Spring Term 2021 - Summit Learning Trust
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- Wishing you a Safe Easter Holiday -
Round Up
LEARNING TRUST
If you want to go fast, go alone; if you
want to go far, go together
Spring Term 2021 LEARNING TRUST
Read the latest news & updates from across
Summit Learning Trust
LEARNING TRUST
t, go alone; if you
ogether
LEARNING TRUST
If you want to go fast, go alone; if you
want to go far, go together If you want to go fast, go alone; if
want to go far, go together
‘Scaling the heights together’
If you want to go fast, go alone; if you
want to go far, go together
Our primaries, secondaries & college have been busy!
LEARNING TRUST
Strength through Diversity | Ambition through Challenge | Excellence through Curiosity
Welcome
At the end of this incredibly challenging term I’d like to say an enormous thank you to all the
members of our Summit family. In particular, I’d like to thank our parents and carers, who have
managed home learning so well, on top of all your other commitments - you have done a
brilliant job! You have also been great at supporting your child’s school. We have received so
many positive letters and messages of support for our wonderful leaders and teachers which
has kept them going and boosted them during this time. It has been so good to see all our
pupils and students return to school and college from March, really positive about how quickly
they will be able to reconnect with their learning. And of course, enormous thanks and praise
LEARNING TRUST are due to all our leaders and staff, who have responded so
quickly and so well to all that has been thrown at us this term.
Things are looking much more positive and, with luck, this
#Scalingtheheights will be the last time I need to refer to Covid in a newsletter!
Have a restful, peaceful and safe break, and we look
forward to a fabulous summer term.
Catherine Anwar
CEO
SOUTH BIRMINGHAM SCITT
@SouthBhamSCITT
After a restful Christmas for all January provided a busy start for our Associate
Teachers on their Spring placements. They have shown tremendous resilience and
flexibility and have really grasped the art of online teaching. It has been wonderful
to hear the feedback from the School based trainers on the impact our Associate
Teachers have made on the students they have taught through the various online
platforms. Their professional studies sessions continued, including an opportunity to
get more of an understanding of the educational landscape not only in the UK but
from mainland Europe. We were fortunate to have a session from James Johnson,
from British School Brussels, on disadvantaged students but from the perspective of an international school in Belgium. The session
itself was informative and engaging and really gave our Associate teachers a broader understanding of what can be classed as a
“disadvantaged student”. Their centre-based tasks this term have been based around collaboration and teamwork, with a key focus on
SEND pupils and SMSC. The work, dialogue and finished products were impressive! The creativity shown from the Associate Teachers and
their passion for ensuring students get a wonderful experience was admirable and very impressive, each and everyone of them will be an
asset to the profession.
Please head to: www.southbirminghamscitt.org.uk if you are interested in a career in teaching.
For any enquiries please contact us at: hello@southbirminghamscitt.org.uk
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Pegasus does the Great British Bake Off
(even though there was not much baking involved!)
Pegasus staff had great fun creating all kinds of fudge and tray bakes as we all entered the
Great Pegasus Bake Off and some of us discovered a whole new skill set! There were amazing
creations including Biscoff fudge, rum and raisin, Cadbury Crunchie, Malteasers, cranberry,
chocolate, and lots more. They were so good that it was too hard to choose an overall winner
SUMMIT LEARNING TRUST – it was definitely
all about the taking
@PegasusPrimary part, and the
sampling of course!
#TeamPegasus
Easter Bonnets
From everyone at #TeamPegasus, we would like to wish you all a very Happy Easter. We
hope you enjoy our beautiful Easter bonnet pictures. Our parade was very special and a
brilliant way to celebrate the coming of Spring and some truly gorgeous weather. The Friends
of Pegasus treated every child to a chocolate Easter bunny too. We are looking forward to
being able to share some outdoor fun with our family and friends over the Easter holiday.
