We are DEMAT - April 2024

Message from the Chair

Helen Jackson

It is a pleasure to welcome you to the third edition of the DEMAT Magazine.

A highlight of this year so far has been meeting many of our local Governors at the Governors Conference in March. A working group of Trustees and Chairs of Governors has been working with the Governance Team over some months to clarify and codify the role of DEMAT Governors. This was long overdue but we expect our new Governors Handbook to be in operation throughout the Trust by September. This process served only to strengthen our belief that our local governing bodies are essential to DEMAT both for good governance and for their invaluable support to Head Teachers and school communities.

It was a pleasure to meet so many of you who give so much to our schools in different ways across the Diocese. If you weren’t able to make this conference I do hope we can meet at the next one.

There is much to celebrate in this edition of our magazine - it is a joy to be able to share how much has been achieved, and how ambitious we remain for the future.

Helen Jackson Chair of Board of Trustees

Welcome from the CEO

Adrian Ball

Welcome to the Summer edition of We are DEMAT. The Summer term has always been and still is my favourite time of the academic year as we see the culmination of the hard work and effort of so many. Our year 6s will be approaching this term with a mixture of nervousness and excitement about finishing their primary education and moving to secondary school, while our youngest children in nursery will be beginning their transition into reception classes.

Over the past term we have seen a SIAMS inspection at Anthony Curton Primary in Norfolk, where the inspector was extremely pleased with the school and acknowledged that the school and Trust were meeting the expectations of a Church school.

We have also been asked to become a founding member of the East100 initiative alongside the Reach Foundation and four other multi-academy trusts from across the Eastern region. The purpose of the initiative is to train and develop 100 Headteachers to work in the East of England, and to work together to develop and implement strategies to reduce the disadvantage gap that is prevalent in our region.

The next event of the DEMAT Together programme is being prepared alongside St Mary’s church in Ely and our many talented Art subject leaders. The DEMAT Art Exhibition will take place later this term with a wide range of art on display from children across all year groups and from all forty schools. Details regarding public viewing times will be sent out through each school should you wish to view the artwork for yourself.

Thank you once again for your continued support that you have shown to the Trust and each one of its schools, children, staff, and governors.

Adrian Ball Chief Executive

Working Together

Catherine Lock

As we develop a trust-wide approach to many different areas, this allows us to work together in really meaningful ways.

Subject leaders have been working together to ensure highquality resources are shared across all the schools, to identify ways to enhance the local element of our curricular offer and to share expertise and advice in delivering and adapting specific areas of our curriculum. We have been able to link schools up where they have had similar priorities and some where one school has been able to support another. We have seen inter-school training and sharing of good practice, and we have seen leaders of different areas working across several schools, developing their own skills and bringing their experience to meet a need. We can do this effectively because of our alignment around our principles of the curriculum and teaching, inclusion, and behaviour, and through the understanding that, while we are many

schools, with different characteristics, we are all one team. This kind of thing can be easy to say, but harder to see evidence of action. With things as tight as they can be sometimes, it is truly amazing to see this actively happening and the sense of trust that is being cultivated in order for it to flourish.

This sense of working together is growing and spilling out into many areas across our Trust, sometimes in unexpected ways! We are so grateful for the generosity of spirit we see amongst so many team members who really embody our core value of Love as defined so clearly in the words of 1 John 3:18, “let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth”.

Welcome to DEMAT

We are delighted to introduce our new Events Coordinator, Sally Fisher.

Based at our Central office in Ely, Sally has a wealth of experience organising events for many high profile organisations including National Trust, Harrods, Unilever and Lakeside Shopping Centre. She has been a Town Centre Manager for Stratford in East London and the seaside town of Walton-on-the-Naze in Essex, where she designed and implemented an award winning marketing and events scheme to promote the town. Sally has also worked extensively in schools and was Head of Drama for 7 years at Littlegarth School in Essex.

In her spare time Drama is her passion and she can be found running her performing arts school in Essex, now in its 15th year. She also loves singing in choirs, and going out for lovely Fenland walks with her partner and their two extremely energetic dogs, Millie and Bobby.

Sally says. “I’m so excited to join the DEMAT team and work in such a friendly and welcoming organisation. Starting work straight away on the DEMAT Together programme has certainly been very exciting! As well as working on the magazine I am currently coordinating and curating the art exhibition showcasing the wonderfully diverse artforms used in our schools. This is an event not to be missed, with our children proudly showing their talents, not only to their parents but to the wider community as well, in a public viewing.

