The Active Learning Trust Newsletter
Summer Term 2024
Welcome to the Summer Term issue of our newsletter for all parents and carers across The Active Learning Trust.
When we come to put together our termly newsletters I am always so pleased to see all the fantastic experiences and successes shared across our schools and feel the joy from our children and young people which shines through in the pictures and news stories we share.
This term I have been privileged to witness really magical theatrical performances, incredible sporting successes and have been very impressed by the focused and determined approach shown by our pupils as they have completed the assessments and exams which have taken place.
I wish you and your families a fantastic summer break, and thank you for your ongoing support throughout this school year.
Lynsey Holzer Chief Executive Officer
You can view all the current job vacancies across The Active Learning Trust’s schools and central team in one place.
So if you would like to join one of our friendly and supportive teams based at a school near you, and enjoy the wide range of benefits we offer our employees, click here to search today!
In May, schools across the Trust took part in a wide range of activities as part of Mental Health Awareness Week. The themes of the week were “Move More for Mental Health” and “Wear it Green Day”, giving pupils lots of opportunities to try new activities, talk about mental health and dress up!
At Red Oak Primary School, the mental health and movement themes were central to their week. In one of their activities, the whole school got involved in a group hula hoop session with lots of fun, laughter and movement in the fresh air. Elsewhere in Suffolk, Pakefield Primary School’s year 6 pupils were able to unwind and relax after their SATs tests with a well-deserved trip to the local beach. At Reydon Primary School lots of activities took place including a very popular yoga session. At Westwood and Grove Primary Schools in Lowestoft, both schools had walk and talks throughout the week. Grove had a whole school dance session on Friday and Westwood had a whole school yoga session.
At our Cambridgeshire schools, green was the colour of Kingsfield Primary School for "Wear It Green Day" as they enjoyed a day of dress-up to remind everyone to think about their mental health. Cromwell Community College’s Primary Phase tracked their steps while they walked around their local area. They also welcomed parents, carers, siblings and grandparents to take part in their Daily Mile walk before school, a great way to start the day on a positive note.
Our staff also spent the week thinking about improving their mental health. At Red Oak Primary School, staff took advantage of their coastal location with a seaside walk and an ice cream which provided the chance to chat away from school.
Representatives of the Trust’s Executive Leadership Team marked the week by taking on the epic challenge of Trek 24, walking 24 miles for East Anglian Air Ambulance.
Well done to everyone for getting involved!
Earith Primary School, Earith
Hillside Primary School, Ipswich
This term, we have been delighted to receive a number of awards, including the Leading Parent Partnership Award for Schools, the Platinum Safeguarding Award from Incyte International and Active Teacher Training’s Ambassador School Status.
One very exciting day for the children was our visit from Ipswich Town’s mascot Bluey, who brought with him the team’s trophy from their amazing promotion winning season! This formed part of a sport themed fun day for everyone to enjoy.
This term we were delighted to open our new EYFS play facilities which the children love using! Elsewhere, pupils have been working extremely hard – from Reception to Year 6 – to improve their arithmetical fluency and we have been celebrating their achievements with certificates in assemblies. The progress in this area has been phenomenal. Pupils from Year 2 upwards have improved their tables and gradually risen from 28th of out 30 nearby schools to the top spot!
The most pleasing aspect of all is our pupils valuing self-improvement and seeing their quicker recall start to translate into daily maths lessons. Fabulous!
Pakefield Primary School, Lowestoft
We are so proud of the children who performed on the main stage at the First Light Festival in June. They certainly represented our school with excellent behaviour and big voices.
In other news, pupils from across the school have raised over £500 for the Beccles Hospital-Garden Project by making & selling craft projects.
Our Year 6s had the best time on their residential trip to Grafham Water. Their trip was full of adventure from mountain biking, paddle boarding, raft building to high ropes. They have made memories that will last forever.