Ex-student Jamie Snaps his way to National Exhibition
Lyndon Class of 2019 leaver, Jamie Spensley has had not ONE but TWO of his photographs
selected for national exhibitions over the past month! In October Jamie, now 17 who is
studying Level 3 diploma in Creative Media at Solihull College, had one of his landscape
images chosen as part of The Photography Show after seeing the competition advertised on
Instagram. His beautiful shot of a sunset view looking out to sea caught the eyes of the judges
SUMMIT LEARNING TRUST who selected it for the category entitled ‘Looking Forward’.
@LyndonSchool “It meant a lot to me because I put a lot of effort into
taking and editing photographs. And to see my hard
work being showcased in a virtual gallery along with
many other talented photographers is amazing”.
A little over a month later, Jamie has now had another
of his shots selected, this time for the 2020 Luminar
Bug Photographer of the Year Award! His shot of a
Carder Bee sat on a leaf won him a place amongst
the country’s best insect photographers. Huge congratulations to Jamie and long may your
shutter keep snapping! You can look at Jamie’s work and the rest of the two exhibitions here...
The Photography Show - Landscape Winners: www.photographyshow.com
Lyndon food collection and donations for Essentials Delivery
This term staff and students at Lyndon School have been collecting food and cash donations for the charity ‘Essential Delivery’. They work
to ensure that families in need in the South Birmingham area receive support through food parcels and donations, which over the last year,
have been a lifeline for some.
The Essentials Delivery team have written to the school to express their gratitude for the support and
noted what a positive impact the school has had on the local community over the course of a very
turbulent year.
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Laptop Delivery
Courtesy of MailForce
Erdington Hall were delighted to receive a
SUMMIT LEARNING TRUST
delivery of four boxes of laptops last week,
courtesy of the Mail Force charity. These
will be crucial to help our children with their
remote learning. A bit thankyou to MailForce
for their generosity!
Celebrating Diversity
Erdington Hall have been celebrating diversity through books and other acitivities this term. At
Erdington Hall, they teach 42 different nationalities of pupils and 56 per cent of 383 pupils
speak English as a second language. They are well on their way to representing this on their
book shelves.
@ErdingtonHallPS
‘Good Morning Britain’ and Remote Learning
In January alone, Cockshut Hill School managed to supply over 400 families with a laptop to
ensure that all students could do their schoolwork online, whilst the number of students who
were welcomed to attend school increased week-on-week. School was very much open! This
was the subject of the visit to Cockshut Hill School on the morning of Tuesday 26th January as
we welcomed in ‘Good Morning Britain’. The topic for discussion was the great debate about
whether schools should ‘reopen’ to students
SUMMIT LEARNING TRUST
due to the concerns from various about gaps in
education and the struggles of parents coping
@CockshutHillSch with the demands of remote learning themselves.
Cockshut Hill School was very much ‘open’ to all of our students during this period, in
whatever capacity for each student. Remote lessons were happening every day and online
SUMM
engagement by students has ensure that knowledge gaps are much smaller than perceived!
Mr Bridges was clear and spoke for all school leaders – we missed our students and we
couldn’t wait to welcome them all back when it was safe to do so!
World Book Day
The lockdown sadly meant the staff could not get dressed up in their normal World Book Day
attire to share their passion for reading with Cockshut Hill students, but that was not going
to stop us! Under the direction of our literacy lead, Miss Betts, as well as support from Mr
Southerton and Mr Neary, staff became ‘The Masked Readers’. Throughout the week, and
on World Book Day, recordings of robots, fish and samurai’s, to name but a few, were shared
with our students as the disguised voices reading snippets from their favourite books, such as
Lord of the Rings or Catch-22. Not only did the students enjoy the readings but the guesses
were somewhat hysterical!
International Women’s Day
International Women’s Day was celebrated as well this term. The Year 10 and Year 11 girls
were given an opportunity to virtually meet Katie Piper, an inspirational speaker, charity
campaigner, author and broadcaster. Ms Piper survived an acid attack in 2008 and went on
to share her story in a BAFTA -nominated film, as well as creating the Katie Piper Foundation
to help and support other burns and domestic abuse survivors. The feedback received from
her session on finding strength through adversity was breath-taking. Thanks to Mrs Turton for
sourcing this opportunity for our students!
