admin@watertonacademytrust.org

01924 240767

@WatertonTrust

Dave Dickinson CEO

I cannot believe that we are already heading towards Easter. The year seems to be flying by so quickly. We have already achieved so much and yet still have much more to do. The Christmas period is always a magical time and our schools ensured all our children enjoyed the festive season. I heard lots of reports from children describing visits from a man dressed in a red suit and sporting a long white beard. The most rewarding aspect of my job is to witness firsthand the talent that our children possess. There have been numerous Waterton sporting events that have highlighted just how talented our children are. We must remember however that talent comes in many forms and having looked over the work displayed as part of the MAT art exhibition, I am not surprised to say we have an abundance of talented young artists. I hope you enjoy reading the Newsletter and by doing so you get an appreciation of just how much goes off throughout our organisation. These events and activities can only take place because of the hard work of our children and the adults that support them. Having taken part in many of the wonderful experiences that are now everyday events, I would like to thank everyone involved for their hard work and commitment.

@WatertonTrust

admin@watertonacademytrust.org

01924 240767

Young Voices 2019

January 2019

For the past 24 years, Young Voices has staged the largest children’s choir concerts in the world. Several of our schools took part in Young Voices 2019 at Sheffield Arena and performed to a sold

out audience.

Young Voices selects guests artists to take part in the concerts. The children performed alongside Tony Hadley, Beau Dermott and Sharelene Hector, as well as singing songs from The Greatest

Showman.

Young Voices 2019

Here is what some of our children thought about their experience at Young Voices...

King’s Meadow Academy had the pleasure of joining thousands of children across our district to form the Young Voices choir. The children had been excited for months before the actual event! With their T-shirts on and torches in their hands, we travelled to Sheffield Arena. The children were amazed at the size of the building and couldn’t quite believe that they were a part of something so fantastic!

After the rehearsals during the day, the children became giddy at the thought of an audience. When it was finally show time, the lights in the arena went down and the spotlights came up. I’ve never heard such a loud roar from the children - they were mesmerised. The show went brilliantly well and every

child was thrilled, inspired and moved by the event. It is definitely a highlight of the year for the children and adults.

On the 11th January, some children from year 4, 5 and 6 went to Sheffield arena. We went to join the Young Voices Concert; which is a massive school choir for children and teachers all over the country. Loads of schools took part and there was over 4000 children there. It was amazing and the best year! Our favourite part was when we were all singing together as one and for the first

time this year our school got a shout out in the main concert. Every year there are special guests, who sing on stage. The guests this year were Beau Dermott, Tony Hadley and Sharlene Hecter.

They were brilliant! By Isobel S and Katy M (Year6)

School Attendance

Ackworth Mill Dam Primary School 96.62%

Cherry Tree Academy 93.92%

Crofton Infant’s School 97.04%

King’s Meadow Academy 93.39%

Lee Brigg Infant and Nursery School 97.75%

Normanton Common Primary School 97.28%

Normanton Junior Academy 96.34%

Sharlston Community School 93.89%

South Kirkby Academy 93.63%

Walton Primary Academy 95.83%

West End Academy 95.26%

Wrenthorpe Academy 95.93%

Normanton Common Primary Academy 1st April 2019 1 pm – 2:30 pm

West End Academy 10th June 2019 1 pm – 2:30 pm

King’s Meadow Academy 15th July 2019 1 pm – 2:30 pm

Attendance

Children’s Parliament Upcoming Meetings

The overall pupil absence rate is 4.5% according to the

latest figures from the Department of Education. One in 10 of those school

children are classed as ‘persistently absent’.

The table on the left gives a monthly snapshot of how our

schools are performing in relation to attendance. It

must be remembered that these numbers will fluctuate

for many reasons and that we do not compare our schools

against each other.

Art Exhibition

This year the MAT art exhibition tour focused on the work, themes, style and artistry of famous European artists. Each participating school had their own individual artist to explore, replicate, and

invent through the media of painting. Each of the participating schools will host all the exbition pieces for one week allowing parents, staff and children to enjoy the art work.

Lots of different artists were researched and each school had their own to focus; Crofton Infant’s : Piet Mondrain Lee Brigg Infant & Nursery School : Wassily Kandinsky Ackworth Mill Dam Primary : George Seurat Normanton Common Primary Academy : Pablo Picasso Normanton Junior Academy : Vincent Van Gogh Sharlston : Paul Lee South Kikrby Academy : Henri Matisse

Waterton’s Greatest Show

On Monday 11th February, Waterton’s Greatest Show took place at the Theatre Royal in Wakefield. The show consisted of our 12 schools coming together to perform songs from musicals. Some of the musicals that the schools chose to do were; Thriller, Hairspray and Oliver. Even the staff came

together and performed a song and dance, which was eventually followed by a whole group performance and a huge round of applause from the audience.

