April 2022 – Wickersley Partnership Trust

Foljambe Primary School Officially Opens Its New £1,375,000 Building

29 April, 2022in WPT News

On Thursday 28th April, Foljambe Primary School officially opened its doors to its new £1,375,000 building – which now houses a modern hall and dining area – and facilities including outdoor provisions, toilet blocks, and renovated classrooms equipped with the latest high-tech interactive whiteboards.

The school – as we know it today – opened back in 1954 and officially joined Wickersley Partnership Trust (WPT) in 2021. In March 2021, the Trust – with funding from the Department for Education – began the process of transforming the building and its facilities into one that the children and local community deserve and are proud of.

Lawson Property Services, Hobkirk Electrical and Pentagon Play were brought in to complete the construction works, including:

Extensive roof works and the installation of cladding
Demolition of the building to the front of the school and construction of a new building and corridor
Full electrical rewiring of the whole site which includes new LED lighting throughout
Installation of new boilers/water heaters
Full refurbishment of all classrooms, communal areas and toilet blocks
Installation of new outdoor provisions in KS1 and Foundation Stage including a multi-use games area

During this time, Foljambe students temporarily joined Thrybergh Primary School – another primary school under WPT’s umbrella – for the summer term but were welcomed back to Foljambe in September 2021 whilst the remaining works took place.

After a 10 month wait, parents/carers, students, staff and School Governors came together for an Open Afternoon – which included a tour, Leadership Team speeches, student performances and collaborated parent/carer and student activities – to celebrate the new learning environment.

Beverley Tate-Brier, Headteacher of Foljambe Primary School, said: “Foljambe has been on a real journey over the past few years. The school originally opened in 1954 and many children and staff have passed through its doors but the one thing that hadn’t changed until now was the building itself.

“Over £1.3 million has been invested into the school to bring it into the 21st century and finally give the children the very best learning environment.

“We finally have our own kitchen with meals now cooked on site, fabulous outdoor areas, new toilet blocks and the latest SMART Boards and technology in all of our beautifully refurbished classrooms.

“It has taken 10 months to complete but has been well worth the wait. I’d like to thank all parents/carers, children, staff and the local community for bearing with us whilst these changes have taken place.”

Deborah Cooke, Chair of Governors at Foljambe Primary School, added: “As Chair of Governors for Foljambe Primary School, I am excited about the future of this school. The new build and facilities we now offer to the children in this school, and for future children in this community, are outstanding and nothing less than they deserve.

“Everything has been well thought out and planned to give the children the best that we can offer in a nurturing, caring and exciting environment. From exciting play areas outdoors to state of the art technology in our classrooms – all to help provide an exciting, fun and inclusive learning environment for our children.”

Joanne McCreath, parent, said: “I am astounded at the amazing work that has been competed at Foljambe. It has absolutely blown me away.

“The facilities for SEMH are fantastic, the SEMH provision is open to every school within the Trust. These children have somewhere that meets their needs with such supportive staff which is great.

“Any child that comes to Foljambe has a great school with great provisions. The change is amazing and I would like to thank WPT for making this school the school that these children and families deserve.”

Foljambe Primary School has places available and would love to welcome more children to the school at this exciting time.

For Foundation Stage and school admissions, please contact the school on 01709 850569 or office@foljambeprimary.co.uk.

Congratulations to our Easter Competition Winners!

28 April, 2022in WPT News

Over the Easter holidays, we held an Easter competition, which was open to all students across our primary and secondary schools. The challenge was to take an Easter themed selfies/photo or create a design.

We had some fantastic entries and we can now reveal our five winners (one for each Key Stage), who have all received their Easter egg prize and certificate.

Foundation Stage

Isabelle – Ashwood Primary School

Well done to Isabelle in FS2 for drawing a wonderful picture!

Key Stage 1

Phoebe – Monkwood Primary School

We loved Phoebe’s ‘Egg Sheeran’ – top marks for design and puns!

Key Stage 2

Ella – Aston Hall Junior & Infant School

Ella’s thought outside of the box and created an ‘Easter Stiletto’.

Key Stage 3

Abbey – Rawmarsh Community School

Check out Abbey’s Easter bonnet!

Key Stage 4

Phoebe – Rawmarsh Community School

Phoebe has an amazing eye for photography and during her photography lessons, she took some Easter-y shots! Well done, Phoebe.

Congratulations to all of our winners and a massive thank you to all students and their families who took part.

Keep an eye out on our website and social media channels for our next competition!

WPT Launches Its New Facilities Hire System on SchoolHire

20 April, 2022in WPT News

After recently hiring a dedicated Lettings Manager, Adam Cloney, we are ramping up our efforts to showcase and provide facilities hire opportunities for our local communities in Rotherham and Gainsborough.

We are now managing facilities lettings from across six sites – Cranworth Road, Wickersley School & Sports College, Clifton Community School, Rawmarsh Community School, Thrybergh Academy and The Gainsborough Academy – from our central hub using SchoolHire.

SchoolHire is an enterprise that encourages social and communal interaction and promotes healthier lifestyles by opening up school facilities to the wider public. It also allows us to manage facilities hire in-house in a much more effective and efficient way than we’ve done before.

Using the SchoolHire system, you will be able to filter and find a perfect facility for you – whether that’s a performance hall, an astro pitch or a bouldering room.

The website allows you to be much more involved in catering your hire experience. Taking away the lengthy process of going back and forth with emails, this efficient and modern approach means that you can log in at any time, check availability across the facilities, block book and cancel sessions through SchoolHire.

Another great advantage is that there is far easier access and awareness of other facilities across the Trust. So, if your go-to school isn’t available on a particular day, we may be able to accomodate you at one of our other local schools.