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Step Up Challenge
As part of our healthy working environment, staff have been taking part in the Step Up
challenge! Each phase group is logging the steps they’ve taken over the week to see how far
they’ve travelled! One phase travelled to Paris – in a week, and as a school they ‘stepped’ all
the way to Rome!! A great way to see the world whilst following ‘Stay at Home’ rules.
SUMMIT LEARNING TRUST
@YarnfieldSch
Masked Reader
World Book Day happened at
Yarnfield on 4th March and a very
different one it was too! Pupils
working remotely, and in school were
involved in lots of activities including
sharing a story with a ‘guest reader’,
completing reading rivers/book talk
and most excitingly, guessing “Who’s
that behind the mask?” in our Masked
Reader challenge!
PLI - Summit Lead Practitioners:
A Fabulous First Term
It has been an action packed term for the Professional Learning Institute. The PLI is developing
a dual focus of addressing the immediate professional learning needs associated with remote
learning, whilst also providing a range of opportunities for the staff from Summit Learning Trust
to collaborate in shaping our future provision. The Summit Lead Pratitioners, alongside other
TIMMUS
staff from across the Trust, have contributed to the development of a Remote Teaching and
Learning Bundle which is packed full of top tips and strategies for quality first teaching. Trust
wide initiatives on Coaching and Literacy are also well underway. Led by Anne Marie Keane,
our team of over 60 coaches is now undertaking Andy Buck’s Basic Coaching programme. It
was fantastic to hear Andy talk through this concept at a PLI webinar on Tuesday 23rd March.
CLICK TO HERE TO MEET Additionally, the work on promoting literacy led by Zara Ali is supporting our learners with
Our Summit Lead Practitioners skills in active reading; it is brilliant to hear how the pupils are engaging with texts across the
Summit Learning Trust PLI curriculum. It has been a privilege to hear the insights and to be inspired by the many guest
speakers we have welcomed into the trust this term: Nimish Lad and Nicole McCartney shared
@PLI_SummitLT their curriculum story from Creative Education Trust; Sharon Hockley from the NCE discussed
opportunities for professional learning and the apprenticeship levy; Sarah Smith shared the
powerful story behind the Breck Foundation and Mary Myatt talked – of course! - curriculum.
We are really looking forward to the Summer Term and have a wide range of exciting
professional learning opportunities for people to get involved in – look out for the calendar!
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Architecture Offer From Cambridge
Solihull An aspiring architect studying at Solihull Sixth Form College is hoping to take up an offer
Sixth Form from the University of Cambridge this autumn. Sakura Izaki-Lee, a former Queensbridge
College School pupil, has secured an offer to study Architecture at Selwyn College, Cambridge, after
undergoing their challenging selection process.
SUMMIT LEARNING TRUST
Sakura commented, “I hadn’t ever really considered applying to Cambridge until the College
sfcsapply sent out a message about it during my first year. My thinking was that I didn’t have anything
to lose by going through the application process, that the value and intensity of learning at
Cambridge would be a great opportunity, and that if anything the application process would
just confirm my interest in studying Architecture.
“Applying to Oxbridge is initially very daunting because of the status of the institution. But it
was honestly not as difficult as I had thought, and if you try not to put too much pressure on
getting in, it can actually be very enjoyable.”
“The College was extremely helpful throughout the whole application process. I benefitted
from numerous meetings for reviewing and editing my personal statement, practice interviews,
and having someone to ask questions to about Cambridge in general. In addition, the
independence of studying at the College has encouraged me to become more proactive
in learning beyond the content of my A levels. This has made the intensity of Cambridge’s
learning experience more appealing to me.”
Currently in her second year at the College, studying A levels in Biology, Geography and Fine Art, Sakura has good advice for other
students contemplating making an Oxbridge application in the future:
“If you are on the fence, just do it. I didn’t ever imagine I would actually get an offer. The ease of the application process is really dependent
on how passionate you are for the subject you are applying for. To perform well at the assessments and interview you need to have
immersed yourself in that subject, whether that be wider-reading, watching documentaries or listening to podcasts. For me this meant
reading books from the architecture department reading list and continuing to listen to a wide variety of podcasts, which wasn’t very difficult
since I was genuinely interested in learning more about the subject.”
