It is lovely to be able to welcome you back to a new academic year which I’m sure will contain lots of successes and challenges for your children. We will be working hard to help them achieve their success and manage any challenges that come their way, but the Autumn term always brings a sense of new beginnings and excitement.

As a Trust, we are excited to formally welcome two new schools, Riverwalk School in Bury St Edmunds and Warren School in Lowesoft. Both schools cater for pupils who have severe learning difficulties, profound and multiple learning difficulties, as well as those with autism.

Over the summer school closure period, our estates team have been busy visiting schools to renovate classrooms and improve heating systems across the estate.  Our Education and Learning Team are visiting a setting each week to discuss teaching and learning priorities as well as conducting an estates tour to enable academy heads to highlight any improvements to learning spaces and the wider environment that need investment from the Trust.  We continue to strive to make the environment in all our schools conducive to progressive learning and instal a sense of pride in these spaces for our pupils.

The future is looking bright as the Trust continues to identify growth opportunities, and we are currently working on two specialist resource bases (SRBs) that will provide pupils with extra support they need while in a mainstream setting via an education, health and care plan (EHC).  The first of these settings will be at Barnby North Cove Primary School and the second will be at Winterton Primary School.  As part of our estates review, we are also relocating our Head Office to Helmingham School House, which will not only utilise a space that is currently available but will ensure any unnecessary costs are kept to a minimum, allowing the saved investment to be ploughed back into our schools.

As parents/carers of children within our schools, we would invite you to get involved with the Locality Committee within your local school and work with us to monitor and develop areas such as Parent Parliament, Pupil Experience and Safeguarding.  If you think this is something you might like to be involved in, please contact the Academy Head or visit our website for more information.

I hope your child enjoys the Autumn term and, as a family, you can spend time celebrating all that the season has to offer during October half term.

Warm regards,

Andrew Aalders-Dunthorne, CEO