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  Summer 2021
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Welcome
Charles Dickens famous opening to A Tale of Two Cities has been much quoted in recent months. We have certainly been passing through the best of times and the worst of times simultaneously. We have been inspired by the achievement, resilience and moral purpose of our schools but there have nevertheless been some very dark moments in the last year. I am very conscious that some of our staff have seen the lives of friends and family affected and, in some dreadful cases, cut short by this pandemic. We also had a number of situations where staff in schools had very serious cases of Covid.
Despite the enormous difficulties of this period we have so much to be proud of. The work of the schools in switching to virtual provision in the January-March lockdown has been universally praised. Governance and leadership has also continued apace and we have all become very comfortable with Teams meetings. Work on developing our SEND offer and our curriculum has continued with the same urgency as ever. We have also made some really positive structural changes within the Trust, not least with the development of our new Centre for Professional Development. Our focus on supporting children from disadvantaged backgrounds has become even sharper and we know that will be very necessary as they have certainly been most negatively impacted by the disruption of this year. In secondary, the efforts to develop fair and rigorous processes to deliver Teacher Assessed Grades have been remarkable and I am certain that the task has been delivered with great integrity.
"We have delivered brilliantly on our commitment to public service"
So, in a year that none of us would have wanted we have delivered brilliantly on our commitment to public service. As well as serving, we have brought some very welcome normality to our communities and it has been fabulous to see the fun and excitement of summer events enliven our schools again, Delta variant notwithstanding.
I am really glad to see the names of staff recognised for long service mentioned in this newsletter. The success of each of our schools and our Trust as a whole rests entirely on the work of our amazing staff. To everyone leaving and everyone staying for the new academic year, sincere thanks for your work and contribution to the Trust.
Wishing everyone a restful, healthy and very enjoyable summer holiday.
Gary Lewis
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 | 11 Jun 2021 Trustees, Governors and staff at Lighthouse Schools Partnership are delighted by the news that the Chair of their Trust, Adele Haysom, has been named in this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours. |
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 | 22 Jan 2021 The Lighthouse Schools Partnership has received generous donations of nearly 500 computers from local organisations to help support pupils struggling to access their remote learning from home. |
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Give a Little Love Campaign to help schools
 A big thank to Waitrose & Partners for donating £500 in gift vouchers to our Portishead hub schools as part of their Give a Little Love Campaign which aims to make a lasting difference to those in need.
The vouchers will go towards providing food and equipment for pupils that need it most or otherwise wouldn't be able to take part in a school activity.
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We wish to congratulate and thank the following people for the contributions they have made to our Trust:
25 years' service
Lynda English at Ubley
Alison Francis at High Down Infants
Elizabeth Kerr at Chew Valley Secondary School
20 years' service and retiring
Jane Bailey at East Harptree and Ubley
Gregory Brees at Backwell Secondary School
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 The Board of Trustees have agreed to set an ambitious target to bring greenhouse gas emissions across the Trust to net zero by 2035, 15 years ahead of the Government’s target of 2050. This would mean that we will achieved net zero emissions by the time that the children starting in reception in September 2021 finish in 6th form.
Working with the Student Environment Teams in our Secondary Schools, we will begin work on developing our Net Zero plan in the Autumn. This will build on the exciting progress already being made in our schools and draw on the wealth of ideas and opportunities being identified by our students, staff and Trustees.
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 | 04 May 2021 Whitchurch Primary School are trialling four e-bikes to encourage sustainable travel amongst school staff. |
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 Gordano working towards carbon neutrality
As part of a Trust wide move towards carbon neutrality for all schools, Gordano school pupils and staff met and discussed ways the school can improve its environmental credentials. Ideas were presented to Senior Staff and pupils went to a ‘Carbon Summit’ in July with the other schools in the Trust.
Rewilding Project
Last year the Gordano School Eco Club launched a rewilding project around the school and the results are now starting to show in their four new designated ‘rewilding areas’. Rewilding is when you allow an area of land to return to its natural state, free from lawn mowing or human intervention. Its aim is to give nature more space, allowing wild flowers to regrow and the insects and pollinators that feed on them to thrive. As well as providing vital food for pollinators, increasing the biodiversity on the school site, the rewilding areas also now serve as beautiful flower meadows giving colour and life to areas that were once just grass. Some mushrooms have even been spotted!
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 | 24 Jun 2021 Congratulations to Tim Eustace from St Peter's CE Primary School who has won The Pearson National Teaching Award for Teacher of the Year in a Primary School! Tim is an exceptional teacher who has worked across the primary age range. He trained as a teacher following a career that includ... |
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 Backwell New School Building Officially Opened!
Backwell School was delighted to have their brand new building opened on Friday 9 July by Professor David Olusoga.
The building, which has been built over the past 18 months, contains a four court sports hall, fitness suite, three state-of-the-art Science laboratories and two bright and spacious classrooms.
The building was constructed by Collinson Construction who managed the project incredibly well, despite the challenges and the logistics of building such a large structure on a fully functioning school site.
