Back in early March, behind the scenes, distance learning had already begun to be planned by members of the Central Team. On Monday 23rd March, schools had closed to the majority of our pupils and a new challenge was ahead. As a Trust we wanted to make sure that our pupils received the best education possible, despite the unprecedented situation. Not only that, we wanted to make sure that our pupils were safe & happy with their mental health and well being as our number one focus.

Surveys were completed with all families across the Trust to ensure that all pupils had access to a device so they were able to join in with the distance learning we had planned. Around 480 devices were sent to pupil’s homes with dongles for those pupils without internet access. Paper packs of learning resources were created and sent home for pupils whilst waiting for devices to arrive.

The LEO Distance Learning Website was launched with a multitude of online activities for our pupils to access. Each school had their own page to set home learning tasks and centrally we had several online video lessons including English, Maths, Computing, Digital Skills, French, Music, Sports & Forest School. Several members of staff from all schools across the Trust volunteered to plan and record the online video lessons and we are incredibly grateful to each and every one of you. Many staff from all schools across the Trust recorded story videos so that our pupils could hear quality texts being read by familiar people. We now have a bank of over 90 story videos! The website proved to be incredibly successful and was being used not only by LEO pupils but pupils across the country and even internationally too!

In June, Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 pupils were invited to return to school which meant that staff who had previously been planning and recording the online lessons had to return to school to teach. This meant that our Distance Learning Team had reduced rapidly to only six teachers but we still continued to provide high quality lessons and learning activities for our pupils as best as we could. We introduced themed weeks which were highly successful both in school and at home. We also worked with authors, dance groups and other colleagues to support our themed weeks which helped to make these even more successful.

Distance Learning has been a challenge but one that we rose to due to the dedication, teamwork and strong commitment from all staff across the Trust. It has encouraged us to think more about the future of learning at LEO Academy Trust and how to move forward next academic year if we find ourselves in a similar situation.

With special thanks to the following members of staff who contributed the the online lessons:

Amy Carlile, Amy Kestell, Amy Mann, Cheryl Shirley, Chloe Evans, Chris Berwick, Christopher Perrott, Della Horwood, Dominique Briggs, Ellen Cano, Emma Dallimore, Emma Lagartixa, Graham Macaulay, Isabelle Austin, Isabelle Harland-Goddard, Jamie Decruz, Jane Greene, Jasmin Gillhespy, Lauren McCandless, Lindsay Murray, Louise Elkins, Madame Benli, Malinda Young, Marianne Edwards, Matt Clements, Matt Warner, Michael Raney, Natasha Dolling, Natasha Kelly, Nicky Joseph, Rachel Coatup, Sally Pritchard, Sarah Eaton, Sarah Evans, Sarah Lester, Stephanie Sharpe & Suzanne Sharp.

Despite the challenges of Covid-19 the Trust Board and the Chairs Forum has continued to meet virtually throughout this term. We have also been successful in the virtual recruitment two new Trustees the LEO Trust Board:

Joanna Farquharson

Jo is a qualified solicitor and has recently founded a strategic and operational consultancy, advising start up and social purpose clients. Prior to this Jo was Executive Director at the Tennis Foundation, one of Great Britain’s leading sports charities, which delivered the benefits of playing sport to young people in education and local communities, as well as disabled people. She was responsible for various strategic, operational and governance aspects of the charity. Jo is a trustee of West London Welcome, a free drop-in centre for refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants who have settled in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham .

Graham Edwards

Graham is a Senior Vice President at The Economist heading up the global contracts and business operations functions and has held many other director/senior roles such as RELX Group, Accenture, Citibank and specialises in the area of commercial contracts, governance, transformation, strategy, operations and process optimisation.

The Summer Term proved to be another busy one for @LEOTraining5! We moved online, continuing to offer high quality virtual professional development opportunities for all during these unusual times. We also found a new home for our training webinars by launching our very own LEO Academy Trust Youtube Channel. The channel includes programme webinars, online CPD clips and much more. This channel will continually be added to as further training sessions take place, so make sure you subscribe to ensure you are notified when new content is added! If you would like to find out more about the training and professional development opportunities that have been on offer this term then make sure to read on...