I’m looking forward to meeting many of you soon. Please feel free to contact me with anything you would like included in our quarterly magazine and if you have any ideas for events I am very happy to chat with you. My email address is sally.fisher@demat.org.uk”.

DEMAT Together

Upcoming events

It’s looking like a busy year in the DEMAT Together department! With a new coordinator on board we are busy sorting and finalising events for this coming year and for planning 2025.

Two events happening in the Summer Term are the Impossible Questions Symposium and our Art Exhibition. After the summer holidays, as part of our aim to celebrate sporting achievements across all our schools, we look forward to telling you all about our exciting football tournament scheduled to take place on 20 September.

We are delighted to share that on 2 December we’ll once again be hosting our annual Carols Service in the beautiful Ely Cathedral. This wonderful event will allow us to joyfully celebrate the true meaning of Christmas.

Impossible Questions

The Impossible Questions lecture series, where children worked with author Isabel Thomas to devise lots of impossible questions, has now drawn to a close. The work has been exemplary and the variety of questions from our children outstanding.

We are now looking forward to an exciting Impossible Questions Symposium at Cambridge University in June where an anthology of the Impossible questions will be collated and distributed to pupils who have their work featured in the book. We look forward to updating you about the symposium in the next issue.

Celebration of Art

We are busy collating wonderful pieces of art from our schools to appear in an exhibition in St Marys Church Ely in June 2024. Pupils whose work is chosen for the exhibition will be invited with their parents to a special private event on 7 June in the church and the exhibition will be open to the public on 8 June.

Over to you

We are currently planning events for the next school year and would love to hear your suggestions.

Please forward any ideas to Sally Fisher, our Events Coordinator, who would be very pleased to hear from you.

Sally.fisher@demat.org.uk

Impossible Questions

Interview with author Isabel Thomas

Award winning author, Isabel Thomas, has been delivering a series of Impossible Questions lectures for our schools.

We had a chance to catch up with Isabel and find out more about her and how the lectures have been going.

Welcome Isabel, can you

give us a bit of background about yourself?

“I am a science writer and the award-winning author of more than 250 books for children. I also write for science magazines The Week Junior Science + Nature and Whizz Pop Bang, and speak at festivals, schools and on the radio.

I studied Human Sciences at the University of Oxford, and Science Education Research at the University of Cambridge. Having grown up in a low-income, one-parent family, I am passionate about inspiring children from diverse backgrounds to explore the opportunities offered by science education and careers”.

Tell us about your Impossible Questions books and their inspiration.

“The Bedtime Book of Impossible Questions and my new book The Bedtime Book of Even More Impossible Questions, coming out in October, were inspired by children and their incredibly insightful questions! What’s the opposite of a spider? Are feelings made of atoms? Could a dog swim in ice cream?

For my three sons, these questions were especially likely to bubble into their brains at bedtime – when the imminence of lights out sees children morph into dehydrated philosophers! In the books I use the latest science to answer more than 70 questions asked by real children – for these questions are SO much better than any cutesy imitations dreamed up by adults”.

Tell us about the lecture series with DEMAT

“When I speak about the book at festivals or school visits, I usually only get an hour - so it has been a HUGE pleasure to develop a six-hour Impossible Questions lecture series for DEMAT schools. The aim is to encourage a focus on reading and writing non-fiction for pleasure. During the series, I am showing pupils how I craft an answer to an impossible question, creating a short non-fiction story – an adventure in the real world. The aim is for every child to research and write an answer to their own impossible question, to create a DEMAT Impossible Questions anthology”.

Have you received

a

variety of questions from our pupils?

Several classes have sent me their own impossible questions, and a brilliant question from Holy Cross – “Can cows digest pizza?” – has become a model for the whole series! I’ve included my top ten questions from DEMAT schools so far, and I can’t wait to see more! Our focus is on making writing and science fun, and demystifying the creative process involved in both. Some of them have even made it into The Bedtime Book of EVEN MORE Impossible Questions, which I was busy writing as the lecture series began.

My top ten impossible questions from DEMAT schools... so far!

