Boughton Heath Academy

After a challenging two years globally, I thought I would write my blog about some of the wonderful things we have to celebrate. This half term, we saw the first PTA event held at Boughton Heath without restrictions in over two years! As many of you know, the event was a huge success and was busy from the point of opening until closure at 3pm. In total the school community raised nearly £1500 which goes towards supporting our children with evermore exciting and innovative learning opportunities and experiences. My thanks to all who came and shared such a great day with us in support of school.

However, more important than the amount of money raised was the opportunity to come together as a school community once more. It was simply wonderful to see families from across all year groups come together once more and enjoy a day filled with games, activities and fun. My thanks go to the PTA for their efforts in arranging and facilitating such a great event, and for giving up their own to support school in so many different ways.

Whilst the last couple of years have been immensely challenging for us all, we have already managed to make up for any lost time and have plenty more exciting projects planned in for this half term.

Firstly, I was delighted to welcome Goofus Theatre Company into school during the first week back. All children in school received a performance from their fabulous team, and had the opportunity to talk with the actors, ask questions about the performance and meet the puppets close up. Speaking to the children and staff afterwards, it was clear that the children had been so utterly engaged and inspired by this experience. The Goofus team also personally commented upon how polite and well behaved all of our children were during their visit, a wonderful compliment to receive. 

Throughout this term there will be lots more opportunities for children to engage in the arts both in and out of the curriculum. Work is already underway planning a summer music concert to showcase the talent of our young musicians, and we also have sports day and a leaver’s production from Year 6 to look forward to.

Residential trips have once again taken place and junior classes have benefitted from learning outside the classroom in some brand new locations. I know Year 6 loved their visit to the Lake District (despite the weather!), the Year 4 trip to Condover Hall saw them commended for their wonderful behaviour, Year 3 enjoyed an exciting trip to Barnstondale in the Wirral; and I am sure Year 5 will enjoy their first residential to Colomendy in North Wales. These much missed trips are so valuable for children’s personal, social and emotional development; as they undertake experiences and opportunities not possible at home or school.

On top of welcoming families back into school for the family fun day, it has also been incredibly pleasing to welcome parents back into school for parents’ evenings. For parents of many of our younger pupils, this was the first time they had been able to come and look through their child’s books, see their child’s classroom and get a real flavour of what school is like for them day to day. As I made my way through school to chat to as many parents as possible, it was so pleasing to see the faces of so many proud children delighting in showcasing their efforts to their parents and carers. So many families were overwhelmed by the work evidenced in the entrance hall, centring around inspirational people and their impact upon the world. I’m delighted that in the coming weeks, we will be able to regularly harness such pride through share the learning events. These opportunities for our children to discuss their learning in school are so vital to building up their self confidence, self esteem and an ongoing love of learning.

I am in a most privileged position and am fortunate enough to look through childrens’ books regularly. The learning our children evidence through such wonderful work is testament to the education they receive at Boughton Heath, and I’d like to echo the positive feedback given to me from so many parents regarding our wonderful teachers, who each day strive to deliver the very best for children in their class.

With the arrival of the summer term, lighter nights and warmer days; there is always naturally a feel good vibe throughout a primary school. However, given the challenges we have faced as a society throughout recent times, that feeling is that little bit more special this time around. I look forward to the weeks ahead with excitement in what our children will achieve and more opportunities to share these with the school community.

My thanks go to the entire school community for their support of school.

Hello! It is my pleasure to be writing this blog as a Staff Governor.  I have been part of Boughton Heath’s Governing Body for 3 years and I have been part of the team pushing the school forwards. 

My role in school is Early Years Lead, which to families translates to Reception teacher.  It is my job to deliver the statutory Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS).  As of September 2021, a revised framework came into force bringing about some changes for the Early Years. 

When we talk about the EYFS we include all children aged from Birth to 5 years. The framework supports an integrated approach to early learning and care. It gives all professionals a set of common principles and commitments to deliver quality early education and childcare experiences to all children. 

As well as being the core document for all professionals working in the foundation years, the EYFS framework gives mums and dads confidence that regardless of where they choose for their child’s early education, they can be assured that the same statutory commitments and principles will underpin their child’s learning and development experience.  At Boughton Heath we work closely with all pre-school settings to give children best transition and continuation of this framework. 

The changes have been made to bridge the gap between the EYFS and National Curriculum.  Below is guidance on the changes that have been made.  Most of the changes are regarding Learning and Development, with some minor adjustments to Safeguarding and Welfare. 

Changes to Safeguarding and Welfare

The changes to Safeguarding and Welfare are largely wording based. For example, “Local Safeguarding Children’s Board” has been changed to “Local Safeguarding Partners” to reflect some recent change in structure.  A requirement for promoting the good oral health of children has been added.  A specific requirement for promoting staff and children’s online safety has been added. This reflects the technological advances we have made since the EYFS was last reformed in 2012.

Changes to Learning and Development – Educational Programmes

There is an emphasis on improving children’s language and vocabulary through increasing opportunities for conversations, reading of a wide range of books and holding discussions around activities in other areas of learning.  Literacy and numeracy skills focused on in the EYFS have been adapted to better match up with the national curriculum that starts in year 1. There is no longer an exceeding judgement at the end of reception. Children will instead be challenged to have a greater depth and understanding of ideas.

The Educational Programmes give depth to learning and at the end of the year children are assessed against the Early Learning Goals.  These are divided in to 7 areas of learning. The ‘Prime’ areas form the basis for all learning, and the ‘Specific’ areas build on those skills and broaden children’s understanding, experiences and knowledge

These changes and the removal of the requirement for a lot of evidence-based tracking means that we have made some adjustments to the way we observe, assess and plan for each and every child in our care. We work hard to ensure we know your children extremely well.  We observe their play, development and interests, we assess what they know and what we want them to learn and then we plan activities and provision which will extend their understanding.  All of these things are done by using our understanding of child development and our knowledge of your child as an individual person.

