leigh academies trust winter 2019 news · 1 day ago · newsletter welcome statements with...

Leigh Academies Trust Winter 2019 | Issue 16

Shaping Lives, Transforming Communities

NEWS

Christmas wreath making at Horsmonden Primary AcademyContinued on page 18 ...

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› Retrieval practice;

› Knowledge organisers and regular low-stakes testing;

› Teaching adjusted for intrinsic and extraneous cognitive load;

› Dual coding;

› Clarity of instruction.

Let me end by thanking all pupils, staff, parents, governors and our various partners for their ongoing hard work and support. We could not achieve what we do without you.

With my very many thanks and festive best wishes

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A message from the Chief Executive

It is always a pleasure to start these newsletter welcome statements with congratulations to staff being promoted to new senior positions. Following rigorous selection processes, I am delighted to announce the following new appointments since September, displayed on the right:

Many of you will have seen the exceptional professional development offer for staff being provided through our teaching school this year. If you haven’t had a chance, I would urge you to visit the Medway Teaching School Alliance (MTSA) website to take a look.

www.mtsa.co.uk

Over the next few months, MTSA have attracted a number of high profile speakers to offer excellent training opportunities to our staff, including Professor Dylan Wiliam and David Didau.

Across our academies I am encouraged to see so much excellent practice, which is firmly rooted in research about how pupils learn. This is having a significant impact on how much they know, can remember and do. I look forward to seeing the following evidence-based practice becoming even more firmly embedded across LAT over the coming months:

Simon Beamish, Chief Executive

Hayley Sharp Principal, Horsmonden Primary Academy

Jade Smith Assistant Head of College, The Leigh Academy

Charlotte McLeishVice Principal, Horsmonden Primary Academy

Georgina Rawlings Assistant Principal, Paddock Wood Primary Academy

Patrick Lonergan Head of College, Wilmington Academy

Sweety Rekhi Assistant Principal, The Leigh UTC

Professor Dylan Wiliam

David Didau

Carl Guerin-Hassett Deputy Principal, The Halley Academy

Ben Blyth Assistant Principal, The Leigh UTC

Neil ArnouldHead of College, The Leigh UTC

Sophie DickinsonAssistant Principal, The Leigh UTC

3Shaping Lives, Transforming Communities

Contents

› A message from the Chief Executive ... 2

› LAT Swimming Gala .................................. 3

› New Principal at Stationers’ Crown Woods Academy: Future Plans .............. 4

› New Principal at Horsmonden Primary: Future Plans ................................ 4

› New Principal at Mascalls Academy: Future Plans .................................................. 5

› LAT Represented at International Baccalaureate (IB) Global Conference, Abu Dhabi, 2019 ......................................... 5

› The Leigh UTC Awards Dinner 2019 .... 6

› Shakespeare Schools Festival ................ 7

› LAT's Got Talent .......................................... 7

› Leigh Aspire Primary ................................. 8

› Leigh Aspire Secondary ....................... 8-9

› Careers Round-up ...................................... 9

› Remembrance Day .................................... 9

› Maths Mystery Update .......................... 10

› Kent and Medway Training (KMT) Update .................................................. 10-11

› MTSA Update ............................................ 11

› Primary Years Programme Update .... 12

› LAT Apprenticeships .............................. 13

› International Exchange Visit to China: The Leigh Academy ................................ 13

› Sharing Best Practice ....................... 14-15

› Update on Third College Building at Wilmington Academy ............................ 16

› Update on New Building at Leigh Academy Blackheath ............................. 16

› Update on New Sports Facilities at The Leigh UTC .......................................... 16

› New Maths centre opens at Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School (SJWMS) ...................................................... 17

› Update on New Building Developments at Dartford Primary Academy ............. 17

› Facility Upgrades at The Halley Academy ..................................................... 17

› Update on Bearsted and Snowfields Academies and Leigh Academy Rainham ..................................................... 18

› Christmas wreath making at Horsmonden Primary Academy ........ 18

› Vision 2025 ................................................ 19

› Leigh Academies Trust Card Competition .............................................. 20

LAT Swimming Gala

The first-ever LAT secondary boys’ swimming gala was held at Sir Joseph Williamson’s Mathematical School (SJWMS) on Thursday 21st November. Boys from all LAT secondary schools competed in a range of events, including freestyle, breaststroke and backstroke, both individually and in relays. The standard was excellent, as was the camaraderie and positivity of all the students, who competed in heats and then finals in each event. When all the results were tallied up, the winners were SJWMS, followed by Stationers’ Crown Woods Academy and Leigh Academy Blackheath in joint second place.

On Thursday 28th November we welcomed the girls from the Trust to the first gala and they competed in a range of events, which included, like the

boys, the freestyle, breaststroke and backstroke. The winners were Stationers’ Crown Woods Academy, followed by Longfield Academy in second and Mascalls a close third. Thanks to all the competitors and staff who have made the 1st two events so enjoyable. On 5th December we are hosting the first primary event.

On 5th December, the first primary event was keenly contested with some very high-quality competition. Winners were High Halstow Primary, with Paddock Wood Primary second and Hartley Primary in third place.

Well done to all the competitors across all of the events, for their determination and for the fantastic spirit with which the competition was completed.

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Travelling to Stationers’ Crown Woods Academy from West Kent, I gain a sense of familiarity, a peculiar sentiment considering I was born and raised in the Potteries, in the West Midlands. This feeling stems from the formative years of my career in education (2005-2014), spent working for a large multi-academy trust in South-East London while living in Blackheath. For a number of years, I played rugby at Well Hall, now home to Blackheath Rugby Football Club, I trained with the Sutcliffe Park Athletics Club and socialised with ex-students and staff of the-then Crown Woods School. This pocket of South-East London holds a special place in my heart; one of the reasons that I accepted the role of Principal, SCWA.

