Page 2 - Ad Astra Trust Newsletter 2025

Welcome to

Ad Astra Academy Trust

from the CEO

I write this to our school communities this year with immense pride. Our Headteachers are
leading their schools amazingly well, even despite the current challenges of school funding,
our children are our priority. Natalie, an Assistant Headteacher at West View shared this quote with
me from Gabriela Mistral, a Chilean poet. It demonstrates how much we care for your children and
their learning across our Trust.

“ Many things can wait. Children cannot. Today their bones are being formed, their blood is being
made, their senses are being developed. To them we cannot say “tomorrow”. Their name is today.”
We know that our schools are great places to learn and work in, but in February, Ofsted fi nally confi rmed that 100% of
our schools are now judged as good, demonstrating we are a strong Trust and our schools have the capacity to improve.
The support and togetherness that staff across the Trust demonstrate at these times shows me the power of collaboration.
As a Trust we continue to do everything possible for your child, every day, to enable them to transition to their next
phase of education successfully.
I visit all of our schools as much as possible and at each visit, I want to see a heartbeat in every classroom and every
corridor I walk down. I want to see teaching that comes from a place of love. We have hundreds of examples of this,
where our teachers and support staff demonstrate positivity, enthusiasm and determination, nurturing the beating
hearts of the pupils they work with.

As we reflect on this year, I look back with unbelievable gratitude for the continued hard work of all of our pupils and staff.
September 2024 - Louise Sheffi eld and Sam Marino were appointed as Headteacher and Deputy Headteacher at West
Park. They have made a brilliant start to their time in Ad Astra!
October 2024 - saw the launch of our Heading to Headship programme, where aspiring Headteachers have completed
placements and coaching on their journey to becoming headteachers.
November 2024 - saw the long-awaited and very successful Ofsted inspections at Barnard Grove and Brougham. We are
delighted that the inspectors saw the amazing offer that these schools give their pupils:
The school is an inclusive community and staff have been well trained to identify pupils who may have SEND.
The school is at the heart of the local community. It provides pupils and their families with exceptional pastoral care
and support.
December 2024 - West View became a Little Wandle Champion School, one of only two in the region.
We are very proud of this achievement! As a visitor to a recent Champion School event commented,
‘you show what is possible for all other schools.’
February 2025 - saw the long-awaited and very successful Ofsted inspections at Rosebrook and Crooksbarn that saw
quotes. We are over the moon that the inspectors recognised the strengths of these schools:
The provision for pupils with SEND is a strength of the school. Pupils’ needs are identifi ed quickly.
The school is highly ambitious for every pupil to be successful and achieve well, including those with special
educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).
March 2025 - We launched our new school-centred teacher training (SCITT) programme. This has been an aim of Ad
Astra for several years and I am so excited about the opportunity to develop the next generation of educators.
April 2025 - I was involved in West View’s Inclusion Quality Mark Flagship success, which alongside Sunnyside,
Ayresome and Rosebrook’s successes shows our commitment to Inclusion across the Trust.
May 2025 - Saw our Year 6 pupils work hard towards their SATs; these were children whose formative years in our
schools were very different during COVID and I am very proud of them, of their resilience and determination. I wish
them well in their next steps, as they transition to secondary school in September. We will miss them!
June 2025 - How wonderful was it to see our previous Chair, Chris Simmons receive an MBE in the Kings Honours List
this month. He was very instrumental in setting Ad Astra up and it’s so well deserved.
As we look to the future, I have hope that, as the Trust reaches its 10-year anniversary later this year, the seeds we
plant today - in our classrooms, in our communities, and in the lives of our children - will bear fruit in ways we may not
even see immediately. But they matter, and they will last.
Thank you for the continuation of support for our schools and please the take time to fi nd out in this newsletter how we
demonstrate our Trust value of Togetherness and how we are focused on ensuring that every pupil in all our schools
belong to the Ad Astra family.
Please enjoy the summer break when it comes – we look forward to another happy, healthy and successful school year.
Andy Brown OBE
CEO

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