Dear Parent / Guardian

You will recall that during the autumn term, Miss Litton informed the community of her intention to retire at the end of this academic year.

As a consequence of this, the Trust Board undertook a recruitment process that culminated in the final week of last term. 

I am very pleased to inform you that further to the robust selection days Mr Stephen Mann was successful in being appointed with effect from September 2023. Mr Mann is currently a serving Headteacher in Hampshire and some of you may remember him as he was an Assistant Headteacher at Wildern in 2011, moving on to become a Deputy Headteacher, leaving the school in 2018 to become a Headteacher. 

Trustees are delighted to be able to share this news but are pleased to be able to continue to work with Miss Litton until the end of the summer term. All other arrangements within the Trust remain as they are now.

Mrs G.Lane

Chair of the Trust Board

MLL/lm

1^st November 2022

Dear Parents/Guardians

This is rather a strange feeling as I write this letter after nearly 23 Years at Wildern. I have after considerable reflection decided that the time has come to retire and I therefore write to inform you all that this academic year will be my last year as the Executive Head/CEO of Wildern Academy Trust. It is a position I have been privileged to have and I thank you all, many of you who I have known for many years and your children, for the support you have given me over the last 23 Years.

From Assistant Headteacher in 2000 when I joined Wildern, to Deputy Headteacher, Headteacher and latterly Executive Leader I have had the most incredible time. While I do not live locally this has most definitely been a second home to me. I have watched the community grow and have formed strong supportive relationships with so many of you. It is always very strange when an ex-student approaches me at an Open Evening to introduce their son or daughter.

I have enjoyed a wonderful career of 34 years, the majority of which has been at Wildern. I never looked to go anywhere else because I have loved it so much and that hasn’t changed. Growing the Academy Trust to ensure we could educate all the children within our catchment has been a continued ambition and now with two new schools, one which we have finally been able to achieve. After many years of disappointing some of our families who could not secure a place at Wildern their catchment school, it is a personal delight knowing that they have access to two secondary schools and, of course, our lovely Primary school, Boorley Park.

I believe now is the time to go to enable a new Executive Leader to take all three schools onto the next stage of the journey. All are led by great Headteachers and staff and whoever is lucky enough to take on the role will be truly blessed, not just by the staff but the communities they are joining. There is always work to be done and none of us are perfect but I can say genuinely that all the people I have been fortunate enough to work with truly believe in what they do and care passionately about our children. It was evident from the first day I walked into the school and even more so today as I prepare to leave.

I will write again in the summer term with some final reflections and thank you’s. Glenda Lane our Chair of the Trust Board will keep you informed of the new appointment as and when it is secured.

My grateful thanks to you all, it has been a privilege.

Yours faithfully

Marie Louise Litton

Executive Headteacher

Wildern Academy Trust has governance vacancies for Members, Trustees and Local Governors. Members oversee the strategic actions of Trustees who in turn oversee Local Governors in each school, each have a responsibility to support the leadership team in each school to achieve its aims. An interest in education and in the community is essential as is the willingness to undertake training to understand governance in the Trust. In particular, it is desirable that Trustees have business and/or finance skills. These current vacancies are not open to parents or carers of pupils/students in the school. If you are interested and meet these requirements please contact the Clerk to the Trust Board, Annette Towgood at a.towgood@wildern.org.

Dear Parent/Guardian

As we drawn to the end of another year a short letter from me to extend my personal thanks to all our parents for their ongoing support and involvement with all our schools this year. As I alluded to in my awards evening speech it has been a challenging year that has tested all of our resolve. COVID was clearly our biggest challenge and I do not think any of the headteachers believed it would present the challenges it had in the previous year. Sadly it did but they met it head on and managed it with total professionalism and resilience, at times not sure how they were going to staff their schools. So many of you acknowledged that over the year with your emails of support in everything the schools did to remain open and function as normal as possible. While COVID numbers have gone up again this term it has had less impact, it has been the high temperatures that have tested in the last few weeks!
All our schools are full for next year with Boorley moving into its fourth year with two new classes in Reception, Deer Park moves to year two and Wildern enters its 90th year! Various events have happened at all schools from dance showcases, awards celebrations and summer fayres, quite a variety that reflects the culture and ethos of all three schools. All have their own unique qualities with some common principles shared across the trust, all of which are linked to do the best for the children in our community.
On behalf of all my colleagues’ thank you all for your continued support and reflections, they help to guide what we do and adapt as we sometimes need to. Parent and student voice is important to us to ensure that our provision successfully serves our large community. Our ambition on growing the trust as you all know is to ensure we had great schools providing quality learning and opportunities.
We look forward to working with you again closely next term and I wish you all a lovely summer wherever it takes you.
My sincere thanks to you all.
Yours faithfully

Miss M L Litton
Executive Headteacher

Dear Parent/Guardian

As another term draws to a close we find ourselves moving towards lighter days and better weather with at last a journey to work in the daylight. This term, as always, has been full with much happening across all three of our schools. While we have continued, like so many schools, to be hit by the ongoing challenges of COVID we have endeavored to operate across the Trust as normal. It has been a challenge and on behalf of all three headteachers I thank you for your support and understanding when classes have had to be collapsed, some students having to work remotely or indeed have a different teacher. The resilience shown by students, staff and indeed parents is testament to the community we are part of, although I am sure we are all feeling rather worn down by it now. Two lockdowns has taken its toll on all of us, especially the youngsters but with all of our support they will continue to thrive and make progress, of that I am sure.