It has been such a lovely start to the year spending more time with the children, developing language and scaffolding learning.   I am in such a privileged position teaching Reception – Early Years paves the way for future success!

Katrina Ralston

Staff Governor

Happy New Year to you all! We are hoping 2022 will be a brave new year, however, the Omicron variant is dominating the focus across the country, with disruption occurring once again. This is a deep concern to all of us in education - the continuity of our children’s schooling is vital, moreover, for it to take place in school, for the best outcomes to be achieved, especially for children’s mental health. 

In light of this the school, as always, has contingency plans should there be multiple staff absence, with virtual whole class teaching being the last resort. Any child (very few at the time of writing) are currently isolating, however, they are able to access the work and class virtually, due to the investment made to ensure any child away from the physical classroom, is still very much included with his/her class, enabling continuity of learning and contact. 

It is almost two years since we have lived with this pandemic - an unprecedented situation for which schools and the nation have had to cope. From the start, BHA have listened and worked with our stakeholders - parents, children, staff and governors, to ensure all comments and suggestions have been considered to provide the best possible outcomes for our children. The school has been at the forefront of technological innovations to provide remote learning, investing in laptops and iPads for children’s personal use, updating staff laptops and setting expected standards whether working in school or from home. This has resulted in little slippage in learning; in fact, results are impressive despite the uncertain times. 

Parent voice is very important to us. Parents can choose which school they send their children to, so their opinion of the school is an aspect we take very seriously. To aid this communication link, we have a Parent Forum, where parents from each year group represent the rest of the parents, gathering others’ opinions before each meeting, usually using the focus sent to all parents through the parent questionnaire, prior to the forum meeting. 

This group of parents is a different role to those parents who are governors. Parent governors are not elected to represent their stakeholder group, but are elected in order to contribute to the work of the governing board in ensuring high standards of achievement for all children in the school, contributing to strategic discussion, holding senior leaders to account by monitoring school performance and ensuring money is well spent. All individuals governing on the board are elected or appointed with one common purpose – to govern the school in the best interest of the children.

Therefore, parent governors are not elected to voice parents’ opinion or their own personal circumstances of their own children; this voice comes through the parent forum. It is an official meeting with terms of reference and agreement (which can be found on the website). School updates are given by the Principal, COVID now being a standard agenda item; then a discussion is held regarding parents' comments from the questionnaires, followed by any other discussions members wish to raise. It is not a moaning forum but a constructive discussion or debate on a variety of issues, which may originate from a particular concern or observation, which has resulted in positive direction for moving forward. For example, the last minutes illustrate:

‘There was lots of discussion surrounding the school becoming more environmentally aware and energy efficient and forum members were keen to explore avenues to support this through funding projects and other initiatives. It was explained by JL that school had experience of this in the past but that it had not been financially viable to do so at the time given the initial outlay to fund such projects had meant spending large sums of school budget which would take too long to recoup ether financially or through other benefits. KL supporting this by reiterating that as public money funded schools, it was required to be spent on the current cohort of children to fund their education and provide opportunities for them.

JL reiterated his commitment to becoming greener at school, and stated that before larger scale projects were sought, it would be best to develop this attitude as part of the school culture and raise awareness in each and every child of the importance of being more environmentally friendly, so that this could be carried on year after year by BHA children even when they had left school.’

This example illustrates the broader aspect of education initiated by our parents. I am sure the school will be looking to invest in this, particularly following COP 26. This example also shows the importance of having a member from the governing body on the forum, to help support where such initiatives if or when taken to the board. 

I find it a very interesting, interactive and valuable meeting and am delighted to be part of it. I would like to thank all the parents who generously give their time to sit on the forum and help our school move forward. 

Kate Lee

Chair of Governors

Well – what a year 2020 has been.  A pandemic, American election, home schooling, uncertainty and relentless change. As a parent, a NHS key worker and a governor I have had my fair share of challenges that have tested my resilience and patience. This has encouraged me, more than ever to reflect on my parenting, the current world my children are exposed to and what I can do to support and scaffold them emotionally and academically. At the same time giving myself permission not to be ok, to have a wobble and to practice self-care. What a steep learning curve!

This blog is written as a parent (Y5 child and Y3 child) and a governor; a parent governor, and my experience from ‘masked’ health club drop off,  playground pick up,  combined with what I have learnt about Boughton Heath Academy behind the scenes at a strategic level.  As you are all aware, you can access the minutes of the Local Governing Board (LGB) meetings on the Boughton Heath Academy (BHA) website if you would like more detail on what we discuss.   The board hasn’t been meeting face to face but we have been making full use of Microsoft teams and continue to challenge monitor and support the school’s strategy.

I am passionate about our children’s education and wellbeing both of which have been magnified during this pandemic. I am frequently floored by the effort, creativity, collaboration and motivation of the team in BHA.  I am sure that being human, they are, like me being challenged daily, yet they still give 100% for our children. I know this from governor meetings, from seeing the majority of children skip, chatter and smile at pick up, and from stories my own children are telling me about their teachers.

Ongoing creativity, collaboration and innovative thinking has put everything in place in school to support and continue to educate our children in BHA.  A learning environment where pupils and staff can be healthy and happy. There are outside sinks to ensure time isn’t wasted waiting for children to handwash.  Imagine if they all had to queue up to handwash in the toilets and the time this would take out of their day.  Our children know how to wash their hands properly now, as a parent of two reluctant hand washers this is a milestone! We have a fantastic resource in Teams so that children if off and isolating will not miss out.  Selfishly for me, this has the added benefit of enabling me to parent rather than teach my children – I simply do not have the patience, time and skills that our BHA teachers have.

