I hope you had a wonderful break and it has been great to welcome our ‘gems’ back to JQA today! Last half term was a short one but there was lots going on and I’m hoping you managed to read our half termly newsletter to see some of the highlights. I particularly enjoyed the last ‘Hot Chocolate With The Head’ of the half term with the students dressed in red, white and blue as we celebrated the Queen’s Jubilee together at the Academy. I hope you managed to join in the celebrations in some of the street parties across the city too – I know on the road where I live, my family and I were able to join families of so many faiths and backgrounds to come together and celebrate and share food and festivities together.
The assemblies and messages our students will get this week will focus around our ‘gold standards’ – what a privilege it is to wear the JQA gold tie. I am speaking to students about the importance of SHINE as a habit for excellence in lessons to benefit from the expert knowledge our teachers wish to impart. Next week, I will share a video as part of our ‘Collaboration Collection’ with parents and carers about how they can support in the key routines that support success.
We continue our work with the fantastic Brilliant Club this week to challenge our ‘highest potential’ students and also we see Year 10 students starting conversations about careers with Gordon Franks training. It is an important time for Year 10 as they start to embark on their first formal assessments as they prepare to enter Year 11.
It is World Environment Day this week and students will be encouraged to take part in an Academy-wide creative writing competition around the concept of ‘only one Earth’. I look forward to some inspiring and imaginative pieces!
Year 11 have a very busy first week back with exams in Maths, English, History, Geography and Science. It is important students are continuing to revise and prepare and we will be scheduling morning revision sessions and free breakfast, of course. We have scheduled text reminders to all Year 11 parents and a copy of the exam schedule can be found here.
There will be much to celebrate this half term and some news I’d like to share with you around success in Science: Year 10 students entered the British Physics Olympiad, run by Oxford University and 2 students achieved gold, 8 students achieved silver and 2 received bronze awards in the national competition. Excellence is expected here.
We do expect your child to attend every day and it is important Year 11 students attend for every exam – they will not have a second chance to do these public examinations if they are late or absent.
As always, 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]