During the Summer Term, NQTs from across the Trust have taken part in two training sessions which have included sessions on: PE and Writing. Our NQTs attended a virtual PE training session led by Mrs Sinclair-Smith, PE Consultant from Sutton Sports Partnership. During the session, our NQTs enjoyed developing their knowledge and understanding of the following areas: Warm ups, team building, Outdoor Adventurous Activities, Gymnastics and Real PE. This virtual PE session encouraged our NQTS to get active and to try out lots of practical ideas to use in their own classrooms. Our NQTs also attended a virtual English training session this term led by Mrs Williamson, Director of English. The session focused on exploring the following key areas: Writing Expectations, Writing Learning Journey, Exploring Text Types, Grammar & Punctuation, Planning, Drafting, Proofreading, Editing, Publishing, Spelling and Handwriting. The session was personalised to meet the needs of our NQTs and was very well received by all. Thank you to both Mrs Sinclair-Smith and Mrs Williamson for such great sessions!

This term also saw the continuation of our LEO RQT programme, led by Miss Thorndycraft, Principal at Cheam Common Infants Academy. 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. This term our RQTs enjoyed attending the final session of the programme which focused on Assessment. During the session, our RQTs enjoyed exploring the following areas: Assessment for learning, Assessment of learning, The purpose of data, How to monitor data and How to analyse data. Thank you to Mrs Thorndycraft for a very informative session!

Our Middle Leaders programme also continued to run successfully and participants have enjoyed completing two training sessions this term run by Mrs Young, Associate Principal (Opportunity Hub) and Mrs Carlile, Director of Training and Professional Development. The first session titled ‘Developing Teaching and Learning’ supported our Middle Leaders to be able to accurately assess the quality of learning in a lesson and how to lead clear feedback discussions. They also developed their skills in being able to hold difficult conversations with colleagues about their performance. The second session titled ‘Planning for improvement’ prompted our Middle Leaders to consider the following questions with regards to their own areas of leadership: ‘Do I know what research evidence tells us about what works?’, ‘Can I plan for improvement effectively?’ and ‘Can I use a model of change to embed improvement?’ Thank you to Mrs Young and Mrs Carlie for such thought provoking sessions!

As our LEO training programmes come to a close at the end of this academic year, our course participants have been working hard to deliver presentations focusing on their allocated area of leadership. This year the presentations were carried out virtually and Senior Leaders across the Trust were truly impressed with all of the accomplishments that our participants shared within their leadership areas. We thank you all for your continued hard work to support the development of teaching and learning across our Trust. A big thank you also to Senior Leaders across the Trust for providing course participants with thoughtful feedback following their presentations.

In addition to our training programmes, we have continued to offer a comprehensive range of standalone training sessions for staff in all our schools. Sessions have either been run by experienced members of the LEO Central Team or in partnership with outside training providers, who are specialists in their fields.

Thank you to all those who have led training sessions this term and to those who have taken part in those sessions. We are now busy planning lots more exciting training and professional development opportunities for the Autumn term! A final thank you and massive well done to our NQTs this term for completing their final NQT assessments, you have worked really hard this year in such unusual circumstances and you should all be proud of the progress you have made.

Don’t forget to read our regular LEO Training and Professional Development newsletter, subscribe to our LEO Youtube Channel, visit our LEO CPD website and follow us on Twitter at @LEOtraining5 to ensure that you are up to date with all the online training opportunities that are planned for Autumn 2020.

During the Summer Term we have provided a wide range of CPD and training opportunities for staff. Over 200 staff have attended Google Level 1 and 2 training sessions, with many gaining their Google Certified Educator Level 1 and 2 qualification. In addition, the LEO EdTech Team have delivered training on other cloud based teaching tools including Kahoot, Flipgrid, Nearpod, Google Forms, Google Sites, Jamboard, Seesaw, and many, many more! Watch out for more training opportunities in the Autumn term!

The LEO Academy Trust is delighted that not one but two of the London Grid for Learning Digital Excellence Awards have been awarded to our schools:

The London Youth Games launched the LYG Virtual Games in June to replace the usual events LEO Academy Trust would normally take part in. The LYG Virtual Games took place over four-weeks, but as a Trust, we launched our Distance Learning Themed Weeks with this national event. This gave our pupils the chance to represent Sutton in a series of sport-related challenges that were done at home, at school or while out for daily exercise.

