CEO Newsletter Jane Hughes CEO Edition 3: April 2024
There is a lot to tell you about in this edition, with an abundance of good news stories, the growth of the Trust, project work, and future plans. Of course, all of this is only possible due to the dedication and passion of our staff teams. I was particularly impressed with the efforts of staff and students alike for World Book Day - you will find a selection of images from the day on page 9. You will see a range of new images on the front page of this edition. We are currently refreshing all of our images across all academies in the Trust. Kickstart and Wrekin View students were the first academies to be captured, prior to the Easter break, and these photos display just a small fraction of the focus, fun, diversity and inclusion that takes place across our academies on a daily basis. I am also pleased to announce the first of our staff incentive packages, details on page 10. We are at the very beginnings of developing our staff incentive packages and will continue to work to ensure we source incentives that are accessible and useful for all staff across our Trust. There is so much for us to celebrate. I hope you enjoy reading this edition - I know what is shown here is just a small fraction of the work that is replicated across all of our Trust academies. Introduction Jane Hughes It’s hard to believe we are already in the summer term, preparing our students for assessments, exams and transitional steps, alongside all the extra curricula activities being organised for students to enrich their learning experiences. The Telford Priory School’s production of the School of Rock. Well done to all the amazingly talented students! 1
We are delighted to share Trust staffing updates with you: . Simon joined the Trust in February, coming into the central team to support our technical requirements and focus on the digital growth, support and developments needed trust wide. Simon is leading a number of digital projects, including new websites, and a central data reporting dashboard. Simon has many years of experience working strategically and operationally in the digital innovation field. Manny joined us in December as an Associate Principal, and has been working at Burton Borough in the role of Acting Headteacher since January 2024. Manny is supporting the leadership team and school improvement developments at the school as we conclude the transfer process and recruitment of a permanent Headteacher. Manny has been working alongside Richard Gummery (Assistant Director for the Trust and Executive Headteacher at Burton Borough) to add leadership capacity and stability through the transition period. Andrea starts with us in April, and will be leading Telford Priory School as Associate Principal following the Easter break. Andrea comes to us from an outstanding school in Birmingham. She is an experienced school leader with a wealth of experience in school improvement, leading schools to outstanding gradings, and raising student attainment to above national standards. . Nick joins us in April, following the Easter break, and will initially be working alongside Andrea at Telford Priory School to add leadership capacity as we continue the school improvement journey. Nick is an experienced leader, and has worked across phase, leading effective school improvement strategies, curriculum design and people development strategies. James starts the position as Director of Finance, and will act as the company’s Chief Financial Officer, from 22nd April 2024. James is a qualified accountant with a wealth of financial management experience at a senior level across multiple sectors. I’m confident James will fit into the team very quickly and we look forward to welcoming him to LCT. Up and coming We are pleased to have appointed an experienced Headteacher, with a wealth of experience leading primary schools in the West Midlands. They will be starting with us in September. We will be sending out more information regarding this appointment after due process has been completed. In the meantime we continue to thank Lesley Stephenson for her continued guidance and leadership in her role as Acting Headteacher. We are also pleased to have appointed to the role of Director of People for trust central. This is a pivotal role as we develop our central HR team, enabling trust central developments and support for our academies. We will be sending out more information regarding this appointment after due process has been completed. 2 Trust staff updates Simon Badley - Digital Innovator and Technical Lead Manny Kelay - Acting Principal Burton Borough Andrea Bell - Associate Principal Nick Bradnick-Thompson - Associate Principal James Youngman - Director of Finance Wrekin View Primary School - Headteacher. Director of People
Our Mission Our mission is simple: we are driven to be an outstanding MAT for our community, with a clear vision to provide the best possible education for all the children and young people in our Trust, helping them to be successful in all they do both now and in the future. Trust expansion We are pleased to welcome Burton Borough School into our trust family as of the 1st April. The transfer process took a little longer than expected, and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank staff and governance teams across BBS and LCT for their work in ensuring the conversion was achieved for the 1st April. Richard Gummery and Manny Kelay have been supporting BBS for a number of months prior to the conversion in the roles of Executive Headteacher and Acting Principal respectively. Interviews for a new, permanent Headteacher are due to take place on the 22nd and 23rd of April. The school reopened its new canteen facilities in March. The school team worked tirelessly throughout the redevelopment to ensure all students still had access to hot food, freshly made on site. The new facilities offer a larger, modern space and a greater range of food choices. As you may be aware we welcomed Telford Priory School into the Trust from 1st March 2024. It’s been a pleasure to meet our students and hear about some of the amazing activities and work that the young people of TPS have been a part of. Below are just some examples 3 fifteen Y10 students volunteered their time at Telford Crisis Support. They made newborn baby baskets for mums in need. They put together packs for the homeless. They have learned about how to pack a food parcel for those who are struggling. They have put together breakfasts for local primary children. They have learned skills for the future and given their time for our community Students from Telford Priory School say they feel much better prepared for the next step of their career journey after completing mock job interviews and a week-long work placement. The students said they all found the process eye-opening in terms of the ‘horizon of opportunities’ available locally, and commented on how caring, understanding, helpful and ‘human’ the staff at their placement companies had been. Telford Priory School’s performance of "School of Rock" was a huge success across the community. Saturday’s final performance was a complete sell-out, with the community's enthusiasm reaching new heights. A number of local primary schools, including Lantern Academy, took up the opportunity to take pupils to matinee performances, inspiring the next generation of performers. Following the Easter break, Andrea Bell and Nick Bradnick-Thompson will be joining TPS; leading, supporting and developing the good work already in place as we work together on the school improvement journey.
