As we approach the Easter holidays, warmer weather, lighter days and the prospect of some easing of lockdown I would like to start with some personal thank yous from me to the people who have been so crucial to our success as we try to navigate these uncertain and challenging times together.

Firstly to our Headteachers: Alan, Ali, Dave, Fraser and Laura who have continued to lead their schools with passion, integrity and humility. None of them expected to have to do even half of the tasks that they have undertaken and make the kind of decisions that are career defining. They have achieved an enormous amount and I am extremely grateful for the way in which they have looked after their staff and communities. I would also like to thank the other members of the central team who have similarly worked tirelessly to keep us all going transitioning seamlessly from home to the office. I will be very sad to say goodbye to Helen Vincent from our finance team when she leaves us at the end of this week to take up a new post at a special school in Exeter.

This Easter will be the second in lockdown. Some of us will have had two lockdown birthdays; some have had lockdown babies, lockdown puppies, lockdown clear outs and all manner of personal and professional challenges. Some of us will also have said goodbye to friends and family members and will be forever marked by the trauma of these last 12 months. I hope very much that the next two weeks bring rest, respite, family time, more of this lovely sunshine and as much fun as is humanly possible. I know how hard you have all worked and how well deserved this break will be.

Here is a picture of my lockdown puppy, Nancy who has been lucky enough to visit all of our secondary schools now. I am sure she would also love to meet our youngest children when she is allowed.

News from the Schools

Axe Valley Academy

We have been delighted to have all of our students back and been overwhelmed by the gratitude of parents and students. I would like to extend my own thanks to the staff at AVA for working so tirelessly through a tough term again. It has been incredible to see everyone pull together and I feel Uffculme Academy Trust very lucky.

We would especially like to welcome back our staff who were shielding. It was lovely to see everyone completely back. We are thrilled to welcome our new English teacher Rhiannon Broome who starts with us in September. We would also like to welcome our English intervention lead, Catherine Cooper-Germscheid, who joins us next term. We feel excited to be able to add this intensive intervention to the Summer term to support our Year 10 students after their disruption to their learning across lockdown and in preparation for their Language GCSE in Year 11.

Our newsletter is available on our website of anyone would like to check out all of the lovely things we have been doing as a community. It has been wonderful to see clubs firmly back on the agenda and these being really well attended. Celebrating success at the end of this term through our achievement badges and certificates has shown vast numbers of students really responding well to lockdown learning and their return.

Duke of Edinburgh continues to go from strength to strength and Richard Knott is again preparing for expeditions. We are genuinely excited to see this grow at AVA.

Have a really lovely and well deserved break.

Laura Jenkins

Holyrood Academy

Happy Easter from all at Holyrood to all our friends and colleagues across the Trust!

It has been an exciting and positive few weeks here, particularly following the return of students. We have started to see our school improvement accelerate again, which is such a satisfying feeling for our staff team. We are however all looking forward to a chance to rest and reconnect with loved ones over the Easter break.

After a rigorous process of application, presentations and interviews, we have selected our new Sixth Form Senior Team. Each candidate brought such individual excellence to the process and was quite exceptional in their own unique way.

The leaders of our senior team are:
Head Girl: Frankie Drake
Head Boy: Zach Robotham
Deputy Head Boys: Elliott Rapley and Mat Zielinski
Deputy Head Girls: Aggie Pawelec and Vikki Cox

Our project management team (Futures for Somerset and Grainge) have sent us some images of our exciting new build which will facilitate the expansion of Holyrood from September 2022. I will continue to share these as we receive them.

Happy Easter everyone!

Dave MacCormick

Neroche School

Children at Neroche have been enjoying curriculum celebration days to mark the end of their recent topic learning.

Year 1 and 2 experienced a castle day earlier in the week which involved archery, a banquet and ball and an opportunity to recall key curriculum facts.

Year 3 have been enjoying their Roman themed day to secure their curriculum knowledge and have loved producing their own mosaic tiles and using junk modelling resources to investigate aqueducts.

Our School Council are excitedly planning the launch our new Community book swap and food share project for after Easter, this is to support the wider community in the village and share a love of reading. They have also been busy looking into designs for their fundraising project which will result in a new mosaic to the front of the school.

Year 6 have been developing nutritious meals as part of their learning about a healthy and varied diet. They have enjoyed tasting a wide variety of ingredients and widening their taste buds.

Year 1 have been keen volunteers this week and have been trailing the use of our new Moki bands. These bands track the number of steps and active minutes the children are engaged with during a school day. An exciting use of some of our Sports premium grant.

The staff are looking forward to returning to an upgraded staffroom. Colours and fabrics have been chosen and we are grateful to our new site team for their support with this development.

Wishing you all a very Happy Easter.

Ali Collins

Uffculme Primary School

I cannot quite believe that my first term as headteacher at Uffculme Primary School has come to an end already. It has been one of the most unusual and most challenging terms of my career, but one I am immensely proud of and this is very much down to the staff. The staff have been amazing; thank you so much to all of you for your determination, action, and positive spirit. The people that you are make Uffculme Primary School a great place to be – in good times, and in challenging times.

I am delighted to announce that Annie Elkington will be our new school SENDCo from September 2021. Annie brings a wealth of experience with her and has exactly the same ethos and vision as we all do at Uffculme Primary School. There is no doubt that she will make an inspirational SENDCo and is a welcome addition to the school. Thank you to all those who were involved in the interview process, especially Claire Hayman, Russell Wilson, Paula Gibson, and Lauren Saunders,.

We have another cause for celebration this week for the 4 successful submission of our Primary Science Quality Mark. The reviewers were impressed with the high-quality submission and excellent science learning taking place throughout the school. A huge thank you to Genna Cole for gathering the evidence and working tirelessly on the submission for the award, a significant achievement in this very challenging year.

