We ONLY Succeed as a team
Today, we welcome back students in Year 8 after their brief spell following our excellent ‘live learning’ provision. 23 laptops were lent to families and we look forward to receiving these back with parents bringing them to Reception to end their Loan Agreement.
I am interviewing tomorrow for a new Food Technology teacher which is exciting as we continue to bring talented practitioners to Team JQA. Also, you may see that we are adding to the team with vacancies for a T.A and a Teacher of Maths.
We welcomed Year 9 parents and students to a well attended virtual event to start the process around choosing qualifications they might want to study in Key Stage 4. You can find the recording of this event here if you missed it. It was a wonderful event, led by the Head of Year 9, Ms Fashina. All students in Year 9 have been given a paper copy of the ‘Options’ booklet and we encourage all parents/carers to make appointments to discuss their child’s progress in key subjects ahead of the virtual Parents’ Evening this week on Thursday 10th February from 4.00pm – 6.30pm. It was brilliant to see Year 9 students engaging with post-16 providers on Thursday of last week too: we welcomed in local colleges and sixth forms so they could see what qualifications they choose at Key Stage 4 might lead to.
I’d like to draw all parents’ attention to the details of our Uniform Policy. We will be looking in particular at adherence to these details in the last two weeks of term. It is important you know these 10 details and make sure your child adheres to them – extreme changes of hair colour, acrylic nails will be challenged and we have an opportunity to raise standards even higher now we are not concerned with enforcing face coverings. A reminder we have two scheduled training days: on Thursday February 18th and also Monday February 28th – students should not attend the Academy on these days.
I’ve been very proud this week to see sporting success with Year 7 girls winning gold in the Indoor Athletics in the local King Edwards Sports Partnership competition. Students have also competed in Debate Mate and worked with fashion designers, F2D. It was brilliant to see the new Library opening in our Equiano Centre too and students checking out books for the first time. There is much more in the latest edition of our newsletter. We are constantly looking to improve the on site provision and give more opportunities to our wonderful students.
In order to do these things, I need your support to ensure we have the time to do that. If my team are occupied dealing with matters that can be avoided: students not in correct uniform, students that are constantly late or students that break the code of conduct persistently. I am happy to meet with parents to explain our expectations clearly and why these are so high: it is so our students go on to achieve the best grades and develop a depth of character around our CORE values – so they can go into positions where they are tomorrow’s leaders and can change the world for the better. We do our children no favours when we have low expectations for them or make excuses for them. We have to act together with oneness. We have to have a shared insistence of excellence and be the team around every child with a shared sense of standards we hold them to. I’d remind all parents of their role in this mission which is clearly set out on our website.
I wish you a lovely week and hope you and your family stay safe and well.
Please call us on 0121 729 7220, leaving a message if lines are busy, and we will support you.
You can always contact me directly at: [email protected]