In addition, Stationers’ Crown Woods Academy has an illustrious past, some high-profile alumni, state-of-the-art facilities built on land that was formerly King Henry VIII’s hunting grounds, and the support of two exceptional organisations, Leigh Academies Trust and The Stationers’ Company.

Stationers’ Crown Woods Academy has faced some challenges in recent years. The introduction of Progress 8 and Attainment 8, the strengthening of content and the introduction of examinations into the vocational system, the adoption of a more rigorous Key Stage 4 and 5, with much of the specification content being adopted from a higher key stage, reductions in educational funding through the National Funding Formula and the teacher-recruitment crisis have all impacted.

I aim to simplify and demystify some of the confusion that exists in education. I am a traditionalist at heart, believing that children should display good behaviour and manners, respect, compassion and tolerance. I believe in equality in which all children, irrespective of their background, have the right to acquire knowledge and cultural capital. Children who attend a comprehensive state school should receive the same quality of education as those who attend the grammar school or independent school down the road. I favour a

classical education, comprising the liberal arts: the Grammar (building powerful knowledge), the Dialectic (the art of questioning to validate the authenticity of knowledge) and the Rhetoric (articulating the knowledge and understanding that has been acquired with the skill of oration).

As we near the end of the first half-term I am convinced that my decision to move back to South- East London was the right one. I very much look forward to leading Stationers’ Crown Woods Academy for several years to come.

Wayne Barnett

I am absolutely thrilled about becoming Principal at Horsmonden Primary Academy, a small rural school at the heart of Horsmonden village. The school is blessed with delightful children, a committed teaching team and excellent surroundings. I am very much

looking forward to building on the strong foundations already in place to develop an exciting, well-balanced, broad curriculum that is inspiring for all and has everyone aiming high.

Children only get one education and, at Horsmonden Primary Academy, we will strive to make it the best it can be, ensuring that children develop inquiring minds and become learners for life.

Hayley Sharp

New Principal at Stationers’ Crown Woods Academy, Future Plans

New Principal at Horsmonden Primary Future Plans

HorsmondenPrimary Academy


I was in Year 9 when I watched the PE teachers walking across the hallowed turf at my secondary school in the East End of London, a school with a very successful sporting reputation where the teachers wore gowns. The school was very traditional in its approach and the teachers inspired me to become a teacher myself.

There was a lot I enjoyed about school: the sport, the music, the opportunity. The culture was embedded and success was not cultivated, but expected and celebrated regularly. This demands key characteristics, including ambition, belief, determination and resilience, underpinned by the solid foundation of high-quality teaching. A school’s culture is delivered through traditionally-taught curricular content and co-curricular

opportunities and the best curricula are comprehensive, all-encompassing and provide little space for failure.

Mascalls is a hugely successful academy, delivering superb outcomes over many years because of its strong foundations. Behaviour is consistently good, while developments in teaching and learning are evidence-based and introduced methodically, in the manner of responses to the mantra of former Formula 1 boss Frank Williams: ‘Does it make the car go faster?’

Frank Williams asked the same question again and again. For us, this can be translated into the following questions: what do the children need to know? What is the best way to teach it? How do we

know they have learned it? Once those foundations are laid, we can build on the culture, expect success, provide opportunity and bring context to learning, locally and globally.

This term as Principal has honestly provided me with the most fun I have had in education, surrounded by the most amazing, supportive staff and students. So much has been achieved but there is so much more to do. We are determined to bring about the opportunities that will deliver a culture where success is expected, and this is incredibly exciting.

Why wouldn’t I want to work here? It’s the best job in the world!

Will Monk

New Principal at Mascalls Academy Future Plans

LAT Represented at International Baccalaureate (IB) Global Conference, Abu Dhabi, 2019

Having won a Leigh Academies Trust competition to attend the IB Global Conference, our colleagues shared LAT’s inspiring story with the IB community, consisting of 2,000 members from 80 countries.

Michael Gore, Principal of Wilmington Academy, said: 'The IB Career-related Programme (IBCP) and IB Middle-Years Programme (IBMYP) journeys continue to be transformational for the students and staff at Wilmington Academy. Networking on this global stage has secured the academy a place at the cutting edge of education and we will continue to shape the lives of students from the Trust positively.’

While in Abu Dhabi, our representatives took part in filming for a TV documentary to be shown in South Korea, which wishes to introduce IB programmes in its schools.

[Photo] Rebecca Haran, Teacher of Sociology and Psychology at The Halley Academy, Michael Gore, Principal of Wilmington Academy and Jane Tipple, Principal of Oaks Primary Academy.

© International Baccalaureate Organisation 2018


The Leigh UTC Awards Dinner 2019

The fifth annual awards for students at The Leigh UTC proved to be yet another resounding success, with more tables sponsored by businesses than ever before. The event is now firmly established as a permanent fixture in the UTC calendar.

In addition to the sponsored tables for the winning students and their families, we were pleased to be able to include a table for our alumni and apprentices currently at the UTC. Our inspirational guest speakers were all former UTC students, who entertained and inspired us with their stories of drive and determination to achieve their goals. They included:

› Cameron McIntosh, a founding student of the UTC, currently at SEM completing a Level 4 apprenticeship in engineering;

› Janie Fasham, working as an engineering apprentice for Point CNC;

› Ennis Richards, who completed a business degree and now works for KCC; and

› Tyler Younger, now working for Sparshatt in his first year as a motor-vehicle technician apprentice.

It was a great opportunity to recognise the extra effort needed to be worthy of these prestigious trophies and I am sure the students’ families were bursting with pride at their achievements.

The Leigh UTC values the participation of its many business partners; in fact, links to industry are very much at the heart of every aspect of education at the College. The winner of this year’s Business Partner of the Year Award was Thames Water, which has provided outstanding support to The Leigh UTC.

A significant part of the evening was the silent auction, which raised an incredible £18,200 for various projects that will enhance the education of students. These will include the purchase of new library books, sponsorship of the college minibus, new equipment for the Duke of Edinburgh Awards scheme, support for STEM research and development projects and sports kit for students and staff.