Boorley Park has now been open three years and next year we see our first Year of Key Stage 2 begin and we finally move to using some of the upstairs classrooms. As the school grows so has the staffing body and I am delighted to confirm that the school is fully staffed for September. Some of the colleagues have been training at the school and are excited about taking up their first teaching post with us. Mrs Ozanne has been appointed as Assistant Headteacher and will work with Mrs Sillars in supporting the work and vision for the school.

Deer Park, which only opened in September with 124 children, welcomes five more classes in September. We have a small but fabulous group of teachers who have worked tirelessly this year to create a wonderful learning environment for the students. Mr Jones, currently Deputy Headteacher, moves into the Headteacher post in the summer term which will then enable me to return to me Executive Head role, basing myself back at Wildern some of the week and the other schools for the remainder. It is genuinely a thrill to work with such gifted Headteachers who work so hard for the children in their care. Deer Park is virtually fully staffed for next year and thanks must go to our Wildern colleagues who have come and taught at Deer Park this year, we could not have done it without them. While some will still support us a little next year, by year 3 the school will be independently staffed. Like Boorley we have recruited some excellent teachers who we look forward to welcoming in September.

Wildern continues to thrive as another cohort moves towards their final term and examinations. All credit must go to the Year 11 students whose commitment to their studies despite the challenges of the last few years has been unwavering, we are very proud of them as I am sure you are. Again Wildern is full next year and remains oversubscribed as has been the pattern for over twenty years. Adding a second school has certainly helped alleviate some of that pressure and ensure that all in catchment children have secured a place at their local schools. As many of you know this has not always been the case. Wildern always attracts great teachers and is fully staffed for the coming year. In typical Wildern style the students and staff have embraced their charity work, which in such dark times internationally their generosity is amazing. We are not living in easy times but still bags of goods were brought in to support the Ukrainian appeal, just one example. This selfless approach typifies our children and families.

To conclude our family of three schools continue to thrive, despite the challenges. My sincere thanks as always to all of you for your continued support and patience’s at times. I wish you all a restful Easter when it arrives and hope the sun continues to shine.

Yours faithfully

Miss M L Litton

Executive Headteacher

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Arabic	Hebrew	Polish
Bulgarian	Hindi	Portuguese
Catalan	Hmong Daw	Romanian
Chinese Simplified	Hungarian	Russian
Chinese Traditional	Indonesian	Slovak
Czech	Italian	Slovenian
Danish	Japanese	Spanish
Dutch	Klingon	Swedish
English	Korean	Thai
Estonian	Latvian	Turkish
Finnish	Lithuanian	Ukrainian
French	Malay	Urdu
German	Maltese	Vietnamese
Greek	Norwegian	Welsh
Haitian Creole	Persian

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A meeting was held by the Wildern Academy Trust on 14th February 2022 to discuss the outcomes of the recent consultation to make changes to Boorley Park School admissions arrangements. During the meeting The Wildern Academy Trust approved the following admissions arrangements changes which will come into effect from September 2023.

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Bulgarian	Hindi	Portuguese
Catalan	Hmong Daw	Romanian
Chinese Simplified	Hungarian	Russian
Chinese Traditional	Indonesian	Slovak
Czech	Italian	Slovenian
Danish	Japanese	Spanish
Dutch	Klingon	Swedish
English	Korean	Thai
Estonian	Latvian	Turkish
Finnish	Lithuanian	Ukrainian
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Deer Park School, the new state of the art secondary school in Hedge End, which opened its doors to its first pupils last month  September 2021), has hosted a grand opening to introduce its facilities to the local community.

At the event held on Thursday, 14 October 2021, the school was officially opened by The Mayor of Eastleigh, Cynthia Garton. Other guests at the opening, hosted by Executive Head Teacher, Marie Lou Litton, included: Hampshire County Council Leader, Councillor Keith Mans; County Council Executive Lead Member for Children’s Services, Councillor Roz Chadd; and representatives from the Department for Education (DfE).

The £21.2 million Deer Park School is part of the Wildern Academy Trust, funded by the DfE as part of its National Free Schools Programme. The school has been built on land owned by Hampshire County Council and designed by the County Council’s award-winning Property Services Team, with environmental friendliness in mind.