I have seen evidence that our children have not been as disadvantaged as we all initially thought due to being locked down and stuck at home for so many months. Their overall reading and maths is going the right way. Writing is known to need more input and the teachers are on it!  I would like to make it clear that this is not just the BHA picture but the picture when benchmarked across the UK. BHA and our kids are not alone! For those of you who are interested have a look here https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/hmci-commentary-findings-from-visits-in-october

This year the LGB are meeting in December 20 so we continue to monitor, support and challenge senior leaders and BHA during this very challenging time.  My specific role in the LGB is safeguarding and wellbeing.  I am often around at school pick up if you have any questions for the LGB.  So as the nights draw in lets continue to support, celebrate, collaborate and creatively scaffold the future for our children.  In the words of high school musical ‘We’re all in this together!’

Welcome to the New Academic Year 2020-2021 

As governors, we were absolutely delighted that Mr Ellis, Mr Lenton and the staff could welcome all the children back as a school community at the start of September. For many children it was over five months since they had been inside the school, as they received various amounts of home-schooling; for others it was the length of the usual summer holiday after a surreal half term before.  The Year 6 children were the pioneers of the virtual school for a few weeks when in Year 5, giving them the opportunity to receive face to face teaching, see their peers on screen, as well as being connected to their class. For the staff it was a period of uncertainty as they supported the vulnerable and key-worker children in school and worked from home preparing for the new school year. The return for everyone is school life in times of COVID 19. 
 
Throughout the lockdown period we as governors have continued our role in the background. It has, as everyone knows, been the strangest change and situation a school has ever had to deal with - I experienced many challenges in my Headship but none as testing and complicated as COVID. Mr Ellis had to read, digest and act upon countless government guidelines to ensure the safety of the children and their access to learning, as his paramount priority. I also joined online conferences and webinars as we discussed and dealt with the situation at hand. 
 
Lockdown is a period of our history we hope is never repeated in the same isolating manner. So many parents had to deal with full time working from home - a challenge in itself - with the added responsibility of home schooling: a daunting task at the best of times but with no warning or time to prepare it became a great juggling act. I know many parents worked late into the evenings as they shared teaching their children with their own work, to put in the hours needed - an exhausting challenge. 
 
As a school we followed the government guidelines, creating a bespoke website page for Coronavirus support with help and signposts to the current school curriculum and other websites, both information and interactive, to support children’s learning. Also, on the school website is the year group topic work. I, as a grandparent and retired Headteacher, was called upon to home-school my grandchildren aged 3 - 10! Each morning I logged on at 9.00 to start my morning’s teaching on screen in hour sessions to the different age groups - nursery, Years 1, 3 and 5. For the topic work for the Year 3 and 5, I used the planning from BHA. It was an excellent way to monitor the quality and depth of learning on offer. Although the situation meant we couldn’t manage all the activities, those we could do engaged, motivated and inspired my two, as they created some interesting models, tried various activities and researched with enthusiasm; I was impressed with the development of the topics from the school. 
 
In our virtual governors’ meetings, we have been keen to hear feedback from our BHA parents. We are aware there has been some mixed feeling regarding contact at the beginning of lockdown, nevertheless have resolved this through phone calls and other means. The parents’ questionnaire will help us to reflect and respond accordingly in the future. Already the ‘Meet the Teacher’ sessions have been adapted from requests of parents for particular information. 
 
One of our next objectives as governors is to review our vision in light of the current situation. We need to look ahead to include for example, facilities such as face to face virtual teaching, a mechanism which has been trialled and is in place ready for when and if it is needed. We are in uncertain times – local self-isolating could happen at any time, so it is imperative that as a school BHA can continue to keep to its core moral purpose of safeguarding its children and providing the highest quality education possible. 
 
As governors we will continue to support and challenge the school to ensure the high quality of education the BHA children have always received, continues regardless of the climate within which we are working. 

Kate Lee 

Chair of Governors

One year ago, I was elected to the local governing body of Boughton Heath Academy. I am local to Great Boughton. I adore our area, the history, richness and diversity of our community and all that it has to offer. I applied for a role in governance on the belief that I should pay it forward and contribute to keeping that community alive and the best it can be.

I was given responsibility for governor training a few months after my appointment to the board. The skill set offered by the governing body is one that we should be proud of. Our expertise spans many sectors: local and national heavyweight financial institutions; adult and child development; international marketing; mechanical engineering; retired and current education specialists to name a few. For my part I am a (secondary school) teacher, which is why I relish being able to hold a head teacher to account as a break from the norm. Incidentally, it keeps me in a perfect position to relay any changes on the educational horizon that we might need to train our governors about.

The changes in education are many at the moment. A new Ofsted framework means that the criteria by which we monitor and govern school are being overhauled. We are aiming for oversight on a number of new ideas that have come to the fore – including new angles on what quality of education for our children means. As governors, we do everything we can do to keep abreast of anything that might impact on BHA. To that end, as a minimum, we have

• participated in online training;
• participated in face-to-face training sessions;
• liaised with other local governing bodies;
• read and discussed numerous government strategy documents.

All this in order to put ourselves in the strongest position to let the extremely talented team at BHA do what they do best: provide opportunities, ensure continued safety and ongoing pedagogical excellence so that our children - our local community - can be the best it can be.

Thank you for your continued support of the work that all of the team do here.

Rob Herd

Training Governor

As we hurtle towards the end of term I wanted to take a moment on behalf of the board of governors to say a huge thank you to Mr Lenton and all the wonderful teaching and support staff at Boughton Heath Academy.

We are so lucky to have and be part of such a dedicated and talented team.

In what must have been an extremely tiring term, all staff have gone that extra mile to keep all of our children, happy, healthy and most importantly engaged in deep and meaningful learning.

Bi weekly Covid 19 testing, adapting to new government guidance, (often at short notice) and preparing for a possible Ofsted inspection during this academic year all are extra stresses. However, every morning our children are met at the gates and classroom doors with smiles, positivity and an energy that inspires a love of learning even on the cloudiest of mornings!

