SCHOOL LIFE

Cockburn Multi-Academy Trust Spring term roundup Captain Cooper’s Hunslet Carr Prim

Schools across the Cockburn Multi-academy Trust have enjoyed a busy half term since the return from the Christmas break.

Here is a round-up of some of the activities from the different schools.

IBM P-TECH Residential Visit

Year 11 students from Cockburn School, Cockburn John Charles Academy and Leeds City College experienced a residential visit to London on 1011 February. This trip was funded by contributions from IBM and the schools and college.

The P-TECH programme is a prestigious opportunity for selected students to gain understanding and experience of the growing digital and cybersecurity sector and to provide them with a pathway through post-16 study leading to internships and potential employment with business partners, such as IBM, KPMG and NHS Digital.

The trip was a huge success with students participating in a range of activities including a flight on the London Eye, a Thames river cruise, walking tour of the city, overnight accommodation and finishing with a STEM focused visit to the Science Museum.

David Gurney, MAT CEO, said “This visit was a fantastic opportunity for students across the trust, in collaboration with Leeds City College and IBM, to experience a fully funded residential visit that enriched their cultural capital and will raise their aspirations to strive for success in the upcoming final examinations.”

LGBTQ+ Week

Schools across the MAT provided a range of activities to celebrate diversity to coincide with the annual LGBTQ+ week. Middleton Primary School delivered a whole week of activities to learn about diversity, equality and all the different types of family that exist, encouraging all student to celebrate their ‘uniqueness’ and promoting respect and tolerance.

Cockburn MAT secondary schools delivered a week of assemblies to all students focusing on equality and diversity and all schools are taking an active approach to raise the profile of this area by establishing student-led LGBTQ+ groups, which meet at lunchtime and provide students with support.

Cockburn School

Students in Years 7 and 8 were amazed by a Royal Institution live demonstration. ‘Energy Live!’ is an exciting audience led show, delving into the different stores of energy and how they affect our lives. Students experienced lively, firebased demonstrations. Audiences left not only knowing their elastic from their gravitational, but also fired up about energy. There was even an extra show in the evening for students from other year groups and schools and their families.

Cockburn Community Choir is looking for new members:

Cockburn School has been hosting Cockburn Community Choir for a number of years under the leadership of singing teacher, Sophie. It's a fully inclusive choir hoping to engage and enthuse the local community by bringing together people from all walks of life through song. The choir sing a wide range of repertoire from pop to rock, classical to show tunes, there really is something for everyone and they are now on the lookout for new members from the local community.

Anyone is welcome, whether you have sung in a choir for years or have never done it before, there is a place for everyone to find their voice. For those that want to show off their new skill, there are performance opportunities throughout the year but this of course is optional, you are free to just come along and sing.

By joining the choir, we hope

you find new people to connect with in the community, get to learn some new music, sing some favourites and experience the joy of making music with other people.

Singing is a great way to enhance your general wellbeing and that use of breath control seems to make everyone leave much more upbeat and awake than when we arrived. It is scientifically proven that singing improves wellbeing and releases endorphins that boost your mood. It is also aerobic exercise as it increases oxygen in the blood leading to better circulation.

So why not join a choir today? Rehearsals take place between 5-6pm at Cockburn School on Tuesdays during term time. For more information, please contact Mrs Amos at communitychoir @cockburnschool.org. We hope to see you there!

Cockburn John Charles Academy

Key Stage 3 drama students have been working closely with our educational partners at Burberry Inspire to stage a ‘Shakespeare Festival’ which was presented to an invited audience on Thursday 27 January. Head of School, Siobhan Roberts, said:

“It was wonderful to see so many of our students taking to the stage and performing a challenging script with confidence and flair. As an academy we understand how vital it is for students to work outside their comfort zone and to broaden their cultural understanding.”

Middleton Primary School

The students at Middleton Primary School have raised over £200 to mark NSPCC ‘Number Day’ and the British Heart Foundation’s ‘Wear It Red’ event. All children were invited to come to school wearing something red and a number of their choice. Meanwhile the school’s football team continue to go from strength to strength, having played 8 matches this season and won 7 of them.

Headteacher, Samantha Williams, said “I am so proud of our students’ attitude toward charitable endeavours, they are always keen to support those in need. We are also hugely proud of the performance of our football team, their team spirit and resilience absolutely exemplify the wider values of the school.”

Cockburn MAT students outside Buckingham Palace

Cockburn students were impressed by the Royal Institution demostrations Leeds United star Liam Cooper joined pupils for assembly by Joanna Roberts and Martin Lumb

On Thursday 3 February there was an electric, infectious buzz around Hunslet Carr Primary School due to the imminent arrival of Leeds United’s captain, Liam Cooper.

All classes were prepared for the amazing experience having had lessons about Liam Cooper where they watched clips of him playing, clips of the team celebrating their promotion to the Premier League and let’s not forget how they learnt the Leeds United anthem, ‘Marching on Together’.

Liam’s visit was organised by his LC6, Liam Cooper Academy. We were offered the chance for Liam to not only visit our children, but for his coaches to deliver sessions for our children. To say we were over the moon with this is an understatement. We knew we had to seize this chance to give our children the life-long memory of meeting Liam and hearing about his journey.

