It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas around the Academy. A huge thank you to our Student Leaders who decorated our trees last week in time for the festive season. This Thursday, we also have our annual Christmas Jumper Day to raise money for Save The Children. Traditionally, we wear full school uniform with a Christmas jumper and/or festive accessory. If your child would like to take part, parents should make their £2 donation via Parent Pay = no cash will collected on the day.
Continuing the theme of the festive season, we’d like to thank all parent who have applied for tickets for our ‘Christmas Show’ at St Paul’s Church on Tuesday 13th December. We will be contacting families shortly to let them know if they have been successful in their ticket allocation requests and we look forward to seeing lots of families at this beautiful venue to showcase the drama, music and dance talent at JQA.
I must remind all families that we do not have prayer facilities on site and cannot accommodate this for any students, unfortunately.
We look forward to welcoming parents of Year 11 students to the Academy on Thursday for the first ‘Parents’ Evening’ between 4.30-6.30. We encourage all parents to book appointments using our SchoolCloud system. Students will be receiving their mock exam results on Tuesday morning and Thursday will be an opportunity for parents to discuss these results and the crucial next steps towards a Summer of success in 2023. The Year ahead for Year 11 can be found here.
It’s our termly Parent Symposium on Tuesday afternoon. It;s a virtual event due to the cold weather and limited parking at JQA and it starts at 5.30pm – we look forward to many joining. You can join the meeting at 5.30 on Tuesday by clicking here. Please use your child’s Microsoft Teams details to join. The termly survey will also be live and you can complete this by clicking here. A reminder that one randomly selected respondent wins a £25 Tesco voucher which will be a nice surprise in time for the holidays.
As the nights get darker in the run up to the Winter solstice, we are not going to be running CORE Extra on a Tuesday again until Tuesday 10th January. Students have indicated their preferences for CORE Extra options in Spring Term and we look forward to it resuming again then.
Student attendance is heavily in focus at the moment. Too many children are missing too much school with casual days off. A reminder that if your child’s attendance is below 90%, you will be subject to School Attendance Review Meetings to improve it. A failure to move above 90% can result in fines. We have seen cases taken to court recently where parents were fined over £800. We expect excellent attendance.
Finally, I am aware of some of our students needing support with devices to complete homework. Our homework policy is here and students can complete work via their mobile phone; there are video guides on this page. However, if your child does not have access to a suitable device, they can join our Homework Club from 3.10-4.10 on Mondays and Thursdays to work in a computer room. Parents can request for their child to borrow a device by completing the form here.
It promises to be a busy end to the Autumn term with events and rewards assemblies. I’d like to remind all parents that term ends for all students at 12.25 on Friday 16th December and it is expected there will be high standards until the very end.
Our valued partner, First Class Foundations, have a wonderful community event on Monday 19th December at the Legacy Centre of Excellence (B6 4UU) that we’d like to draw your attention to,
If you would like to attend the event, it’s important that you book via Eventbrite by visiting: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/first-class-festive-family-meal-tickets-474607883957?aff=ebdsoporgprofile
As always, you can call the Academy on 0121 729 7220, leaving a message if lines are busy and we will get back to you. Our lines are very busy in the daytime so I encourage parents to use the voicemail facility by pressing option 2.
You can always contact me directly this week at: [email protected]