Dear parent/carer,
I hope this letter finds you and your families well. Despite continuing the wait for spring or eventually summer to arrive it has been another positive week. Next week we say goodbye to our year 11’s and 13’s who have worked tirelessly hard in classes to produce evidence for their GCSE. We are so impressed with the resilience and determination our students have shown in their work against the backdrop of some of the biggest challenges in education for a generation. We now look forward to welcoming an overwhelming majority of our year 11 students back to our sixth form after half term. For those in Year 11 who move on to pastures new and for our year 13 students who enter the world of employment or further study we wish you the best of luck. You make us incredibly proud and we will watch your future success with interest, your combined efforts have created a legacy of character, culture and academic excellence, leaving us in a better place as a result of your efforts. Thank you all and to the parents and carers who have joined us on that journey.
For those in Years 7-10 and year 12 it marks a ‘changing of the guard’, an opportunity for you each to step up and step towards your goals and aspirations, step by step. There is much to enjoy along the way, our return to specialist areas over year groups after half term, the gradual return of our co-curricular after school activities programme, sports day and perhaps a surprise event or two along the way.
End of year examinations
A gentle reminder that the best method of preparation for the upcoming examinations is to ensure that the knowledge organisers from the entire year are reviewed little and often. Making flashcards and testing your son/daughter on the contents is one of the best methods to ensure knowledge is retained in the long term memory.
Contact with the academy
Mascalls is a large secondary comprehensive of over 1200 students, our aim throughout the pandemic has been to engage our parent carer community through frequent and clear communications. In order to make the task manageable and any response timely we put in place structures. I would like to take this opportunity to remind parent/carers of the protocol of who to contact and when.
| Query | Who to contact |
|---|---|
| Pastoral or wellbeing | Your son/daughter’s advisor or the college team |
| Individual subject | The subject teacher or head of department |
| Multiple subjects | The college team |
| Attendance | The attendance team |
| Behaviour | Reception or college team |
| Any other query | Reception |
Within the academy we triage any queries and forward them to the appropriate team who are best placed to respond, some are then escalated where appropriate to the academy leadership team and others are referred to the appropriate department in the first instance. In the instance that queries are not resolved, they will then be escalated through our line management structure in a gradual escalation. In all instances reception@mascallsacademy.org.uk is the main portal of communication for your queries.
Finally, as always, my thanks are extended to all parents and carers for your support of both the academy and your son/daughter’s progress within it. The character traits we prize so dearly – respect, determination and resilience continue to be shown in abundance by our amazing students. It is a testament to the strength of our community partnership. Thank you.
Yours sincerely
Mr W Monk | Principal