All children were challenged to think carefully about what they’d like to find out about Liam Cooper. Teachers explained that although finding out what he has for breakfast would be interesting, we wanted children to think about the skills, resilience, ambition and perseverance it took Liam to become not only a professional footballer, but also the captain of a football team.

A fist bump with the Captain

s visit to mary School

Our goal was for our children to meet someone who proves our ethos – ‘Impossible is Nothing’.

Cooper certainly did that with the most inspiring and motivational assemblies that will last in our children’s memories. When Liam was asked, “What advice can you give us to motivate us to achieve our dreams like you have?” he happily told our children:

“I always had a dream, from probably your age and for as long as I can remember to play football. It took a lot of sacrifice, perseverance and I managed to do it. I gave my dream everything I had. It took a lot of practice and taking advice. I always set new goals because you’ll be surprised about how focused you are and how much more you concentrate.”

The inspirational visit will also be remembered for the passionate and heartfelt way the children sang Marching on Together. Our video showing Year 1 and 2 singing along with Liam reached over 100,000 views on Twitter and gained interest from a range of media outlets who congratulated us on such a special video and reported the visit on their various platforms.

It was a whirlwind experience for the children and the community. Having an inspirational visit from Liam was like winning our own Premier League and has made us more determined to give our children the belief that ‘Impossible is Nothing’.

Two young women from Beeston contest Youth Parliament vote

by Kushmina Begum and Jeremy Morton

Two impressive young women from South Leeds are campaigning to win a seat in the UK Youth Parliament.

Leeds is electing three Members of Youth Parliament (MYP). Voting has closed but the winners had not been announced as we went to press. We spoke to Hannah Begum and Tian Cai, both from Beeston, who are amongst the six candidates in the election.

We started by asking about their campaigns. Hannah told us:

“My manifesto is about how Covid 19 has worsened the lives of many young people. It has caused mental health issues, loss of family and friends and social skills. My plan is to help these young people and allow them to be brought out of this cycle of loss, ensuring proper healing after the pandemic.”

Tian explained:

“In my manifesto, I discuss problems that I believe affect young people the most: their homes, mental health, environment and education. We should improve housing, increase versatility in education, tackle the stigma of ‘not seeking for help’ and mental health to be embraced rather than seen as a hindrance.”

Both young women are very active both at school and in the community. Hannah attends Notre Dame College where she is studying for A levels in Philosophy, Theology and Ethics, Politics, History and Drama. Hannah recently got into the Ethics Cup Final and will be going to the national finals on 31 May.

Tian is in Year 11, preparing to sit her GCSEs at Cockburn School where she is Head Girl, having previously served on the School Council. She commented:

“Being voted by my peers to become Head Girl of Cockburn School 2022, gave me an insight of what a leader is: selfless, considerate and compassionate. I’ve learned to plan and present assemblies from students to parents, coordinate team meetings, initiate a prom committee and hopefully inspire younger peers at my school.”

Tian volunteered at The Bridge Café in Cross Flatts Park before the pandemic as well as at her church.

South Leeds Life first interviewed Hannah back in 2015 when she ran a very creative campaign to become Leeds Children’s Mayor. She impressed Leeds Voice bigwigs by getting a reply from the Prime Minister (David Cameron in 2016). Since then she has helped produce and present the Leeds Child Friendly Awards and attends Leeds Youth Theatre.

Both Hannah and Tian are proud of their roots in Beeston and South Leeds and are keen to raise the profile of the area if elected. Hannah told us if she wins and gets to speak on the dispatch box in the House of Commons she will mention Beeston and South Leeds.

Tian said that, if elected:

“I hope not only to tackle social issues, but also to change the outlook of politics that young people have, where many feel change is futile, voices are only suppressed and or politics correlates to just corruption. However complex the challenge is, nothing is impossible. I want to provide solutions, alternative ideas and a perspective of an open-minded young person.”

We wish both Hannah and Tian the best of luck, both would make great representatives for South Leeds and the wider city. Tian Cai

Hannah Begum

Wellspring Academy Trust named top in the country

The Wellspring Academy Trust has received the top award at the prestigious National Schools Awards in London. At an event held at the House of Lords, the Trust was named “MAT (Multi Academy Trust) of the Year.”

The trust operates 28 schools across Yorkshire and Lincolnshire including Elements Primary in Middleton, and Springwell Leeds (which includes a setting in Belle Isle).

Mark Wilson, Wellspring’s Chief Executive Officer said:

“We really believe that this award belongs to the whole of the education sector. Everybody in every school setting and college has performed brilliantly to support families and ensure continuity of education throughout these difficult times. I am delighted that Wellspring has been recognised for its work. Any things that we do that have been recognised by the judges as good practice in the sector are things that we can share with others to aid them.”

Hearl Lenton, Chairman of the Wellspring Board said:

“I could not be more delighted. I have the privilege of seeing at close quarters the sheer hard work and dedication behind the scenes that goes into ensuring good schools for children and young people. Our aim is to Make A Difference every day. This award recognises the progress we are making in that important endeavour.”

Wellspring is a not for profit organisation that operates twenty-eight schools in total throughout the North and East of England.