As a parent governor of a child in year 4 it has been lovely to see the school returning to a much more familiar learning environment this term. Until very recently, life and the Covid pandemic had begun to feel that it had taken a turn for the better. After school activities, school trips, sports competitions had once again started to be planned and rolled out.

Even the governors had started to move away from monthly meetings on Teams to being back in school. It was a real privilege to be welcomed back into the building, walking around classrooms, looking at work in books and on the walls, talking to teaching and support staff, hearing and seeing first hand the progress made and how the new curriculum maps are being designed, implemented and evaluated.

I must admit i didn’t expect to feel so emotionally moved by such a simple action. I understand that that not everyone has been able to do this yet, but be prepared for a tear or two when we next can safely go inside classrooms and enjoy an in person ‘share the learning’ morning.

Seeing and feeling the buzz of children preparing for Christmas concerts, the visit of Santa and the Elf charity run have really added the festive feeling around school. It has been heart warming to see.  However, recent developments with the discovery of a new variant mean that we need to continue to be vigilant and on our guard.

I thank everyone for their continued support in trying to keep our school and community safe by once again wearing face coverings on and around the school site.

I also wanted to share some of the training that I have undertaken during the last year to support my own personal development as a governor. Through the National Governors Association I have been able to access learning link modules that expand my knowledge and understanding of the role

During the last year I have completed the following modules.

Safeguarding

The training was extremely valuable and explored the role that the governing board plays in the safeguarding of children and young people, by making governors aware of the most important points from the legislation and guidance, including the 2020 edition of Keeping Children Safe in Education.

It explained the importance of implementing and maintaining appropriate safeguarding practice in schools, and offered questions that those governing can ask to ensure they are not simply aware of the school’s practices, but can be involved in making sure they work.

Pupil Premium

The module is designed to help governors and trustees fulfil their strategic role in the effective and efficient management of the school’s use of the Pupil Premium Grant, to raise the attainment of Free Schools Meals Children, Looked After Children, and the children of serving members of HM Forces.

By the end of the module I had gained an understanding of the aims of the Pupil Premium initiative and the importance of the strategic role in facilitating the schools attempts to raise attainment for these target groups and understand the importance of gathering and analysing quality data about the school’s performance.

Arts and cultural education

It was so encouraging to see this brand new module included on the NGA’s training menu. As an arts professional it was extremely satisfying to see that the partnership with Arts Council England had helped develop such an important and often overlooked training area in school governance.

The training was an inspiring framework that provided help for governors to develop their understanding of what arts and cultural education is and how it can be used to improve schools. It focuses on six key areas where schools can use arts and cultural education to improve outcomes through: a broad and balanced curriculum, school community and parental engagement, health and wellbeing, spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, social mobility, developing life skills and employability skills.

I will finish this blog by once again thanking everyone for their collaborative support, especially through these challenging and unusual times.

Wishing you all a very happy and peaceful festive period and best wishes for a new year filled with joy, learning and laughter.

Thank you to all,

Keep safe :)

After retiring as a teacher of mathematics at a comprehensive school in the inner ring of Birmingham and always having an interest in textiles I researched and I have been awarded my PhD on the History of Tatting – an overlooked lace craft.  Some six years ago I relocated to Chester as was keen to be part of the local education system and delighted to become a governor of Boughton Heath Academy which was attended my grandchildren. I am interested to see the progress made by the pupils during their time at the school, the changes incorporated into the curriculum and how the pupils mature in their attitude to learning as they progress through the school. 

Welcome to our new governors 

Over the past two months our two new governors have introduced themselves and explained why they wish to be governors at BHA. Mrs Rewhorn’s link role is part of the curriculum link as it is such a huge aspect of school, we allocate two governors for this area.  When we welcome new governors, we check we have a good spread of skills across the governing body to cover all aspects of school life; education, finance, health and safety, creativity, safeguarding and personnel, our newest governors can offer some of these skills, thus ensuring we have a cross spectrum of backgrounds to be able to support and challenge the school. It has made such a difference to be back meeting face to face, even though rather more spread out in the hall! We will keep you posted with our monthly blogs

As we come to the end of the school year it is impossible to make the usual reflections. COVID has, for a second academic year, dominated the educational scene, causing such disruption to the education of our children, not only at Boughton Heath Academy but across the country. Nevertheless, I consider the children at BHA to have had a good deal compared to many. The fact that remote teaching was fully in place and ready to go, ensured a seamless transition from school to home when the lockdown was announced in January. The children were fortunate to have live lessons, see their peers and be in direct contact with their teachers, however, even with this exemplary system for home-learning, the comments from a few children illustrated the enormity of the impact for some. Here are a couple of quotations to illustrate the point: 

• It was harder to learn on screen. It’s more distracting at home because parents are talking to you and walking in. 

• Working on the computer and trying to follow the instructions was difficult when the internet glitches. 

• When I came back in March, it was good because we did fun things but it was also difficult working in a team again. 

This would not have been the case for all children but it shows how hard it was for some and as a result how well the school re-integrated the children, with high expectations for learning, resulting in very good outcomes across every year group. Surveys of the children have been extremely positive which is a reflection of systems and support put in place. Well done to all the staff, not only for this but for the tremendous hard work, dedication and commitment across the whole year. On the whole BHA have been fortunate to only have one year group that had to isolate this half term. 

As governors, we have met virtually for over a year now, nevertheless, we have continued to support in our role, knowing the additional strain this pandemic has created. We are proud of the school, how it has managed to work to keep as much as possible seamless for the children. I have kept in touch with Mr Lenton weekly, if not more frequently at times. He with the senior leadership team, under the part-time watchful eye of Mr Ellis have done a tremendous job, which I am sure they will continue as new positions are taken up in the next academic year. With this in mind, I would like to take this opportunity to reflect on Mr Ellis’ years as Principal at BHA and share the thanks I gave at his moving-on celebration: 

As I come to the end of my third year in office as a governor of Boughton Heath Academy, so have only known Mr Ellis for three years, I have seen the massive positive impact he has had on the school over the past 11 years. 

