Summer newsletter 2023

Summer Newsletter

As we approach the end of the summer term, thoughts turn to reflections on our achievements as a Trust over the last academic year It has been fantastic to see the increase in collaboration between staff across the Trust, but also the growing partnerships across all areas of our work. In January, the Trust held its first Trust-wide CPD event, bringing together staff from all three academies and Astley Sports Village to help create a new culture of collaboration and joint working across the Trust A number of cross-Trust workstreams and groups have been established this year, further deepening relationships between staff

We have seen the benefit for all our students as they gain experience by increasing opportunities to work together. Some of these have been academic in nature such as the English Festival and the Year 8 Murder Mystery day Others have been more about fostering a sense of community across all student populations; the celebration of the coronation of King Charles III to our joint wreath laying on Remembrance Day to commemorate those who fell fighting for our country are just two examples. We have also seen more students from Ashton Sixth Form College volunteering to act as academic mentors in the schools to support students who may need a little help as well as providing opportunities to gain valuable experience which will help when applying for university Every one of these opportunities to collaborate and work together more closely strengthens our sense of community and connection Thank you to all of our students and their families / carers for your support during the year.

I would also like to thank every member of staff across the Trust for their dedication and hard-work throughout the year I am humbled each and every day when hearing stories about the extraordinary work done to support our students It is a pleasure to work with such a group of professionals who are committed to providing the best education for all in our Trust.

I hope you enjoy the summer and find some time for rest and relaxation.

Anton McGrath CEO

Commemorating the Coronation of King Charles III across the Trust

To commemorate the Coronation of King Charles III, all academies across Stamford Park Trust have each planted an oak tree and a time capsule on their individual sites.

Stamford Park Trust CEO, Anton McGrath held a small ceremony at each academy where the occasion was marked with poems written by students before planting the capsule containing special items for students of the future to learn about this historic event

Items in the capsule included branded school materials, photographs of school life, as well as memories of the Queen and mementos from the coronation celebrations in school.

Blessing in Year 8 at Rayner Stephens High School wrote a wonderful poem to celebrate the occasion, which highlights what a momentous event this is for students across the country. At Longdendale High School a coronation poem was written by members of the Year 7 creative writing club and read by Sian in Year 9.

We hope that the future generation of students will discover the capsules to learn more about school life and this historic event.

Students also spent time learning about the Royal Family and their history and tucking into Coronation cupcakes!

Stamford Park Trust CEO Anton McGrath said "At Stamford Park Trust, we wanted to do something a little different to commemorate the coronation of King Charles III. The planting of trees represents the new King's passion for nature and the natural world and will serve as a physical reminder of this time in our history. The time capsules, once opened, will provide a social history of those who studied and worked across our academies in the future."

Year 8 join the bespoke aspirations programme

In Science, students learnt how to protect a crime scene, gather and analyse evidence and form conclusions on who could be the guilty suspect.

English saw students discover how linguistics can be used in solving a crime, by looking at clues in the suspects social media posts and text messages. The grammar, punctuation and use of language, gave the likely suspect a ‘linguistic fingerprint’ which added suspicion against one suspect in particular.

In Maths, students worked in groups to solve a range of challenging puzzles to crack codes and open locks in an escape room style challenge. Eventually this helped them discover coded messages and parts of a jigsaw that when combined, unlocked the code of the leading suspects iPad which contained strong evidence as to the perpetrator of the crime.

The students showed commendable team working skills throughout and enjoyed the experience

There is real strength in our collaboration, that’s why we encourage all students to participate in our Aspirations programme for schools within our trust. Designed to help students develop both academically and personally, and prepare for a bright future ahead, whether at university, in higher-level apprenticeships or in the world of work All students, from year 7 to year 11, have the opportunity to work with the college, local universities and prestigious employers to help them become the very best version of themselves.

High School on recent Ofsted inspection

Longdendale High School are delighted to have received a positive report in their latest inspection which recognises all of the hard work and significant improvements happening across the school.

The report, published in April, describes that “leaders have improved many aspects of school” and “have developed a curriculum that is ambitious for all pupils” The school was judged as good in all areas for behaviour and attitudes and personal development with Ofsted noting in particular that “leaders have raised their expectations of pupils behaviour and that “pupils feel safe and happy in school.”

Headteacher, Andrea Jones was pleased to see Ofsted recognising good practice in many areas reflecting the continuous improvement journey the school is on She said:

“I am delighted that the inspection team recognised the significant improvements made across the school. The inspection team were all overwhelmingly positive about how well our students behave on a daily basis and the positive impact this has on their lessons and learning. We were also delighted that inspectors recognised that our students enjoy school and benefit from a wide range of opportunities to support their wider personal development across all areas of school life We are exceptionally proud of our students and everything they achieve, and they are a real credit to themselves, their families and our school.”

