CET News

Celebrating our successes

CET News

You will find all of CET’s latest news stories below.

Want to read our newsletter?

Visit our newsletter page, by clicking on the button below.

New NPQSL Cohort are ready to start their Senior Leadership journey

2nd February 2024

Yesterday, we welcomed our new National Professional Qualification (NPQ) Spring 2024 cohort, as they embark on their NPQSL – Senior Leadership programme. Delivered in partnership with Ambition Institute, our participants joined for their first conference at Annie Mawson’s Sunbeams Music Trust – Sunbeams. This event saw teachers and middle leaders from schools across Cumbria, both within the Trust and from external schools, come together to begin their journey to Senior Leadership. They spent time contemplating, discussing and debating a range of current educational persistent problems – it was a very thought-provoking, purposeful and impactful day. We are looking forward to seeing our NPQSL team learn and grow throughout their course. Our next round of NPQ programmes begins in Autumn 2024.

CET Year 6 Maths Challenge 2024

1st February 2024

On Friday 26th January, 76 students from all of Cumbria Education Trust’s primary schools attended the CET Year 6 Maths Challenge, held at Workington Academy. Designed by Mr McAree, CET’s Maths School Improvement Lead, the challenge was split into five rounds of mathematical problems to solve, as well as a logic test and a KenKen puzzle. The pupils were split into teams of four and each came up with their own team name and slogan. Multiplication Nation, A Fraction Ahead and Marvellous Mathematicians were some of the creative team names, along with slogans such as ‘United we calculate, divided we fall’ and ‘It’s no lie, we can multiply’. You can see all of the team names and slogans below. After

First CyberFirst – Gold Award School in Cumbria

26th January 2024

The Whitehaven Academy (TWA) is delighted to announce that it has been recognised by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) as a CyberFirst school achieving Gold level, making it the first school in Cumbria to achieve this award, and one of only 4 in the northwest to achieve Gold status. The award involves a very rigorous process in which the school is assessed and moderated in 7 areas, in which TWA had to showcase their dedication to cyber security. NCSC assessed the whole school curriculum, TWA’s approach to cyber security education, the cyber enrichment activities offered, computing-related outreach programmes in place for feeder or local schools and external engagements the academy has offered. To be awarded the Gold level, the academy had

We are looking for New Trustees, in partnership with Nurole

25th January 2024

We are partnering with Nurole, the leading board-level search specialist, to find Trustees. We are looking to appoint two new Trustees with a senior-level background in education who share the Trust’s passion for providing young people with the best possible opportunities to allow them to achieve success. We are interested in strategic-level educational leaders from the primary, secondary, further and higher education sectors or any other child development sector, including local authorities. The new Trustees will be high-achieving, and possess a nurturing and supportive leadership style. They will understand how to employ effective governance techniques, which enable all schools within the Trust to maintain the same successful operating model. Above all, applicants should be passionate about the moral purpose of

Year 8 Robotics Competition 2024

25th January 2024

Last Friday, The Whitehaven Academy proudly hosted the CET Year 8 Interschool Robotics Competition, kindly sponsored and supported once again by Sellafield Ltd. The competition was also supported by STEM. Students from all three CET secondary schools, The Whitehaven Academy, Workington Academy and William Howard School, were joined by St Benedict’s Catholic High School and St Bees School to form cross-school teams. Each team were challenged to build robotic arms and remote-controlled buggies. The judges, comprised of technical experts from Sellafield, were very impressed with each team and how well they worked together. Jo Fowler, Curriculum Lead for Business, Creative Media and Computing at The Whitehaven Academy, who designed and planned the event said, “It was amazing to see all the

100% pass rate for all of our Leadership NPQs

21st December 2023

It was confirmed by Ambition Institute yesterday afternoon that all of our NPQ Leadership participants (NPQSL and NPQH), who recently completed their assessments in September, have passed. This continues our 100% pass rate for all CET NPQ programmes! To celebrate, we will be holding an NPQ Celebration Event in March – more details of this event to follow. This event will also hopefully incorporate the success of more of our specialist NPQ programme cohorts, including a further 22 CET staff members, who are currently awaiting their results from NPQLBC, NPQLL and NPQLT programmes. The provisional date for us to receive these results is 31st January 2024. A huge congratulations to all of our participants and a huge thank you and

Christmas Hamper Joy

20th December 2023

The cost of living crisis has affected many of us, especially in the run-up to Christmas. To try and combat the stress of managing finances around the Christmas period, Mrs Lund, Family Learning Mentor, put a plan into action. In October, she started to contact local businesses and supermarkets in Carlisle to see whether they would donate either money, food or other gifts to go into a Christmas hamper for some of our families who need it most. Thanks to the hard work of Mrs Lund and the generosity of the local community, she has managed to create 40 hampers that include all the essentials for Christmas, such as food, clothes and gifts. Collectively, £1,600 was donated, which paid for

A slice of happiness for Petteril Bank School

14th December 2023

On Tuesday 5th December, 50 children from Petteril Bank School were treated to a night they will never forget when they were invited to Pizza Express in Gretna for an evening of Christmas magic. Each year, Cash for Kids creates this wonderful opportunity for a local school and they approached our Family Learning Mentor, Mrs Lund, to ask whether there was a school that would like to take up the offer. As a new school to the Trust, Mrs Lund thought that Petteril Bank School children would relish the chance to take part. Generously transported by Cumbria Coaches free of charge, all staff and children were in high spirits as they donned their Christmas outfits and made their way to

Year 6 Netball Festival 2023

12th December 2023

More than 200 pupils came together to improve their sporting skills and hear about an inspiring Everest adventure at the annual Year 6 Netball Participation Festival, which took place at William Howard School (WHS) in Brampton in November. All Year 6 pupils from each of our Trust schools were invited, as well as the Year 9 Sports Leaders from each of our three secondary schools. They were split into different countries for the day, working with students from other schools and guided by secondary school Sports Leaders to complete a range of netball skills, matches and tournaments. Participants also listened to an inspirational talk from guest speaker, Chris Mothersdale, about his adventures climbing Mount Everest and everyone received certificates of

Community, culture and CPD: One school’s journey to improvement

29th November 2023

Something that’s been really important for me as a headteacher is seeing the talent that exists within,” says Nigel Youngman, headteacher of The Whitehaven Academy.