The fast-moving, inspiring evening was enjoyed by all and huge thanks go to all our sponsors and the organisational team that made the evening such a success.

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Shaping Lives, Transforming Communities 7

LAT’s Got Talent

Too often, the entire focus in schools is on the achievement of academic subjects, with not enough time to identify the skills of those who excel in other areas. We aim to remedy this by identifying and celebrating our pupils’ talents in the arts and performance and by giving them the opportunity to perform in a professional setting with an audience.

Each academy will devise its own process to select a pupil or group of pupils to perform at the The Brook Theatre in Chatham. Performers and guests will attend the contest on Friday 3rd July during school hours, while a panel of independent judges will watch the acts and a winner and two runners-up will be announced at the end of the event.

Will your academy produce the first-ever winner of LAT’s Got Talent? Start the ball rolling by contacting Karen Major or Sarah Goosani for further details.

Shakespeare Schools Festival

Friday 22 November 2019 was a memorable evening for Milestone Academy, as 28 students from the Milestone@theLeigh and Milestone@Wilmington satellites performed on a professional stage, as part of the Shakespeare Schools Festival. Our students, led by director Keren Read and supported by student-director Zack Freeman, presented an adapted version of Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare's famously complex comedy. In front of an audience of hundreds at The Woodville in Gravesend, the students performed brilliantly.

The festival coordinator commended Milestone students on an honest, funny, spirited performance that kept the audience laughing throughout.

Special mention was made of teacher-director Zack, as well as Shayden Muzeya for an incredible solo singing performance. Marcus Philpott and Luke Smith, who provided all the technical support for the production, were also praised by the festival organisers.

Commenting on the production, director Keren Read said: "The performance was amazing, but what really stands out is how well these students worked as a team. On stage and off stage, they were supporting each other and helping everyone do their best."

Elliot Barry, who played Leonato, said: "I am really proud of myself. I know how much I have improved."

Run by the Shakespeare Schools Foundation, the festival is the largest of its kind in the world, with over 20,000 participants from more than 750 schools.

LAT's


Leigh Aspire Primary

September 2019 saw the launch of the new format of the Leigh Aspire Primary programme, #LeighInnovate. For this year only, #LeighInnovate19 is pursuing United Nations Sustainable Goal 12, which aims for responsible production and consumption, in particular, recycling. Using their creative thinking skills, all primary academy pupils have been working in teams of three to create a recyclable product out of paper, plastic, glass or aluminium. The team with the best product then went on to represent their academy in the #LeighInnovate finals event, which was held at Strood Academy on Thursday, 5th December.

It was lovely to see the amount of thought and effort that pupils had put into the development of their products. After much deliberation, the judges decided that the winners of #LeighInnovate19 were: Tree Tops Primary Academy, for their product which does not use batteries, and instead generates electricity through movement to keep the light on.

Finally, a big thank you to all Leigh Aspire staff members in each of our academies for all their help and support with the delivery of this fantastic programme over this term.

Secondary

Now in its second full academic year, Leigh Aspire is afully-funded character-enrichment programme that delivers transformative experiences, inspiring pupils in our primary and secondary academies while raising their aspirations to achieve their full potential.

New Pupils

During this winter term, Leigh Aspire has welcomed over one hundred and fifty new Year 9 and Year 12 pupils into the programme.

Each pupil has participated in a Leigh Aspire overview workshop, empowering them with the knowledge that with hard work and effort they can achieve academic success. These pupils were also given a Leigh Aspire badge, a symbol of the motivation needed to keep them focused on achieving their academic aspirations.

Leigh Aspire GraduatesThroughout this winter term, Leigh Aspire has been busy presenting certificates to pupils who graduated from the programme last year.

Year 9 Graduates

The objective of the Year 9 programme is to support pupils to develop aspirations and a vision for themselves. Below are the pupils who successfully graduated from the Year 9 programme last year and are proudly wearing their Leigh Aspire badges and showing off their certificates.

These pupils have now embarked on the Year 10 programme, which focuses on supporting individuals to develop the mindset of professional pupils, while last year’s cohort, now in Year 11, are harnessing all the skills they acquired last year to achieve academic success in their forthcoming GCSE exams.

Remembrance Day

Students, staff and governors of LAT academies, together with members of The Royal British Legion, The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers and other distinguished guests came together on Monday 11 November to remember the fallen servicemen and women of the two World Wars and the 12,000 killed or injured since 1945.

Students gave moving performances, observed a two-minute silence and laid wreaths to commemorate the signing of the armistice between the Allies and Germany at 11am on 11 November, 1918. The Leigh UTC was even featured on BBC South-East News.

Year 12 Graduates

The Year 12 programme supports pupils about to make the transition from school to university or the world of work.

Above are Samuel Balmforth and Joseph Hodgkins, Wilmington Academy pupils, who successfully graduated from the Year 12 programme last year.

Now in Year 13, they are striving to achieve excellent academic outcomes and places at prestigious universities.


The Scholars’ Programme 2020 The Brilliant Club’s Scholars’ Programme offers students an experience of university-style learning.

This term, Mascalls Academy and The Hundred of Hoo Academy each selected a small group of eight Year 12 pupils who, supported by a PhD-level tutor during the spring term, will complete a university-style module culminating in a final assignment. These in-school tutorials will be complemented by two trips to highly-selective universities, starting with Pembroke College, University of Cambridge, on 15th January 2020.

Careers Round-up

Another busy term for the careers learning team! At least five LAT secondary academies are currently undertaking Investors in Careers assessments with a view to gaining or maintaining their Quality in Careers Standard awards, and one primary academy has expressed interest in doing likewise.

