Charlton School

Dear Parents and Carers, 

I hope you are well, I am struggling to believe we have only three weeks left before we break up for the Summer holidays. 

I apologise for not writing sooner but this is the first week we have not had an Ofsted inspection! So far, we have had five inspections since March but they have come thick and fast in the last few weeks. HLC Secondary report was published yesterday to staff, parents, Governors and Trustees. It is a fabulous report recognising the strengths and progress of the school. 

Queensway and HLC Primary reports are now in draft, and these will be published before the end of term. Again, these reports are glowing, and we are delighted they also recognise the strengths and progress of both schools. We have worked with some good teams and HMI during our inspections, and they have recognised that LCT is supporting and challenging our academies – the reports provide really good evidence to the Department of Education that LCT is a strong Trust which wants to provide the very best education and opportunities for its young people. Thank you to all of you who have supported the inspections completing the parent survey or chatting with inspectors. I am hopeful that we will not have any further inspections until the Autumn term. 

The end of the academic year is always busy, we have just completed the GCSE’s and are saying goodbye to our lovely Y11 students. They have been brilliant through a long exam period and are now enjoying leavers events and proms, we wish them every success in the future and look forward to their results in August. I believe all our Y11 have secured places for September which is so important. 

This week I was invited to give the annual awards at Telford College, it was lovely to see so many of our ex-students and parents at that event. I then quickly drove to The Place at Oakengates to watch DanceFest, which we have not been able to enjoy for three years. It was a brilliant night with students from HLC, Charlton, TPS, ex-students and local dance companies – it ended with “Grease” performed by the whole company as well as many talented LCT staff! An inspiring performance! 

Yesterday and today, we have had the first LCT Head2Head Sports competitions involving our three secondary schools – it will finish with one school winning the overall LCT trophy. This will now become an annual competition, thank you to all our PE staff for supporting students to enjoy competing together. 

Our Y6 children are also getting ready for the next step in their education. Next week are the Y6 into Y7 Transition days, and each school has a full programme in place for children to get to know their new school ready for September. In Primary, new reception children and parents will be meeting their teachers and all the other classes will be meeting their new teachers. We have full transition programmes in place for young people joining our Special Schools. 

We still have masses to do before we finish but a lot has been achieved in the last few weeks. 

I will be in touch again before the summer. 

Kind regards, 

Dr. Gill Eatough 

CEO LCT