South Cumbria Multi-Academy Trust is celebrating a hat-trick of county-wide education award nominations for its member schools.

Chetwynde School and Ormsgill Primary and Nursery School are in the running for prestigious Golden Apple Education Awards, which celebrate the best of education in Cumbria.

Chetwynde has been shortlisted for Secondary School of the Year while its pupil Nathan-Lee Cheong is a finalist in the Student of the Year category.

The Hive team at Ormsgill Primary and Nursery School, which supports pupils with educational healthcare plans, has been shortlisted for best inclusion initiative.

Welcoming the news, SCMAT Chief Executive Professor Andrew Wren said: “We are delighted that the quality of education in our schools, achievements of pupils and the incredible efforts our staff are making is being recognised at this level.

“There are significant challenges across the board in education at the moment and to see the way we are responding to these as a Trust in innovative ways is positive for our pupils, their education and the communities they serve.”

Chetwynde School was nominated for the remarkable progress it has made over the past few years culminating in its first ever good grade from Ofsted.

School leaders had worked with SCMAT to bring it out of a financial notice to improve and it has now gone from strength-to-strength with Ofsted judging the school ‘good in all areas’ in an overwhelmingly positive report.

Nathan Lee Cheong, who is in the running for Student of the Year, was described as a pupil who ‘comes along once in a lifetime of teaching’.

The Chetwynde pupil’s academic ability is said to match his commitment to the whole school community and this summer he has earned a place in a prestigious national maths summer school.

Meanwhile as national challenges to Special Educational Needs funding have forced educators to come up with new and innovative ways of supporting pupils, Ormsgill Primary and Nursery School has introduced a new initiative.

The Hive is a facility staff have developed on site to enable SEN children to fully access a mainstream curriculum, which is adapted to meet their needs.

It helps the children to thrive through two 1-hour weekly sessions with access to sensory, life skills, fine and gross motor, reading, numeracy, writing and arts and crafts as well as Lego therapy.

Winners in this year’s Golden Apple Awards will announced in a glittering ceremony on Thursday, October 10 at the Castle Green Hotel, Kendal.

Two pupils from South Walney Junior School have accepted a national award for poetry in front of literary greats.

Max Fullard and Ellie Jeffrey were presented with the Poetry by Heart Special Contribution Award at the Globe Theatre in London.

They gave an acceptance speech about the power of poetry in front of a packed audience including UK Poet Laureate Simon Armitage and outgoing Children’s Laureate Joseph Coelho as well as winners from other schools across the country.

The award recognises the school’s work over the past three years to increase the profile of poetry at the school in an inclusive way through after-school clubs and competitions.

South Walney Junior School Deputy Headteacher Michelle Banks, who went with them, said it had been an amazing experience and the school was very proud of them.

“Their award was presented last so they had to listen to the other winners and wait until the end to speak in front of hundreds of people, which must have been nerve-racking.

“They spoke really eloquently and from the heart about poetry, what it means to them and what we have done as a school,” she said.

Ellie Jeffrey said writing and performing poetry had taught her resilience, given her confidence and boosted her self-esteem.

“Receiving the award from Poetry by Heart at the Globe and being involved in the project has been a truly life-changing experience,” she said.

“Planting my feed on the Globe stage and looking at the audience was exhilarating and if I could go back again I would.

“My mindset has changed because of this amazing opportunity to be involved in Poetry by Heart.”

She thanked her teachers for the giving her the opportunity describing it as ‘perfect’,

As part of the visit to London they also enjoyed a performance of Much Ado About Nothing in the Globe Theatre, which Mrs Banks said was an experience they all loved.

South Walney Junior School is part of South Cumbria Multi-Academy Trust.

Chetwynde School student Raffy Johnston rubbed shoulders with the stars when he spoke at the Save Windermere Stop the Sewage protest at the weekend.

He joined comedians and actors Steve Coogan and Lee Mack at the event, which aimed to raise awareness of the group’s 10-point plan to save England’s largest lake from sewage.

His teacher Emma Lashmar said Raffy was invited to speak by the organisers following a school trip to an earlier event as part of a project to learn about the environment and campaigning through persuasive writing.

“Lead organiser Matt Staniek was so impressed with his speech last week, when we went up to the small protest, he asked that Raffy join them on stage and read out his speech to the thousands who attended,” she said.

“Raffy spoke at length and in detail about the crisis facing Windermere, and did thorough research to ensure that his speech was accurate, informative and powerful. He got the biggest cheer of the day! Steve Coogan told Raffy that he was brave to address the crowd of over a thousand people and Lee Mack told him that his speech was very inspiring.”

His brother Ronnie and friend Kian Exley-Johnson also attended the protest to support Raffy.

She said 25 pupils have taken part in the topic throughout the term looking in-depth at this environmental matter and have all written persuasive letters to voice their points of view.

Carly Coulter, a senior teaching assistant at the school which is part of South Cumbria Multi-Academy Trust, said despite any nerves of having to stand up in front of a big crowd he did brilliantly.

“The Year 8 students have worked hard on composing letters to United Utilities and have taken part in the protests over the past few weeks. Raffy blew them away when he read out his letter and we are super proud of him,” she said.