The Leigh Academy has recently been assessed and is waiting for confirmation of final results, but we can announce their successful completion in November of the first stage of the reassessment which relates to commitment. The assessor was impressed with both staff and students, praising students’ articulateness and expressiveness as well as the strong support provided

by caring staff. Other academies, with support from careers learning professionals and the wider engagement team, are working hard to meet the national Gatsby Benchmarks.

Most academies have held their post-16 open evenings, which were vibrant and well-attended. Career pathways, information and guidance, destinations and entry requirements were covered during the talks, helping prospective students plan their futures and decide on the options available. Working with Business events have also been well-attended, resulting in a busy term for all involved. The service continues to elicit gratitude and praise from all concerned.


Maths Mastery Update

Following the announcement of the partnership between Leigh Academies Trust and Mathematics Mastery (MM), ten secondary academies have made great strides in the implementation of the programme and all departments are investing heavily in professional development through weekly departmental workshops, learning walks, school development visits and attendance at LAT sessions.

To date, over half of LAT’s academies have participated in school development visits. These provide an opportunity for them to reflect on, self-evaluate and discuss the implementation and progress of the MM programme. The development lead (a MM representative) supports schools by quality-assuring their self-evaluation and guiding their action plans.

MM departmental workshops are weekly, hour-long professional-development sessions delivered by each academy’s MM secondary lead. They provide time for teachers to collaborate and share knowledge, ideas and expertise, and to challenge their peers, and set the scene for planning through engagement with pedagogy and subject knowledge. There is a sharp focus on the principles of MM, as well as on identifying the key points at which students may develop misconceptions and addressing these before looking more deeply. All sessions are thought-provoking and few teachers leave them without having reviewed and adjusted their approach to some aspect of maths.

To supplement these sessions, the first LAT cluster-based departmental workshop took place at The Leigh

Academy on Wednesday 13th November. Six academies attended, focussing on developing pupils’ understanding of negative numbers.

Further, as part of the LAT professional development afternoon on Wednesday 20th November, MM delivered a session on the effective use of manipulatives at Wilmington Academy. All maths staff from across the Trust’s partner schools were in attendance to develop the use of manipulatives in maths classrooms with a focus on algebra.

This commitment to professional development has set a strong foundation in LAT’s implementation of MM.


Kent and Medway Training (KMT) Update

This year, 160 trainees have registered to train within the consortium and are now coming to the end of a successful second term. Training across nearly 80 schools, all trainees have settled well into the programme and have participated in an extensive range of training opportunities. These have included the Google inspiration day in London back in September, behaviour-management training with Peter

Hobbs, Physical Education (PE) in the primary curriculum delivered by the Football Association (FA) and meta- cognition and cognitive overload with Ashley Wickens. Follow up resilience training with Bounce Forward is scheduled for the new year.

The recruitment window for 2020 opened in early October and already KMT lead schools and hub directors are

busy recruiting for the following year. To date, we have twice the number of trainees on board compared to this time last year. Fundamental proficiency checks have been established to replace the infamous skills tests and we can already see a positive impact on applicants.

4n 12

n 3

4

We can use distributive property to expand expressions:

Expand the following and represent them in similar ways:

4(n + 3) = 4n + 12

4(3 + n) 4(n + 2) 5(n + 3) 4(2n + 3)


At present, Ofsted is carrying out pilot inspections under the new draft framework, which is due to go out to consultation in February ready for a September 2020 introduction. Thankfully, the themes of the inspection coincide with the school exams inspection framework (EIF), so we will focus strongly on the initial teacher-training (ITT) curriculum and trainee workload.

Thanks to all principals, professional tutors and mentors for their continued support. The Trust now trains over 25% of its entire cohort so we cannot thank everyone personally for everything they do!

For those of you who may be interested in embarking on a teacher-training programme for September 2020, please contact Olivia Couzins

(Head of Recruitment) for more information - [email protected].

For Mascalls staff, please let Jenny Gray know if you or somebody else want to train to teach - [email protected]

Here’s to another successful year!

MTSA Update

We have been delighted to extend our professional development offer this year as we continue to build new partnerships and extend our collaboration.

The suite of leadership development opportunities has seen colleagues from across LAT schools and wider afield begin work on new National Professional Qualifications as others complete their studies. The ELSA course provided by our fantastic Educational Psychologist team has also been extremely well received. New primary networks in a range of subject areas have begun to consider the specifics of curriculum intent, implementation and impact in each subject area, and we intend to add a range of opportunities relating to sports and PE in the next few weeks. Our calendar of keynote speakers began with Andy Vass, and opportunities to work in partnership were provided at the recent TeachMeet. Last week David Didau provided a workshop on curriculum design.

For the future, we are really excited about Professor Dylan Wiliam, who is coming over from the States to lead a conference entitled ‘Developing a Broad, Rich and Ambitious Curriculum.’ Gary Wilson will be adding to this menu in February with a session entitled ‘Raising the Achievement of White, Working-Class Boys.’

We are adding to our offer from the Educational Psychologists, beginning a course for aspiring and Assistant SENCOs in February. Our suite of ‘Positive Psychology’ seminars is still ongoing. Another opportunity for Team Teach training is also planned for the spring, with HLTA training booked for later on this academic year.

We are delighted to continue working with our cohorts of NQTs, especially in our role as an Appropriate Body for NQT accreditation, and with our Early Career Teachers, Aspiring Middle and Senior Leaders. Our team of Specialist Leaders of Education, and Local and National Leaders have been added as an additional resource to the Academy Improvement’s Team’s fantastic offer.

Please visit our website or contact Sarah Smith on [email protected] to find out more, and to register for any of these or other opportunities.

This autumn has seen a huge flurry of work in the Kent and Medway Maths Hub. The 50+ primary schools participating in this year’s Teacher Research Group (TRG) Mastery Programme are well into their programme of study, along with the 20+ schools on the ‘Mastery Readiness’ programme and the 50 schools looking at sustaining their work last year. Nearly 50 members of the Hub’s wider leadership team met at the start of November at the Local Leaders of Maths Education Forum to consider the progression of the curriculum in teaching division from Early Years to Post-16. Our team has just returned from a visit to schools in Shanghai, supporting the research in this area.

