News – Alban Academies Trust

AAT Trustee Vacancies – could this be you ?

December 2, 2021/in News/by Emma Walker

Are you a senior professional looking for an opportunity to make a significant impact on the educational experience of our future generations? The AAT is looking to recruit two new non-executive directors to its board. The successful candidates will join our existing board in ensuring clarity of vision, ethos and strategic direction, holding executive leaders to account for the trust’s educational and financial performance. We are seeking a senior leader with secondary education experience, and a business leader with board level experience or experience running their own business. Board governance in education is a strategic, ‘eyes on, hands off’ commitment which typically involves attending c. six board meetings per year/6-8 hours’ time per month.

If you are interested in becoming a Trustee, please send your CV and a covering letter stating why you would like to become a Trustee to Deborah Strazza, Chair of the HR Committee at strazzad@albanacademiestrust.org.uk . The closing date for applications is 11^th February 2022.

Alban Academies Trust is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. This post is subject to an enhanced DBS check and references. We are strongly committed to promoting equality of opportunity and the elimination of unlawful discrimination.

Verulam School appoints Julie Richardson as the first female Headteacher in its 83 year history

March 26, 2021/in News/by Emma Walker

Verulam School for boys, founded in 1938 as St Albans’ Boys’ Modern School, has appointed its first female Headteacher, Julie Richardson, who will take over from current Head, Paul Ramsey, in the Autumn term of September 2021.

Specialising in boys’ education, the school, which became part of the Alban Academies Trust in 2018, achieved an Ofsted ‘good’ rating from its recent inspection and promotes the values of excellence, character and respect. This appointment marks the growing impetus in the cultural shift in the school: inclusivity and relationships are the bedrock of the school, and Miss Richardson will add further dynamism to the vital focus.

London-born Miss Richardson, is the daughter of a former Deputy Head teacher, therefore teaching has always been in her blood. After graduating from Winchester University and completing a PGCE in English and Drama, she had the privilege of working in a number of London and Essex schools over the past 18 years. She has experience of single-sex education having attended an all-girls school herself and worked for three years as head of English at St. Ignatius College for boys. Miss Richardson is currently serving as the Vice Principal at Drapers’ Academy in the London Borough of Havering. Her experience to date, demonstrates her ability to form strong collegial links with school communities, something which Verulam strives to embed as part of the familial ethos of the school.

Miss Richardson said, “I am really proud to have the opportunity to lead and serve the staff, students and community into the next chapter of Verulam’s history. I was instantly struck by the warm and friendly welcome from everyone when I visited the school, and I feel honoured to be the leader of such a special community. I will be relentless in my drive to ensure that Verulam continues to be a place full of opportunities, experiences and where all pupils excel academically.”

John Acton, Chair of Verulam School Governors says “Julie was an outstanding candidate and the decision to appoint her was unanimous. Her vision and passion for boys’ education shone through during the interviews, as well as her in-depth knowledge and understanding of curriculum design, contemporary teaching and pastoral care of young people. She has a very inclusive approach to education and the highest of expectations for what can be achieved by everyone. We are confident that she will take the school to new levels of excellence and it will be a very exciting time for students and staff alike. We thank Paul Ramsey for all of the good work he has done and we wish him every success in his next role.”

“Verulam is now an integral member of the Alban Academies Trust, thanks to the work of Mr. Ramsey. We were looking for an exceptional person with the vision and passion to take over the reins and continue to lead Verulam to the next level in becoming a truly outstanding school. Miss Richardson meets all of our expectations and, in the years to come, will make a significant contribution to the development of the school and the Trust. This is an exciting time for Verulam, and I very much look forward to working with Miss Richardson in the future.” Alan Gray, Headteacher of Sandringham School and CEO of the Alban Academies Trust.

Alban Academies Trust celebrate Science Week with the Big Lesson

March 21, 2019/in News/by Steve Telford

On Thursday 14th March, during session 2, we held The BIG Lesson – the first collaboration between the science faculties of the three secondary schools in the Alban Academies Trust: Sandringham, Verulam and Ridgeway. Broadcasting live via YouTube from the Sandpit Theatre to students in years 7 to 12 in all three schools simultaneously, approximately equating to 3000 students, must be a new World Record! While the lesson had a science focus the technology involved in getting the lesson to be filmed in real time and streamed via the internet to all the classrooms in three separate schools was significant and a lesson in itself for any student interested in STEM.

Mr Lee from Sandringham, Mr Knowles from Verulam and Dr Hercus from Ridgeway became our local celebrities and put on a science lesson based on the theme of the 150^th anniversary of Mendeleev’s periodic table. The lesson began at 10am with a live stream demonstration by Mr Lee of igniting hydrogen and oxygen balloons, to show the difference between the two gases. This was followed by a similar and more explosive Hydrogen and Oxygen mixed balloon. The lesson then went to home schools for students to produce their own periodic table from memory.

Next came Mr Knowles on live stream conducting a demonstration of the Group 1 Alkali metals. This demonstration highlighted the similarities and the trends in properties that the groups on the periodic table have. In classrooms students then completed tasks to allow them to explore the properties of elements.

We re-joined the live stream once more to see Dr Hercus give a flame test demonstration of the transition metals with an explanation of the position of electrons in each element and the reasons why copper burns with a blue-green flame and lithium a lilac flame.

The lesson was a huge success. Those privileged enough to walk the corridors in all three schools commented on how strange it felt to see exactly the same learning in every classroom at exactly the same time. The buzz from students was tremendous and instilled a great deal of pride in the three schools.

The Science teams are looking forward to collaborating more in the future and are all very excited about the Science Week project for next year!

Mr Lee, Dr Hercus and Mr Knowles

Inaugural AAT Conference

February 26, 2019/in News/by Steve Telford

Headteachers Alan Gray of Sandringham School, Paul Ramsey of Verulam School and Jed Whelan of Ridgeway Academy are pictured with Sir John Jones, keynote speaker at the opening of the first Alban Academies Trust conference. The three schools formed the Alban Academies Trust in September 2018 and are working together to pursue the vision of Educational Excellence for Everyone.

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The conference kicked off on Thursday 14th February with an inspirational address from Sir Jon Jones – an internationally renown speaker in education, adviser to numerous government and university committees and experienced former headteacher. The theme of ‘Count me in’ focussed on ensuring all members of the school community felt valued and included, and could add value to the success of the organisation. On Friday, Verulam and Sandringham staff worked together with James Heale, the CEO of Flywheel Learning, to look at what makes organisations great.

Paul Ramsey, Headteacher of Verulam School, said “Working together in partnership as part of the Alban Academies Trust gives us the opportunity to build a learning community that works towards educational excellence for everyone. We are really excited at the benefits this project will bring to the students of St Albans and Welwyn Garden City.”

Alan Gray, CEO of the Trust and Headteacher of Sandringham School added “The principle benefit of working as a Trust is to share best practice and to allow our staff to work together for excellence. We have already seen an impressive start with Verulam receiving a very strong Ofsted report rated as Good in every area. We are very confident the school will move to Outstanding in the near future as part of the Multi-Academy Trust with Sandringham and Ridgeway Schools. This is an exciting time for all schools in the Trust and will have long-term benefits for everyone involved.”