CEO Newsletter September 2023 Edition: 1
Welcome Welcome back to the start of the new academic year, I hope you all have had an enjoyable and restful break. Thank you for your hard work and dedication in ensuring the new academic year starts smoothly as we welcome our families back to school. This academic year, I will be sending out regular updates, keeping you informed of news across the Trust. As we continue to grow as the LCT community, we will be looking at ways to develop LCT centralised resources, platforms and information sharing methods. I will keep you informed, as developments get underway.
Our students - attainment and progress Primary Schools We ended last academic year with some excellent achievement and success within the LCT primary schools. Across key stage 2, the vast majority of schools exceeded national benchmarks, with half of trust schools achieving 20% higher than national averages in reading/writing/maths combined. A special mention to Crudgington school who achieved 100% in KS2 reading and science. Moving forward, a focus for improvement will be Year 4 times tables checks, ensuring vulnerable pupils narrow the gap which has widened since the pandemic. Reading will continue to be a focus, as the beating heart of the primary curricula, alongside supporting schools to increase their percentages of pupils achieving greater depth at KS2. We also welcome Maddie Griffin into her role as Director of Primary Education. Some of you may know Maddie already from her previous role as Principal at HLC Primary School.
Our students - attainment and progress Secondary schools Across secondary schools, the attainment and average grades of a large proportion of students increased, with many students progressing on to their chosen destination. We also celebrated Charlton School’s Good Ofsted report at the end of last year. Ofsted commented that ‘Charlton School leaders and pupils share the same high aspirations. Pupils understand and follow the school vision of ‘building knowledge, developing character and inspiring futures.’’ Moving forward, there will remain a strong focus on increasing maths and English achievement, alongside progress and attainment as a whole. We continue to strive for excellence for our young people, to fully prepare them, and widen their options, as they take their next steps into their chosen career pathways. Link to Charlton’s Ofsted report: wm-10267832-charlton-school-142821-final-pdf.pdf We look forward to welcoming our Director of Secondary Education into their role soon.
Our students - attainment and progress Special schools Students across our special schools continue to flourish, often exceeding personnel milestones, and progression targets. Queensway recorded its best-ever results, with many students achieving GCSE grades of 4 or above in English, maths and science. Severndale celebrated many personnel progression stories, including their first student (Cain) to progress onto university. Cain attended Severndale and Severndale at Mary Webb from 2009. During his final two years at Severndale, Cain had to work through lockdown and other challenges but, through his commitment to learning and determination, he left Severndale in 2021 having achieved GCSEs in Science, Maths and English. With these qualifications, Cain enrolled at Shrewsbury College to undertake A-Levels. This summer, Cain achieved a Distinction in Applied Science, B grades in A-Level Business and Statistics and a C in his extended project - which was about how universities can find ways to effectively manage and support autistic students. Cain is now going to Keele University to study Accounting and Finance. Moving forward, we will continue to develop the quality of education across all our special schools, ensuring our students progress into successful and fulfilling future pathways, reaching their full potential. We are pleased to welcome Alison Ashley into her role as Director of Special Education and SEND. Ali has over 23 years of experience working in special education, including over 10 years as a head teacher at an outstanding residential school. Ali has also established and led a Teaching School, co-chairs the National Network of Specialist Provision and is a member of Medicines in Special Schools
Trust Expansion Quality of Education We welcomed Richard Gummery into his role as Assistant Director at the start of this year. Many of you may know Richard already from his previous role as Principal at Ercall Wood Academy. Richard will be leading on professional learning, standards, assessment practices and digital information. Look out for the new Quality of Education newsletter which will be coming out to all staff soon. We congratulate Nick Murphy as he moves into his role as Principal at Ercall Wood. Nick previously worked at HLC as Deputy Head. We wish Nick every success in his new role. We celebrated the opening of Allscott Mead Primary school last week, with an open event. Members of the local community, parents, students, and staff attended the event, and it was a pleasure to hear such positive praise for the work of all involved in turning the vision to reality. One parent commented, ‘[I'm] so happy, it's a wonderful community area and the school will provide the best education for that community’. The Trust continues to grow, and we will be welcoming Burton Borough school into the Trust later this academic year. I will continue to update all staff regarding transfer news throughout the year. As many of you may know already, we welcomed Allscott Mead Primary School and Kickstart Academy into the Trust family at the start of this academic year, bringing the current total to 11 schools within the Trust. Allscott Mead open event link
