Dear Landmark Community

The spring holiday season is almost here. We hope you are looking forward to some relaxing times with family and friends. It has been another busy and successful term packed with excursions, events and the positive feedback from our latest Ofsted inspection.

Ofsted Inspection

In January we received the Ofsted report following our inspection at the end November. Ofsted published their report on January 20th with Landmark receiving an overall judgement of Good. The community is particularly delighted with the achievements in Behaviour and Attitudes and Personal Development, where the school received the judgement of Outstanding. Landmark is delighted with the contents of the report which identified the following:

Landmark International School is a very happy place.
Behaviour is exemplary.
Pupils are committed to their education.
They (students) think for themselves and take ownership of their learning.
Pupils develop exceptional attitudes towards their community.
Staff know how to help pupils with SEND access the curriculum and develop their numeracy and literacy.

We are particularly pleased with the ofsted parent view which is so important in terms of hearing parent voice. The survey had excellent results across all areas including happiness, safety, behaviour and SEND.

A Commitment to Professional Learning

Each year we have a number of INSET. We usually use part of our January INSET to work towards accreditations that support teaching and learning at Landmark. This year we successfully completed a comprehensive mental health and wellbeing training programme through the National College demonstrating its commitment to supporting the mental health and wellbeing of staff and students in line with DfE guidance and best practice. This has been complemented by training and sessions for students, parents and staff with the Charlie Waller Trust. Additionally we worked towards and received our yearly accreditations from the National Online Safety as a certified school and for safer remote education.

Trips and Excursions

The term has been packed full of exciting learning opportunities beyond the walls of our school. In January,

Eagle class had a fantastic session at The Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. The students completed a session called, 'learning from objects' - where they had to figure out the meaning and the stories that specific artefacts told. This fitted in perfectly with their current line of inquiry about primary and secondary sources. Eagle class also enjoyed diving into their inquiry into Civilisations by visiting the Museum of Classical Archaeology.

Primary students learning about Greek Mythology at the Museum of Classical Archaeology

Robin class visited Circe Cycles in Longstanton, where they design and make a range of bikes. The children learnt about gears, steering and how different frames and tyres change a bike’s performance. Robin class was learning about transport and has been looking at cars through history. The children had a chance to look at a classic car and a modern sports car and compare the two.

Kingfisher class got to learn about our past, exploring old toys, washing Victorian style and dress up at the Ely Museum! Toucan have engaged with some of the great risk takers of the past with their visit to the Polar Museum, which was followed by a trip to the Fitzwilliam Museum.

The majority of the secondary school has had the opportunity to enjoy the works of Shakespeare on stage. Our year 7, 8 and 9s enjoyed Midsummer Night's Dream at the Cambridge Arts Theatre. The Year 10s visited The Globe Theatre in London where they had a fantastic day watching Shakespeare’s play The Winter’s Tale and participating in an acting workshop. The students had a great time meeting with some of the actors, and interviewing one of the main actors John Lightbody.

There have been a range of other wonderful opportunities in secondary school including visiting the Cambridge Buddhist Centre and the Babbage Theatre for an Nrich mathematical session alongside other KS3 students.

Events and Community

We have continued with our new look parent community newsletter and social media programme this term; our engagement levels on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook continue to rise; thank you for your likes, shares and comments. This has been a great way to share events and community work happening at the school.

Students enjoying world book day — Students enjoying World Book Day

In February the whole school celebrated World Book Day. They voted for a Harry Potter theme and our Librarian, Connie Jagolinzer and her team worked tirelessly to make decorations and design activities to immerse the school in a Hogwarts world. The costumes of the students and staff were wonderful and the school was transformed for the day! The mid-morning bake sale was a sight to behold with some beautifully decorated cakes; it raised the fantastic sum of £213 and all proceeds have gone to ensuring our library continues to stock a fabulous range of books to suit our students. The day started with an assembly, where the students learnt they had raised the impressive sum of £920 with their Readathon. The aim of the charity, Read for Good, is to help children in hospital have access to new books and to storytellers. After assembly the primary students took part in a book swap, and enjoyed the opportunity to design their own fantastic beasts. All in all a wonderful day was had by all, and as staff left in the early evening the sparkling lights from the electric candles highlighted the magical experience of the day.

There has been a real drive for student-led action this term with the student council raising money for Mind Over Cancer and a group in Toucan class have continued their support for Save the Elephants with another morning fundraiser.

The primary department thoroughly enjoyed taking part in World Maths Day in March. Eagle, Toucan and Robin classes started off the day with a live assembly with schools from all over the world. The session was run by Mathletics who also organised the competition later on in the day.

On Friday the 24th March an Informal music concert was led by Emma Rapley; parents of students who volunteered to perform enjoyed tea and biscuits whilst watching and listening to the wonderful music.

We were sad to say goodbye to Dexter at the start of term; we wish him every success in his new school. We welcomed Dexter and Stanley into our secondary department in January; they have both settled well and made new friends. After Easter we are looking forward to welcoming Sophie into Year 9; Sophie is at school in Austria and is joining us for the summer term. We are also looking forward to welcoming Sofiia from Ukraine to our Kingfisher Class and twins Iris and Albertine, from the US, who were with us last year, will visit Kingfisher Class for the second half of the summer term.

As always, we are grateful to you for entrusting your children to us and for being such valued contributors to our school community. We wish you a joyful and relaxing spring break and very much look forward to welcoming your children back to school for the summer term.

With warmest regards

Gareth and the team