1. How many ants would it take to lift Big Ben?

(Wisbech St Mary)

2. Can a fish see air?

(St Andrew’s)

3. How many kilograms does the earth weigh?

(St Christopher’s)

4. Can a plant grow in fruit juice? (Holy Cross)

5. Why can’t you peel an apple like you can a banana?

(St Botolph’s)

6. Why is it cold at the top of a mountain when it is closer to the sun?

(St Botolph’s)

7. Are ghosts real?

(Duchy of Lancaster)

8. How did the universe start?

(St Andrew’s)

9. What is the point of dinosaurs?

(Ermine Street)

10. How many Yorkie bars placed end to end would it take to reach the top of Mount Everest?

(St Botolph’s)

Thank you Isabel, our schools have certainly kept you busy and I know they have all been inspired by you, your lectures and your books!

As the lecture series draws to a close a special event will be held on 21 June 24 from 10.30am - 12.30pm at the Cambridge University department of Computing and Technology. This symposium will be for children whose work has been selected for the Impossible Questions anthology, a special book being published to celebrate the lecture series. We are aiming for up to 40 children to have their work selected. We hope to show you a selection of the winners in the July issue of our magazine, We are DEMAT.

Pictures of the author and her books above.

Farcet Update on transforming spaces

In February, a group of volunteers from central office arrived at Farcet School with spades, forks, secateurs, gloves, and lots of enthusiasm, to start to tackle the “Secret Garden” space at Farcet, which had sadly become overgrown and neglected. They really got stuck in with lots of digging, weeding, cutting and skip filling and made an amazing start to the project which will involve transforming the garden into a beautiful space for everyone to use.

Emma Slade – Head of Farcet School says, The clearance day was really helpful but the space is not transformed yet... There is another day in May to finish clearing away the weeds and plant the areas up”.

We look forward to coming back to Farcet in our next magazine to see pictures of how the garden is progressing and showing how the space is being used.

Guilden Morden A new garden

Guilden Morden are delighted to have a new garden area at school!

Headteacher, Sonia Singh says, “Thank you to all the staff and parent volunteers that were able to help tidy up our garden area before the half term break in February. Their help with this was very much appreciated and you just have to look at our before and after pictures to see how much progress was made in just a day! Over this term, we have set up a new Gardening Club and the staff and children have added to this and will continue to build on this area in the coming terms. This truly lives out our school values with everyone working together to succeed and flourish.”

Fabulous news and well done to all those volunteers who helped to transform the area which will greatly benefit our school community.

St Andrew’s Dragons

St. Andrew’s School have been working hard on a Design and Technology Project involving making Dragon Eye Magnets.

Children were asked to design a dragon’s eye to be fashioned into a magnet. We are sure you will agree the results are absolutely stunning. Well done St Andrew’s, these are fantastic, congratulation to you all.

Orchards Books galore

Thanks to funding from the Foyles Foundation, Orchards C of E Academy were able to secure £6,000 to implement their new book corners. In order to surprise the children a special day was planned. When children came in to school they were greeted by strange structures covered by a sheet which prompted lots of questions about what could be under there.

They were then treated to a special assembly with author Richard O’Neill who went on to announce the special book corners in their classrooms.

After the assembly children were taken back to class where teachers unveiled the new “Book Nooks” which were greeted by cheers and squeals of delight which echoed around the school, a very special moment to treasure.

Richard O’Neill then spent the day visiting each classroom giving pupils a special story session and allowing each class to choose one of his books to add to their collection. The day was just a buzz of excitement and genuine delight about books.

We look forward to hearing more stories about how the books have inspired the children in the future.

Picture of pupils with author Richard O’Neill, Katie Crawley (Orchards Literacy Lead) and Headteacher Sarah Cullen.

Thriplow and Babraham Football friendly

Boys from Babraham and Thriplow schools met at the end of last term to celebrate the end of the school football season. They thoroughly enjoyed the match which was won by Thriplow. After the match they celebrated by eating some delicious cake and the Year 5 boys very much hope to organise some further matches on the Babraham field during next winter!

We look forward to hearing all about it.

Wisbech St Mary

Top 1% achievement

Wisbech St Mary are rightly proud of their achievements following their recent Key Stage 2 assessment results. 96% of pupils gained the required academic standards in Reading Writing and Arithmetic putting the school in the top 1% in the country for Key Stage Two results. They received a letter from the Minister for Schools to congratulate them on their success.