The school continues to go from strength to strength having also recently been designated as a National Flagship School for Inclusion in March 2023 and receiving a glowing report for SEND provision in a recent SEND review by the National Association for Special Educational Needs (NASEN)

Reflecting on the report, Anton McGrath CEO at Stamford Park Trust said:

"A huge well done to the staff and students at Longdendale High School. We are pleased that Ofsted recognised the rapid improvement made by staff since Longdendale High School joined the Trust, and the Trust's part in that improvement We understand that there is further work to do and we remain committed to ensuring that Longdendale High School becomes a beacon of excellence and ambition for all."

Longdendale and Rayner stu Ashton Sixth Form College's

Year 10 students from Rayner Stephens High School, Longden High School and other schools in Tameside attended the ann English Festival led by the English department at Ashton Sixth College.

Students were then given the opportunity to speak to two loc writers, Fantasy writer Connor Irving and Poet, James Jackso Students put forward some interesting questions to the two writers and were able to gain an insight into the world of a w

Throughout the day and in between their taster sessions and students took part in a writing competition. In the English Literature session, students were asked to write a letter to th nine year old self which Jamia Abdul from Rayner Stephens H School won English Language and Literature, was a creative task, which was won by a Longdendale High School student W Done to both competition winners!

Rayner Stephens achieve Flagship School status for Inclusion

Rayner Stephens High School have been awarded the Inclusive School Award with Flagship School status by the Inclusion Quality Mark

Only a handful of UK schools have the honour of achieving IQM Flagship School status. The award recognises those unique schools who have held IQM Centre of Excellence status for at least 3 years; and played a strong leadership role in developing inclusion best practice across a network of schools.

Rayner Stephens are extremely proud to have been described as a “Friendly, Vibrant and developing community” with “The best possible experience for students.”

As part of Stamford Park Trust, Rayner Stephens have shown their shared belief that the young people of Tameside should have access to the best education provision so that the students in their care are able to realise their ambitions for their future and their life chances are improved by embedding outstanding practice

The assessor noted that since joining Stamford Park Trust there is a “strong belief that the school is improving at a fast pace and is an outstandingly inclusive place and that it will continue to evolve and change to meet the need of its community, rising to meet whatever challenges occur in the future.”

The report detailed that a recent review of vision and values had demonstrated the schools highly inclusive ethos and is thoroughly embedded in everyday practice.

Particular areas of focus include the school’s outstanding reading intervention in partnership with City Year UK, SEND provision, HIVE centre for academic intervention and the student leaders and Anti-Bullying ambassadors Noting that students are “well looked after and there is a clear understanding that inclusion means all students, no matter what the barriers to learning are, no one is left out or left behind.”

The report concluded by stating “Rayner Stephens continues to be an outstanding school in terms of inclusion, ingrained in its ethos and this is enacted each and every day.”

Head of School, Martin Davies said: “We are delighted to have been awarded the Inclusion Quality Mark Flagship Status as it symbolises and recognises the amazing effort, care and dedication that is shown every day by the inclusion teams and wider staff at Rayner Stephens High School. The school is committed to ensuring that every single student receives the highest quality support and pastoral care to enable them to access the best education and personal development possible whilst they are with us

The challenges around inclusion in all schools, has never been greater, and that is why programmes such as our free breakfast and breaktime food schemes, family dining, the bespoke reading programme in partnership with the University College London and our expansive SEND and Pastoral Care provisions, are so vitally important to us and our students

The school is never standing still in our drive to provide the highest quality provision for our students and the IQM Flagship Award is a fantastic platform from which we will continue to develop and evolve our inclusion provision at Rayner Stephens.”

Anton McGrath, CEO of Stamford Park Trust added “'This is a fantastic report which clearly identifies a school on the up. The staff and students at Rayner Stephens should be rightly proud of this report and the confirmation of flagship school status. The assessor saw the positive impact of the approaches taken by the leadership team at the school who have worked tirelessly to develop all aspects of provision over the last few years Congratulations to all at Rayner Stephens; well done!"

A huge well done to all staff and students at Rayner Stephens High School who continue to make their school a fantastic and inclusive place to be.