Three weekly challenges were released. The tasks during this week were a 5 Shot Netball Challenge, 60 second burpee challenge and a bottle cap challenge. All the challenges were linked to a London Youth Games sport and were set by young Londoners with a connection to the Games. Pupils had until the Friday at 12.00pm to complete the challenges and submit their scores online via the website.

At the end of the four week competition, Sutton came 17th on the leader board and the winning Borough to be crowned the first ever LYG Virtual Games champions was Camden. Congratulations to all LEO pupils who took part.

Wellbeing week was jam packed with fun activities and challenges for our pupils to take part in both at home and at school. Our Wellbeing Week was based on the Five Ways to Wellbeing: Connect, Give, Be Active, Take Notice and Keep Learning. Evidence suggests these are 5 steps you can take to improve your mental health and wellbeing. It is believed that trying these things out could make you feel more positive and our pupils definitely had great fun giving them a go across this special week. There was a brand new wellbeing challenge each day of the week and our pupils were very keen to find out each day what the new challenge was! Our pupils also had the opportunity to complete their very own Wellbeing Challenge Chart and to take part in lots of fun activities outlined in our LEO Academy Wellbeing at Home Activity Guide. Why not read on to find out more about what our pupils got up to across the week...

Connect:

After following a video tutorial created by Miss Elkins, a Y6 Teacher at Cheam Fields Primary Academy, our pupils created some wonderfully bright happiness posters to promote friendship. We really enjoyed seeing all of the photos that were sent in of the fantastic friendship trees, they really helped to brighten up our day! Our pupils also joined in with a variety of other activities to support them in ‘connecting’ with others, such activities included saying hello in another language, baking cakes to share with family and writing letters to friends.

Give:

On Tuesday our pupils considered ways that they could ‘give back’ to the planet and were challenged to find a way to re-use items from around their home. We saw some very creative ideas sent in which included: turning a cereal box into a brilliant pencil tidy, creating a super bird feeder from an empty plastic bottle and a wooden spoon and making a fantastic gift box using cardboard tubes, scraps of wrapping paper and a ribbon! Our pupils also thoroughly enjoyed taking part in the three special Forest School activities created by Mrs Joseph, Forest School Leader and Outdoor Education. These activities included making a bottle snake, a seed planter and a plastic bottle planter. The bubble snake activity proved to be a very popular one!

Be Active:

Our pupils' dancing skills were also put to the test on Wednesday as they were challenged to learn a new dance routine, following an online dance tutorial courtesy of LoveTheatreArts! The tutorial included a warm up, a stretch and an opportunity to learn a new routine! It was great to see pupils taking part in this challenge both at home and at school. We were so impressed that they were able to learn a whole dance routine in just 30mins! What talented dancers we have! Thanks again to LoveTheatreArts for putting such a wonderful dance tutorial together for our pupils.

Take Notice:

On Thursday, our pupils were challenged to carry out their very own wellbeing scavenger hunt by finding the following items:

• Something that makes them happy,

• Something that is their favourite colour

• Something that makes them laugh

• Something that they are thankful for in nature

• Something that they love to smell

It was wonderful to see photos coming in from both home and school illustrating what our pupils are thankful for!

Keep Learning:

The last day of LEO Wellbeing Week focused on learning a new skill and our pupils were treated to a drama tutorial courtesy of LoveTheatreArts. The tutorial included a warm up and lots of fun improvisation games! Our pupils had great fun at home and school by taking part in the line game, trying out some tricky tongue twisters and completing the remote control challenge.

Thank you!

A huge thank you to our terrific staff for their continued commitment to ensure our pupil’s wellbeing has a high priority across our Trust and for planning such a fun week for our pupils to enjoy. We would also like to thank our amazing parents and carers for taking part in all of the planned challenges at home and for sending in such wonderful photos and videos. It is always such a treat to see our pupils having fun and enjoying their learning!

What was your favourite activity during well-being week?

LEO Academy Trust were proud supporters of this year's Maths Week London! There had been many events planned for this exciting week before school closures; a times table tournament, 24 game cross academy competition, practical maths challenges, as well as the opportunity for some children to travel to City Hall to compete in the Count On Us challenge for Mayor’s Fund for London.