Queensway development We have exciting expansion plans for Queensway Academy. Queensway Academy currently operates on a split site catering for children and young people on the autistic spectrum (Queensway North), and for those with social, emotional and mental health needs (Queensway South). The new building will enable an extension to our existing facilities at Queensway North, to provide education for Key Stage 2, 3 and 4 students. The extra space will also enable us to link more readily with our second site at Queensway South in Dawley and share resources between the two schools. It will provide accessible and flexible teaching facilities in a modern, energy efficient and sustainable building, as well as a range of ancillary spaces. Our aim is to create an attractive and welcoming teaching and learning environment for both students and staff. Subjects including science, food technology, art, design technology and music will all have specialist classrooms in the new building, which will include covered external teaching spaces to deliver subjects including construction skills, horticulture and forest learning. The proposals also include high quality landscaping and external facilities for sport and recreation that have been specifically designed to meet the needs of the students. The curriculum offers qualifications in both practical and vocational subjects including motor vehicles, and hair and beauty, alongside more traditional academic courses. Construction work is due to start in autumn 2024 and the new facility could be ready by September 2025 Trust developments Ercall Wood development Ercall Wood Academy, in partnership with Telford and Wrekin Council, has just begun works on a planned expansion project. As part of the project, there will be a full redesign of the interior of the building with increased dining space, improved corridors and stairs, and redesigned classroom areas that will complement the new building layout. Plans for Ercall Wood include building a new three-storey teaching block which will predominantly be used for science lessons. The proposed teaching block includes ten science labs, science preparation rooms, relevant stores and support ancillary rooms. There is also one standard classroom allowing flexibility. Plans also include a single-story ground floor extension, which would provide an additional 128 seats for lunchtime dining in a large open space. A covered area directly outside the dining hall will create space ‘outdoor breakout’ and there will be space allocated for food trucks Estates 4
Each school’s website will be updated over the course of the next 8 months. Thank you to those of you that have been involved to-date, and will be in the future. We appreciate the work that is required to update content and planning for the photography days. We have begun capturing the new imagery for sites, and a plan is in place for all schools to have refreshed imagery by the end of the academic year. We are working with leaders and academies to make this happen. We have recently completed photography days at Wrekin View and Kickstart Academy - thank you to the staff teams and students for enabling such a well structured day, that truly captures the incredible work you do. It has been an absolute pleasure to come into schools and see our young people at work, and enjoying the school day. Students have been really keen to be involved in the process, and we have been able to capture some delightful images that truly shines a light on the academic, nurturing and fun atmosphere that takes place across academies on a daily basis. Trust developments Websites It's an exciting time for the Trust as we develop our centralised digital, IT and data services strategy to support us to have robust, compliant and current services across all trust academies. We are busy developing centralised reporting, to give us meaningful data metrics that will enable us to deliver the right support to our academies, ensuring every student meets their potential and academy leaders have purposeful insights to their academy and their students. We are working closely with the IT service from Telford & Wrekin council, helping us to gain greater control of our IT network and the functionally that can bring. In this plan, we will be improving the internet connectivity to ensure that IT can be fully harnessed in the classroom without issues and barriers. We are working to ensure the right computers, touchscreens and laptops are in the right areas with the right software and that we are delivering the right support and training to staff to help them use IT to support their delivery and dayto-day operations. We are currently at the beginnings of developing new websites across the Trust. We have approved the design of the trust website page very recently, which will be going live this summer term. There will be continued work on our central pages as we continue to update content and imagery through the term. Digital, IT and Data Services Vision and Ethos We will be holding our first Trust consultation workshop in April, as we work with representatives across our trust to help shape the Trust’s ethos and vision of the future. This is especially important as we grow as a Multi-Academy Trust, ensuring our agreed ethos and vision are an accurate reflection of all of our academies trust-wide. Digital and Branding Software Tools and Apps Some of you may already be familiar with Every Compliance, the software we use for estates compliance. We are currently implementing Every for policy management too. This software will enable automatic reminders for when policies need to be reviewed/updated, as well as automatically adding trust wide policies onto academy websites, without the need for manual input. We are also reviewing at an HR app for submitting expenses, hopefully easing the process for staff across academies. This is very much at the first stages, and we will share more information once development progresses. 5
