Exceptional work of Windsor Academy Trust praised by school minister

22nd June 2020 – Tags: Department for Education, Teaching and Learning

Windsor Academy Trust has been praised by Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the School System, Baroness Berridge, for its exceptional work in supporting its pupils and the local community during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

In the letter, Baroness Berridge personally thanked all staff across the Trust for “ensuring that all pupils could continue to study the curriculum from day one of the school closures by providing IT equipment”.

Baroness Berridge also acknowledged the outstanding work that the Trust had undertaken in the local community by going above and beyond in its efforts to “support other schools to provide learning materials to their children” and “taking additional pupils from schools outside your trust where it was not possible for local schools to accommodate them”.

A new approach to teaching and learning

Windsor Academy Trust has taken an innovative approach to adapt its teaching and learning with technology at the forefront. 

This has included using Google Classroom to enable students to follow their normal timetables and learning, providing Chromebooks and dongles to students who didn’t have laptops or where internet access was an issue, and creating a dedicated parent, student and staff website to support remote learning, wellbeing and character development.

The Trust’s approach has been widely recognised in the industry, featuring as a case study for leading education intelligence organisation, The Key, and Deputy CEO and Education Director, Dawn Haywood, featuring on the panel alongside education leaders as part of a Chartered College of Teaching webinar.

Speaking in reference to the letter, Keith Sorrell, Chief Executive, said:

I am delighted that the hard work that has taken place across the Windsor Academy Trust family to support both our 8,000 students and staff, and children and teachers at others schools in the local community, has been recognised.

 

The Covid-19 pandemic has presented a range of challenges, but we have risen to those challenges to provide remote learning for all our children, keep schools open for vulnerable children and those of key workers, and support the wellbeing of our communities and staff.

 

Enabling students to continue their learning and development has been our top priority, and I am immensely proud that we have been able to provide remote learning from the first day of lockdown alongside providing support for children in the wider community.