The CLF hosted our inaugural Environment Conference at Winterstoke Hundred Academy.

Organised by the CLF’s Environmental Action Group (EAG), students from all of our academies across our Federation who are members of our academy Environment Committees attended, the first time pupils from all CLF academies will be at an event together since the start of the pandemic.

Each academy was represented by ten students ranging in age from 4-19.

Sam Hodder, Principal of Uphill Village Academy and Chair of the CLF EAG, said: “We are delighted to be holding this event. Environmental issues are of high importance to many of us and we have pledged, as a trust, to make a real difference within our communities. The aim of the conference is to educate, inspire and inform our young people so they are equipped to invoke change within their own academies.

“The conference purposely follows COP26 as many of our students had their interest heightened by the publicity and news coverage. We feel it is a perfect opportunity to continue their education and build on their interest.”

During the day staff and students heard from three guest speakers: Francis Hyland, Chris Sperring and Laura Fogg–Rogers.

Francis Hyland has been at Keep Britain Tidy since the Eco-Schools programme began, ensuring the process is student-led and ‘teacher friendly’.  As a former primary school teacher, Francis understands the complexities of introducing and running the Eco-Schools programme in school. He enjoys celebrating and sharing the work of schools when delivering training across the country.

Chris Sperring MBE is a wildlife conservationist working locally for the Hawk and Owl Trust. He presents and broadcasts on TV and radio and also enjoys lecturing on a wide range of subjects. Chris writes regularly for wildlife magazines and newspapers.

Laura Fogg–Rogers is a lecturer and researcher in Science Communication at UWE Bristol. Laura previously worked as a journalist for the BBC and as a Communications Manager in New Zealand. She currently manages the communications for the EU environmental project ClairCity. ClairCity is a Horizon 2020-funded project responding to the call ‘Improving the Air Quality and Reducing the Carbon Footprint of European Cities’. The project takes a novel approach to understanding air pollution, carbon emissions and their impact on citizen health and wellbeing.

The Cabot Learning Federation and Begbrook Primary Academy have been chosen by the DFE to become Behaviour Hubs.

The programme pairs schools and MATs that have ‘exemplary’ behaviour practices with schools that want to improve behaviour

An extra 28 schools and eight multi-academy trusts (MATs) have been designated as lead schools and MATs as part of the Department for Education’s £10 million Behaviour Hubs scheme.

The scheme is designed to support schools with improving their culture and ethos, and specifically whole school behaviour approaches.

The criteria for achieving Behaviour Hub status are exacting and there was a process of application and interview. We have now started our training and we expect to start working with schools in brokered partnerships from April 2022.

Executive Principal Sally Apps said: “This provides us with a great opportunity to have a positive influence on the learning and school experiences of many hundreds of children beyond our trust – as well as providing challenge and support within our trust as we continue to work on behaviour across our schools. The MAT Behaviour Hub Team will be led by myself, Executive Principal Kate Richardson and Principal Tony Searle, and the CLF plan to work with colleagues at a range of levels in the trust to be able to develop and deliver this support.”

Frome Vale Academy and Snowdon Village had a visit from Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector Amanda Spielman and Regional Director, for the South West James McNeille after Frome Vale Academy’s recent ‘Outstanding’ Judgement from Ofsted in January. This remains the first outstanding judgement in the South West region this academic year.

They were welcomed by Steve Taylor CEO of the Cabot Learning Federation, Jan Saunders Principal of Frome Vale and Alex Davies, Principal of Snowdon Village which includes the Nest provision.

They spent time talking to staff about the recent Ofsted grading before they were given a tour by Frome Vale citizens around the academy where they spoke to pupils about their work.

Jan Saunders said ‘it was a pleasure to welcome Amanda and James as visitors to Frome Vale, our children gave them a tour and enjoyed talking to them about life as a Frome Vale Citizen’

If you were offered a training session from three England rugby players during the six nations tournament, you would think somebody was making it up! But, this is exactly what happened to 15 pupils at Summerhill Academy, in St George. A crack team of experts from Virgin Media and O2 descended on the school with the latest cutting edge hologram technology to make this happen. Ellis Genge (Bristol born and ex-John Cabot Academy pupil), Jack Knowle and Henry Slade from the England Rugby team then delivered a live real-time coaching session.