King’s Oak Academy, part of the Cabot Learning Federation, is a community school that has served the children and families of Kingswood since 1921. To mark their centenary anniversary and further our commitment to supporting the growth, development, and legacy of the Kingswood community, they were delighted to welcome children and their families, King’s Oak alumni, residents, local authority organisations and community businesses to join them for a special afternoon tea.

The event was hosted in our wonderful new canteen and events space that was beautifully designed by Studio Lime, project managed by Faithful & Gould and built through modular construction by Integra Buildings. The catering for staff and students will be produced by Aspens.

Throughout the evening, visitors and students were able to reflect on the history of King’s Oak by looking at photographs, artefacts and videos that were kindly shared by the Kingswood Heritage Museum and King’s Oak alumni. They also listened to stories about learning at King’s Oak from current and former students.

Katherine Ogden, Principal, said “It is a privilege for King’s Oak to hold such a deep and meaningful role within the Kingswood community and it is moments like this that highlight the outstanding work that community partnerships and relationships can do for society.  Thank you to everyone who has supported King’s Oak throughout the last 101 years, and we are looking forward to continuing to work closely with families, organisations and businesses to ensure that both King’s Oak and Kingswood continue to grow and thrive for many years to come.”

Every young rugby player’s dream is to run out at Twickenham, the home of English Rugby and recently two teams from state secondary schools did just that, playing a curtain raiser before England V Argentina, the first of the Autumn national series.

England Rugby wants to take rugby to more state schools and is partnering with multi academy trusts. Schools from two of them, King’s Oak Academy from the Cabot Learning Federation, and Sedgehill Academy from United Learning, played before the test match.

Although competitive, no scores were kept from the games. This was just a chance for the two teams to play on the pitch, then watch the main event after.

Jude a Year 7 student said, “It was really amazing to play on a really nice pitch and a once in a lifetime experience to play in a stadium of that size, with the crowd cheering us on.”

Alex Heath, Head of Year 11/PE teacher said, “The day was a great experience, both students and staff loved being able to play and watch in an environment that our students would never normally get to experience.”

Pupils at Minerva Primary Academy, with the help of staff, have opened their very own Post Office. This brand-new role play area is for pupils to gain experiences of real-life activity and introduce a narrative into their play.

Early Years pupils will act as Post Masters behind the counter. Through role play they will learn how to sell and post items to family and friends; they will learn about money exchanging between customers and using their words to pretend. They will also be writing letters and messages with marks, filling envelopes, and sticking stamps onto the envelopes.

The aim of this educationally based project is to develop pupil’s wider vocabulary when discussing money, shipping parcels, and sending letters. Geography and understanding the world around them has its place as pupils will consider where are the parcels being sent, thinking about different places and how long it will take to get there.

Verity Creed, Early Years teacher said, “It is lovely to have such a wonderful outdoor environment which the children can use in all seasons. Having a space outside for them to pretend to work in a post office allows the children to be fully engaged in their learning together, building social skills, practising conversation, and representing aspects of familiar life outside of school.”

It’s been a bumper month for CLF academies in the November edition of the Voices newspapers, nine separate articles! King’s Oak golfer made the front page of the Kingswood Voice, CLF involvement in the reimagine national project and fundraising for Macmillan and much, much more. See below to find out more details.

The World Reimagined is a ground-breaking, mass participation art education project to transform how we understand the Transatlantic Slave Trade and its impact. Two Cabot Learning Federation academies are taking part in the project, Bristol Brunel Academy and Summerhill Academy.

Year 11 student, Ashley Millington, from King’s Oak Academy has been selected to play for the under 16 England Golf Team.

Macmillan’s Coffee Morning is an annual event dedicated to bringing people together over a cuppa to raise vital funds for Macmillan Cancer Support. People all over the UK host their own coffee event and donations raised on the day are made to Macmillan. At two academies within the Cabot Learning Federation coffee mornings were held on Friday 29^th September to raise money for this very worthy cause

Begbrook Primary Academy has invested in hundreds of books  for pupils to borrow and read, with their families. Please read the article below to find out more.

Minerva Primary Academy has set up a group called Equality, Diversity, and inclusion ambassadors for pupils to work with staff on planning assemblies and an international day to celebrate different cultures, and much more.

Staff and students at Bristol Brunel Academy dressed in yellow to raise vital funds for Hello Yellow. Staged on World Mental Health Day, Hello Yellow support young people with mental health issues and is run by the charity Young Minds

Streets outside Minerva Primary Academy are cleared everyday at pick-up and drop-off times, the aim of this is to make school journeys safer and healthier for all.

King’s Oak Academy have had a great start to start to the school year with lots of footballing success sporting their brand-new kits sponsored by local companies SJC Building Services and Clifton Surveys with both companies being ran by local people and having strong links to King’s Oak.

Staff and students at Bristol Brunel Academy dressed in yellow to raise vital funds for

Hello Yellow. Staged on World Mental Health Day, Hello Yellow support young people with mental health issues and is run by the charity Young Minds.

Young Minds is the UK’s leading charity fighting for children and young people’s mental health.

They want to see a world where no young person feels alone with their mental health, and all young people get the mental health support they need, when they need it, no matter what.

Students and staff raised around £300.00 for this worthy cause by wearing shoes or trainers of their choice, they paid £1 each to do this.

Off The Record a local charity that supports young children with their mental health, visited the academy at lunchtime and had a stall where all students could go and discuss issues around mental health.

At tutor time they had a pop-up session where students could talk about anxiety and nervousness and found out where they could get support.

Tom Leahy, Associate Assistant Principal said, “The purpose of the day was to encourage students to discuss young people’s mental health and ensure they know what support is out there. The more we talk about this and get young people to open up, the more we can help. Although Hello Yellow is one day, we will revisit the issue regularly at Bristol Brunel Academy with students and staff.”

Year 11 student, Ashley Millington, from King’s Oak Academy has been selected to play for the under 16 England Golf Team.

Ashley got into the England team by sending his scorecards from all competitions to the EGA (European Golf Association) where players are ranked. Ashley is ranked 9^th in the under 16 age group in the country, so he received a call to join the team. He played his first tournament in Italy where the England team came 9^th out of 20 teams.

Ashley who plays his golf at The Players Golf Club, Codrington, was inspired by his father at the age of five to take up the sport. His notable wins to date have been the Avon schools’ event at Bristol and Clifton golf club. And as part of a men’s team, he also won the South Western Counties Championship.

Ashley said, “It meant a lot to me to get into the England team after all the hard work I have put in, it was nice to see that this work paid off. I would also like to thank my family for all their support throughout my golfing career to date.”

Alex Heath, Head of Year 11 said, “We at King’s Oak are all very proud of Ash’s accomplishments and wish him continued success in his golfing future. We look forward to seeing how he progresses.”