Students and staff at St James School in Exeter, part of the Ted Wragg Trust family, are celebrating after being rated Good by Ofsted. 

The Ofsted report notes that the school motto of ‘work hard, be kind’ is lived by the pupils and staff at St James School and that it is an inclusive school built on warm, respectful relationships. That the school has high expectations for behaviour was also singled out, along with the fact that the calm school environment enables students to focus on their studies.  

Inspectors stated that the school provides opportunities for pupils to have new experiences and develop their talents and that the school has planned an ambitious curriculum. High quality support for students with Special Educational Needs (SEN) was also commented on with the report noting that teachers know the needs of these pupils well and support them to learn the curriculum.  

Other comments from the inspectors included the following: 

• The school actively promotes the importance of regular attendance. Staff work with pupils and their families to provide the support needed to overcome any barriers they might have to coming to school. As a result, attendance continues to rise.  
• All pupils take part in an extensive range of weekly creative, active and service electives. For example, pupils learn about bike maintenance, sign language and sea safety while others prepare for the school show, learn to knit and create artwork inspired by performance poetry. Pupils enjoy physical challenges such as taking part in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme.  
• Pupils read a wide range of books as part of the ‘St James canon’. Books have been deliberately chosen to represent a range of authors and cultural experiences. The school identifies the weakest readers and the reasons for their difficulties. It provides support for pupils to build their accuracy and fluency with reading.  

Ofsted inspectors visited the school last November for the first routine inspection the school received since the COVID-19 pandemic began. They had discussions with school leaders, met with staff and considered responses to Ofsted Parent View as well as responses to staff and student surveys.   

Deep dives were also carried out in several subjects including maths and modern foreign languages, for each of these inspectors’ held discussions about the curriculum, visited a sample of lessons, spoke to teachers, spoke to some students about their learning and looked at samples of work.  

Emily Harper, Headteacher at St James School said: 

“I am delighted that St James has continued to be rated Good by Ofsted and I want to say a big thank you to all our staff and students for making this happen. I would also like to say how much I appreciate the support of all our families and the wider community in making St James the kind and successful school that it is.   

“It was lovely to hear that our students feel safe and supported and that they are proud of the school, welcoming visitors with enthusiasm. I was also pleased that the Ofsted inspectors took time to note how much our young people value the St James Baccalaureate, which is our planned personal development curriculum preparing them for adulthood and life in modern Britain.” 

Moira Marder, CEO of the Ted Wragg Trust said: 

“Congratulations to everyone at St James, this Ofsted outcome is a reflection of the hard work and dedication of our staff, students, families, governors and volunteers. It was especially heartening to hear Ofsted comment on the sense of community at the school.  It was also lovely that inspectors could see that St James students feel confident in making choices about their future thanks to the work the school does with education and apprenticeship providers, as well as local businesses, to support their transition to post-16 education.” 

To read the full report click here. 

Around 60 Year 9 students at West Exe School, part of the Ted Wragg Multi-Academy Trust, have taken part in an enterprise market at the school this month.  

The market is the culmination of the £5 enterprise challenge, those taking part conducted market research, visited the market at Exeter Cathedral, then got to work on planning, pitching and promoting how they were going to use their £5 budget to create something to sell to other students.  Some intrepid students even sought wider investment to help boost their chances of success. 

The final market where students showcase their products is a much loved yearly event at the school and the whole project teaches those involved a sound understanding of business concepts.  A wide variety of festive goods were on offer from decorative wooden reindeer and reindeer cookies to waffles and popcorn bags.  

This year’s market was a huge success with many groups turning their £5 investment into over £30 of profit, one group even generated a whopping £72!  Overall they managed to turn an £80 investment into over £300. 

Julie Fossey, Headteacher at West Exe School said: 

“I am so proud of each and every group, they demonstrated brilliant teamwork and problem-solving skills, along with a good serving of creativity.   They have all gained a sense of achievement  and success from taking part in the £5 enterprise challenge.  We will now spend the rest of the year building on this business experience, which in turn will help these children achieve excellent results and improve their life chances.” 

Moira Marder, CEO of the Ted Wragg Multi-Academy Trust said: 

“I was delighted to hear about the success of the £5 enterprise market at West Exe.  The challenge is a great way to get children thinking about entrepreneurship and the fact that they managed to create such amazing levels of return on investment is very impressive!” 

After many months of fundraising the Marine Academy Plymouth Campus in St Budeaux is delighted to announce they have a brand new 3G football pitch!  

The campus consists of Marine Academy Primary and Marine Academy Secondary, both part of the Ted Wragg Trust family of schools, and educates children from the ages of 2 to 18.  An official opening ceremony for the new state of the art pitch will take place in the Spring but it’s now open for kick off.

3G stands for a third-generation synthetic surface which consists of three elements: synthetic turf, sand infill and rubber infill.  The pitch has been funded by the Ted Wragg Trust, Plymouth City Council, and a grant from the Football Foundation.  

The Football Foundation is the Premier League, The FA and Government’s charity which delivers outstanding grassroots facilities, more and better places to play, transforming lives and communities where it’s needed the most.  The foundation’s goal is to unlock the power of pitches to transform lives and strengthen communities, ensuring everyone has a great place to play regardless of gender, race, disability, or place.

The 3G pitch, constructed by Tiger Turf UK and McArdle Sport Tec and overseen by MGAC, will enable the Marine Academy schools to provide opportunities for their students to participate in physical activity outside all year round.  It will also grow the opportunities and capacity for their resident football club Marine Academy FC.  

The community will benefit as they will be able to use this fantastic football facility through the ‘Just Play’ initiatives delivered by coaches from the Marine Academy Plymouth Community Sports Complex; local teams and organisations are also able to hire the pitch.  Outside of the school day, when the schools have sole use of the pitch, the facility will be open for the community during the weekday evenings and daytime during the weekends, whilst during the school holidays, holiday club programmes and bookings will be available. 