Estate News
Trustees and Governors Our Trustees, Members, Directors and Governors are volunteers that give up their time to support the development of our schools and support and challenge leadership of the LCT. They are passionate about making a difference in the community and supporting us all to provide the best education for the young people of the communities we serve. For information and biographies of our LCT Trustees please see the link opposite. Members & Trustees | Learning Community Trust For information about your school’s governing body, please see the school’s website. We will be sharing further insights into the roles of Trustees and Governors in future editions. LCT office The executive team have moved into a new building, we are now based at Corner House, Priorslee. Thank you to the team at HLC for their many years of hospitality, and all the staff that helped get the offices set up throughout the summer. As well as housing our LCT team, Corner House will also be a base for professional development training; we look forward to welcoming you to the offices soon. However, we do require help in transforming the LCT office into a space that reflects our school community and values. Please see details of an exciting art competition on the last page of the newsletter. We will be updating the LCT website soon with the new executive structure, and sending out further information about the executive teams’ roles and responsibilities in future editions.
Ercall Wood are pleased to be working alongside WT Partnership for the expansion of the school’s land-based project. On the 20th September, as part of their corporate days programme, WT Partnership will begin work to extend the poly tunnels, install raised beds, and generally enhance the horticultural area. The land-based project has been a huge success, the holistic approach to learning not only benefits students’ skills development, but is an important part of giving back to the community. Produce from the project is packed into food parcels and donated to the Food Hub and to students within the school. Students are not only learning about horticulture and healthy eating, but social values and the pride that comes with growing your own produce and giving back to your local community. You may see details of the project in Tesco, as part of the blue token scheme. Community Projects Our food hubs, based at Wrekin View and HLC, continue to support our communities in more ways than food parcels. The Hubs not only provide food parcels and a community fridge to struggling families, but also support with school uniforms, furniture, utilities for families that are in unfortunate positions. If you want to find out more, or can offer your support, then please contact Russell Garner [email protected] or Nikki Morrison [email protected] I am keen to share good news stories and celebrations from across all the Trust schools. We will be gathering information from schools for future editions and can’t wait to share the fabulous work you are doing across the whole of the LCT community. If you have news you would like to share, please contact Rachael Wilson (Communication and Project Lead to the Executive Team) Email: [email protected] I look forward to sharing more news, information and celebrations with you in future editions. Jane Good news stories
Calling all schools: The new LCT offices need vibrance and the sense of its school community within the new building. The LCT leadership team are launching an exciting art competition to help brighten up our offices. Open to all of our schools and across all age groups, we are looking for artwork that we can display within the LCT office that conveys the following themes: Community Inclusion We welcome entries from individual students, or group collaborations; we would also love to receive artworks from staff. You can use any medium, any style and any size. we really want to be wowed by the creative talents we know we have in our schools. There will winning entries selected from the following categories: Early years, each key stage (1, 2, 3, 4), 16+, Staff Winning entries will be displayed within the new LCT building, for staff and visitors to enjoy for many years to come. Staff, students and parents of winning entries will be invited to the unveiling of the new look offices including presentations and awards. There will also be specialist awards for artworks to be displayed in key staff offices CEO Award COO Award Executive Director Award Directors Awards (x4) Executive office Award Closing date: 6 th October 2023 Following the closing date, members of the Executive team will visit each school to meet with students and staff and collect all of the artwork – we really look forward to seeing what fabulous artworks you can create to help brighten up our work environment. Please contact Laura or Rachael at the LCT Executive office on 01952 387010 when artworks are completed.