Leigh Annual Parish Assembly - 2022 May All Saints CE First School Report

                                                  

All Saints CE First School

             Headteacher: Mrs A Cairns

School Lane                                                                                          Tel: 01889 502289

Church Leigh                                                 email: office@allsaints-leigh.staffs.sch.uk
Stoke-on-Trent                                                                                 www.allsaints.school
ST10 4SR

Thursday 5^th May 2022

 Dear Leigh Parish Council

 All Saints has in recent years become part of the Uttoxeter Learning Trust (ULT) and there have been many advantages to being part of the Trust.  In the last two years this has been as important as ever – the collaboration of working with other schools, the financial benefits, the support and expertise across the Trust and working through the continued challenges of Covid.

 Covid and the Impact on Education

Undoubtably Covid remains the biggest challenge and having remained Covid free for almost two years, it finally caught up with us at All Saints when the restrictions were relaxed last autumn. This had a huge impact on staffing since October 2021 with only two weeks of being fully staffed right up to the Easter holidays. The staff team pulled together and worked exceptionally hard to ensure that the children’s education was not compromised.

 All Saints continues to work and collaborate with the other Trust first school heads and this has been real source of support through these challenging times.  It has been wonderful to welcome Richard Clarke First School as a full member of the ULT. The work we do together continues to move us forward and provide the best start to our children’s educational journey’s through the Trust.

It is a pleasure to work with such a dedicated and committed group of Headteacher whose shared vision, collaboration, support and challenge is a strength of the Trust.

 Expertise across the ULT

The wide range of expertise across the Trust from the CEO, CFO, the Chair of the Board and

Trustees has supported All Saints in many ways especially in many of the challenges of the on-going pandemic. The new centrally sourced resources are also having a very positive impact for example subscriptions to the Key, the Governor Hub and the CORE IT support. More CPD opportunities for

Governors have been appreciated and ensured the skills are in place to support our school.

 Support from the marketing team SERO in a CPD activity to upskill key staff in school to update the website has been most helpful.

 Condition Improvement Bids (CIF)

All Saints has been successful in gaining its first CIF bid for £250,000 to replace the radiators and pipework to the heating system in the older part of the school and work commences in the summer term. We were unsuccessful again in the CIF bid for the roof which is of great concern as this issue continues to impact and deteriorate the older part of the building. We have greatly appreciated the support from Stuart Harper, Trustee, who visited site and has raised these issues with Trust members and we are extremely grateful that the Trust will support us to achieve some intermediate works while we await the next CIF round results.

 Support from the Central Finance Team

The savings and efficiencies we have achieved by the co-ordination of joint purchasing by the central team have been a significant factor in enabling us to achieve a balanced budget with some savings. This allows All Saints financial stability through some of the leaner years of pupil

numbers which is particularly challenging for small schools and to be able to afford the school’s contribution to the CIF projects.

 If there is any other information you would like to know please let me know.

 Kind regards

 

Andrea Cairns

Headteacher