Personal Development

Educational Visits

At Leigh Academy Tree Tops, we understand that children learn best when they are actively engaged in learning, taking part in practical activities and real-life experiences. As a result, we plan off site learning experiences for pupils of all ages. 

All year groups have at least one Educational visit off-site each year and the academy also encourages visitors in, to enhance the educational offer. Some of educational visits and experiences planned for this year include:

Kingwood Centre

As part of their work on teamwork, year 6 took a trip to Kingswood outdoor centre to practise team building and communication.

Port Lympne

As part of their work on habitats, year 3 and year 4 took a trip to Port Lympne to look at different animals and how the zoo has created habitats to fit the animals needs.

Little Street

‘We are part of a community’ – Year 1 had great fun experiencing different roles within our community at Little Street in Maidstone. They spent the morning dressing up and acting out different roles.

Cinema

Year 6 will be going to the cinema and then using the experience and the movie they watch in their learning for the rest of the term.

Pantomime

Year 1 and year 2 will be visiting the Marlowe theatre in Canterbury to watch a Pantomime. They will then use the story and experience in their learning for the rest of the term.

Young Voices

The choir will be performing in the Young Voices concert in January.

Enrichment

At Leigh Academy Tree Tops, we understand that children learn best when they are actively engaged in learning, taking part in practical activities and real-life experiences. As a result, we plan enrichment activities for all children as part of their learning journey to enhance the class based subjects that parents know from their own schooling.

Cultural week

To enhance our Modern Foreign languages learning, a whole week was planned to support, showcase and enjoy what other cultures can bring to our own learning. 

The children were encouraged to try Spanish food which they made in school and explored Spanish culture through dance and art.

Carnival Day

We welcomed everyone back to school with a Carnival themed day. With non uniform, dancing and celebrations for the year ahead.

Lavender’s Birthday

Lavender has a special place at Tree Tops and 14th September is a day we always celebrate – the day Lavender came to stay! This year, for her second ‘birthday’, she shared with the children some  poems she had started reading and how she wanted the children to try and write their own.

Sponsored Events

Leigh Academy Tree Tops proudly raised £1450 for the Great Ormond Street hospital by holding a sponsored run. The course was set up on the grounds and every child received a medal for taking part.

Road Safety

We have worked with KCC for a number of years as they have developed their Road Safety lessons. Now into our 3rd year, each term they deliver focussed road safety to children across the school.

Family Trust Assemblies

The Family Trust comes into school to hold assemblies with the children around religious celebrations that happen throughout the year. These assemblies form part of our religious worship curriculum.

Victorian and Mayan Workshop

As a change from the usual trip, a Victorian and Mayan workshop will be coming into school to cover aspects of their culture with the children. This gives the children a chance to fully engage in the era they’re studying and gives them opportunities to ask questions and get into the history without leaving school. For those children who struggle with leaving the familiarity of the school building this gives a better opportunity to learn and engage.

Book week

Each year we celebrate our love of books during book week with different activities. Our last book week saw us sharing books across year groups as older and younger children came together to read their favourite books.

Lavender

The Big Heart of Kent Parade saw 51 large and 30 small, beautifully decorated elephant sculptures around the county town of Maidstone.

Leigh Academy Tree Tops was lucky enough to be involved from the very start.

In February 2019 LATT heard about the event and started planning our involvement. Staff attended meetings and decided how the school would raise the money needed to own a small elephant.

We had a school year dedicated to Elmer—reading cards, badges, dress up days and book sales.

Our very own small bare elephant arrived in February 2020. She had no name and no colour but still made a big impact as she visited every area of the school. The Covid-19 pandemic saw the whole parade postponed for a year and our little    elephant stayed safe in school while we got used to working from home.

January 2021 saw the deadline for our little elephant to be painted and Lavender (named by the staff) was born.

The parade ran from June to August and many of the children from Leigh Academy Tree Tops visited her.

In September 2021 Lavender and all the other elephants, big and small, took part in the Farewell Parade. All 81 elephants were in one place for the public to see. Our first ever Lavender’s Book Club winners got the chance to visit too.

In September 2021 the big elephants were auctioned to raise money for the hospice. A huge £311,000 was raised but it has been estimated that the Big Heart of Kent Parade made a huge £7m impact on the county town of Maidstone.

And Lavender? She will remain here, at Tree Tops, a true member of our very special community.

Outdoor Learning

At Leigh Academy Tree Tops, we understand that children learn best when they are actively engaged in learning, taking part in practical activities and real-life experiences. The academy has invested time in developing the outdoor learning environment, ensuring a high-quality environment for children to learn. Outdoor learning includes outdoor areas for children to learn across the academy, including areas for planting vegetables and flowers and an area for Forest School.

Our Allotment

Forest School

Creating wild mobiles using materials we foraged! We also learned to use a hand drill.

In our find a creepy crawly activity, the children used books and guides to try and identify the creatures they found!

As a school with a highly trained Forest School teacher the children can take part in lessons around fire safety in outside classrooms.