It is really inspiring to read such a positive piece about our students and the mature and caring way they responded to this situation. Well done Ocean and Keegan In The News Congratulations Crudgington Primary School It gives me great pleasure to share that His Majesty’s Inspector has judged that Crudgington Primary School continues to be a ‘Good’ school. The inspection highlighted many positives including that “Pupils’ wider development is a strength of the school,” and that “Leaders have high expectations of pupils. The school acts quickly to support pupils who need extra help.” I am delighted that the hard work undertaken by Crudgington’s staff and Trust community has been recognised, including the comments regarding our work on the curriculum so that pupils know and remember more and the carefully mapped out wider opportunities linked to the curriculum to allow our pupils to remember what they have learned. The report itself is very detailed and highlights the many elements of effective provision at Crudgington Primary School as well as the next steps needed to take the school forward. What is very satisfying is that the next steps identified have already within our development plan prior to this inspection and the associated adaptations are being implemented. May I thank all those involved in the inspection itself, especially the children, staff and governors the who shone during the inspection process and continue to make a positive contribution to life at Crudgington Primary School 6
Thank you to all our staff across the trust for your work and dedication in broadening curriculums, and offering students the chance to take part in enriching opportunities, as detailed in the news extracts in this page. We know this is just a sample of all the work that takes place across the Trust. 7
Shining a light on our staff Sarah Harper Stevens is an English teacher at HLC. See the article below - as published in Good Housekeeping - to read all about Sarah’s inspiring journey into teaching. Our staff, across all roles, are fundamental to what we do every day. If you would like to share your own career pathway into the educational sector please contact: [email protected] 8
Celebrating World Book Day The staff team went all out at Kickstart Academy Pupils at Lantern Academy were lucky enough to have a visit from ‘Pep the Poet’. He led an assembly, shared some of his poems, and had the children in stitches! Each class had a workshop with Pep where they learnt a poem to perform and enjoyed listening to Pep’s tips and experiences. At Crudgington, to celebrate World Book Day, the Reception children visited Telford library, where they enjoyed a morning of crafts and storytelling. The children enjoyed exploring the library and finding a snuggly corner to share a book with their friends. At Allscott, we enjoyed celebrating World Book Day and dressing up as our favourite characters. In EYFS children bought in a non-toy object and turned it into a character, telling stories and creating different settings for their stories. At Wrekin View, we swapped classes so Key Stage 2 got the opportunity to read with our Early Years and Key Stage 1 children. We celebrated the joy of reading through a book quiz and ended the morning with each class opening a mystery book sent by another teacher in school. At HLC Primary, Story Stones created by the Reception and Year 6 children was shared amongst each other, helping to create new stories and ‘read our way’, the theme of this year’s World Book Day. Year 1 and Year 4 buddied to read together in our library, 9
Round up Unfortunately, the Food Hub based at HLC recently suffered damage as a result of a flood. Thank you to Nikki Morrison and the team for working tirelessly on the clean up operation and sourcing funds for new goods. We are so grateful for the support we received to help restock the hub - TPS coordinated a collection, a staff member rallied her street to support us, Blakemore’s donated a £60 pound voucher, staff across the trust donated, and an HLC family came over and donated £35 - they were fasting for Ramadan and wanted to show kindness for others during their Holy month HLC Food Hub - the community to the rescue! Prior to the flood, Charlton School raised £510.29 through fundraising and a MUFTI day, all of which was donated it to the Food Hub Supporting both the Food Hub and Wrekin View Community Fridge, is truly a community effort. Thank you to everyone who has supported, and continues to support, the hubs and our local communities. New Employee Benefit - The Electric Car Scheme We will officially be launching the LCT Electric Car Salary Sacrifice Scheme on the 15th April. We will be running a number of staff webinars following the launch where you will be able to find out more about the scheme. Details will be sent out to staff soon. Ahead of the official launch watch this short clip to learn how the scheme works short clip Coming soon 10