Aspire Learning Trust

Our Year 5 & 6 librarians at New Road Primary School were proud to be selected as judges for the Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize this year!

They reviewed six shortlisted STEM books and voted for their favourite: The Wild Life of Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals by Mike Barfield and Paula Bossio. 🦖🦕

The team also created a video entry and last week were thrilled to join a live screening of the awards. A special highlight was Riley’s question being answered live on stage by author Nancy Dickmann—an exciting moment for our school! We were also delighted to see clips of our video featured.

We are incredibly proud of our librarians for their hard work—reading, reviewing, debating, organising the library, and representing the school so brilliantly. Even better, they’re eager to do it all again next year!

All of this year's books and previous shortlisted titles from the Royal Society's Book Prize will be making their way into the school's libraries and classrooms for other children to enjoy.

Thank you to everyone who supported this fantastic project. 📚

Happy St. Georges Day

📚🌍World Book Day 5th March 2026 ✨Our schools had a wonderful week of celebrating world book day.

The library at SHS held activities and events throughout the week, including - being creative with characters from well-known books by writing job descriptions for them📝. Making bookmarks. Breakfast 🥐and a Book for selected year 7 students and the ever popular Reading Cafe where students book a table in the library to eat their lunch 🥪 and enjoy some reading, tables were themed to different genres of books.

On Friday 6th March our primary schools were filled with wonderful characters – from cheeky chipmunks and roaring dinosaurs to brilliant superheroes, Disney princesses and even a few Lottie Brooks lookalikes! 🦸‍♂️🦖🐿️👑
It was lovely to see so many children excited about their favourite books and characters.

Thank you to everyone who helped make World Book Day so special. Keep reading, keep imagining, and keep enjoying the wonderful world of books! 📖

🎭 Tickets are now on sale for Sir Harry Smith Community College upcoming production of Oliver JR.

📆performance dates are:
Monday 23rd March
Tuesday 24th March
Thursday 26th March

⏱️The production will begin at 7:00pm, with doors opening at 6:30pm. Refreshments will be available before the show and during the interval.

🎟️ Tickets
Adults: £10.00
Students/ Concessions: £6.50
Family Ticket (2 Adults/ 2 Children): £32.50
Available on ParentPay or via Reception

✈️On Monday , Year 6 pupils from Park Lane Primary School and Year 5 & 6 pupils from New Road Primary School visited Duxford.

🌟 Thank you very much to the Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Paul Bristow, for facilitating the trip though his Mayor’s Day Out initiative.

Today is Random Acts of Kindness Day 2026 🫶



Sir Harry Smith Community College Park Lane Primary School New Road Primary School

On Friday 12th February, year 5 & 6 pupils choir members from New Road Primary School and Park Lane Primary School attended the Holiday at Home event at Whittlesey Methodist church.
We were invited to the event by Zoe Drury (NR chair of governors and part of the committee that organised the event).

The choir preformed a selection of songs from the recent Young Voices concert at this event. The children then spent time with the members enjoying a drink and some cake. There was much conversation, playing of games and some pupils even read poems and shared some jokes. The children were disappointed that there was not enough time to play card bingo!

Radio Fenland Newsroom interviewed some pupils from both school and photos are also available on their page.

The children and members had a fabulous time and there are plans for future events.

We have an exciting opportunity for members of the community to join our Board of Trustees at Aspire Learning Trust.

Trustees play a vital role in shaping the strategic direction of the Trust and work in close partnership with the CEO and executive team. The role is wide-ranging and rewarding.

Full details of the role can be found on MyNewTerm

Trustee - Aspire Learning Trust (Whittlesey), Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire Closing date: 9:00am, Fri 27th Mar, 2026. View full details and apply online at MyNewTerm.

We’re incredibly proud of all our schools for getting involved in this year’s Whittlesea Straw Bear Festival 🌾

From New Road Primary Schooland Park Lane Primary School pupils performing Molly dances to storytelling workshops at Sir Harry Smith Community College, it’s been fantastic to see everyone embracing such a special tradition.

Here’s a glimpse of New Road in action on Saturday 👇

A huge well done to everyone who helped play a part in keeping this much-loved tradition alive!

🌟A huge thank you to our amazing staff and talented children for making Shine Star Shine such a magical and memorable Nativity performance this Christmas. It was truly wonderful! 🎄

Sir Harry Smith Community College has proudly unveiled its newly transformed school library, following investment from Aspire Learning Trust.

Sir Harry Smith Community College unveils newly refurbished library to benefit student learning Sir Harry Smith Community College has proudly unveiled its newly transformed school library, following investment from Aspire Learning Trust.