A Taunton secondary school has embarked upon an important new chapter in its long history by becoming an academy, joining a successful schools trust – and unveiling a brand new name.
The former Heathfield Community School has today (Friday) achieved academy status and become Monkton Wood Academy – a name chosen after consultation between school leaders, staff and students, and designed to reflect its location and semi-rural environment.
Additionally, Monkton Wood has today formally joined the Cabot Learning Federation, a trust with a strong track record of delivering improvements to schools throughout the South West.
The impact of close collaboration with the CLF has already been seen in a recent Ofsted monitoring visit, which heralded an ‘ambitious vision and clear plan’ for school development which has already led to improved student attendance and behaviour.
Hannah Jones, Principal at Monkton Wood Academy, said:
“We are immensely proud of our school and the positive way it has impacted lives throughout this community over many years. It is now time to begin a new phase in the school’s journey, and we are hugely excited about our next chapter.
“Our new name has been chosen after consultation throughout our school community. We feel it continues to respect our history, and reflects our location and environment. I am pleased the change has been so warmly welcomed.
“Looking ahead, we are delighted to be working within the Cabot Learning Federation family of schools as we continue to build upon the improvements noted by Ofsted during their recent visit.”
Picture caption: Monkton Wood Academy Principal Hannah Jones unveils the school’s new name and logo with students (from left) Maisie Durman, Noah Day-Hitchen, Bethel Chitambira and Aretha Agere.
Heathfield Community School Year 10 boys’ rugby team have been having quite a year so far in Rugby County Cup, racking up some high scores in a so-far-unbeaten cup run.
The XV started the season in impressive style with a win at Taunton School in a pre-season tournament.
They then had a bye in the first round of the county cup before meeting Westfield Academy, Yeovil, on the road where they chalked up a convincing 72-17 win.
It was a victory which took them to the last 16, where they travelled away to Backwell, near Bristol, and came away with a resounding 47-19 win, after what had proven to be a hard-fought contest.
Mel Pattemore, Head of PE, said: “This is an impressive run in a cup that encompasses many great rugby schools in Somerset. Thank you to Mr Roberts and Mr Chalk for your coaching across the miles. We have a home fixture, at last, against Wellsway or Ralph Allen in the quarter finals – let’s get behind the team.”
The close relationship between Heathfield Community School and Bridgwater and Taunton College (BTC) is helping to address critical workforce challenges in Somerset’s NHS.
BTC was recently honoured with the award of a prestigious Queen’s Anniversary Prize in recognition of its efforts to help train new generations of health workers to address shortages.
And with nearly half of Heathfield’s students progressing on to BTC after completing their GCSE education, that close relationship has been celebrated with a cake presentation. BTC’s Lisa Pearce visited Heathfield to present the team with three cakes as a mark of gratitude for the strong links between the two education providers.
Shelly Ford Head’s PA said: “We are delighted that so many of our students choose to join BTC for the next stage of their educationally journey.
“Each year nearly half (135) of our students choose BTC for their post 16 provision. Our students take advantage of the wide number of routes that BTC offers, from traditional A-levels to apprenticeships and T-levels.
“Next year we have students who are planning on studying a huge range of courses from A-levels in languages, law, sociology and history to courses in police dog handling, nursing, and aerospace engineering.
“We also have students planning on completing their apprenticeships through BTC to become nuclear engineers, electricians and carpenters, to name a few.
“It was a lovely surprise visit from Lisa – we enjoyed celebrating BTC’s achievements and the cakes went down very well with all the staff.”
A team of Year 11 students from Heathfield Community School Debating Society took part in a Model United Nations Conference at Queen’s College, Taunton, alongside teams from across the South West.
Guest speaker, Mayor of Taunton Nick O’Donnell, addressed participants about the purpose and importance of political and international awareness among young people from all walks of life.
Model United Nations is a re-enactment of the United Nations for students in which students organise, run and chair the event themselves. The various international committees taking part look at worldwide issues of the day and delegates debate these issues from the viewpoint of the countries which have been assigned to them. This of course may mean that students (delegates) have to adopt views they may not share themselves, helping them to develop a keen sense of empathy.
Heathfield’s Debating Society Co-ordinators Simon Bament and Anna Chamberlain said: “We were immensely proud of the way the students handled the experience of their first MUN Conference. They rose to the challenge and represented themselves and the school with distinction.”
Thirty-four Year 10 students from Heathfield Community School organised and ran a fun-filled sports festival for reception age students, from our feeder primary schools, in the sports hall.
The event was organised by SASP (Somerset Active Sports Partnership) in partnership with Heathfield’s activator Dixie Palk. Students from Health and Social Care and GCSE PE ran and managed the events on the day.
The day was designed to enable students to lead fun activities for pupils and to help increase their fundamental skills in physical activities. Activities included parachute, balance beam, jumping lines, catching skills and obstacle courses.
Mel Pattemore, Head of PE, said: “Our students were a credit to the school and their families. Three of our year 11 students also took on sports leadership ambassador roles from our sports studies course. A big thank you must go to Tegan, Hannah and Harrison; congratulations on a brilliant day!”
17 November 2023
Dear parents and families,
I hope you have had a good week. Thank you for taking the time to read these updates from the school.
In this letter:
· Moving to online letters
· Contacting the school
· House ties
· Car parking
· Staff training and early closure on 06 December 2023
· Upcoming events, for your diaries
Moving to online letters
This will be our last newsletter to be sent to families as a PDF file. Going forward, our letters will be available online, on our new and fully accessible website. Families will receive a link via email, which will take you directly to the letter. You will also be able to see previous newsletters in the same section of our website.
