Dear parents/carers,
I hope this update finds you and your families well. This week we handed out a number of much coveted academy colours awards to our year 11 students. As a new rewards initiative, students receive either an embroidered badge for their academy blazer or an academy colours tie. Students are awarded academy colours following subject or college nomination and are related to effort, achievement, attendance and attitude to learning. Students awarded full academy colours get a fast track canteen queue and access to additional reward trips throughout the year. They have shown an exceptional level of achievement consistently.
We are incredibly proud of them and how they have modelled exceptional strength of character in such challenging times. We were also incredibly impressed with how well all year 11 students received those winners during the assembly. More colours will be up for grabs throughout the year and next week our Year 10 students will be hoping to receive their half colours awards. Congratulations to all of our winners.
Greg Clarke MP visit Mascalls
Today we were fortunate to welcome Greg Clark, MP for Tunbridge wells to Mascalls Academy. Mr Clark toured the entire academy site, seeing lessons and our new library which is currently under development. He then met with a group of our A level Politics students who had prepared questions for him. Needless to say, the experience was immensely positive and valuable for those students interested in a career in politics and we all thoroughly enjoyed seeing Mr Clark in the academy.
Students contacting home using mobiles
There have been one or two instances this week where students have contacted parents/carers on their mobile phones at break or lunchtimes, out of sight due to our mobile phone policy, regarding either a disagreement with a friend or that they may have felt unwell. Whilst it is entirely understandable that students would want to speak with parents/carers in those instances the academy must also be informed, please encourage your son/daughter to let a member of staff know before you are contacted and ask them if they do contact you whether they have informed anyone at the academy. We are able to solve many issues medically and pastorally as long as we know about them and would much rather do that that have unnecessary anxieties raised as parents/carers then contact us requiring information that has yet to be shared with us.
Behaviour on the buses
It has come to our attention that there has been an example of poor behaviour on one of our buses which involved a small percentage of our students. As an Academy we will always investigate and support our students and parents by investigating issues that are brought to our attention, sanctioning appropriately in school those who have made poor behaviour choices. At this point we will inform parents and the bus companies of the students involved. If there is a repeated offence, we will look to report to the bus companies and request that bus passes are retracted for a period of time in order to safeguard the majority of our students who behave impeccably on their journeys to and from school. We thank you as parents and carers for supporting us in this, the safe travel of all of our students needs to be a team effort between us all to ensure a consistent message reaches all of our young people regarding what is appropriate and acceptable behaviour in public.
My Child at School app
We continue to develop our use of the Bromcom My Child at School app, and will be releasing school reports to this app rather than a paper copy or email. You can also track attendance, rewards, behaviour points and detentions through the app. We will also use push notifications from this app for some messages. To stay fully informed of your child’s progress and the latest announcements, please ensure you have downloaded the app and have notifications switched on. If you have any problems logging in please email reception@mascallsacademy.org.uk and our data team will be able to help you.
COVID cases
Covid cases within the academy have continued to fall this week, now with an average of two or three in each year group which is remarkable considering the local picture and levels reported in other secondary academies and the national press. Please continue to test regularly using the LFT kits sent home as we would very much all like to keep it that way. We are also very grateful to parent/carers for having confidence in the academy. National secondary attendance was at 86.3% on 30th September at Mascalls that same figure was 96% which is fantastic.
Finally, as ever, my thanks go to all parents and carers, in partnership and only because of such a positive partnership it seems that our amazing young people are doing incredibly well. Have a nice, and safe, weekend.
Yours sincerely
Mr W Monk
Principal