Many congratulations to all the staff and pupils for their hard work.

Guyhirn DEMAT’s first asthma friendly school

Healthy Highlights

Congratulations on becoming first school in DEMAT to be registered Asthma Friendly.

As part of the strategy to improve the outcomes and management of all children with asthma, schools are encouraged to become “Asthma Friendly” by completing a number of checks and establishing required protocols.

To date 18 primary schools have already started their journey and another 5 are about to start.

Congratulations are, however, in order for Guyhirn Primary School for being the first school to complete the accreditation in November; the school is now working closely with the team to evaluate the process and make recommendations to other schools.

Ermine Street Rise to the challenge

Healthy Highlights

Year 6 pupils at Ermine Street have been taking part in the East Anglian Air Ambulance (EAAA) Challenge Badge.

During an exciting series of events and challenges the children learned vital lifesaving skills including CPR and how to use defibrillators so that they might become someone’s life-saver one day.

Children were also enthralled by a very interesting talk from an EAAA representative who shared the many roles within the organisation, such as specialist doctors, critical care paramedics and pilots. They learned how each role interacts, to bring the air ambulance directly to those that need it in, the fastest time possible.

Having been inspired by their special visitors the children busily planned events to raise vital funds for the EAAA including running a cake sale and a teddy tombola. They created posters to promote and advertise these events, and meticulously planned and ran the events themselves. Thanks to their fantastic efforts, they raised an amazing £233.00. Congratulations to all of you

St Luke’s

The village school in the city

St Luke’s and its relatively small size makes the school unique within the busy city centre of Cambridge.

One of the many challenges the school faces is the significant mobility in and out of the school. This year, having experienced a migration level of 42%, one of the ongoing challenges is to ensure these children quickly settle in and their families feel part of our community.

St Luke’s have worked hard to find out what makes the transition into school a success for all those involved. Looking at behaviour management as a priority St Luke’s devised a set of protocols called “The St Luke’s Way” a codified set of routines and procedures which allows children to quickly feel secure in the expectations of the school.

Headteacher Beccy Ireland- Curtis says.“We have a consistent approach in all classes, supported by Instructional Coaching, contributing to a calm and purposeful classroom culture. Removing the child’s cognitive load of having to identify what, when, and how they should do things, allows them to settle down quickly and they soon feel part of the school community.

In addition, it is important that we bring families into our community as quickly as possible to give them a sense of belonging. We do this in several ways ranging from informal events arranged by the PTA, school open morning sessions and encouraging parents to volunteer in school and take part in community-based events.”

St Luke’s is fortunate to be able to help facilitate families to gain access to the exciting opportunities within Cambridge. Including visiting local lectures at the University, attending concerts, including the prestigious Kings College Carol Concert for Primary Schools and making use of the experiences of the parenting community by inviting them in as guest speakers for key events.

One of the schools ongoing projects is working with On The Verge who are working with the school community to enhance our school grounds. We had a very successful bulb planting day earlier in the year and we are shortly about to ‘make a meadow’ on part of the school field with their support. This work will be completed over a weekend and will be a community event which we hope will further allow all of our families to become more involved in our school.

Great work in bringing the community together St Luke’s, we can’t wait to see how the meadow looks in the summer!

Ten Mile Bank Pupils meet the King

In December, four Ten Mile Bank Riverside Academy pupils had the honour of meeting King Charles at Sandringham House.

In celebration of the King’s coronation, children from West Norfolk schools were invited by the Borough Council to contribute pages to a commemorative book which can be seen online here: https://www.west-norfolk.gov.uk/coronation-book Children at both Ten Mile Bank and Hilgay Riverside Academies made creative contributions.!

The hard copy of the book was presented to the King and he was delighted with it. In fact, he loved it so much that he wanted to meet some of the children who had contributed. Ten Mile Bank was selected as one of three schools to visit Sandringham house.

The children were taken by their parents and enjoyed Sandringham apple juice while they waited for the King to arrive. The children were spoken to by the King and he asked them about homework! The accompanying adults were very excited as they also got the opportunity to talk to the King.

The children really enjoyed this special experience and said:

‘’It was really nice meeting the King’’.

‘’He was really nice’’.

‘’The King was kind and welcoming’’.

Reading

Writing

The Trust in pictures

The Trust in pictures