Contacting the school
You may be aware that the school are already using our new email addresses, hosted by the Cabot Learning Federation. This was a planned change which was already underway when the delay to our conversion was communicated to us. The email address for the school office is becoming [email protected] Emails sent to our existing Heathfield office email address are still being automatically forwarded to our new account. Our phone number remains unchanged.
If you would like to speak to a member of staff about your child, please do telephone or email the office and ask to speak to their tutor or year team in the first instance. If you would like to speak to the SENCO, please note that the SENCO for children in Y7-Y9 is Mr Moncur, and the SENCO for children in Y10 and Y11 is Mrs Harrell.
Whilst parents and carers are always welcome in the school, if you would like to speak to a member of staff in person, please do contact us to arrange an appointment. It can be very frustrating for parents to have to wait, if the member of staff they wish to see is teaching or otherwise unavailable.
House ties
We are expecting to take delivery of our new house ties later this term. More details will follow, but in the shorter term if your child loses their tie, please do contact their tutor to arrange for a loan, rather than purchasing a new, but soon-to-be obsolete HCS tie.
Car parking
Please can we ask parents and carers to consider the safety of our school site, when collecting children, by not waiting inside the car park except in a designated parking bay. If the car park is full, please do exit immediately and either try again later, or make arrangements to collect your child elsewhere. We thank you also for not blocking our neighbours’ driveways when you are waiting. Our large school and the no-through road do make for a challenging traffic situation, and we recommend making plans to meet your children a little further away from our site.
Staff training and early closure
As members of the Cabot Learning Federation (CLF) trust, our teachers will be able to participate in a wide range of professional development activities. This includes attending subject network meetings, where all the teachers of a subject from across the trust gather for training opportunities. Heathfield staff (or Monkton Wood, as we will be by then) will travel to Weston-Super-Mare for our network meetings. We will therefore be ending the school day at 2:30pm on Wednesday 06 December 2023, to allow staff to make the journey. The school buses will depart at 2:45pm instead of 3:45pm. Since the training event is for the teaching staff only, our professional services and education support staff will be available until 3:30pm as usual. If you would prefer your child to remain in school until then, they may do so. Further information will follow nearer the time about arrangements for children not leaving at 2:30pm.
Upcoming events, for your diaries
On Thursday 30 November at 5:30pm we will be holding our next Parent Forum. The topic for this forum is school uniform. We would like to receive feedback from our families and to see if there is an appetite to review the current uniform. I would like to reassure parents again that – even if we decide to undertake a review – the timescales for implementing any change are long, and that we will not be asking parents to purchase new items within the next year. If you would like to attend the forum, please could you email the office on [email protected] to let us know, and we will ensure we have enough space, tea and biscuits for all.
Our Christmas Concert will be taking place this year on Thursday 14 December. We hope that we will also be celebrating the opening of Monkton Wood Academy at this event. Further details will follow in due course.
Our last day of term is Friday 15 December. As usual, the school day will end at 1:30pm for students, with buses collecting at that time. The school will fully close at 3:30pm and will remain closed for the duration of the school holiday. The first day back for students is Wednesday 03 January 2024.
We thank you for your continuing support, as always.
Yours faithfully,
Mrs H Jones
Principal
After an unannounced inspection from Environmental Health, the canteen at Heathfield Community School has just been awarded a 5-star rating, again! According to the Foods Standards Agency website this top rating means the hygiene standards are very good.
Jackie Hancock, Canteen Manager said: “I am absolutely thrilled at this outcome and to receive the five-star rating again is amazing. I would like to thank everyone who works in the canteen, for all their hard work and effort.”
Heathfield Community School’s recent Ofsted report has featured in a Somerset County Gazette news item. To find out how the Gazette reported this please click this here.
An ‘ambitious vision and clear plan’ for improvements at Heathfield Community School is already delivering results, according to Ofsted inspectors.
The Taunton school was rated ‘inadequate’ during its previous inspection in the spring, but a recent monitoring visit has seen inspectors herald the progress being made in a number of key areas.
The visit was scheduled to assess improvements made since the previous inspection, not to re-grade the school. However, inspectors believe actions taken by school leaders since their previous visit are already moving Heathfield in the right direction.
New staff recruitment – including confirmation that a previously interim headteacher would be made permanent, and other senior appointments – and training has helped to trigger improvements in student safeguarding and behaviour.
Attendance has risen too, while additional support for families has led to ‘some notable success stories’, according to inspectors.
The school is also rolling out new measures to help students with additional needs to engage more successfully with the curriculum.
These steps have been endorsed by the local authority and supported by the Cabot Learning Federation – a schools trust which Heathfield will formally join on December 1.
The Ofsted inspectors said: “The school has taken some action to address the areas of weakness identified at the previous inspection. The school has an ambitious vision and a clear plan for how this will be achieved.
“The school has prioritised actions to ensure that pupils are safe. For example, the school has assured the safety of pupils attending alternative provision. Additionally, all staff follow an agreed protocol so that statutory guidance for attendance is in place. All staff receive regular safeguarding training.
“The school has introduced an effective approach to reduce disruptive behaviour. Staff and pupils report that behaviour has improved as a result. Many pupils demonstrate positive attitudes to their learning because of the high expectations that the school has of them.
Ofsted’s positive assessment of the actions taken has been welcomed by school leaders – who continue to work to deliver the additional improvements required.
Hannah Jones, Principal at Heathfield Community School, said:
“We are pleased the steps we have taken to address areas identified for improvement have been recognised and that inspectors have seen the impact that these are having.
“I would like to thank our leaders, teachers, learning support and professional services staff for the extremely focused and hard work that they have been and continue to be engaged with, as we work together to provide the best learning experiences possible for our young people.
“We are proud of the progress we have made, and are more determined than ever to continue apace on our journey of improvement.”
Transitions Evening at Bridgwater and Taunton Campus. Full details below.