Further opportunities to engage include the primary-school ‘Shanghai Live’ events, with the opportunity to learn from the returning visitors and their hosts from Shanghai. There are still a number of spaces in the newly-launched secondary work-groups as well as the primary work-group for mixed-age classes. The Early Years Conference will take place on 27th April and the Secondary Conference on 9th July.

For these and more opportunities please visit www.kandmmathshub.org

Alternatively, email Sarah Rose on [email protected]


Primary Years Programme UpdateLAT Primaries on a Journey to become International Baccalaureate World Schools

Eleven of our LAT primary academies are now candidate schools for the IB Primary Years Programme (PYP); the remaining three will submit their applications for candidacy this academic year.

The PYP is the framework through which our primary academies deliver the national curriculum, underpinning LAT’s ambitious and innovative approach to curriculum design and implementation. The programme allows pupils to demonstrate agency in their own learning while engaging with local and global issues through the lens of inquiry. Pupils are supported to develop their learner profile attributes and approaches to learning, collections of qualities and skills that will provide all LAT alumni with the tools to make a positive impact on the world.

Using the PYP as our framework allows learning to become transdisciplinary and provides pupils with opportunities to engage with national curriculum subjects in meaningful and relevant contexts. This process is supported by the development of rigorous practices in each of the four assessment domains, giving all members of the learning community an accurate picture of pupil attainment and progress, both within the curriculum areas and within the PYP elements.

Developing Assessment Practices

Academies are committed to re-imagining, evaluating and honing their systems for monitoring, documenting, measuring and reporting on learning so as to ensure the best possible outcomes for our pupils. At the heart of this will be their adoption of the structure of observed learning outcomes (SOLO) taxonomy to promote and assess conceptual understanding. The taxonomy, first proposed by Biggs and Collis (1982), is a model that describes increasingly complex levels of progression in learning, moving from factual, knowledge-based thinking to conceptual and abstract thinking and understanding.

Each PYP unit of inquiry is based around a central idea - a globally significant statement that addresses the commonalities of human experience and that challenges and extends pupils’ thinking and prior knowledge. Erikson’s Structure of Knowledge (2002) explains the optimum interaction between knowledge and understanding,

which results in pupils being able to make a principal generalisation; in other words, to think conceptually and understand the central idea on a deeper level - the point we want all our pupils to arrive at by the end of a unit of inquiry.

The SOLO taxonomy supports this process: inquiry starts with gathering facts and knowledge with the aim of moving pupils on to more sophisticated levels of thinking, where they process information in order to make connections and, ultimately, independently extend and transfer their understanding to new contexts. The taxonomy defines two surface levels of understanding (uni-structural and multi-structural) and two deeper levels of understanding (relational and extended abstract). As such, the levels can be used both to monitor pupils’ understanding throughout a unit of inquiry as well as to design learning and assessment activities that support the development of conceptual understanding.

To this end, the PYP Advisory Group is working collaboratively to devise a programme of professional development to enhance teachers’ assessment capabilities, which will in turn enhance our pupils’ assessment capabilities. We want our pupils to be skilled in self-reflection and, most importantly, self-adjustment, knowing what level of understanding they are currently working at, what they need to do in order to move on, and taking action to bring about this improvement.

A further tool employed by our primary academies to promote reflective practice is that of pupil portfolios. Portfolios make learning visible through the selective inclusion of high-quality evidence and purposeful annotation, with each entry adding to a picture of pupil attainment and progress over time. Teaching staff and pupils co-construct portfolios, sharing responsibility for choosing and annotating entries. Portfolios are currently being trialled across a variety of digital platforms and we look forward to feedback from the initial roll-out of this tool in the new year.

Jenna Mehigan, Oaks Primary Academy


LAT Apprenticeships

Since April 2017, medium and large companies across the UK have been contributing a sum of money every month to what is widely known as a levy pot. This initiative was conceived as the government pushed the national agenda to start three million employees on apprenticeship programmes by 2020. Leigh Academies Trust is one such company and we have been contributing to our own levy pot since 2017. To date, we have enrolled over 30 apprentices on various programmes delivered by external companies including Middleton Murray, the Open University and the National Institute of Education, to name a few.

We are delighted to confirm that, after a long and arduous application and on-boarding process, Leigh Academies Trust is now an approved apprenticeship provider, which allows us to deliver apprenticeship programmes in-house. One of the many benefits of being a provider is our ability to ensure that the very best quality training is being delivered, as we have an abundance of highly-skilled staff across LAT who are currently undergoing training to become qualified apprenticeship assessors. The apprenticeship arm of LAT - LAT Apprenticeships - will be running six programmes as follows, with the first cohorts starting in January 2020:

› Engineering Technician (Level 3); › IT Infrastructure Technician (Level 3); › Commis Chef (Level 2); › Property Maintenance Operative (Level 2); › Teaching Assistant (Level 3); › Business Administrator (Level 3).

Cohorts will predominantly consist of LAT employees but we will also be enrolling a number of external candidates to provide a healthy mix of skill-sets and experience.

Many myths and much uncertainty surround apprenticeships. Frequent questions include: “Am I eligible?”, “Will I have to take a drop in my salary if I start a programme?” and “Am I too old to do an apprenticeship?” The LAT Apprenticeships team will be able to answer these questions for you, probably with a ‘yes’ (you are eligible and you won’t need to drop your salary) and ‘no’ (you’re never too old and there’s no age limit)!

LAT employees can register their interest or ask general questions by contacting [email protected]. You can also visit our website for more information - www.latapprenticeships.com.

International Exchange Visit to China The Leigh Academy

The Leigh Academy is very proud of its partnership with Beijing 57 school in China.

