I hope you are well. The community of Ladywood has been affected by the tragic news of the deaths of two teenagers within the local area during the last week. The community is in shock and we are supporting students and families affected by this terrible news in this very difficult time. If you require any support, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us and there are also a range of well-being services that we are signposting families to. Our Coffee Morning runs on Wednesday morning as normal from 9am -11am if you want to drop in.
Considering this and also the darker nights, we have made the decision to suspend Golden Hour for Year 11 from now. We trust in our Year 11 students to revise from home and to use GCSEPod in particular to support them. It was brilliant to see Year 11 students at the Academy on Saturday for some extra Maths tuition from our partners, PetXI. We will be inviting students to school again on Saturday for additional English tuition.
I was exceptionally proud of our cadets last week who led the Remembrance activities again within the JQ community at Warstone Lane. There are some lovely photos of this event on our socials. Elsewhere, we also saw students in Year 11 on their Geography field trip to Carding Mill Valley last week.
This week across the country it is Anti-Bullying Week and we will be inviting children to wear odd socks all week. Whilst bullying takes place at every school, it is important to have the tools and the heart to be able to address it. This starts with students understanding what bullying is and we are delivering sessions and assemblies to students this week on this topic, with a clear reminder of one of our key systems to report bullying: The Sharp System.
Attendance was strong last week and it is important to continue to make sure your child doesn’t miss any school. Illness can be a big factor in the Winter months. We are encouraging students and staff to practise strong hygiene, particularly hand hygiene during these months. We would like all parents to complete the form on this letter regarding the nasal flu vaccination.
Thank you to parents and students who have completed the survey about our catering provision from Mellors. You can still complete this survey here. It was great to see students engaging with potential new additions to our menus last week – the smoothie seemed a popular , healthy choice!
A reminder that dates of training days when the school is closed are here.
We look forward to seeing our brilliant shining gems tomorrow at 8.15.
As always, you can call the Academy on 0121 729 7220, leaving a message if the line is busy and we will get back to you. Our line is very busy in the daytime so I encourage parents to use the voicemail facility by pressing option 2. If you would like urgent support, you can always reach Miss Chudasama (our Designated Safeguarding Lead) on option 4.
You can always contact me directly at: [email protected]