Stamford Park Trust Sport, Community & Leisure has delivered a really successful academic year across all schools & colleges within the trust and continues to serve the local community in providing outstanding health, fitness & sports provision There has been significant funding grants awarded to further improve our facilities and physical activity provision from Football Foundation, Greatersport and Sport England. Some of the projects include brand new children's fitness classes being held at Astley Sports Village/Rayner Stephens High School. Funding has been secured of over £20k to further improve the grass football pitches at Ashton Sixth Form College and a new funding bid is going in over the summer for Longdendale High School Grass Football Pitches

The Gym at Astley Sports Village continues to thrive and Summer 23 we are able to support facility improvements with a brand-newiu purpose fit gym flooring with 10m astro turf prowler track being fitted alongside some new equipment for both Rayner Stephens High School students to make use of as well as further enhancing our ASV Gym Member workout experience

Ashton Sixth Form College has re-opened after the exam season and hosts England Netball, Back2Netball, Tameside Vikings Basketball, Inspired Futsal and will soon welcome Stalybridge Celtic Juniors and Dukinfield Tigers Juniors for the 23/23 grassroots football season.

Longdendale High School has a had a great community season with local grassroots football club, Hollingworth Juniors with a strong partnership working in place that has seen the club support the school facilities with two brand new sets of 11-side football goals for students and the club to use with funding support from the Football Foundation.

SPT Community is the brand new Twitter page where you can keep up to date with all the latest news, events and success stories as we look forward to a very busy and successful 23/24 academic year of dual use across all Stamford Park Trust venues.

Longdendale High School receives glowing report for SEND provision

the support in place to ensure all students are able to make s progress across the curriculum and achieve their full potentia

The review recognised that the school “has a clear and ambit for SEND curriculum provision and outcomes in the school ar a culture of high aspirations for all pupils.”

It was also noted that the highly positive relationships betwee and students are a real strength of the school, along with the commitment by teaching and inclusion staff to ensure that ne identified and supported at every stage The assessors comm “Relationships are extremely positive between staff, parents and this is due, in large part, to extremely effective methods communication.” The review also identified that “all staff und their responsibilities towards pupils with SEND… and the scho committed to a person-centred ethos which informs all aspe school life.”

Headteacher, Andrea Jones said “We are delighted to share t review highlighted many strengths in our provision for our stu SEND, and the support in place to ensure all students are able strong progress across the curriculum and achieve their full p As a result, our SEND students are well prepared for their fut and careers, and leave Longdendale with results that are abov averages for this cohort of students, and go on to successfull wide range of post-16 opportunities.”

The school continues to go from strength to strength having a recently received the Inclusion Quality Mark – a flagship stand recognising a schools commitment to outstanding levels of in best practice.

Longdendale and Ashton alumni wins Futsal award

Longdendale and Ashton Sixth Form College alumni Ryan Williams has been awarded a ‘Coach of the Year’ award at the National Futsal League campaign.

Ryan Williams left Ashton Sixth Form College in 2018 after studying Sport, Business and ICT where he then continued to coach Manchester Futsal Club

Ryan was awarded the National Futsal Series Tier 2 Coach of the Year award at St George's Park during the Grand Finals. Ryan coaches Manchester Futsal Club’s tier two team who took part in the second highest futsal league in the country, where they were runners up.

The Manchester side coach by Ryan finished as runners-up in this year ’ s National Futsal League campaign, winning nine, drawing two and losing just three of their 14 games all season. At just 23, it’s a great achievement for Ryan to have won this award as a young coach.

A huge well done to Ryan!

Welcoming students across the Trust

We've been proud to welcome our new students from each academy this term, getting a taster of life at their institution and Stamford Park Trust.

Tuesday 4th July saw new student day at Ashton Sixth Form College where students were invited to meet their subject teacher and try their subject as well as experience life as a student.

Later in the week, Rayner and Longdendale welcomed Year 6 students who will be joining in September as part of National Transition day. Students met in their form groups and were introduced to staff and subjects they'll be learning in school.

We're looking forward to welcoming new students in September and watching them grow in their next steps.

Chloe Stephenson completes HR qualification!

Chloe Stephenson, HR Assistant at Stamford Park Trust, has completed CIPD level 3 foundation certificate in people practice at Tameside College.

Chloe started as an apprentice at Ashton Sixth Form College in 2018 before moving to HR in July 2021 and started a Level 3 HR qualification

After working really hard Chloe has now completed the qualification and is looking forward to putting it into practice! The HR team are very proud of Chloe and th commitment she has s the course and the department Well done Chloe!

Chris Burke celebrates 20 years working at

ASFC!

Chris Burke, IT facilitator at Ashton Sixth Form College has just celebrated working for the College for 20 years!

Chris is a 'boomerang' in that he attended Longdendale High School before completing his GNVQ Intermediate and Advanced IT qualifications at the college before joining us as an IT Technician two years later. Chris stayed within the department and became an IT Technical Officer in 2008 and an IT Facilitator in 2015

A huge well done to Chris on this huge achievement!

Rayner canteen receives 5 star hygiene rating!

A huge well done to all staff in the kitchen at Rayner Stephens who have worked hard to achieve a 5 star hygiene rating.

The review concluded that all aspects of the review, including Hygienic food handling, Cleanliness and condition of facilities and building and Management of food safety were good.

