Dear parents and carers
RE: transfer of Hugh Christie School to Leigh Academies Trust.
Thank you to all those parents who attended our information evening yesterday about the transfer of Hugh Christie to Leigh Academies Trust (LAT). It was good to have a chance for us to communicate our plans and answer questions face-to-face.
For the benefit of those parents who were not able to attend, I can confirm that we are working towards a 1st March or 1st April transfer, 2024. This transfer will take a little longer than usual as there are some additional legal processes to go through given that Hugh Christie’s buildings are provided under a Private Finance Initiative. Despite these extra tasks, LAT is working very closely with the Tonbridge Federation, Kent County Council and the Department for Education to ensure that everything is completed as efficiently as possible.
You might know that LAT is now one of the largest and most successful school groups in the region. 40% of our schools are outstanding compared to just 15% nationally. We are already responsible for Leigh Academy Tonbridge, Mascalls Academy, Marden Primary, Horsmonden Primary and Paddock Wood Primary in the local area which will ensure excellent community collaboration.
To reassure parents, our focus is always on supporting schools to become even better versions of themselves. Our academies are like siblings, not clones. We believe firmly in helping schools to develop their own individual character and ethos to respond to the needs of their community. We will certainly be holding onto all of the positive aspects of Hugh Christie that we know many of you value.
At the same time, joining LAT is the chance to make some more improvements to ensure at the next inspection Ofsted judges the school to be at least “Good”. However, we will introduce any changes in a measured way, doing the right things in the right order. The experience of students and parents on the ground will continue uninterrupted and we will ensure effective communication with parents and wider stakeholders at every stage.
I can confirm that there will be a modest name change for the school taking effect straight away to Leigh Academy Hugh Christie. This builds upon the important heritage of the school whilst recognising its membership of a wider school family. An adaptation to the school’s logo will be necessary, but any knock-on effect on uniform items will be phased in over time so that there are no unwelcome additional costs for parents.
Mr Shah will be appointed Principal from the date of transfer. We will be introducing the Trust’s small school model of education from September as we know that this will provide excellent pastoral care for pupils and communication with families, essential characteristics for young people to flourish at school. We will also swap the current early close on a Friday with a 2pm finish on Wednesday to provide staff professional development. This arrangement exists in all other LAT secondary schools and will enable staff at Hugh Christie to collaborate and share expertise with their new LAT colleagues on a regular basis. This change will be made whilst ensuring a 32.5 hour minimum working week for pupils, as per the latest government guidance. In addition, we will be making some significant investments in Hugh Christie’s IT environment which is well overdue. This will enable us to issue all pupils with their own Chromebook laptop to increase their access to the curriculum at no cost to families as we do in all of our other secondaries. More information about all of these items will follow in due course.
I hope this letter gives you a flavour of how Hugh Christie will begin to benefit from being part of LAT over the coming months. We are very excited about this transfer process and we hope you will be too. The overall objective is to build on the very best of what already exists and at the same time provide significant additional capacity and support across every area of school life so that staff and pupils succeed. If you have any questions about the content of this letter, please liaise with the school in the normal way who will be only too glad to answer your questions.
Yours faithfully,
Simon Beamish | Chief Executive