Mr Ellis has always had a passion for wanting to share good practice, not only across Boughton Heath but across other schools as well, which was clearly illustrated as he, with two other Heads, created Cheshire Academies Trust in 2015, always, from the start (and now in print as Cheshire Academies Trust purpose) ‘Inspiring Hearts and Minds’. There were few primary schools taking this step in 2015.  

To me, this shows Mr Ellis is willing to do things differently for the greater benefit of all the children. He shows inspirational and aspirational leadership, setting high expectations of himself, the staff and children alike. For if the bar is set high everyone will strive to reach it. This school today, is a wonderful reflection of those high expectations across the board, in a determination to develop each and every child emotionally, socially, creatively, spiritually, culturally and academically, resulting in it being a high performing school.  

Whilst doing this, he has been able to empathise and create a great rapport with staff, putting well-being at the top of his agenda; supporting, yet holding people to account for the good of the children, creating a motivated and adhesive team of staff. I have seen first-hand the superb relationship he has with children, creating a happy, safe and secure place to learn, where children thrive, and are proud of their school and the amazing opportunities it gives them.  

During his journey at Boughton Heath, Mr Ellis became an Inspector for Ofsted undertaking challenging and rigorous training - and rightly so when being part of a team making judgements on a school. However, it was school improvement, not inspection that drove Mr Ellis, helping schools to move forward rather than just judging their progress. This led him to become a National Leader of Education and a School Improvement Adviser, then ultimately taking him to the role of CEO of Cheshire Academies Trust. I congratulate you on all your remarkable and wonderful achievements.  

Both personally and on behalf of the governing body I am delighted to be able to sincerely thank you for your incredibly hard work, dedication, sleepless nights and constant perseverance for continual school improvement. You are leaving Boughton Heath Academy as Principal, in an excellent position. Your passion for the school has shone through at every governing body meeting, as you have kept us extremely well informed on every aspect of school life, often illustrated with amusing anecdotes!  

I am sure you will enjoy your contact with the school in a different role, to watch and support the school to continue to flourish. We all wish you all the very best in your full-time role as CEO of Cheshire Academies Trust. 

It is an end of an era when a Headteacher/Principal leaves. In this case the smooth transition between one Principal and the next means the children will hardly be aware of the change. It is in our role of governors to ensure the school continues to move from strength to strength. This will also be ensured by Mr Ellis in his role of CEO meaning we will have the privilege of still working with him. 

The work of the governing body across the year is recorded in our Impact Statement which will be on the website at the beginning of the new term; I hope you will read it. 

Wishing you all a relaxing and restful summer,

Kate Lee

Chair of Governors

The idea of wellbeing feels like a new idea. Ten years ago, the concept of me ‘being well’ would have meant that I was in fine physical fettle and in good shape. It feels apt, if a little bittersweet, that self-care and mental health awareness started to settle in the public consciousness only a few years before Covid-19 silently transgressed borders and spread through our daily lives, showing us what ‘being well’ means on all kinds of levels. 

The easing of lockdown restrictions throughout the UK this month has given cause to reflect on everything our community has gone through since January 2020, when Covid-19 first started to appear in headlines on apps and screens around the globe. It never ceases to amaze me that as a country, we unquestioningly put our collective wellbeing before our own individual wellbeing by isolating ourselves from our communities, whether it was the Boughton Heath Academy community, the Great Boughton community or our family and friends. Throughout it all, we found increasingly sophisticated ways to ensure our communities stayed alive. Most of the world went from being blissfully unaware of Microsoft Teams to trusting our children’s future with the platform in the space of months. 

Unfortunately, I know of several people who went through some tough times during the lockdowns – completely unbeknown to any of their friends. Screens and apps simply aren’t conducive to taking advantage of an opportune gap in conversation to offload the little niggles that gnaw away if they’re not released into the social ether. Over many years, I’ve noticed that children need those opportunities too. They need various social mechanisms to absorb some of their anxieties and help them to regulate their responses to their worries. The natter and noise in the playground and on the way to school fills me with optimism that our children are sharing stories, seeking support and gaining reassurance from their friends and peers that they might have been missing for over a year. 

We have taken as many opportunities as we can as a school to survey wellbeing – not only that of our students, but also that of our teachers. We recently conducted a student survey as well as a staff survey about our community’s thoughts and feelings. As a governing body, we are very aware that you cannot pour from an empty cup. Throughout the pandemic, our wonderful teaching staff, teaching assistants, support staff and midday assistants have all confronted the unknown, grappled with their own anxieties and put their own wellbeing well behind that of the collective wellbeing by coming into school. They have worked late into the night, trying to balance an increased workload to make sure that our children have still felt a connection to our Boughton Heath Academy community. As ever, they have been the ear for our young ones to whisper into. We hope that with the easing of restrictions will come slight alleviation of the anxiety that has come from the Covid-19 situation. 

So, as lockdown is eased slightly and the restrictions lighten, I hope you reconnect with your own sounding board. I hope you finally manage to see your family. I hope that everyone benefits from the little offloads that we used to take for granted. I sincerely hope that you share your problems, that you halve your problems and that you solve your problems. Above all, I hope you are being well. 

On behalf of the Board of Governors, I would formally like to congratulate and welcome Mr Jon Lenton, on his new position as Principal of Boughton Heath Academy from September 2021.

Mr Lenton was appointed Vice Principal in 2019 and has worked very closely with Mr Steve Ellis, as Mr Ellis transitioned from his role of Principal over to Chief Executive Officer of the Cheshire Academies Trust.

Having been a Governor now for three years, the school under Mr Ellis has always strived to maintain high standards with our vision demanding greater academic progress, emotional resilience for our pupils while at the same time benefitting from a wider and richer curriculum.