We have been privileged to receive students and staff from Beijing 57 at The Leigh Academy on several occasions over the last ten years. A year ago, ten Chinese students and three staff members had the opportunity to experience life as students in the UK, attending a range of lessons, discovering British culture with visits to Canterbury and London, delivering lessons to Year 7 about Chinese culture and teaching students some Mandarin.

Both sets of students have commented on how the exchange experience has led to life-changing, lasting friendships and allowed them to gain fresh perspectives on the world.

We are very much looking forward to the next exchange at Easter 2020, when it is the turn of The Leigh Academy students and staff to visit Beijing.

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Sharing Best Practice Intrinsic and Extraneous Cognitive Load, plus Dual Coding

Why does everyone seem to be talking about cognitive load theory?

In January of 2017, Dylan Wiliam - Emeritus Professor of Assessment at the Institute of Education (soon to be speaking at the Medway Teaching School Alliance, or MTSA) - tweeted that cognitive load theory (CLT) is "the single most important thing for teachers to know".

Only the briefest of glances at the new inspection handbook would suggest that Ofsted agrees. Published in May of this year, the framework is heavily informed by CLT and its practical implications for classroom practice. Indeed, so overt is the handbook’s reliance on this model of learning that Ofsted felt compelled to publish a defence against criticisms that CLT was the only area of research upon which it drew in constructing its framework.

The challenge for schools, in this context, is to ensure that teachers - hard-pressed for time as they are - possess more than a merely superficial understanding of CLT, such that it does not descend into a Frankenstein’s monster of jargonised and spurious classroom activity.

So...What is cognitive load theory?

Simply put, CLT is a model of learning which rests upon two widely-accepted ideas:

› Our working memory – the part of our mind that processes what we are currently doing – is extremely limited; it cannot hold much information at any one time (see diagram 1).

› However, our long-term memory is essentially limitless; we can store vast quantities of information here, and retrieve this at a later point when it is helpful to do so.

Diagram 1:

In 2001, Cowan and colleagues found working memory capacity to be 4 (meaning we can hold or process no more than 4 pieces of information in our working memory at any given time), with a variation of + or - 1, depending on the individual.

What does this model of learning suggest we should be doing in our classrooms?

Given the limitations of working memory, CLT suggests that we should be mindful of the load, or cognitive effort, required to process information; because anything that occupies your working memory reduces your ability to think (Kahneman: 2012) - that is to say: high cognitive load results in reduced performance.

#1: Invest in long-term memory retention:

The more complex the content or task, the higher the (intrinsic) cognitive load. However, this can be reduced by storing information in one’s long-term memory. If a learner has sufficient prior knowledge of the topic being explored, then even very complex content or tasks can be rendered relatively easy.

This is because we store knowledge we know to be connected in schemas (see diagram 2). Schemas are important because, counter-intuitively, the more robust they become - i.e. the greater the number of items of knowledge in a schema, and the greater the number of connections between these - the easier it is to draw an entire schema up into the working memory as a single unit that occupies just one slot, through a process called ‘chunking’.

Diagram 2

For example: think about when you’re driving home at the end of your working day. You may choose to engage with a podcast, or to sing along to the radio, or to plan what you are having for dinner that evening. You are able to accomplish all of these tasks and more whilst driving, because you have a sufficiently robust driving-related schema encoded in your long-term memory, which you can retrieve as a single chunk that occupies just one slot in your working memory, thereby freeing up the remaining slots to process other information. Contrast this with when you were a novice driver, without a sufficiently robust schema encoded in your long-term memory, and you may recall being unable to think about anything but driving (and even then, performing this task poorly) because there was no available space to do otherwise.

This is why cumulative, low-stakes quizzing (or spaced retrieval practice, as it is often called) should feature regularly in our lessons. Because testing helps us to encode information, it leads to the construction of more robust schemas, and this frees up space in students’ working memories for critical and creative thinking, and thus improved performance.

This is also why sequential curriculum design, that builds on and refers back to prior knowledge, is optimal; because it leads to more robust schemas that can be chunked into single slots in working memory.

#2: Focus on the clarity of your explanations:

Extraneous cognitive load is generated through the way information is presented to the learner. If the information that students receive is presented in an imprecise, irrelevant and unclear way, for example, cognitive load will be high and this places limits on the learning.


This is why Ben Newmark, author of Why Teach? (2019), argues that greater attention should be placed on the quality of explanation in classrooms, alongside the subject knowledge which often underpins this:

We will not get better at delivering explanations if we do not include practice as part of the planning process. Giving a well-crafted explanation is best viewed as a short theatrical performance, which means we should rehearse before we go live [...] Even in the lower year groups strong subject knowledge is crucial to planning great explanations because it is only by knowing more than we will deliver that we can be sure what we are explaining is of the most importance. It might be helpful to think of this process as a funnel or a sieve; by starting with a greater amount we can be more sure what we choose to deliver is of high value. For my own subject, history, Gustave Flaubert provides a helpful analogy in saying that the writing of history should be like “drinking an ocean and then urinating a cup”. Planning for great explanations can be seen in the same way.

#3: Simplify your resource design and think carefully about visual aids:

If “memory is the residue of thought” (Willingham: 2009), we should exclude anything from our lesson resources that we do not want students to remember. Tasks that require students to make a poster, or to write a diary or letter, take up valuable space in students’ working memory and are detrimental to learning unless the goal is to explicitly teach students about the constituents of poster design, diary writing or letter composition.

Similarly, incorporating images vaguely or implicitly related to lesson content on slides serves only to distract. Visual representations can aid learning significantly because the working memory has both visual and verbal capacity, meaning that if the same information is properly presented through these two streams, we can process more than we would otherwise be able to. However, such dual coding requires that the visuals reinforce - not distract from - the content, and that these are referred to explicitly by the teacher. Simple visuals with clear and precise narration are optimal; spoken explanation and text together, on the other hand, is sub-optimal, because we process what we hear and what we read at different speeds, meaning we have to switch between tasks, thereby decreasing performance.