Cherry Tree Academy Tweeted, ‘Feeling incredibly proud of our superstars for their brilliant performance tonight’.

Normanton Common Primary Academy Tweeted, ‘What an evening, what superstars! So much talent on one stage’.

Pen Pals Scheme

All our schools put forward MPs from within their local councils to form the Children’s Parliament.

Each school sends 2 or 3 representatives every half term to discuss ways which they could improve their educational exprience. The MPs present new ideas to the meetings which are

discussed before being either approved or dismissed. Some of the ideas include; a trip to Parliament, sports events like the MAT Olympics, Waterton’s Greatest Show and the Pen Pal

Scheme.

The Pen Pal Scheme is an on-going project which involves the children being paired with someone in another one of our schools and writing letters every half term. This scheme

has just gotten underway and it’s a real success.

Ackworth Mill Dam Primary discovered that Wakefield were starting school parkruns based at the Junior parkruns which already took place every Sunday morning at Pontefract Park and Thornes

Park. As a number of our staff are runners and already attend parkrun, everyone thought it was a great idea if our children attended. Runs are open to all schools in Wakefield and started from the

1st January this year. If children have signed up to parkrun with their school’s running club, they can turn up and run 2k.

Each run counts towards towards the school total. These totals are added as each month with a winning school being announced every month. To make it fair in terms of sizes of schools the

numbers of attendees are calculated as a % of the number on roll.

A Visit from the Mayor

Park Run

Mrs Thompson, Headteacher at Ackworth Mill Dam Primary has told us that after the first week we rallied children by text and Twitter and had 10 runners, the second week we had 10 again,

week 3 was 8 and the final week of January we had 12. This meant that not only are we the winning school at the Pontefract parkruns but we have won out of all of the schools in Wakefield at both runs. As a result of this initiative the attendance at the parkruns has increased massively. In the final week of January, Pontefract had the second highest attendance of any junior parkrun.

There were around 180 children there and the previous average was around 40.

West End Academy were lucky enough to have a visit from the Mayor of Wakefield.

This was part of the work that the Junior Leadership has been doing on raising aspirations and

British values.

The team hosted an assembly where the Mayor spoke about his special clothes and the mace. The children got to ask questions and find out more about his job. Later, the Mini Mayor of West End

Academy did a great job at giving the him a tour of the school and introducing him to all the classes.

Kayla said, "The best part was when Mackenzie became the mini mayor in the assembly and wore the same clothes as the mayor”. Maisie added, "I think it’s a big responsibility being the mayor

and it would be hard to remain neutral at all times.”

A Visit from the Mayor

Lee Brigg children got to spend the morning celebrating with Altolfts Methodist Church. They joined friends from Martin Frobisher

School to participate in a Methodist blessing. Everyone sang hymns, said prayers and

blessed babies.

Wrenthorpe’s Talented Gymnast

Wrenthorpe Academy’s Mia, a student in Year 5, is a very talented gymnast. She recently took part in The Yorkshire Championship (November 2018) and won GOLD in her category (grade 4, trio). This means she holds the title of Yorkshire Champion 2018-19.

Mia has now been selected to take part in the international competition in Calgary, Canada in May 2019. This will be a

fantastic opportunity for Mia to experience competiting on the international stage again as she did last year in Las Vegas. Mia has

shared the story of her success in a school assembly, sharing photographs and videos of her amazing routines. She is a real

source of inspiration to other children in school.

Methodist Blessing

The children in the International Club at Normanton Juniors have received

some Diwali cards from their link school friends at Mango Tree School

in Goa.

Diwali is a Hindu festival held in the period of October to November.

A selection of Year 6 pupils took part in a creative writing workshop at Cannon Hall Musuem. Everyone

thoroughly enjoyed developing their creativity by writing stories and poems

about the art and artefacts.

Other Events

Normanton Common Primary Academy

Children at Normanton Common enjoyed some European food taste testing. The food was brought in

accompanied by a personal menu as a piece of homework.

South Kirkby Academy

Normanton Junior Academy

Meet the Team

I joined Waterton Academy Trust as a Finance Assistant when the Business and Finance function centralised in September 2018. I am based at Crofton House where I provide finance support to the schools, my main role is to process invoices and payments. I am currently studying towards AAT Level 4. At weekends I enjoy shopping and socialising with friends.

I joined Waterton Academy Trust as a Business Admin Apprentice in September 2018. In this short amount of time I feel like I have learnt lots about the organisation, as well as getting the chance to work with our schools on big events that take place through our Children’s Parliament and working to create the Trust newsletter. When I’m not at work, I enjoy going out with my friends and spending time with my family.

Here at Waterton Academy Trust, we have 2 separate teams that work together to make all our schools successful. Our teams are made up of Business and Finance team and the

School Improvement team.

Megan Hellawell: Business Admin Apprentice

Sydney Thornton: Finance Assistant