Our Year 6 children made contact with M.D Nursery and Primary School in Nigeria last week for their first ever virtual class session. The children met each other, and all had a chance to introduce themselves and to see what a classroom in Nigeria looks like. The children thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and Miss Brown and Mr Olawusi are busy planning the next few sessions.

The school also had contact with L’ecole Elementraie Jean-Louis Etinens, the primary school in Uffculme’s twinned French village of Caumont-sur-Aure. Our Year 5 children will be linking with a mixed Year 5/6 class after Easter. These are exciting opportunities to work closely with children from different cultures and forms part of our International School Award work.

Yesterday marked our virtual Easter Service, which was a great success, with every class sharing Easter-related work, including poems and readings. It was a lovely opportunity for the whole school to come together and celebrate this time of year. We also held our Easter ‘Egg’stravaganza where the children wore Easter bonnets and brought decorated, hard-boiled eggs to school (lots of egg-cellent puns were included!). Easter eggs were awarded for the best bonnets and decorated eggs. Parent Consultation Evenings via telephone took place last week and was well received with a strong uptake in numbers. Parents were complimentary of the school and their children’s learning.

A huge thank you for everyone who donated money to our non-school uniform day in aid of Comic Relief. We managed to raise £296.67 which is such a wonderful effort.

We are excited to launch the No Outsiders scheme after Easter. We held an information evening for parents to promote the scheme and to answer any questions regarding the content. No Outsiders is centred around the ethos that ‘no-one is the same, but everyone is equal’. The scheme allows teachers to cover topics protected by the 2010 Equality Act, including religion or belief system, race, and gender identity, and helps the school celebrate diversity, inclusion, and life in modern Britain.

The staff are all excited for the plans we have in place for the Summer Term, but before that, I wish everyone a very happy, restful and well-deserved Easter break.

Fraser Wallace

Uffculme School

Our Student Council resumed duties very promptly on their return to school and got stuck into planning events for Red Nose Day 2021. With the Senior Council paving the way with a request for a whole school non-uniform day; councillors from Year 7 through to Year 11 also worked with their Heads of Year and Tutors to plan and organise a day of fun. Activities included a Year 11 tug of war, welly wanging, a pub quiz, guess the sweets in a jar…to name a few.

We are so proud of everyone’s efforts which helped to raise a massive £2369.57 – the largest amount ever raised in one day! There was a fantastic ‘buzz’ around the school with staff and students enjoying being back together, having some fun, and all whilst raising money for a great cause. I think it’s safe to say the ‘soak your teacher’ was a real money maker!

Alan Blackburn

West County Teaching School Alliance

It has been great to welcome our new cohort of PGCE and School Direct trainees into their second placements across the trust. They have impressed from the get-go and have taken on every opportunity that our schools have to offer. Congratulations go to our School Direct trainee Dylan Monteiro who has secured a teacher of History position at Holyrood from July - we are delighted that you will be working at UAT.

Calling all Uffculme Academy Trust NQTs

Just a reminder, that as part of the NQTSW core package that your schools have signed up to, you have been allocated a FREE place at this year's TSSW NQT Conference. This is being held online on Wednesday 21 April from 12.00pm to 4.15pm. Please see the attached flyer for more details. To book your free place, please complete the google form below. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfDTts hpXmLhxGk62fYEV5sKHl1xmNdE1Q8F9BWEsjcrOP5 Jg/viewform

Middle Leader Course

We are delighted to have been inundated with applications for our new/aspiring middle leader course starting in the summer term. We will be short listing shortly and will inform successful applicants of their place during the first week back after the Easter break. There's still time to get your application form in if you haven't already - the closing date is 5pm on Thursday 1 st April. Thank you to everyone who has supported our trainees, led CPD or helped out with the teaching school this term - Wishing everyone a fantastic, well-deserved Easter break!

Jen Knowles

Health & Wellness

This week marks the end of a whopping 8 months of the past year delivering fitness classes via Zoom. It has been an interesting and often lonely experience but the 7,000 attendances(!!) have shown it to be worthwhile. Thank you if you have been one of those who have joined me.

Gyms and Fitness Centres will be reopening during the Easter holidays, progression which I for one am overjoyed about. Please remember that all staff across the Trust are eligible for a marvellously discounted membership at either of our Centres - Uffculme or Holyrood (£9.99 per month).

Upon our return to school after the Easter break, I will be offering Health & Fitness check-ups as part of the Wellbeing provision. This will include blood pressure checks, cardio-vascular, muscular fitness, 6 core strength checks as well as top tips on nutrition and how to get fitter either at home or in the gym.

Keep your eyes peeled for the info about this after Easter.

Don’t forget you can now self-refer to the wellbeing service

http://www.uffculmetrust.org/wellbeing

Amanda Woodward.

Trust Wide Vacancies

We currently have the following vacancies within the Trust.
Further details can be found on each school’s website or via the links below

• Holyrood Academy
Teacher of English
https://www.eteach.com/jobs/holyroodacademy-jobs-20723/?oo=ag
Closing Date: 21st April 2021

Teacher of Design and Technology
https://www.eteach.com/job/teacher-ofdesign-and-technology-1142670?lang=enGB&frmsrh=Y
Closing Date: 23rd April 2021

• Uffculme School
Teacher of Girls PE
https://www.eteach.com/job/teacher-ofgirls--pe-1138927
Closing Date: 20th April 2021

Premises Cleaner
Premises Cleaner - Eteach
Closing Date: 6th April 2021

Archery and Mosaics’ at Neroche Primary School

Newsletter 6 - 1st April 2021