College Principal Martin Sullivan added, “I want to offer my warmest congratulations to Sakura on securing this offer. It is a huge
achievement to secure an offer from Cambridge, because she was not only up against the best students from around the UK, but also
students from around the world. I wish her the best of luck in securing the grades she needs to take up that offer.”
BAME Society Speakers Inspire
Black and Minority Ethnic speakers joined staff and students from Solihull Sixth Form College for a series of online events in March.
Students in the College’s BAME Society, ably supported by staff from the Student Development Office, organised a panel of excellent
speakers, who spoke about their experiences and career pathways from the perspective of a person of colour. They gave particular
attention to their own work with social inclusion, as well as giving students advice about how to navigate the world of work and enter
university as a person of colour.
The event took place over two evenings. the first night saw 4 speakers taking part, including Student Recruitment Specialist with Coventry
University’s Outreach Programme Nasrin Akhtar and Masters degree student at Harvard University Vee Kativhu. A private sector perspective
was provided by Sherice Harris, Head of Brand for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Speedo. the line-up was completed with Ateef
Azam, who is a dentist and current member of the Summit Learning Trust (the academy trust that the College is part of).
The second evening featured Nathan Anibaba, Founder and Managing Director or agency Dealmasters, as well as Diani Walker, an athlete
studying for a Masters degree at the University of Birmingham. Joy Anibaba, Principal Housing Development Officer for Birmingham City
Council, completed the line-up.
Assistant Principal Sonia Wood attended both events and praised all involved. She said: “These were fantastic events with varied and
articulate speakers. I commend the students and staff who organised the events for putting together such a superb panel of speakers and
thank those speakers for giving up their time to tell us of their experiences. The stories they told and the advice they passed onto students
was inspiring.”
Fellow Assistant Principal Louise Dale-Barron, who is responsible for Equality & Diversity at the College, added: “Solihull Sixth Form
College is a college committed to pursuing a robust equality and diversity agenda. Seeing the students get so actively involved in that work
is incredibly rewarding. We have recently set up an Anti-Racism Group at the College that aims to take that work even further.”
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Oaklands receives positive praise for remote
learning offer
The Oaklands have had some fantastic feedback from parents on the remote learning offer
they were providing for pupils during the Spring term. See below a wonderful message from
SUMMIT LEARNING TRUST one of The Oaklands parents.
@TheOaklandsBham “Miss Newey is a fantastic teacher. We got to see her teaching skills in the online learning
lessons. She was fair and gave equal preference to all the children. She did a great job in
getting all the children to participate in her lessons. Those who were less likely to put their
hands up she chose in a respectful and considerate manner. I was impressed and I hope this is
implemented in a classroom setting too. This is something that could be replicated throughout
the school by all the teachers to help with the learning and confidence of the quieter pupils too.
Thank you and well done to all the teachers.”
New learning environment at The Oaklands
The inclusion team at The Oaklands have worked tirelessly to transform a once, over-run storage
room into a calm, peaceful and purposeful learning environment for some of our most vulnerable
pupils.
‘As a school we recognise that growing up isn’t just about education, it’s also about developing
resilience, exploring thoughts and feelings, and learning how to navigate the world around them.
The school’s new inclusion space, The Nest, is home to the school’s Nurture Group provision and
Fun Friends club, programmes that support children with their social and emotional growth. It is
also where children in need of extra support receive 1:1 time with a Learning Mentor. ‘
Wishing you a
MUS Great Easter Holiday
Page 7
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- Scaling the heights together -
LEARNING TRUST
LEARNING TRUST
If you want to go fast, go alone; if you
want to go far, go together
LEARNING TRUST
t, go alone; if you
ogether
LEARNING TRUST
If you want to go fast, go alone; if you
want to go far, go together If you want to go fast, go alone; if
want to go far, go together
If you want to go fast, go alone; if you
want to go far, go together
R O U N D LEARNING TRUST
U P
Strength through Diversity | Ambition through Challenge | Excellence through Curiosity
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