MLP Newsletter No. 32
Welcome to 2023 and to Term 3 of the academic year. I hope you and your families had a happy Christmas and an enjoyable break. In this newsletter you will see that there is a great deal of celebration of Christmas festivities in our academies; it really felt as though we were back to ‘normal’. I certainly enjoyed attending Carol Services, nativities and Christmas events around the Trust and there were some stunningly accomplished performances from all age groups.
Also, a cause for celebration in December was the fact that Magna Learning Partnership became a Trust of ten schools as Amesbury Primary School joined on the first of the month. We now have six primary schools divided into two ‘hubs’, each led by a Director of Education. Bemerton St John, Pembroke Park and The New Forest Primary Schools form the south hub and Amesbury, Amesbury Archer and Old Sarum the north hub. The third hub, again led by a Director of Education, consists of our three secondary schools, Sarum Academy, Wyvern St Edmund’s Academy and The Trafalgar School, together with Salisbury Sixth Form College. Part of the role of the three Directors of Education is to foster close collaboration between hub academies and to ensure that the very best practice in each academy is accessible for all children and young people. In addition, our Trust networks bring together leaders of subjects and other key areas from all academies; they also share good practice and support one another to ensure we are always improving the educational experience for our pupils and students. We benefit
from being local; the vision of the Trust is focused on serving our community in the Salisbury area; imagine a ten-mile radius from the Cathedral and that, essentially is what we would call our ‘patch’. It makes working together, whether that’s moving primary children around for football tournaments, arranging secondary engineering challenges or bringing staff into one place for training and development so much more simple than if we were separated by geographical distance.
This term, we look forward to weather that surely can’t be colder than what we faced in December, but if, as sometimes happens in January we find we have to close owing to snow, please check academy websites and the local radio. If a closure is necessary in a morning, information will be posted by 7am at the latest. Pupils and students will be set work by their teachers for the day using the online mechanisms we all got so used to during the pandemic.
Hopefully, we will have a smooth and uninterrupted term ahead. I’d like to return to my theme from the last newsletter and remind all families of the importance of good attendance at school and college. Please, parents, do all you possibly can to avoid your child missing a day’s education this term.
Happy new year to you all.
Sarah Busby
Chief Executive Officer