Contractors Kier led the construction of the main building and an adjacent sports hall with capacity for 1,050 students. The three-storey main building boasts a central triple-height atrium, 46 ‘digitally rich’ classrooms, a learning resource centre, science laboratories, art rooms, design and technology facilities and a music and drama space. The two-storey sports hall features a four-court main hall, a multi-use activity studio, and changing facilities.

Additional and extensive sports facilities for both the school and local community to use are also being developed, thanks to a joint investment of a further £2.4 million by Hampshire County Council and Eastleigh Borough Council. Pupils and local residents can look forward to several grassed sports pitches, including a 400 metre running track, a synthetic turf pitch, and a multi-use games area with three netball courts and floodlighting.

The design of the school’s buildings includes a number of significant environmental features to help reduce running costs and carbon consumption, such as:

• a solar photovoltaic array on the roof to harness solar power
• a rainwater harvesting system serving the toilet-flushing system, together with low water consumption taps and toilets
• ample covered cycle stores to encourage pupils to cycle to school, complemented by safer routes to school infrastructure.

Deer Park School Executive Head Teacher, Marie Lou Litton, said: “We have started with our first cohort of 124 Year 7 students. It is a truly wonderful learning environment that we know will continue to evolve and thrive year on year as new groups of students join us.”

Councillor Roz Chadd, Executive Lead Member for Children’s Services, said: “I am very excited to see Deer Park come to life as a school and recreation space for families settling into new homes which have been, and are being, built in the area. Schools should always be at the heart of a community, and this is even more important when a new village is evolving. Our property design team have done a fantastic job of visualising a sustainable school to become a backdrop to learning for many years to come. Our investment in community sporting facilities and through supporting the employment of local construction trainees onsite means that the benefits of Deer Park go beyond the school itself and help to further embed it into the Woodhouse Meadows neighbourhood.”

With the COVID19 guidelines in place, we know that we cannot safely provide you with the traditional Open Evening this year. Instead, we are planning to do this remotely; designed to try and bring you as many of the elements from that evening to you at home, allowing your child and you to explore and experience life at Boorley.

We are hoping that this evening and subsequent information will provide you and your child with a flavour of what Boorley has to offer, the support we provide as well as the learning opportunities. We want you to be able to hear from our pupils about how they feel about their school too.

Below you will find a presentation from the Executive Headteacher, Miss Litton and the Headteacher, Mrs Sillars, alongside a virtual tour of the school. A copy of the presentation, our prospectus and pictures of inside the school are also at the bottom of this page.

More Information click here

Please the attached map from Hampshire County Council

It’s been a busy time at Boorley and wildlife seems to have been a fascination for both classes over the last two weeks.

We were very kindly donated some sunflowers and so each class has been working out where the best place to plant theirs are. They have suggested a competition to see which class can grow the tallest sunflower so watch this space for the results!

Ladybird class discovered grasshoppers and butterflies in their outside classrooms and have been exploring the long grassy areas at the side of the field.

Butterfly class have been learning about some of the fascinating birds of prey they have spotted circling over the school grounds. They have also discovered some holes on our school field—their investigations suggest they are rabbit warrens but they haven't spotted any rabbits around yet. They tried their best to persuade Billy to make snacks for the animals too!

Keep us updated on any wildlife you see at home or when you are out and about—the estate seems to be attracting lots of different types of wildlife.

A recording of the Wildern School Virtual Awards Evening Broadcast

Wildern School orchestra spent the day with the Royal Marines Band on Tuesday.  It was an absolutely brilliant day and all students got completely involved.  A wonderful experience for all students involved.  

We were so lucky to have a beautiful sunny January afternoon to celebrate the official opening of Boorley Park Primary School. Even though we have been open since September 2019, and in our own building since November 2019, we took the opportunity to celebrate the completion of the building with representatives from the Department for Education, Hampshire County Council, Interserve, Eastleigh Borough Council, the local Parish councils and members of our local community.

Mrs Lane (the chair of our trust board) and Ms Litton (our executive headteacher) both made speeches thanking all those who have been involved in the project while Mrs Sillars shared a presentation from the children talking about what they like best about our school. We also shared a film of the children telling us what they want to be when they are older.

Finally, Councillor Chadd cut the ribbon to officially open the school. Billy and chef Dan from Wildern produced some fantastic snacks for our visitors (the children polished off the leftovers this morning!)

Thank you everyone who was able to attend. It was a fantastic occasion for the school.

We've had a great day today celebrating the end of our pirate topic this half term. The children have all worked hard on completing a range of pirate challenges to earn their pirate licences. We've loved seeing all of their fantastic costumes and they've had great fun dancing, singing and completing treasure hunts around the school. Captain Brown Beard is delighted to welcome them to his crew.