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Chew Valley Pupils 'Enriched' by on-site activities
Chew Valley School pupils were given the opportunity to enhance their learning through a series of engaging and fun activities during Enrichment week (Monday 21st - Friday 25th June). One of the intentions of the week was to provide students with opportunities to access elements of the ‘Chew Valley Guarantee’ they had not been able to during the Covid pandemic.
 
On-site activities included lessons such as an Escape Room, Carnival Dance, Chew Valley Newspaper, Eco House Challenge and Masterchef. Students also participated in a House Event every day and these included American Sports, Zombie Apocalypse, Capture the Flag, Tennis, Dance and Drama.
The Year 7 camp was held on-site and students were involved in a range of team building activities throughout the week.
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History teachers publish textbook to educate pupils on Bristol's links to slavery
Tracy O’Brien, Head of History at Chew Valley School, is one of a group of Bristol history teachers who have written a new textbook to support the better understanding of Bristol’s role in the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The content covers the period from 1440 right up to the events of 2020 as well as the legacies of the traffic in enslaved Africans in the city. The launch of the book is supported by the M-Shed museum in Bristol, which provided the images of objects, archive documents and artworks from its collections.
Gareth Beynon, Head at Chew Valley, remarked: “We are really proud of the work that Tracy has done to develop this new resource for schools. She has led the revision of our History curriculum at Chew and it is right that this story is better understood in the region that profited so enormously from the trade in human beings. Understanding our history has never been more important.”
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Three Gordano Year 7 students have so far raised over £2,000 for local charity The Benjamin Pritchard Foundation. The charity was set up in 2018 by Sarah Pritchard following the death of her son Ben, as a result of a brain tumour. The charity aims to enhance bereavement support and services by providing ongoing counselling and complimentary therapies, as well as offering opportunities for bereaved families to meet others whose child has died. Something that was not locally available previously.
Tommy and Ben used to play football together for Portishead Town Sparks and for his 12th birthday, Tommy set himself a challenge to ride his bike 12km a day for the 8 days between his birthday and what would have been Ben’s 12th birthday. So far he has raised over £1,000 for the charity which is phenomenal, if you can help raise more please donate here.
In addition to Tommy’s efforts, last August, Ben’s best friends, Finn McEntee Smith and Monty Weeks climbed Ben Nevis again raising over £1,000 “climbing Ben for Ben”, an idea they thought of themselves at Ben’s funeral.
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Year 4 Pupils take part in Conservation Project
It's been an exciting four weeks for Year 4 at Winford School as pupils have been working with the Bristol and Avon River Trust on an eel conservation project. Pupils have been responsible for taking care of a tank full of young European eels (elvers) in their classroom and making sure the eels are healthy and happy. During this time they have learnt about the lifecycle of eels and why they are endangered. At the end of the four weeks they released over 60 elvers into the local brook in Winford!
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Year 5 Pupils Publish Poetry Book
 Yatton School Year 5 pupils have published their own fully illustrated poetry based on the book Beetle Boy. The children hope to generate enough profit to buy new inspiring books for them when they go up to Year 6. These will include books designed for dyslexic and reluctant readers.
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Headteacher swims for charity
 Portishead School Headteacher, Richard Riordan, recently swam 1.5 miles in the Marine Lake at Clevedon to raise awareness and funds for an Eating Disorders Charity and the support they provide to families and schools.
Eating Disorder diagnosis have significantly increased since Lockdown and there is often a big gap in support for families between the eating disorder manifesting and CAMHs (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) involvement.
To find out more go to:
https://www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk/
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Bubble fun for pupils during Science week
 Pupils from Yatton Infant and Yatton Junior schools enjoyed a very exciting Science Week based around the theme of bubbles.
Organised by Science leads, Mrs Caffrey and Mr Okeden, the children investigated, made predictions and fair tests and drew conclusions. All over the school there were long bubble snakes and children being put in giant bubbles! There was joy, excitement and a lot of fun as well as some fantastic hands on learning.
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Year 6 Pupils enjoy a week of activities
Portishead Year 6 pupils enjoyed an activity week of paddle boarding and kayaking at Bristol Harbour, climbing and abseiling at the Mendip activity Centre, sports activities and team building and a day out at Portishead Lido.
These are the first trips pupils have been able to go on since March 2020.
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Year 6 business project goes down a treat!
 High Down Year 6 pupils smashed their target of raising £200 with their business idea of running stalls selling sweet treats and handmade crafts and made a whopping £530!
Gregg Poulter, an experienced businessman, visited the school and gave business advice on how to make a success of their stalls. Pupils spent lessons creating advertisements and logos to entice customers to spend money, and calculated any costs.
Pupils would like to thank everybody who helped them on their money making mission: teachers, parents and the Friends of High Down.
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Really proud of our colleague- Mrs O'Brien who helped write this book. What a fabulous achievement! Bristol: New book marks city's historic links to slavery - BBC News https://t.co/fWYpnNMMkW2 minutes ago Follow |
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 If there is anything that you would like to share with us for the next autumn edition, please email Communications & Projects Officer Clare Giordmaine cgiordmaine@lsp.org.uk
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