Keep up to date with all the latest news happening at the moment.

• Severn Bridges Shortlisted for National Award

  Thu 07 Dec 2023

  Severn Bridges MAT has been shortlisted for the second year in a row for the prestigious MATA Awards. After narrowly missing out on Best Small MAT of the Year award earlier this year, we have high hopes for the 2024 awards where we've been nominated for Best Inclusion - the category that recognises outstanding achievement relating to SEND inclusion.

  

• New Headteacher at Radbrook Primary School

  Tue 05 Sep 2023

  There's a new face at Radbrook Primary School today as the children return for their new school year. Emma Thelwell has been welcomed by the children and staff as the school’s new headteacher and is looking forward to getting to know the children and their families.

   

  Emma joins Radbrook from Prestfelde School where she was deputy headteacher for seven years. Before this, she has a wealth of experience in education and has a strong association with Shropshire, having taught in other local schools as an Early Years Advisory Teacher.

   

  Building on the success of Radbrook’s previous headteacher, Emma is keen to ensure that all the children feel part of the school family, and receive the best education. She strongly believes that all children, regardless of their ability, should be provided with an exciting, creative and meaningful learning experience to help fire their imaginations and build their enthusiasm for learning.

   

  Along with the rest of the school team, Emma feels strongly that the children and their families are involved in their education, and is already planning as many opportunities as possible to make this happen and to give the families a voice. She is keen to find out their views and to invite them in to school to chat about what is important to them and give them the chance to be involved in their children’s education.

   

  As the mother of two boys herself, and with her wealth of invaluable experience, Emma really understands the importance of high standards of teaching and learning, and the responsibility that she and her team have to achieve this.

   

  “The school is full of wonderful children and I feel privileged to be joining a hugely committed and professional team. I cannot wait to start getting to know the school community as a whole and am extremely excited about the journey ahead”, said Emma.

   

  Trust CEO Andrew Morris is pleased to be welcoming Emma to the team and commented: “We are lucky to have great people working throughout our trust and school teams and we are all very much looking forward to working with Emma and benefitting from her experience and enthusiasm.”

  

• All Talk at Severn Bridges

  Fri 23 Jun 2023

  The Trust wide Time to Talk competition, which was launched in 2021, returned for its third year today.

   

  Year 3 and 4 children competed in their schools earlier in the summer term, and two finalists were selected from each school to take part in the grand final, which was once again held at Radbrook.

   

  Time to Talk was initially launched by trustee Mary Pascoe, in collaboration with the Rotary Club of Shrewsbury, and she has always been keen for it to become an annual event.

   

  As in its previous two years, the standard of entries was very high, and children talked impressively about a diverse range of subjects, from ships, plants and crystals to martial arts and pet rats.

   

  Trustee Mary Pascoe is seen here presenting the overall Time to Talk winner Otis from Radbrook with his book token prize. Otis wowed the judges on his talk about nature.

   

  A huge well done to all the brilliant speakers who took part from across our schools.

  

• Severn Shield Athletics Tournament

  Fri 16 Jun 2023

  The Severn Bridges Athletics tournament took place today. Year 5 and 6 children from our three schools competed in a series of events at Mount Pleasant Primary School, including 800 metre and relay races, javelin and long jump.

   

  Congratulations to the Greenfields team who took the overall prize, but there were some great performances on the day, despite the very warm weather.

  

• Training Success for Mount Pleasant Team

  Wed 17 May 2023

  Employees from Mount Pleasant Primary School’s Early Years team have successfully completed The Hanen Program ‘Learning Language and Loving It’ for Early Childhood Educators.

   

  Charlotte Houghton, Beverley Roberts and Lindsay Dunst recently completed the program, to build on their skills and strategies for developing children’s language and social skills, and were held up as examples of excellent practice.

   

  The training was designed to help equip early years practitioners with strategies and techniques to ensure that every child in the classroom has the best opportunities for learning. It recognises that children’s needs are diverse; some engage more than others, and there may be some who’ll be harder to teach. Through research based strategies, and taking into account different learning and communication styles, and special educational needs, the course taught a range of techniques. These included encouraging the use of everyday activities and tuning into children’s interests to follow their lead, promoting interaction and facilitating language learning to build children’s language and social skills.  

   

  Charlotte, Beverley and Lindsay completed the course through a series of online and group training sessions. The training included videotaping and feedback sessions, and these videos from Mount Pleasant’s team were regularly used as exemplars of good practice.

