SCHOOL LIFE

A busy start to the year at Cockburn schools

P-TECH Students at Cockburn School

The primary and secondary schools from the Cockburn Multi-Academy Trust have had an excellent start to the new academic year and have much to report from a very busy term.

All of the schools are extremely proud of the excellent attendance to school of their pupils and students and of how engaged they have been in their lessons. They have been resilient, respectful and have showed pride in their uniform, behaviour and learning.

In September/October, all three secondary schools hosted their Open Evenings to prospective families of children in Year 6. These events were incredibly well attended with over 2,000 visitors meeting the students and staff in the schools and experiencing a host of exciting activities planned by the different subject areas across the schools.

Cockburn Laurence Calvert Academy:

Cockburn Laurence Calvert Academy opened in September in their new Phase 1 building next to the St George’s Medical Centre. The founding members of the academy are a cohort of 211 Year 7 students and they have settled in extremely well and look very smart in their burgundy jumpers!

The beginning of their extracurricular programme has seen more than half of the school taking part in clubs such as Football, Harry Potter Club and Eco Club. 16 students have been selected through a very rigorous application process to become members of the first Student Council.

French horn player, Julia W in Year 7, has been nominated by Opera North to take part in ‘In Harmony – Opera North’. She was one of 24 selected from over 2000 applications.

Coming up next term:

• Remembrance Assemblies and an art installation to remember Sergeant Laurence Calvert. • 100% Attendance Club challenge rewards and celebrations

Cockburn John Charles Academy:

The girls Under 14 football club have been successful in securing a place in the second round of the cup with a resounding 3-0 victory against Crawshaw High School.

The academy recognised Black History Month through a week of whole school assemblies which were presented by the history department alongside Year 11 students who spoke passionately about their own personal inspirational figures.

The P-TECH group has made excellent effort and focus in their aspirational approach to independently making progress toward external accreditation through IBM’s Open P-Tech Programme.

Coming up next term: • Whole school production of ‘In The Heights’ featuring students from across all year groups, after months of hard work and preparation. • Year 11 P-TECH residential to London funded in partnership between IBM, Cockburn MAT and Leeds City College.

Penguin donated books

Cockburn School:

Over 500 students took part in at least one extra-curricular activity during September and October across a wide range of subjects including Sports Journalism Club, Sum Club, Debate Club, as well as many ICT, arts, technology, sports and performance clubs.

For Black History Month, the History department focused on a wide range of people, stories and exhibitions. They were also delighted to receive 130 books from Penguin UK Books which they will be integrating into their diverse curriculum to develop knowledge and literacy.

A special mention to Brooke W in Year 11 who has recently been accepted into Team England's Hip Hop Cheerleading team and will be competing at the Cheerleading Worlds at Disney, Orlando Florida in April next year. A fantastic achievement that began when Brooke attended cheerleading club at Cockburn School.

Coming up next term: • Remembrance Ceremony at the school war memorial where the whole school will fall silent for the Last Post. • School Production of ‘Sister Act The Musical’ - save the date - 1-3 December • Year 11 P-TECH residential to London funded in partnership between IBM, Cockburn MAT and Leeds City College.

Middleton Primary School:

Pupils had their first assembly for Meat Free Monday - some children have never had an assembly - but they were brilliant! They have also celebrated a virtual harvest.

All year groups have visited the Ledston Estate this term to enjoy the outdoors. 12 children have taken part in the Inspirations Programme via the Cluster which has provided opportunities for skateboarding, canoeing, ice Middleton Primary pupils re-enact Rosa Parks’ bus protest

skating, go-karting and mountain biking.

Black History Week had some brilliant outcomes. All year groups studied a particular character from history. Year 3 studied Rosa Parks and reenacted the bus scene using our school mini-bus.

Coming up next term:

• Halloween celebrations on Monday 1st - children dressing up in their outfit! • 2-week attendance and punctuality challenge - those who achieve 100% will have a popcorn and DVD party! • Northern Ballet are coming into school to work with all classes.

Cockburn MAT schools are looking for governors

Cockburn Multi-academy Trust (Cockburn MAT) are looking for committed people to join as Trustees and Governors.

Cockburn Multi-academy Trust is made up of three secondary schools, one primary school and one infant school in our community. At present there are Cockburn School, Cockburn John Charles Academy, Middleton Primary School, Cockburn Haigh Road Academy and the new free school Cockburn Laurence Calvert Academy which opened in September 2021.

The Trust was formed in 2016 and has continually grown since. They have an excellent reputation in Leeds and beyond and are in a privileged position to be able to give considerable support to an increasing number of schools within the city of Leeds and across the region.

The Vision of Cockburn MAT is every child deserves an exceptional education. Their vision is to create a group of exceptional schools that radically improve students’ life chances. They seek to widen their students’ aspirations; to reach destinations that are attainable and fulfilling. They work to raise attainment and provide exceptional teaching and learning for all of their students through high expectations of academic success and behaviour.

The Cockburn MAT Board Trustees have overall responsibility and ultimate decision-making authority for all work of Cockburn MAT including the establishing and running of the schools. The Local Governing Body operates at a strategic level and are not involved in the dayto-day running of a school. They are responsible for both the conduct of the school and for the promotion of high standards.

Governors must ensure that the school works efficiently and effectively towards achieving the Vision, and that the school provides a high-quality education for its pupils.