Being involved in the Appointment of the new Principal it was clear from the outset that this was a very important role to fill.  This required a person with a certain skill set and pedigree that would not only continue and maintain the high standards already set, but further enhance and develop Boughton Heath Academy for many years to come.

The recruitment process for the Principal involved a panel of five members from both the Board of Governors and The Cheshire Academies Trust Board.  A total of six applications were received with each candidate having the opportunity to visit the school in person.  The panel’s first task was to read through each candidate’s job application and then to meet one afternoon over a Zoom call to discuss the candidates’ suitability for the position.  Have spent several hours discussing the applications, the  panel eventually shortlisted this down to two final candidates.

The Assessment Day itself was conducted via Zoom, with the two candidates set a number of various tasks to challenge their suitability and capability for the role.  These included a presentation task – Analysis of a School Development Plan, handling a letter of complaint, group interaction with pupils, critical thinking test, open discussion with senior leadership team and a final interview.

The candidates were very strong indeed with a vast wealth of experience and skillsets. The panel after a full day of assessment and further discussions came to unanimous agreement that Mr Lenton was the right candidate and fully deserved the position of Principal of Boughton Heath Academy.

I would like to wish Mr Lenton, on behalf of the Board of Governors, a very warm congratulation to his new role as Principal Headmaster and to his future success and that of Boughton Heath Academy.

Steven Ogilby

Being a Chair of Governors of a school is a great privilege as well as a huge responsibility, nevertheless, it is incredibly rewarding. Governors are volunteers. They are a group of people with a mixed skill set, so come from various professional backgrounds to ensure that all aspects of running a school from safeguarding (including wellbeing), academic achievement, business (including finance), plus many other facets, have experts in each field. A governors’ role is a strategic role, not an operational one, which is the role of the Headteacher and leadership team of the school. 

Working with the Headteacher, the Governing Body has two main roles – to support and challenge the school to ensure it is providing the very best education and outcomes for each and every child. Its core functions are: 

• Ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction; 

• Holding executive leaders to account for the educational performance of the organisation and its pupils, and the effective and efficient performance management of staff; 

• Overseeing the financial performance of the organisation and making sure its money is well spent. 

It is also important that the GB listens to the opinions of its stakeholders – children, staff, parents and the wider community. 

Regardless of external factors a GB has to carry out the above functions, so when COVID-19 hit, we, at Boughton Heath Academy, had to re-think our working practices. The most important aspect was that, as governors, we needed to be focusing more on the support, than the challenge! 

Our last face to face governing body meeting was on 11th March 2020. At this meeting it was ‘business as usual’; COVID-19 was not even an agenda item! Then on 23rd March, schools were closed. Life changed so quickly in the first lockdown; schools had to respond to the unknown immediately; there was so much to do and no time to do it. Schools were told they were closed except for vulnerable children and those of Key Workers. The remit was to signpost children to schemes of work that the children already followed and to websites so learning could continue at home; risk assessments were re-written to cater for this mammoth change; staff had to be put on a rota to supervise the children in school, otherwise to work from home ensuring there was sufficient on-line sites for the children to access. 

Having not had an agenda item about COVID in our March meeting, I was in daily contact with the Headteacher to discuss everything and anything from which children were eligible to attend school, to paperwork sent from the Department for Education (DfE), which came in daily with constant amendments to deal with. I joined Webinars and Zoom conferences to help support the Headteacher navigate a way through everything – the pressure on Headteachers across the country was enormous! 

The school made a separate window on the website to store the learning resources, parental guidance on internet safety and wellbeing. These three aspects were of utmost importance, in no particular order. Children spending much more time on-line made internet safety crucial to safeguard the children; the parents needed to know the learning resources to be able to support the children and wellbeing became more and more important as children felt isolated from their teachers, friends and usual routines. 

As a governing body, all governors meet for nine months of the year (some governing bodies meet once a term, then have a committee structure for specific business). We consider everyone attending more regular meetings, helps make decisions more quickly. This was a great advantage in the unprecedented situation, however, in hindsight, we wished we had held a meeting in April (one of the months we do not meet due to the two-week Easter break) as so much had happened between our March and May meetings which we had not all had the opportunity to discuss. 

By May the shape of our meetings completely changed. Instead as the usual agenda, we focussed on aspects which only pertained to the impact of the pandemic. One of these was a minority of parents wanting greater support for home-learning. Although all the DfE guidance had been followed, it was evident some parents were struggling. Following much research from the school, it was decided to trial direct teaching on-line to a Year 5 class in the second half of the summer term when some year groups were returning. We agreed, as governors, to invest in purchasing a personal laptop for all the Junior children – this was amazing forward thinking, as at the time, we did not know there would be a second school lockdown. Our meetings were now virtual. This took some adapting to as many of us had not used virtual methods of communication on a large scale before. I had a nightmare chairing the May meeting, as I could not see any of the other governors – I was literally working in the dark! They could see me, so I had to ensure I gave everyone enough time to comment and ask questions, as I could not see anyone putting up their hand (even virtually) nor read anyone’s body language! 

Everyone was delighted to welcome the children back in September. Governing Body meetings returned to a full agenda to ensure we were covering all our statutory duties, nevertheless, we kept a firm focus on the impact of COVID in the school and still worked virtually. Much investment was made to install outside hot water sinks, so hands could be washed before entering the building and toilet areas would not become crowded. The building, which was open-plan, had to be divided with screens between classrooms; hand sanitiser, cleaning schedules, staff-room closures etc.etc. had to be continually monitored, plus the wellbeing of the staff and children at this very anxious time. Governors did not go near the school but virtual phone calls and meetings became the norm. 

