georgia from DanceMore dance school, who runs a club here at Cheam Fields, came to teach the children new dance moves and help them to create their own routines. The children had lots of fun and really enjoyed this activity.

Children in KS2 had lots of fun at their Sports Day on Thursday. The children took part in a range of activities such as ‘fancy dress’, ‘egg and spoon’ and ‘sack race’. There was even time for an adults race at the end! Thank you to the Sports Leaders from Cheam High School for their support on the day.

At the end of the week Cheam Fields held their first awards ceremony to celebrate the achievements of all the children during Sports Week. The awards recognised children who showed Perseverance, Respect, Imagination, Dedication and Encouragement; clearly demonstrating the PRIDE values in action at Cheam Fields.

The award ceremony also celebrated the achievement of Harry in Year 5; he has been selected for the Sutton Borough football squad for the upcoming season.

The Junior Supremos also received awards in recognition of the amazing support then have been to the PE team in a range of events this year.

The final award went to Sam in Year 6. Sam was awarded ‘Sportsperson of the year' for demonstrating the five PRIDE Values during sporting activities.

Look out on Saturday 20th July, during the Diamond League athletics meeting at the London Stadium, for children from Cheam Common Junior Academy! They've qualified to represent the London Borough of Sutton in the inaugural London Boroughs Connect Relay Finals. Congratulations for doing so well at the qualifying rounds on Thursday 18th July and good luck for the Finals. What an amazing opportunity for all the team! They'll be running on the same track used by the world's best athletes and the one which hosted the Olympic Games in 2012. For more details see:

https://london.diamondleague.com/news/single-news/news/detail/News/festival-of-athletics-brings-london-stadium-to-life/