Principal’s Blog: Issue 3

View PDF version

Welcome to the third edition of my Principal’s Blog, thank you for the positive feedback, I shall keep them coming! I hope that all our TAL families have had an excellent half term break and are looking forward to hearing more about our journey to opening.

NEW! Challenge 3

Autumn photography challenge 2020. Can you create some amazing art using autumn leaves and photography? All you need are some coloured leaves a camera and your creative imaginations. Please send your entries to: contactus@leeds.trinitymat.org

Principal’s Challenge entries

Thank you to those of you who have taken part in my last Principal’s Challenge. It was absolutely brilliant to find out more about you and your hobbies. I hope that you have been following our TAL bug on social media, he has been up to a few things too! Apologies if some of you haven’t yet received your bug, I will make sure that they are included in Year 7 Welcome Packs as part of our transition programme. I will be dropping off an interactive, illustrated Encyclopaedia plus a set of cartoon highlighters at Primary Schools for our latest competition winners. Check out our next challenge to be in for a chance to win some more fabulous prizes and hopefully have a little fun along the way!

TAL Bug: ‘Reach Higher, See Further, Shine Brighter.’

One of our Trinity MAT teachers decided to take the TAL bug with her on her travels and introduced him to many new experiences and historic sights. Currently myself and our new Vice Principal, Mrs Collins are working hard to link up with partners and organisations that will provide our Year 7 students with exciting new experiences also. Also, don’t forget our extracurricular programme, Involve, which will run every afternoon, offering a full range of exciting clubs.

The Performing Arts

At Trinity Academy Leeds, we will champion the Performing Arts, making sure that all students have the chance to study; Drama, Dance, Music and Art and Design from Year 7 upwards. We have invested heavily in ensuring that our new building has the right spaces and resources to promote and support an extensive and ambitious curriculum in the Arts. Further to this, our Performing Arts Academy will run after the school day, offering further tuition and opportunities to perform and progress. We hope that all our students will flourish through the Arts, whether this be through performance, directing, choreography, composition, or Choir. We are forming partnerships with local theatres and Arts groups to ensure that every Year 7 has a full range of exciting enrichment opportunities. In my next blog I will be sharing some exciting details about the progress of our sporting facilities and sporting opportunities!

Schools Admission Deadline

Now that the 31st October has passed, we are delighted that so many of you have preferenced our school. We are really looking forward to receiving your details from the local authority and making contact to give you the next steps and the next key pieces of information to kick start our transition programme! We are keen to get to know each of our new students, and their families, really well and provide all the support and information needed to ensure a smooth yet exciting start in September. The local authority are still accepting late/changes to applications/preference order until December, it is not too late to be part of the TAL family and take advantage of this unique and exciting opportunity.

Spotlight on……

As we start recruiting our Dream Team of teachers and support staff to TAL, I will be asking each of them to introduce themselves and to tell you a little bit about their background and interests. Only the most dedicated, hardworking, and talented individuals will be hired at our school. Very soon they will be familiar faces to you around our brand-new building. Our first ‘Spotlight on…’ features Mrs Hannah Collins, who will join us as Vice Principal. I think that she is (nearly) as excited as I am about meeting you all!


I am delighted to be joining the Trinity MAT family as Vice Principal of Trinity Academy Leeds. I moved to Leeds to study English at the university, fell in love with the city’s vibrance, culture and diversity and never went home! I have worked in three secondary schools across Leeds and Bradford, over the past two decades, improving the life chances of young people. I began my career as a Teacher of English developing strategies to help all children succeed. I moved on to become Head of English, creating a coherent and driven team, who raised aspirations and outcomes, ensuring young people in our care could succeed in their chosen field. A career highlight was taking A level students to Zambia, where we taught English and raised money to install electricity in a local school. In my most recent post, as Assistant Head Teacher for Raising Achievement, I have nurtured and developed staff to ensure excellence comes as standard. As a consequence, I was invited to address undergraduates at Leeds Trinity University on effective teaching – an invitation that will be extended this year. As a Senior Leader, I completed a Masters Degree in Educational Leadership and am a firm believer in leading from the front. Mandella said, ‘Education is the most powerful weapon we have with which to change the world.’ I have witnessed students’ world’s transformed through quality education and cannot wait to help the young people joining Trinity Academy Leeds to Reach Higher, See Further, Shine Brighter. Outside of school, I am an avid fan of live music and theatre and have been known to play saxophone in a Swing Band.


Thank you for reading my third blog,
Kat Cafferky

Trinity Scholars

Trinity Scholar students benefit from an additional investment of up to £6000

Click to find out more!