However, our spirits were not dampened and our enthusiasm for celebrating this subject across the capital transformed into a virtual Maths Week London!

Each day, there were a series of challenges for KS1 and KS2 children. Not only were they practising essential maths skills, they were getting familiar with the city in which we live. There were London Landmarks to decode, navigation around the tube network, and a series of London symbols to decipher. There have been over 600 responses to one of the activities alone!

The three LIVE events that were put on for KS2 children were a huge success! This was a fantastic way to bring children from each of the LEO academies and beyond together for quizzes all on the theme of London. We had over 250 children joining us on nearpod and in classrooms each day!

This year, LEO Music Week took on the theme of ‘Carnival’. The idea of the week was to introduce pupils across our Trust to the delights of Brazilian Carnival.

The week started with an introductory assembly based on the world famous Rio Carnival. Pupils learnt about the origins and traditions of carnival and the country in which it is based.

Each day brought a new challenge for pupils to participate in. Over the week, children took part in an array of activities including singing, learning a call and response, playing samba rhythms (albeit on pots, pans and cardboard boxes!) and making elaborate costumes.

We were completely blown away by the effort pupils, parents and staff put into this week with everybody fully embracing the true spirit of carnival. This was demonstrated by the amazing creations that adorned the pages of Twitter. Feathered bird masks, crocodile costumes, beautiful face painting and Brazilian coloured flags and pom poms were just some of the ways our pupils brought a little bit of Rio magic to the LEO Academy Trust.

Thank you to everyone for making LEO Music Week such a success.

For Big Arts Week, we had a lot of workshops, activities and even competitions for our children to take part in both at home and at school. We followed five strands: Books, Theatre, Imagery, Dance and Music.

We were lucky enough to work with two amazing authors (Ryan Crawford and Tom Palmer), a fantastic illustrator (Kayla Coombs) and two phenomenal theatre performers (Georgia Rae Briggs and Courtney Mae Briggs). They prepared personalised lessons on how to write books, create characters, as well as showing us how to dance to some famous musical theatre songs.

It has been wonderful watching and receiving all of the outstanding work that our children have been doing both at home and in school, the enthusiasm has been palpable. We have received dance videos, stories, illustrations, outdoor art and much more. We are really happy to have received so many entries to our Book competitions; here are the winners:

What Can We Be? Competition:

• Vanshika (Emerald class) and Zaariya (Garnet class) from Brookfield

• Amrik (Duckling class), Jeevan (Fawn class) and Izzy (Sparrow class) from Cheam Common Infants

• Tallulah (Rabbit class), Charlie (Rabbit class), Aniya (Owl class) and Henry (Owl class) from Cheam Fields

• Darcey (Lilac class), Oliver (Red class), Rosella (Indigo class) and Jasmine (Indigo class) from Cheam Park Farm

• Khloe (Garnet class) and Teodora (Garnet class) from Manor Park

Tom Palmer Writing Competition

• Frhana (Sapphire class) and Wilson (Quartz class) from Frookfield

• Isabelle (Parks class) and Natali (Mandela class) from Cheam Park Farm

• Shloka (Turquoise class) and Magha (Pearl class) from Manor Park

This year's Big Arts Week has been a great success and we look forward to doing another one next year!

Thank you to everyone who helped to make LEO Big Arts Week a roaring success!

Check out our moves...

We started our Summer Celebration on Monday by thinking about everyone who has helped us, thinking carefully about what they had done, how we have appreciated it, how this has helped us and what we would miss about them. The children recorded their findings in various ways including creating videos.

Tuesday was a day spent reflecting on the year, thinking about what we have learned and documenting their memories of the year.

Having reflected on last year, Wednesday was our day for looking ahead to next year; the children were challenged to create a Flipgrid to share the three things that they were most excited about for next year.

On Thursday our thoughts turned to the Summer Holidays. The children created a bucket list of things they would like to do over the course of the Summer which will hopefully involve more time outside in the sunshine and less time in front of a screen!

We completed our Summer Celebration week with LEO’s Got Talent, an opportunity for children to share their talents by submitting a video recording. We are very much looking forward to seeing the wide variety of talent that exists across the LEO Academy Trust!