News

The Denbigh Alliance Trust has announced with much sadness the death of its CEO, Andy Squires who passed away peacefully at Willen Hospice on Saturday 8th January 2022 following a short illness, aged 51.

Andrea Frame, Head of Denbigh School commented ‘Andy Squires gave almost 20 years of dedicated service to the Denbigh Community and as a leader in the wider Milton Keynes Education community. In his roles of Deputy Head, then Headteacher of Denbigh School and latterly as CEO of the Denbigh Alliance Trust, Andy had a positive impact on thousands of students’ lives. He worked tirelessly to provide the highest quality of education, care and opportunity to every one of those students.’

Throughout his time in Milton Keynes, Andy was instrumental in the creation of the Denbigh Alliance Multi Academy Trust, The Tommy Flowers SCIIT, The Enigma Maths Hub, The Computing Hub, the Denbigh Teaching School Alliance and the creation of the Watling Academy. Ian Bacon, Head of Watling Academy said ‘all these initiatives were a product of Andy’s vision and desire to bring the best of education to Milton Keynes’.

Andy and his uncompromising and principled approach to education has been the driving force behind the Denbigh community for many years and he will be deeply missed by everyone who had the pleasure of working with him. His charismatic nature ensured that Andy made friends wherever he went, and all in the Denbigh Alliance community are truly grateful to have had the honour of working with him and for him.

John Cove, Chair of the Denbigh Alliance said: ‘The Denbigh Alliance Trust is committed to continuing Andy’s legacy of providing the highest quality of education, care and opportunity for all students within the Trust and the wider Milton Keynes community. Those at the Trust will always remember the impact and difference that Andy made to everyone he worked with’.

At the request of Andy’s family, the Trust has set up an online Tribute page for people to leave messages of condolence and a process for collecting donations for Willen Hospice and the Neuroscience Unit at John Radcliffe Hospital via https://andysquires.muchloved.com

For further information please contact John Cove, Chair of the Denbigh Alliance Trust at [email protected], Andrea Frame, Head of Denbigh School at [email protected] or Ian Bacon, Head of Watling Academy at [email protected]

Congratulations to Thomas Young from Year 8 who is celebrating being named ‘Top Student Rider in MK’ at the MK Mayor’s ‘Cycle September’ Awards which saw members of the MK community ride over 15,000 miles during ‘Cycle September’.  Thomas was delighted to meet the Mayor, Mohammed Khan and receive his certificate and prize of a Trek cycling helmet at an Awards Ceremony in Central MK.  Watling also won third place in the ‘Top Cycling School’ Category, proving that we are committed to our students and staff developing greener daily habits.

Thomas Young

Before half-term, our three winners from the Foreign Language Spelling Bee School competition, Jenisha C, Jenefa R and Janelle S, participated in the Regional Final against other schools in the Southeast of England. They had to learn a total of 200 words in preparation for the competition. During the competition they had to correctly translate and spell as many of these words as possible in a minute. All three students did an incredible job, particularly as the competition took place in the week before their end of year assessments. I am delighted to announce that Jenisha and Jenefa both made it through to the National Final. Jenisha was the overall winner of the Regional Competition. A superb achievement.

The students have a further 100 words to learn for the National Final, making it a total of 300 words that they could be tested. Please congratulate them and wish them luck.

For Stage 2 of the Spelling Bee competition, students had to correctly translate and spell in Spanish as many words as possible in a minute. This time students had a total of 150 words to learn.

The students participating in Stage 2 of the House Competition were:

• Cindy O – Leyh
• Jago L – Leyh
• Jenisha C – Marshall
• Janelle S – Marshall
• Joshua M – Rutherford
• Jenefa R – Rutherford
• Gabriel M – Laine
• Simina G – Turing
• Camila T – Turing

The 3 students with the highest number of words correctly translated and spelt in a minute were:

• Jenisha C (8)
• Jenefa R (8)
• Janelle S (8)

The total number of words correctly translated and spelt in a minute by each House was:

• Joint 4th – Leyh and Laine – 7
• 3rd – Turing – 10
• 2nd – Rutherford – 12
• 1st – Marshall – 16

The winners will now compete in Stage 3 – Regional Competition. Please wish them luck as the winners from this stage may then compete in a National Final.

Well done to all those who have taken part. It is great to see everyone spelling words in Spanish using the Spanish alphabet. This will really help you with your learning in general.

The House system is at the heart of what we do at Watling Academy. Throughout their time at the Academy students will earn House Points in lessons and compete against each other in a range of events. These include subject based challenges, sporting tournaments and competitions based around our core values of Respect, Responsibility and Kindness and our curriculum themes of STEM, Milton Keynes and Sustainability. 

The first Watling students were responsible for choosing the house names. As part of their induction they were asked to nominate people who they felt represented the Watling Academy core values, they chose-

• Laine
• Leyh
• Marshall
• Rutherford
• Turing

As you have probably spotted these are all people who have made a significant contribution to Milton Keynes.

Our students were also involved in the design of our House Logos, each House group was tasked with producing a design brief of what they wanted their house logo to look like. Our very own Ms Piper acted on the design briefs to produce these fantastic logos.

Students have been earning points throughout the year in a variety of events and we look forward to crowning our first Watling Academy House champions at the end of the year.