Kingsfield Primary School, Chatteris
We have all enjoyed lots of fun sporting-themed activities this term, including a whole-school Football Fun Day to celebrate the Euros, a fabulous sports day and a very special visit from Paralympian skier Sean Rose. Sean put the children through their paces with a fun fitness circuit and gave an extremely inspirational assembly which drew lots of wonder and disbelief at his incredible achievements.
Red Oak Primary School, Lowestoft
Year 6 performed Shakespeare's MacBeth and it was a very triumphant performance where all children were included. The performance was exceptionally strong with children learning many lines, presented clearly and with confidence. The parents were so proud, as were we. Parents commented on the transformation from Nursery to Year 6 for their children and expressed how the school goes above and beyond to support all children to achieve.
We also had a wonderful time taking part in Lowestoft’s First Light Festival!
Cromwell Community College, Chatteris
Our Year 10 students embraced the fantastic opportunity to visit Astra Zeneca’s headquarters in Cambridge this term. The visit included trying out column chromatography!
The Year 12 Duke of Edinburgh students have been completing their Gold expedition this week.
In Primary Phase, it was lovely to see the wonderful entries in our Produce Show and welcome so many families to our Celebration of Work Evening. The choir was incredible and Year 3 performed amazingly. We are so proud of all the children.
Isle of Ely Primary School, Ely
Our wonderful PTA organised the amazing Isle Fest in June, a lovely community event which raised over £6000 for the school. A big thank you to all involved. Several members of our support team also raised money taking part in AquaFest, where teams take to the water on homemade rafts and race up and down Ely’s rivers. Our eight house captains have held four charity days this year and have raised over £1200 for a range of charities.
The judges from the Needham’s Foundation, together with Ely Allotment and Gardens Association, visited the school recently for their annual gardening competition. We were awarded a highly commended, the top award! A big thank you to Mrs Butterfield for all of her hard work and effort with our garden.
In June, Year 5 pupils took part in the Ely Festival schools’ concert. Their singing was joyful and they were a credit to the school.
Highfield Ely Academy, Ely
Highfield Littleport Academy, Littleport
We have been working collaboratively with the Babylon Arts Gallery in Ely on an Inspired by Nature project. Students visited Wicken Fen Nature Reserve for inspiration and explored the sights and sounds of nature. Artists from the gallery worked with each of our students to create some artwork using a variety of different techniques. We also created a Wicken Fen sensory room. This work culminated in a commissioned piece of artwork which is now displayed in our school hall. We also held an art exhibition with parents invited to showcase our work. The students were very engaged, learnt a lot of new skills and we had many positive comments from the parents. We are hoping to repeat a similar exhibition and project around a different theme next year due to its success.
It’s been another very busy term at Highfield Ely – even discounting two successful Ofsted visits for our main school and our LINC 19-25 provision! As ever, we’ve been working closely with the Highfield Friends and Parents Association to raise money for school projects (a sunken trampoline for the Primary playground is the current target). We’ve seen a teacher and a TA leap out of a plane to raise £1300 and our Enterprise group have been busy hand making soaps which were on sale at the Ely Aquafest. LINC learners enjoyed their recent ASDAN celebration event with parents and carers and Ofsted inspectors thoroughly enjoyed the live “Animal Experience” which took part on day one of our inspection, meerkats and all.
Albert Pye and Ravensmere Schools Federation, Beccles
We are celebrating receiving a “Good” from Ofsted following our recent inspection at Albert Pye, a huge thank you to everyone for their support to help us achieve this!
We are holding a large sculpture trail across Beccles this summer . The classes have each made jelly fish in a theme from a topic of their learning this year. The sculptures will form a trail across Beccles in local shops and if the children see all the jellyfish there is a secret message. The sculptures are beautiful!
The end of term sees us start the exciting journey of Ravensmere Infant School and Albert Pye Primary School sharing the same site and we will be celebrating the relocation with all the children.