Diagram 3

For dual coding to be effective, therefore:

› Explanatory text should be integrated with images to avoid the split-attention effect (this is why a is preferable to b in diagram 3, above);

› Spoken explanation and text together should be avoided so as not to overload the auditory channel (this is why a is preferable to b in diagram 4, below)

Diagram 4

#4: Use worked examples when teaching procedural knowledge:

Procedural knowledge is that which is exercised in the performance of a task - for example, how to ride a bicycle. When teaching students procedural knowledge - be it solving an algebraic equation, performing a layup, analysing a historical source or punctuating a sentence - worked examples should be utilised. A worked example is a step-by-step demonstration of how to perform a task or how to solve a problem (Clark, Nguyen, Sweller, 2006). These work to reduce cognitive load by outsourcing the order of the steps required to be successful, so that these are not burdening students’ working memory.

› To summarise: According to this model of learning, we should aim to provide students with the following:

› Clear, concise, precise explanations, drawing on and explicitly making reference to visual representations wherever possible;

› Resource design that excludes anything we do not want students to remember;

› A simple sequence of steps, modelled when delivering procedural knowledge;

› Routine, spaced retrieval practice (so as to encode information into long-term memory, thereby freeing up space in working memory).

Collectively, these commonsense approaches work to make learning easier for those whom we teach, such that they can learn more while under our care.

Dan Morrison, Leigh Academy Blackheath

References: Caviglioli, O. (2019) Dual Coding for Teachers; John Catt Educational LtdWillingham, D., 2009. Why Don’t Students Like School? Because the Mind is Not Designed for Thinking. American Educator, Spring Issue, pp.4-13Kahneman, D. (2012) Thinking, Fast and Slow; Farrar, Straus and GirouxClark, R. C., Nguyen, F., & Sweller, J. (2006). Efficiency in learning Evidence-based guidelines to manage cognitive load. San Francisco Pfeiffer.Newmark, B. (2017). Ten principles for great explicit teaching. Available at: https://bennewmark.wordpress.com/2017/10/07/ten-principles-for-great-explict-teaching/ [Accessed 30 Nov. 2019].


Update on Third College Building at Wilmington Academy

After a number of years of waiting for planning permission, construction of the new college building at Wilmington Academy finally began in September, managed by Kier and funded by Kent County Council.

The new building will provide an additional 28 classrooms over three floors to accommodate the expansion of the Academy’s student roll in 2015. The new facility will sit between our current buildings and staff and

students are enjoying watching the construction within metres of their classrooms - a perfect opportunity to inspire the engineering and construction professionals of the future.

Progress has been good since September, with the steel frame completed and floor construction underway. All being well, the new building will be ready for September 2020, when the temporary array of

11 classrooms, which were necessary while we waited for the new building, will be removed.

Above is a photograph of the steel frame being installed and an image of the final finished building.


Update on New Building at Leigh Academy Blackheath

In September 2019, Leigh Academy Blackheath (LAB) moved into temporary accommodation on Old Dover Road, adjacent to the site of a brand-new building set to open in September 2020. Students and staff have enjoyed watching the building take shape over the last four months, taking real delight in its transformation from a steel skeleton to a complex structure with internal stairs, floors and window frames. Each break and lunchtime, the students monitor the

building’s progress with interest, observing how different members of the construction team work together. This view shows the sports hall with the main school building behind.

As the weeks pass, excitement continues to build amongst the LAB community as they anticipate the completion of the building work and accessing all the exciting learning spaces and resources that the new build will provide.

Update on New Sports Facilities at The Leigh UTC

Work to create sports provision on the plot adjacent to The Leigh UTC is to begin imminently. A revised contract price has been agreed with the contractor, planning conditions have been submitted and negotiations with Thames Water regarding protection of the underground drainage infrastructure are underway. Funding for the sports field has come from developer contributions and Kent County Council grants.

The pitches are expected to be ready for use by September 2020, subject to suitable growing conditions throughout next year.

New maths centre opens at Sir Joseph Williamson’s Mathematical School (SJWMS)

We are delighted with the new Mathematics Centre at SJWMS. We have been keen to bring maths together in one purpose-built block for many years, an aim finally realised this term, with the first lesson on Monday 28th October. The block consists of 11 classrooms, office space, storage and pupil study rooms, along with an additional servery to provide food in the extended playground at the rear of the school. The creation of the Mathematics Centre has enabled the life skills and psychology departments to move into rooms 1 - 5, in turn creating more space for humanities, computing and languages.


Facility upgrades at The Halley Academy

It has been another year of significant investment at The Halley Academy.

Since formally joining Leigh Academies Trust in March 2018, The Halley Academy has undergone a transformational journey as its aging estate is upgraded and years of under-investment are addressed. Following the first year of work, which provided a spectacular new kitchen and dining facility as well as a new fire alarm, fire doors and an overhaul of the majority of classrooms, LAT has spared no expense on further enhancements.

So far, this year has seen replacement of the main boilers, demolition of two redundant buildings, replacement of the flooring on several staircases, refurbishment of the staffroom, rewiring and replacement of numerous distribution boards, the reconfiguration and refurbishment of a toilet block and the creation of a new sixth-form study space. Still to come are the creation of a new car park, replacement of more staircases and another new toilet block - all within the current year!

Looking further ahead, The Halley will benefit from an exceptionally generous grant from The Tallow Chandlers’ Company to create an Engineering School of Excellence, the design of which will begin in the new year.

LAT is now well on the way to achieving its mission statement of transforming the community at The Halley Academy and looks forward to realising the benefits of further investment in future.