   

  Mount Pleasant offers a 29 place nursery, and its Early Years provision has an excellent reputation. Headteacher Alison Benge was delighted with the training outcome: “Charlotte, Bev and Lindsay have not only completed the course with flying colours, but their work was singled out and they were recognised for their approach and techniques. This is a great boost to our school and our Multi Academy Trust, and for our young children who will benefit massively from these enhanced skills.”

  

• Greenfields Success at County Finals

  Mon 15 May 2023

  Four teams from Greenfields Primary School put in spectacular performances at the weekend at the Shropshire Schools and Colleges Football Association (SSCFA) County Plate Finals.

   

  The action took place on Saturday 13th May at the Acoustafoam Stadium, home of Shifnal Town FC, making it a very memorable day for everyone involved.

   

  The standard of football on display was fantastic, with Greenfields two Under 9’s teams coming away with the trophies; the Under 9’s Girls won their final against Grange Park Primary School, while the Under 9’s Boys beat Priorslee 3-0.

   

  Although the Under 11’s Girls narrowly missed out on the trophy by losing on penalities against Grange Park Primary, and the Under 10’s Boys lost 2-1 against Redhill Primary School, there was some amazing teamwork on show and some very closely fought games.

  It was a great day, with a lot of parent support and wall to wall sunshine. A huge well done to everybody involved.

   

  Severn Bridges MAT's CEO Andrew Morris watched the action and was impressed by the standard of football: "It's been an amazing event and the football I've seen today has blown me away! A massive congratulations to our two Under 9's teams for their wins, and commiserations to our other teams who played brilliantly. I'd also like to thank the parents for their support, and everyone for the effort involved that has gone into making this day such a success."

• Greenfields Teams prepare for County Cup Final

  Thu 11 May 2023

  Greenfields Primary School is celebrating as it prepares to send four teams to compete in the Shropshire County Cup this weekend.

   

  The teams who'll be competing in the event at Shifnal Town FC's Acoustafoam Stadium on Saturday 13th May are the Under 11s Girls, the Under 10s Boys, Under 9s Girls and Under 9's Boys.

   

  This is a huge achievement for the school and a great reflection of the children's football skills, not to mention some fantastic teamwork.

   

  We're wishing all four teams the best of luck.

  

• MAT celebrates the coronation

  Fri 05 May 2023

  Children across the three schools celebrated the King’s coronation by dressing in red, white and blue, making crowns, flags and bunting and enjoying special treats including cupcakes and biscuits. Although some plans needed to move indoors due to the weather, no amount of rain could dampen the children’s enthusiasm and everyone had a great time.

  

• West Midlands Learning Set Visit

  Mon 13 Feb 2023

  Following on from the success of the first visit, which we hosted here at Severn Bridges Multi-Academy Trust last term, the West Midlands Learning Set met for their second visit today.

   

  The group, which included CEOs from across the region, met at Uttoxeter Learning Trust, which spans nursery to post 16 education.

   

  They visited the founder member schools; Picknalls First School, Windsor Park CoE Middle School and Thomas Alleyne's High School, where each headteacher showed them around and showcased areas of particular interest such as specialist sixth form provision for animal care, EYFS transition and specialist provision in middle schools.

   

  It was another positive and informative visit, which sparked a lot of useful conversation, and also gave the CEOs the opportunity to share their views and approaches to budget setting, PR and marketing, as well as their approaches to creating an effective central team.

   

   

  

• Severn Bridges MAT Announced as Finalist

  Wed 01 Feb 2023

  Severn Bridges MAT has been announced as a Small MAT of the Year finalist in the National MAT Awards.

   

  Run by MATA, the Multi Academy Trust Association, the annual awards recognise the outstanding achievements and great work carried out by multi academy trusts up and down the country. With a range of categories, including Small MAT, Community Impact, Inclusion and Most Improved MAT, MATA’s mission is to celebrate the successes of the MAT system.

  MATA is an exclusive association for Trust leaders and offers members guidance and the opportunity to develop and network.

   

  Speaking about being announced as a finalist, CEO Andrew Morris said: “We are proud of everything that Severn Bridges MAT has achieved and to be shortlisted as a finalist is testament to the hard work carried out by everyone associated with our Trust.”

   

  The National MAT Awards ceremony takes place on Thursday 23^rd March.