The Autumn Term was a busy time with staff training to be able to deliver lessons virtually for any child or class that may have to isolate. We were very fortunate as not one class had to; however, the infrastructure and training was in place for when the second lockdown occurred. As a result, the school was able to offer face to face lessons for all Junior children every day, making them independent learners from their parents. The infant children logged on for morning register and an outline of the day’s learning, which was presented through videos of the teachers teaching, which could be accessed at convenient times for parents. They also met again on-line for an end of the day for a story. Each child had their own school workbooks delivered at the start of lockdown with the Junior children also receiving their own laptop to work from. The children dressed in their uniforms – they may not be in the school building but they were still at school. It set an expectation, which has resulted in the children continuing to make good progress, learning being seamless, with very little ‘catch up’ needed. 

Throughout the past year I have endeavoured to support the school, be available daily when necessary but certainly each week now. The children have had daily teaching by their teachers, giving them contact, security and sustaining expectation. The parents have overwhelmingly been highly delighted in the provision. 

It has been an incredibly tough journey for school leaders and staff alike. Nevertheless, they have worked unstintingly to ensure the continued best education for the children in the circumstances. As governors, we have ensured we have continued to deliver on all of our core functions and are extremely proud of all the school has and continues to achieve. 

Kate Lee 

Chair of Governors 

As the third lockdown continues, with the second time schools have been closed for all but the vulnerable and key-workers' children, it is with pride that I sit and write this blog as I reflect on the journey that Boughton Heath Academy (BHA) has been on since the outbreak of COVID19. I am wearing three hats as I make this reflection – that as a retired educationalist, a grandparent of primary school aged grandchildren and as Chair of Governors. 

My concern between the gap in learning across the country grows with each day the vast majority of children are not attending school, as the provision of learning varies so much from school to school. I have friends with grandchildren who send me screenshots from their grandchildren’s schools as their own children pull their hair out at the lack of learning available. One, as their grandchild logged on at 9.00am on a Monday morning, read ‘This page has no content.’ How demotivating for the child and parent who has got them up and ready for learning! Most have not been that bad. Nevertheless, I have a concern that even though the government has said it is not a specific requirement to offer face to face learning (probably due to the uncertainty of all children having a constant devise to access such learning), surely that is how children learn best?  A child who is set work to do is self-learning or requires constant parental support. How can this be challenging or able to take the child to the next stage of learning, as and when he/she is ready? 

By being expected to be up, logged on for registration, saying good morning on-line to your own teacher, sets an expectation, a sense of community that all the class is doing this together, whether in school or on-line. From the first lockdown BHA has worked unstintingly towards the provision it has been able to offer since January. Research into the best technological platforms for rolling out remote provision, has been carried out; a trial for Year 5s by Mr Lenton in July was done; its success built upon. Throughout the Autumn Term staff have undertaken relentless training to be up to speed, in readiness for the occurrence that happened on 8th January. New laptops were purchased for the staff to ensure they had quality resources from which to work, investment was made for all Key Stage 2 children to have their own laptop so they were not vying for a slot on the family computer; the curriculum was adapted to be accessible from school and home. 

I keep in regular contact with Mr Ellis and Mr Lenton. On Sunday 7th January, the updated risk assessment was sent to further improve safety measures in school. I spoke with Mr Ellis on the 8th in the afternoon and after the announcement...the action plan was ready to roll. The staff worked as the great team which they are, delivering, not only Key Stage 2 laptops but workbooks to all the children. Workbooks! Yet again another statement to say your work matters and is important to us. We do not want gaps in your recorded work; we want you to take the same pride in your presentation at home as you do at school. In addition, we may not all be in school but we are all at school, so log on wearing your school uniform as we know that sets a standard of expectation. All this and more has worked. It is with pride that I look at samples of work through Twitter! The home-learning at BHA is a bee’s wing (a Mr Ellis expression) from that of when in school.  

Parents views have been listened to and where possible, if appropriate, acted upon. This is a reflective, self-evaluation school, doing all it can to strive to continue to give each and every child the best education possible. How many schools have had a Zoom meeting where all parents could join to voice concerns and alleviate fears? Non other that I have heard of. Parent Forum continues on-line, as do other communication systems to ensure all parents have a channel from where they can express their views. 

As governors, we continue to meet each month to support and challenge what is being put in place. It is good that the balance is far more for support than to have to challenge – we almost just tweak through certain questions! I continue to speak with Mr Lenton each week and Mr Ellis on a very regular basis. We have set our own strategy plan this year where we are focusing on ways to be as visible as possible with the community of school, staff and parents; looking at the links between the CAT vision and BHA vision and to closely monitor the progress in writing across the school. In addition to this we take the wellbeing of the staff very seriously. Many parents have expressed their admiration of the quality and quantity of work the children cover in a day. That only comes through excellent preparation, which takes time. Support has been put in place to address some of the additional time this has taken for staff for on-line learning. Across the Trust questionnaires are sent to all staff to ascertain their wellbeing. A senior member of staff has a role to regularly check-in on staff wellbeing and a governor has been appointed this year to follow this through. Taking staff wellbeing is vital – they are our greatest asset and resource. To have continuity in teachers has a positive impact on the children’s wellbeing. I am pleased they are all coping so well and would like to sincerely thank them all, whatever their role in school for all their continued hard work. 

The outcome of this careful planning and preparation is that for the vast majority of the children achievement remains high and provision is in place for where it is not so high – the school is still monitoring progress and achievement. Children in Key Stage 2 should be able to work independently, hopefully enabling working parents to carry on with their work during the day. For the younger children this is not so easy. I admire all parents juggling their own work with home-schooling support. I appreciate how demanding and exhausting it is, not to mention finding time for household chores! Remember you are doing a great job! You are supporting your child’s education and your family’s wellbeing – well done! 

In the meantime, I shall continue to be the home-school support for my grandchildren teaching phonics each day and giving my younger grandchildren childcare through what has become known in our family as ‘Nanny Nursery!’ 

If you have any suggestions as to how we, as governors, can be more communicative and visible, then please let us know. 

