Leigh Academy RAINHAM ROUNDUP

Leigh Academy

Rainham Roundup

October 2021

MODULE 1
EDITION

DREAM
BELIEVE
ACHIEVE

Leigh Academy opens its gates for first time to its founding students!

Founders' Day Edition!

INSIDE

Principal's Piece ● Learning at LAR ● LEIGH Learners ● College Community Corner ● Inclusion and Wellbeing

What's

Welcome

To Leigh Academy Rainham Roundup!

We are delighted to welcome you to the 'Leigh Academy Rainham Roundup'! This is our unique magazine that is published each module to celebrate all that we achieve in our highly inclusive setting, where tradition and innovation combine to create leaders of tomorrow.

At Leigh Academy Rainham we promote an ethos of uncompromising high aspirations and expectations for every young person in terms of both their academic success and personal growth as caring, respectful global citizens who act with purpose and integrity. Within this magazine we share with you the wonderful ways in which we work towards our values of Dream, Believe, Achieve.

Enjoy!

What's

INSIDE

CONTENTS

04. Principal's Piece
Founders' Day

08. Events at LAR

10. Learning at LAR
Year 7 Curriculum

16. Learning at LAR
Theme of the Fortnight and Healthy Minds

18. Learning at LAR
Co-Curriculum Sports

20. Learning at LAR
Co-Curriculum Activities

22. Digital Learning at LAR

26. LEIGH Learners

28. College Community Corner

32. Wellbeing at LAR

34. The Last Word

Founders' Day

September 1st 2021

1st September
Students walking into the Academy for the first time.

Principal's Piece

My heart was quite literally overwhelmed with immense pride and joy as we watched our founding cohort walk through out gates for the first time on the 1st of September.

I had personally invested over a year of my time and energy into working with the DfE, local primary schools and new staff to ensure the Academy was ready to welcome our students; seeing their beaming faces as they walked onto site was a truly magical moment. From the moment they stepped through the gate we were modelling our high expectations, values and community spirit and they have adopted these effortlessly in the short time they have been with us.

When Rehman Chisti, local MP, visited our Academy after just 2 weeks of being open a small group of students already spoke about our values of Dream, Believe, Achieve with such passion and conviction that I was quite literally bursting with pride. As a staff body we were confident that with the warmth, clear routines and transition preparation we had undertaken with students, our year 7 would settle into life at Leigh Academy Rainham well, however none of us could have predicted just how swiftly they would flourish in their new setting.

Within our first 8 weeks we have nurtured year 7 into a confident, well mannered and ambitious cohort who wear their uniform with pride, tell us they feel privileged to be here and show genuine compassion towards their peers. Students have been enthusiastic about joining a variety of clubs, many campaigned to be their form groups student leaders and over 100 volunteered to support at our open events despite having only been with us 4 weeks. This term we have awarded over 6000 reward points in total, over 4000 of which have been for modelling our LEIGH learner attributes. My vision for this Academy was always clear: nurture polite, ambitious children with big dreams who experience learning beyond the classroom through co-curricular opportunities and digital technology in lessons. Within just 8 weeks our wonderful teachers and support staff have set off on this journey with our students and they are collectively leading the way to shaping what I know is going to be an exceptional educational experience for our young people.◾

Founders' Day

Events at

LAR

VISITORS

This Module we have welcomed a number of visitors to our brand new Academy. All our of them have been highly impressed with the warm and polite welcome our students have extended to them.

Rehman Chisti - Local MP
On the 1st September, or opening day, Rehman Chisti, local MP visited the Academy briefly to give thanks to the staff for their work in preparation for welcoming our students through our gates. Rehman and our Academies Director, Emma Elwin, then returned on the 10th September for a tour and to meet with students. He spent an hour talking to a small representative group of students about the Academy ethos and values and their own personal ambitions. Students demonstrated a clear understanding of our values Dream, Believe Achieve and were able to articulate their importance to Rehman. Rehman was thoroughly impressed how well our students communicated their ideas and opinions and very much enjoyed his visit.

Simon Beamish - CEO for Leigh Academies Trust
Simon Beamish visited the us on the 21st of September to watch some lessons in progress and meet with Mrs Millward to celebrate what the Academy had achieved in the first 3 weeks of term. Mr Beamish was keen to see how students were using the Chromebooks in lessons as part of our Trust wide approach to upskill our young people for the future. He is looking forward to returning in module 2 to see how staff are implementing the use of these to aid learning.

Martin Potter - Local Councillor
On the 22nd of September we welcomed local councillor, Martin Potter for a tour, lunch and to meet briefly with some students. He was pleased to see how well students and staff had settled into the area and spoke at length with Mrs Millward about how the school could play a part in the Eco movement across Rainham, in addition to supporting the community.◾

This year we hosted 2 Open Evening events and 10 tours for families who are interested in their year 6 children attending Leigh Academy Rainham from September 2022.

We have had 820 visitors to the Academy in the last 3 weeks as part of these events,all of which booked up within 3 hours. 120 student volunteers from year 7 took part in the Open Evening Events and received lots of highly complementary feedback for their confidence, politeness and knowledge of the Academy so far. We had a number of students guiding our visitors, and many helping in individual subject areas, leading year 6 children through different activities. 6 students also articulately spoke alongside Mrs Millward as part of the Principal’s Speech and are to be commended for their courage of presenting to a full hall of adults and children!

Mrs Millward was proud of all the students who volunteered to be part of our first ever Open Event and has ensured all those who took part have been awarded reward points for being ‘Academy Ambassadors’.