To book our facilities, head to our page on the SchoolHire website by clicking the button below.

Adam Cloney, Lettings Manager at Wickersley Partnership Trust, said: “The Trust’s aim is to maximise the use of its school facilities to help add value within our community. Moving across to SchoolHire’s system helps in our efforts to achieve that goal because it is a far smoother and more accessible facilities hire process.

“SchoolHire is a brilliant tool and allows for users to see the availability of all Trust facilities in a much more transparent way.

“Using SchoolHire will help to shine more light on the positive steps we take at Wickersley Partnership Trust.”

Charlie Gothold, Co-Founder/Director of SchoolHire, said: “We are excited to expand SchoolHire into the Rotherham area, providing an opportunity for existing customers of WPT, as well as new customers, to book WPT’s excellent facilities, across the various schools.

“Working with Adam and Matt to get everything set up has been a pleasure and we look forward to continuing our working relationship with them for many years to come.

“Our hope and expectation is that WPT will be able to leverage the benefits of our platform to streamline the administration of lettings, significantly decreasing time spent on the admin side, which will lead to more time to invest in customer care and marketing. Coupled with the revenue generation benefits that SchoolHire brings will also lead to WPT’s lettings income increasing substantially over time.”

We have lots of spaces and opportunities for the local community – take a look at the handy virtual tour videos below for each site.

Clifton Community School/Cranworth Road

Rawmarsh Community School

Thrybergh Academy

Wickersley School & Sports College

The Gainsborough Academy

WPT Newsletter - April

8 April, 2022in WPT News

Welcome to the 9th edition of our cross-Trust newsletter.

Here you’ll find a showcase of just some of the things that we’ve been getting up to over the last few weeks.

We wish you a happy and safe half term.

Rotherham Schools Football Association Cup Finals - Sat 2nd April 2022

6 April, 2022in WPT News

After a two-year hiatus, the Rotherham Schools Football Association Cup Finals returned on Saturday 2^nd April with six finals taking place at Wickersley after the Y11 Cup Final midweek at Parkgate FC. Conditions, after a cold week, were set fair for an exciting morning of football.

After a tight and reasonably quiet first half, the Y9 final turned into something from a movie script with an incredible ending leading to a penalty shoot-out. The game was 0-0 at half-time but after the break the game exploded into life with six goals (three in injury time), two hat-tricks and a sending off. Rawmarsh took the lead through Jack Woodcock, with Ryan Gambles equalising five minutes later only for Woodcock to score again shortly after to restore Rawmarsh’s lead. Wickersley’s Robson Woodcock was then sent off on the hour mark, swaying the game towards Rawmarsh with the clock ticking down. On 70 minutes Ryan Gambles popped up to equalise which triggering wild celebrations. From the kick-off an extraordinary goal was scored direct from the centre kick by Jack Woodcock once again leading to wild celebrations and putting Rawmarsh back on top with seconds remaining. Somehow, the 10 men of Wickersley once again equalised deep into injury time with Ryan Gables securing the second hat-trick of the tie with the final kick of the game. The game went to penalties and with three misses each, it went to sudden death with Wickersley eventually winning the shoot-out 4 – 3.

The Y8 final was the second tie to go to penalties, but this time Wickersley came out on the wrong side of the shoot-out with Wath running out winners. Wickersley held a 2-0 lead in the game with goals through Zack Lyne and Henry Sedgwick although Wath never looked out of the game and clicked into gear in the final quarter, scoring two excellent goals through Jacob Woodward and Max Sojka. Both teams missed penalties during the game, but Wath had the momentum going into the shoot-out and came through to claim the trophy.

Wath also came out on top in the Y10 final with a strong performance against Rawmarsh. Wath applied the early pressure but it was Rawmarsh who took the lead through Harry Emptage. Wath equalised through Ethan Hodkin who then went on to give Wath a 2-1 lead at half-time. Hodkin sealed the game in the second half through a penalty giving Wath their second trophy of the morning.

At Y7 Wickersley were confident going into the tie after their English School’s Cup run took them all the way to the semi-final. Aston were the opponents and they held strong in the first 15 minutes in a competitive start where they also nearly scored following a corner. Wickersley took the lead after 16 minutes through Jake Hall and this then opened the floodgates with goals in the first half following through Ashton Crofts, Bailey Miller and a brace from Oscar Wildman. In the second half Jack Calise rubber stamped the victory with a left foot strike from 25 yards with Wickersley also earning a second trophy.

In the senior games the 1st XI final placed Wath against Maltby, two strong teams running senior scholarship programmes. The rivals fought out a tight game with Maltby the narrow victors 1 – 0 with a goal courtesy of Ben Bradley. The 2nd XI final was a much more one-sided affair with Wath cruising to an 8-0 victory against Thomas Rotherham College 3rd XI, who had previously beaten the TRC 2nd XI to reach the final. The Wath goals were scored by Will Marshall (2), Alex Kent, an OG and a man of the match 4 goal performance from Owen Evans.

Acknowledgements

A big thank you to all the players, parents and spectators for contributing towards a successful return to the RSFA this year. All 16 secondaries’ and TRC took part in the 7 different cup competitions during the 2021/22 season, which started back in September.

Thank you to Mick Bell and the Rotherham Referees’ Association for providing 18 officials for finals day and 3 officials in Wickersley’s 3 – 1 win over Aston in the standalone Y11 Cup Final which took place at Parkgate FC on Wednesday 30^th March.

The WPT Media Team have played a massive part in the RSFA Competitions this year – designing a new logo, creating the professionally looking programmes and capturing the action as photographers on finals day. Thank you to Mr Gunn and his team for their above and beyond professional service.