A huge well done to Suzanne and the rest of the team for their continued hard work!

Jaz Winkler Passes ECT Induction

Congratulations to RE teacher, Jaz Winkler, who has successfully completed her Early Career Teacher induction at Longdendale High School. The induction is a two-year process which includes completing a series of online modules, attending training sessions with both internal and external providers and gathering evidence of meeting the eight teacher standards

Since starting at Longdendale in September 2021, Jaz has proven herself to be a fantastic teacher of RE. Her curriculum and lesson planning have captured the interest of our students, with many identifying RE as their favourite subject In addition, for two years running, we have had a cohort of students choosing RE as one of their options for GCSE; this is a testament to the high level of engagement Jaz inspires in our students

Jaz has also contributed to our enrichment programme over the last couple of years. The debate club she runs has proven to be very popular with students and Jaz recently took her GCSE cohort of students on a trip to Manchester Crown Court as part of their course Jaz has a fantastic future ahead of her in the teaching profession and we are pleased that she is leading our RE provision across school following a successful appointment as lead teacher of RE.

Estates Manager receives his BEM

Estates Manager at Ashton Sixth Form College, Chris Ashworth, was awarded a BEM in the Kings New Years Honors for his services to the college and the community during the pandemic.

Following the award Chris has attended the Palace where he was honored by the Prince and Princess of Wales for his services.

More recently Chris was presented with his BEM medal by the Lord Lieutenant of Manchester at a special ceremony at Gorton Monastery.

Once again a huge congratulations to Chris and thank you for all your service!

Welcoming new staff to Stamford Park Trust

We’re so happy to welcome like minded colleagues who share our vision of Excellence and Ambition for all to our Trust family.

Whether you joined before the end of term or are joining us in the new academic year, a huge welcome!

Khadejah Ahmed - Teacher of Law at Ashton Sixth Form College

Dylan Boys-Massey - Gym and Sports Team at Astley Sports Village

Gemmer Crozier - Careers Lead and Employability Manager at Ashton Sixth Form College

Jade Hammersley - Teaching assistant at Longdendale High School

Jessica Hughes - Teacher of Technology at Longdendale High School

Georgia Langston - Teacher of Science at Longdendale High School

Fawn Lucas Stokes - Teacher of PE at Longdendale High School

Kelly Melia - Teaching Assistant at Rayner Stephens High School

Dawn Nightingale - Teaching Assistant at Longdendale High School

Luke Pooley - Teaching Assistant at Longdendale High School

Michael Richardson - Site Management Assistant at Rayner Stephens High School

Abdurrahem Saif-Alee - Teacher of Business and Economics at Ashton Sixth Form College

Robin Smith - Teacher of Computer Science at Ashton Sixth Form College

Adam Tucker - Head of Estates at Stamford Park Trust

Jayne Vaughan - Customer Liaison Lead at Astley Sports Village

Helen Wilcox - Bursary and Attendance Officer at Ashton Sixth Form College

Belinda Wilkinson - Catering Assistant and Cleaner at Longdendale High School

Lauryn Wood - Teacher of History at Longdendale High School

Curriculum Leaders Complete Middle Leadership Programme

This year a selection of Longdendale curriculum leaders have been completing modules towards the SSAT Middle Leadership Programme. The modules cover a range of topics, such as setting a vision for their department, handling and analysing data and leading innovation and change.

The modules are delivered in group sessions and feedback from the participants has been overwhelmingly positive. Leaders have commented on how they have benefitted from accessing research, reading case studies, having professional discussions with other curriculum leaders in the school and having the opportunity to reflect on their current approaches to leading their departments. The refreshments provided have also been greatly appreciated!

Well done to Dawn Healey (PE), Richard Pomeroy (Maths), Elizabeth Baxter-Smallwood (English), Amy Harley (Science), Kat Humphreys (MFL), Ruth Kerfoot (History), Lauren Kelly (Geography), Mark Kilkenny (Performing Arts and Technology) and Claire Kennedy (Computing)

Ashton Sixth Form College achieves FETN Quality Standard Accreditation

The Senior Tutor Team at Ashton Sixth Form College has been awarded the FETN Quality Standard Accreditation for supporting individual progress and development

This accreditation takes a deep dive into the clarity and understanding of the tutoring role across the organisation; individual tutorial/review processes and record keeping; the quality of tutoring practice including target setting, action planning and facilitating learner progress; the development of individual learners’ personal skills, behaviours and attitudes; the management, co-ordination and support for those involved in the delivery of this provision.

Lisa Richards, Centre Principal said: “This is a fantastic testament to the work of this highly skilled team and fully deserved It also demonstrates how much college values the pastoral aspect of our work.” Well done all!