Governors have to build a thorough knowledge of the school and its community. They must support and constructively challenge the school.

Governors already in place at the schools say that the benefits of being a governor are immense.

Being a governor develops professional skills and experience such as strategic planning, chairing, financial planning, and team working, all of which are valued by employers and can assist their own career development. ‘Soft skills’ are also important – the ability to be able to build relationships with a range of people, to be able to work as part of a team, to be able to question, and to make connections between different types of information.

Being a governor helps to build relationships and networks in the local area while most importantly supporting children and young people in the community.

If readers would like to become Governors and Trustees they do not need to be experts in the field of education.

What they do need is an interest in the schools and in the welfare of the pupils, together with the time and willingness to get involved.

For further information please contact Sharon Burns, Chief Operating Officer, on info@cockburnmat.org in the first instance.

Impossible is Nothing at Hunslet Carr Primary

by Joanna Roberts

Impossible is Nothing means you can achieve anything when you are resilient and you persevere.

Every child who steps foot into our school is taught that they can be anything they want to be when they try hard, keep going and believe in themselves. At Hunslet Carr we call that belief, Impossible is Nothing. As long as they can be the best version of themselves – their city, their world, and their future is for the taking.

For our children, we base this belief on the fact that our children can see the skyline of Leeds from their classroom windows.

For the younger children in school, we teach them to believe Impossible is Nothing using child friendly characters. These characters all live in our ‘Effort Tree’. Each morning, all of the children start as a Trying Tiger and we encourage them to climb the tree.

At the top of the tree is the Persevering Panda who is resilient, learns from their mistakes, takes pride in their work, tries their best and knows what to do when they are stuck. At the bottom of our tree is a Lazy Lion who has a fixed mindset, gives up and makes the same mistakes over and over again.

When children become a Persevering Panda, they move

The city skyline is visible from the classroom windows

It is our determination that every child knows if they try hard, keep going when things get tough and believe in themselves, they can grow up to be successful in that city. Whether they have careers as accountants, lawyers, doctors or chefs, beauticians or shop assistants, as long as we embed the skills of perseverance and resilience, our children have the chance to dream big and make it happen. their face up the ‘effort tree’ and receive their own little panda to look after for the day.

If they have shown Impossible is Nothing, they become a Star of the Day and spend the whole day with their class Panda.

If the whole class has shown Impossible is Nothing, they get to look after Panku, our school panda. They get to tuck him in at night, show him their fantastic work and they never forget to brush his teeth! Star of the Day with the Class Panda

Now, we knew as wonderful and cute as our pandas are, they wouldn’t quite cater for our older children. So how would we inspire them to believe Impossible is Nothing?

From the very first sentence in the book, we knew this book was written for our children. Every quote from Marcus and every

Book launch at Elements

by Jeremy Morton

Pupils, parents and staff gathered on Friday 22 October at Elements Primary School in Middleton to celebrate the publication of a book of short stories.

The book contains 46 stories, all written last year by children when they were in Year 2, aged just 6 or 7 years old. Their use of language, their descriptions and ideas are very impressive.

This was the first proper parent event to be held in the school’s new permanent building and the new hall was packed.

Introducing the evening, Principal Sarah Horsbrough said:

“We are really excited because our children have written some fantastic stories which have been put together, beautifully illustrated by a professional illustrator and published as a book. Abigail reads Millie’s story

experience he has been through links directly to our children. It is almost as if Marcus had spent a day in our school before writing the self-help book. It is our ethos. Impossible is Nothing!

In interviews, Marcus speaks about the people he grew up with

accepting their lives and the path they were on because they didn’t know any different. For him, football gave him the opportunity to experience, believe and realise that Impossible is Nothing.

While children at our school might never play for Leeds United, it is our hope that when they look back on their time at our school, they will say we gave them the opportunity to be the best version of themselves.

Marcus Rashford likes to say –Dream Big and Make It Happen. So that is what we are doing at Hunslet Carr Primary School. It is our dream to have Marcus Rashford come to our school. Our campaign is just starting so keep your eye out to see our children, staff and community prove Impossible is Nothing when Marcus Rashford comes to visit our school!

Joanna Roberts is the Key Stage 1 Assistant Headteacher at Hunslet Carr Primary School.

Older children can wear the Champions badge Primary School

“Our children are now published authors and if you are a proper author you have a proper book launch – tonight the children are sharing their work with you.”

The audience heard a selection of stories read out by the children and occasionally by staff members. Subjects ranged from ninjas to tigers and from princesses to wicked witches, taking in lost baby dinosaurs and dogs in the snow. Three young authors were interviewed by their peers about the thinking behind the stories.

Danny Deeptown, who illustrated the book and worked with the children last year, has just won ‘Best Picture book’ at the Singapore Press Book Awards for his last book. He wasn’t able to be present but sent a message to the children saying:

“Your storytelling has improved massively. Every single one is very detailed and descriptive and because of that I had a great time illustrating them. We did this together. I am proud of you and you should be proud of yourselves.”

The evening finished with the children singing the song ‘World Changer’ where they pledged to become the best that they could be. Judging by their writing, they are well on their way to achieving that.

If you are interested in your children attending Elements Primary School, visits and tours of the school can now be arranged by contacting the school office on (0113) 532 7089 Year 3 sing ‘World Changer’