Kate Lee, Chair of Governors

Well – what a year 2020 has been.  A pandemic, American election, home schooling, uncertainty and relentless change. As a parent, a NHS key worker and a governor I have had my fair share of challenges that have tested my resilience and patience. This has encouraged me, more than ever to reflect on my parenting, the current world my children are exposed to and what I can do to support and scaffold them emotionally and academically. At the same time giving myself permission not to be ok, to have a wobble and to practice self-care. What a steep learning curve!

This blog is written as a parent (Y5 child and Y3 child) and a governor; a parent governor, and my experience from ‘masked’ health club drop off,  playground pick up,  combined with what I have learnt about Boughton Heath Academy behind the scenes at a strategic level.  As you are all aware, you can access the minutes of the Local Governing Board (LGB) meetings on the Boughton Heath Academy (BHA) website if you would like more detail on what we discuss.   The board hasn’t been meeting face to face but we have been making full use of Microsoft teams and continue to challenge monitor and support the school’s strategy.

I am passionate about our children’s education and wellbeing both of which have been magnified during this pandemic. I am frequently floored by the effort, creativity, collaboration and motivation of the team in BHA.  I am sure that being human, they are, like me being challenged daily, yet they still give 100% for our children. I know this from governor meetings, from seeing the majority of children skip, chatter and smile at pick up, and from stories my own children are telling me about their teachers.

Ongoing creativity, collaboration and innovative thinking has put everything in place in school to support and continue to educate our children in BHA.  A learning environment where pupils and staff can be healthy and happy. There are outside sinks to ensure time isn’t wasted waiting for children to handwash.  Imagine if they all had to queue up to handwash in the toilets and the time this would take out of their day.  Our children know how to wash their hands properly now, as a parent of two reluctant hand washers this is a milestone! We have a fantastic resource in Teams so that children if off and isolating will not miss out.  Selfishly for me, this has the added benefit of enabling me to parent rather than teach my children – I simply do not have the patience, time and skills that our BHA teachers have.

I have seen evidence that our children have not been as disadvantaged as we all initially thought due to being locked down and stuck at home for so many months. Their overall reading and maths is going the right way. Writing is known to need more input and the teachers are on it!  I would like to make it clear that this is not just the BHA picture but the picture when benchmarked across the UK. BHA and our kids are not alone! For those of you who are interested have a look here https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/hmci-commentary-findings-from-visits-in-october

This year the LGB are meeting in December 20 so we continue to monitor, support and challenge senior leaders and BHA during this very challenging time.  My specific role in the LGB is safeguarding and wellbeing.  I am often around at school pick up if you have any questions for the LGB.  So as the nights draw in lets continue to support, celebrate, collaborate and creatively scaffold the future for our children.  In the words of high school musical ‘We’re all in this together!’

Welcome to the New Academic Year 2020-2021 

As governors, we were absolutely delighted that Mr Ellis, Mr Lenton and the staff could welcome all the children back as a school community at the start of September. For many children it was over five months since they had been inside the school, as they received various amounts of home-schooling; for others it was the length of the usual summer holiday after a surreal half term before.  The Year 6 children were the pioneers of the virtual school for a few weeks when in Year 5, giving them the opportunity to receive face to face teaching, see their peers on screen, as well as being connected to their class. For the staff it was a period of uncertainty as they supported the vulnerable and key-worker children in school and worked from home preparing for the new school year. The return for everyone is school life in times of COVID 19. 
 
Throughout the lockdown period we as governors have continued our role in the background. It has, as everyone knows, been the strangest change and situation a school has ever had to deal with - I experienced many challenges in my Headship but none as testing and complicated as COVID. Mr Ellis had to read, digest and act upon countless government guidelines to ensure the safety of the children and their access to learning, as his paramount priority. I also joined online conferences and webinars as we discussed and dealt with the situation at hand. 
 
Lockdown is a period of our history we hope is never repeated in the same isolating manner. So many parents had to deal with full time working from home - a challenge in itself - with the added responsibility of home schooling: a daunting task at the best of times but with no warning or time to prepare it became a great juggling act. I know many parents worked late into the evenings as they shared teaching their children with their own work, to put in the hours needed - an exhausting challenge. 
 
As a school we followed the government guidelines, creating a bespoke website page for Coronavirus support with help and signposts to the current school curriculum and other websites, both information and interactive, to support children’s learning. Also, on the school website is the year group topic work. I, as a grandparent and retired Headteacher, was called upon to home-school my grandchildren aged 3 - 10! Each morning I logged on at 9.00 to start my morning’s teaching on screen in hour sessions to the different age groups - nursery, Years 1, 3 and 5. For the topic work for the Year 3 and 5, I used the planning from BHA. It was an excellent way to monitor the quality and depth of learning on offer. Although the situation meant we couldn’t manage all the activities, those we could do engaged, motivated and inspired my two, as they created some interesting models, tried various activities and researched with enthusiasm; I was impressed with the development of the topics from the school. 
 
In our virtual governors’ meetings, we have been keen to hear feedback from our BHA parents. We are aware there has been some mixed feeling regarding contact at the beginning of lockdown, nevertheless have resolved this through phone calls and other means. The parents’ questionnaire will help us to reflect and respond accordingly in the future. Already the ‘Meet the Teacher’ sessions have been adapted from requests of parents for particular information. 
 
One of our next objectives as governors is to review our vision in light of the current situation. We need to look ahead to include for example, facilities such as face to face virtual teaching, a mechanism which has been trialled and is in place ready for when and if it is needed. We are in uncertain times – local self-isolating could happen at any time, so it is imperative that as a school BHA can continue to keep to its core moral purpose of safeguarding its children and providing the highest quality education possible. 
 
As governors we will continue to support and challenge the school to ensure the high quality of education the BHA children have always received, continues regardless of the climate within which we are working. 

Kate Lee 

Chair of Governors