Principal’s statement – 30th April 2021

Dear parent/carer,

I hope this letter finds you and your families well.  A far shorter statement this week, which is a positive reflection of the position the academy finds itself in. We remain COVID free as local and national transmission falls and the gradual release of lockdown continues.  This is fantastic news for our community and continues to inspire students to attend well above national averages.  Students across the academy are firmly back into routines and happy, in fact they seem more focussed and determined than ever before.  It confirms that being back to familiarity and regular routine is beneficial to the wellbeing of our wonderful young people.  There are outstanding pastoral structures in full flow to support those who require it, and in being present all of our students are able to access the support they need, when they need it.

Attendance is just the tip of the iceberg, the conduct of our incredible students almost makes COVID feel like history.  We will not become complacent however, but all told there are significant signs that our students are making exceptional gains in lessons and will be at a significant advantage academically, personifying our goal to achieve individual academic excellence through strength of character and a supportive community alongside our parents and carers.

If you have any ongoing concerns whatsoever, please communicate via our reception email or your college teams.  Please also continue to report any potential absence daily directly to the academy.

Home testing

Thank you for all your support in ensuring testing is delivered twice weekly for all of our students through the home testing kits provided.  We have this week experienced a supply issue despite numerous calls and emails to the Department for Education.  We have been promised a delivery of further kits on Tuesday, but if you are in short supply, please prioritise a Sunday test with any remaining tests (perhaps even Bank Holiday Monday next week) so that students are tested at the start of each week.  We will distribute further tests as soon as they are delivered to us, at that point Sunday and Wednesday remain the key testing windows.

National Daily Contact Testing (DCT) Trial

We have been selected to take part in a national DCT trial and provide information to the Department of Health and Social Care.  We are part of a ‘control group’ which is fantastic as it means there will be no change to our existing track and trace procedures if a case is identified.  The only slight change is that we will be able to provide a PCR test to any individual student directly via the academy.

End of Year examinations

I would like to take this opportunity to remind Year 10 and 12 that their end of year mock examinations take place the week beginning 7th June, students should be in receipt of their timetable information.  If that is not the case please again contact our reception email.

Students should begin to ‘crank up’ their revision at home using the strategies I referred to in last week’s statement, please work with them to support revision, even when they say ‘I’ve finished everything!’.  Students in Year 7, 8 and 9 will have end of year examinations the week beginning 28th June and should now begin to look back over their knowledge organisers for the entire year using the same strategies to develop their recall, class teachers and our advisory programme will provide further support for revision topics and strategies.

Over the coming weeks we finally begin to look forward to the summer and in fact the new academic year.  Pending the outcome of the national roadmap announcements on 17th may and 21st June, we have begun planning for Sports Day, the return of more clubs and one or two other surprise events for our community.

In the meantime, have a fantastic Bank Holiday weekend, thank you all for your continued support and positivity, it is greatly appreciated.

Yours sincerely

Mr W Monk | Principal