Red Oak Primary School, Lowestoft:
Chesterton Primary School, Cambridge
Our Year 1, 2 and 5 children went on a trip to the local Science Park where they took part in a range of STEM activities. In Year 4, we had the chance to get up close and personal with a variety of fascinating creatures, which sparked curiosity and gave the children an opportunity to learn about the animal kingdom in a hands-on way. Finally, our children took part in a Rock Concert where they performed in their bands to parents and the rest of the school! We are looking forward to our final event of the year, a whole school picnic, where we can celebrate the year together as a community.
Neale-Wade Academy, March
We have enjoyed some really exciting trips this year. On our France trip, students packed in many great experiences including visiting a market, Agincourt to learn about the battle and exploring the Wellington Tunnels.
Last week has seen students flying out from Heathrow for the first leg of our Peru trip, the first stop Bogota, Colombia!
Sidegate Primary School, Ipswich
The Multi-schools Concert held at Ipswich Corn Exchange this term was a resounding success. Six schools (including Sidegate) produced individual performances, which were all unique, but brilliant in their own way. The theme of the concert was 'Children's Voices' and the performances explored different elements of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The concert delivered a powerful message and it was a pleasure for #TeamSidegate to be part of this.
Thank you to our KS2 choir, we are very proud of you. Last, but not least, thank you to everyone who attended and supported this event. All profits will be split between UNICEF and SMART (Suffolk Music & Arts Alumni Trust) which is a local charity supporting Suffolk’s young people to access music and arts where they would not otherwise be able to.
Westwood Primary School and Grove Primary School, Lowestoft
This term, we worked with the Heart 2 Heart charity to unveil two new defibrillators outside our schools which are available at all times for the community to use if needed. Very soon after installation one of these was used so we are very pleased that we had the lifesaving equipment available.
Both our schools were also very proud to take part in the opening parade of The First Light Festival in Lowestoft where we all enjoyed representing Westwood and Grove. We have ended the term with the fantastic news that both our schools have retained the Inclusion Quality Mark Centre of Excellence status, well done to everyone involved in this achievement.
Reydon Primary School, Southwold
On the day the UK went to the polls, we held our own elections and voted for a new teacher for a day and a head of school! The two winning boys in Year 6 thoroughly enjoyed their new roles!
At our Summer Fete, pupils helped to plan, design and volunteer to run our stall which was a great success, thank you to everyone involved.
Gusford Primary School, Ipswich
This term we have been involved in a mental health and wellbeing project called “It’s good to be me” with the charity James’ Team. James’ Team is on a mission to supply a copy of the brilliant book You Are Awesome by Matthew Syed to all Year 6 children in Ipswich through fundraising.
We’re delighted to be part of this work to support positive wellbeing to our children here at Gusford. You can find out more about James’ Team and donate here.
Chantry Academy, Ipswich
We have seen some extraordinary achievements from our girls under 13 (U13) and under 12 (U12) football squads in the 2023/24 season. The teams have swept through local and regional competitions. Both squads also triumphed as Suffolk Cup winners - with the U12 team achieving a spectacular 13-0 win against East Bergolt and the U13 team securing a 6-2 victory over Bungay High in their respective finals. Furthermore, the U12’s came out on top as winners at the Suffolk schools 7-a-side fixture and made a notable run to the last 16 of the National Cup. A huge well done to all the students and staff involved!
We are also very proud to have celebrated achieving “Good” in our recent Ofsted inspection.
Proud to be part of The Active Learning Trust....
Albert Pye Primary School - Chantry Academy - Chesterton Primary School - Cromwell Community College - Earith Primary School - Grove Primary School - Gusford Primary School - Highfield Ely Academy - Highfield Littleport Academy - Hillside Primary School - Isle of Ely Primary School - Kingsfield Primary School - Neale-Wade AcademyPakefield Primary School - Ravensmere Infant School - Red Oak Primary School - Reydon Primary School - Sidegate Primary School - Westwood Primary School
The Active Learning Trust
c/o Cromwell Community College Wenny Road, Chatteris
Cambridgeshire, PE16 6UU
Info@activelearningtrust.org
01354 697485