Update on New Building Developments at Dartford Primary Academy

South Block sympathetic refurbishment works

New dining hall and assembly space

New Milestone learning spaces

As we head towards the end of the year, the buzz at Dartford Primary Academy is becoming deafening. Phase 1 of the junior site refurbishment is due for completion, with a move for our Year 3 and 4 children scheduled for February. Gone are tired classrooms and poor learning environments - now we see bright, light, airy spaces, beautiful refurbishments using new technology but with a nostalgic nod to the school’s Victorian heritage. Staff have walked the buildings in Phase 1 and are excited at the prospect of using the nicer, more welcoming space. We excitedly await the move and the start of phase 2 here at DPA.

Our Milestone Academy colleagues and students are also keen to explore their new building, with large open spaces, airy classrooms and better facilities. We are all agog to welcome the exciting new future at Dartford Primary Academy!


Christmas wreath making at Horsmonden Primary Academy

On Tuesday (3rd December), Year 6 at Horsmonden Primary Academy escaped the classroom to go scrumping in the local farmer's fields, returning with bags overflowing with beautiful foliage ready to make their Christmas wreaths. It was a crisp, fresh winters morning and children could be seen poking out of leylandii hedges and ivy bushes, snipping away in preparation for the following day. A few brave individuals found some wonderful holy, which was also carefully cut and brought back to school.

The following day, the hall was set up as a mini Christmas workshop with the smell of fresh cuttings filling the room. Each child had a mossy wreath in front of them ready for foliage to be carefully bound on.

The children gathered a selection of cuttings, laying them upon the moss, building it up to gradually take the shape of a traditional wreath. They then went on to decorate them with lights, baubles, dried orange, cinnamon sticks, and whatever else they liked to achieve their desired look. Each and everyone was beautifully original, with the children all very proud of what they had independently created and achieved- a fantastic Christmas experience!

HorsmondenPrimary Academy

Update on Bearsted and Snowfields Academies and Leigh Academy Rainham

The development of LAT's three free schools continues at pace and each will achieve some significant milestones during this academic year.

The construction of both Bearsted Primary Academy and Snowfields Academy began in late July on the same site close to Junction 7 of the M20. The steel frame was erected in September and as the photo shows, the roof and floors are in place with the external brickwork now being added.

Both academies have been enthusiastically received by local parents and promotional events have led to a steady stream of applications for both academies. In January, teaching staff will be appointed and it is anticipated the funding agreements will be signed with the Department for Education. Everything is on track for the founding pupils to be admitted next September.

It has now been agreed that Leigh Academy Rainham will open to students in September 2021.

Consequently, planning permission has been submitted for this new mixed secondary school and a decision about this is expected in January 2020. If this is granted, construction is due to start from March 2020. To date, interest has been huge locally from parents and prospective students, and the Principal Designate, Carl Guerin-Hassett is working closely with the community to bring this exciting project to fruition.


Vision

2025

LAT has achieved much in its relatively short lifetime since 2008. We are now ready to think on an even bigger scale and look outwards to new horizons. We are educating sixteen-thousand young people who will be the adults of tomorrow, helping to shape our world for the better. That is a huge responsibility and is why our next set of goals - called Vision 2025 - will have at its centre the major social, economic and technological challenges facing the world today. Based on our strong moral foundations, it is our duty to educate pupils to face these challenges and to help make the world a better place.

Major economic, social and technological challenges

Through Vision 2025, LAT will contribute to making the world a better place. The main challenges are:

Challenge 1: Modern lifestyles are destroying our planet and increasing inequality

We will develop environmentally conscious learners who feel empathy, act compassionately and behave ethically. We will create pioneering social entrepreneurs with a sense of service to others, future generations and to the planet.

Challenge 2: Humans are overloaded with information

We will develop learners who think critically, based on a secure knowledge and understanding. We will enable them to apply insight and judge the significance and reliability of information.

Challenge 3: Traditional jobs are being replaced by technology and globalisation

We will develop internationally-minded learners who appreciate differences and have a wide range of perspectives, ensuring they are adaptable, innovative, creative and can harness the power of digital technology.

Challenge 4: A lack of employment skills risks UK wealth and productivity

We will develop confident learners who have a positive can-do attitude and strong work ethic, able to collaborate and work as part of teams. We will focus on STEM and employer links to increase the flow of well-qualified young people entering the workplace.

Our Vision:LAT Excellence Charter

1 We will provide outstanding leadership and governance at every level so that all pupils attend an academy judged to be at least good overall by Ofsted.

2 We will ensure a rich, engaging and inclusive curriculum with effective teaching and high-quality learning resources across all subjects and year groups.

3 Regardless of their ability or personal circumstances we will ensure that all groups of pupils make at least good progress and diminish differences in their attainment.

4 We will develop pupils’ characters and attributes in line with the International Baccalaureate Learner Profile so that all LAT alumni obtain a collection of desirable qualities before they leave school.

5 We will ensure that pupils are well-behaved, confident and respectful in a safe and secure environment.

6 We will ensure a high-quality workforce and prioritise staff retention, professional development and well-being.

7 Through our “Business Promise” we will guarantee strong engagement for all pupils with industry and employers.

8 We will provide all pupils with a high-quality careers learning programme.

9 We will grow to support more schools in the region so that our pupils and theirs benefit and that standards improve across the board.

10 We will work with our own and other primaries to ensure smooth transition to our secondary academies.


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Leigh Academies Trust, Carnation Road, Strood, Rochester, Kent ME2 2SX t: 01634 412200 | e: [email protected] w: www.leighacademiestrust.org.uk

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Leigh Academies Trust is a registered company, company no 2336587. An exempt charity.

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Leigh Academies Trust Christmas Card Competition

We are delighted to announce this year's winner of the LAT Christmas card competition is from Stoke Primary Academy. Ellis who is in the reception class designed this beautiful picture of Santa with Rudolf and a snowman which will be used as the design for this year's card. Ellis will receive a gift voucher as a prize for his artwork together with a pack of his own cards to send to his friends and family.

Artwork created by Ellis, Reception Class, Stoke Primary Academy

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