The Community Sports Team at Marine Academy are excited to be able to release the new community 3G usage programme for January and are encouraging people to look out for their new sessions for children and adults. 

Siobhan Meredith Executive Director of Education, of the Ted Wragg Multi-Academy Trust said:

“There are so many thank yous that we owe to a whole range of individuals but most importantly, we would like to thank the Football Foundation, Plymouth City Council and our Trust, the Ted Wragg Trust, for their financial contributions to make the dream of a 3G pitch a reality. 

“We would also like to thank the construction teams – Tiger Turf UK and McArdle Sport Tec – and Johnny Mercer MP, in addition to our Local Councillor, Pat Patel for their ongoing support. 

“At the Ted Wragg Trust we believe in strengthening our communities and this is enabling us to do exactly that. We cannot wait to see the children of Marine Academy Primary and Marine Academy Plymouth and the St Budeaux community using this facility.”  

On Thursday evening (30^th November), fourteen KS2 children from Whipton Barton Federation across years 3-6 joined a South West choir of educators and youth choirs representing schools and settings from across the region, and the newly established Teachers Rock® Academy Choir.

Teachers Rock is a choir made up teachers and their students aged from 7-70 with a mission to inspire, develop and educate young people. The choir has recently been performing in the most famous recording studio in the world, London Abby Road Studios. On Thursday and Friday, they celebrated this trip with performances in Exeter Cathedral and on the Thursday were joined by pupils from Whipton Barton for a magical evening of singing.

Louise Moretta, Headteacher at Whipton Barton Federation said “I am so proud of all the children who took part, they performed so beautifully and thoroughly enjoyed this enriching experience of performing to a large audience and in such a beautiful setting.”

Moria Marder, CEO of the Ted Wragg Trust said “It is amazing for our young people to have this opportunity to perform at Exeter Cathedral with so many others from across the region. We know they will get so much from this positive and collaborative experience and the children and staff involved are already looking forward to next year."

Teachers Rock commented; “Ted Wragg Trust thank you for your support! It was a true pleasure to welcome and work with Whipton Barton Federation. Their enjoyment and happiness whilst singing was a delight to see.”

Lucky students from West Exe School, part of the Ted Wragg Trust, got to visit the roman baths in Bath last month.

44 students who are studying GCSE Classics & Latin Elective participated in a tour of the baths, as well as taking part in an interactive session called “Understanding Aquae Sulis.”  The session explores the variety of Latin inscriptions from the tombstones and altars found in Aquae Sulis. 

Students collaborated and shared ideas as they deciphered the Latin tombstones and learned more about the lives of the people behind the language. The session also included the opportunity for the students to handle Roman artefacts associated with the layout and function of the bathhouse and the settlement of Aquae Sulis as a whole.

The Roman baths are where the people of Roman Britain came to worship the goddess Sulis Minerva and bathe in the waters of the natural thermal springs, which still flow with hot water today.  

Modern day visitors can explore the complex, walk on the original Roman pavements, and view the ruins of the Temple of Sulis Minerva. The museum located at the baths includes a gilt bronze head of the Goddess Sulis Minerva, and other Roman artefacts.

Julie Fossey, Headteacher at West Exe School said:

“We are part of the Latin Excellence Programme, reintroducing Latin to state schools around the country.  I would particularly like to thank them for providing the full funding for this trip. I know that all the students really enjoyed their trip to the Roman baths and deciphering tombstones was a great way to develop their Latin skills!  I am so proud that we have so many students studying classics and Latin as these are subjects of both cultural and academic significance.”

Moira Marder, CEO of the Ted Wragg Trust said:

“Everyone at the trust was pleased to hear about this educational trip to Bath.  It’s brilliant to hear about students getting out and about and embedding their knowledge through activity-based learning.”

West Exe School, part of the Ted Wragg Trust, has welcomed a visit from author Manjeet Mann this Thursday the 9th of November.   As well as being an author, Manjeet is also an actress, playwright and screenwriter.  

Her debut novel RUN, REBEL for young adults was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal in 2021 and won the CILIP Carnegie Shadowers Choice Award, The UKLA Award, Diverse Book Award and Sheffield Children's Book Award. It was also a Guardian best book of 2020. Manjeet’s second novel The Crossing, won the Costa Book Award for a Children’s Book in 2021 and was also named the Sunday Times Children's Book of the Week.  She also founded Run The World, a not for profit organisation that uses sport and theatre as a means to empower women and girls. 

The English curriculum at West Exe is designed to ensure that students read a range of diverse and challenging texts that expose them to a multitude of different authors.  The school gets young people excited about reading by announcing upcoming books in their library on social media.  Earlier this year they also ran the Robin Stevens Reading Challenge.  

The school is also celebrating a record breaking Sparxs reader success by Year 7 student Jacob who hit 1200 reading points in one day, double what is usually achieved in a session!  Students earn Sparx Reader Points when they read a book using Sparx Reader. The number of points they earn reflects the amount of time and effort they spend reading.  

Julie Fossey, Headteacher at West Exe School said:

“I am delighted that Manjeet took the time to come and visit us.  It’s so important that students hear from a wide range of speakers and having such a successful author come and talk about her work was very inspiring for many of them.

“Developing a lifelong love of reading makes all other forms of learning earlier and at West Exe we will continue to put literacy at the heart of our curriculum.”

Moira Marder, CEO of the Ted Wragg Trust said:

“Everyone at the trust is grateful to Manjeet for coming to speak to West Exe students.  She has had such an interesting and varied career and it’s brilliant for young people to have heard from her first hand.”