It has been inspiring to hear from students in Year 11 who have been really pleased with the results of their recent assessments. Excellence is expected here and it’s encouraging to see those successes and strong mindset if students have not yet got to the grades they want – there is time before the Summer. If you are a parent of a child in Year 11, please talk to them about their results and support them to address any areas they wish to strengthen using tools such as GCSE Pod and MathsWatch,
It has also been brilliant to see Year 11 students attending college and sixth form open events. A full list of these is here: https://www.corejewelleryquarter.academy/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/College-6th-Form-Open-Events-2023-2024.pdf Year 11 students are continuing to have careers advice, information and guidance from Connexions.
We know some of our students will be affected by the tragic deaths of two teenagers from Ladywood recently. We work with a counselling service called Two Ten Therapy and are offering sessions to young people as well as through our SAFE mentoring provision.
We are excited for some upcoming sports fixtures as part of our membership of the King Edwards Sports Partnership. This week sees athletics and basketball. Our Birchfield Harriers are continuing to train at the Alexander Stadium too. Mrs Siddiqui, our Teacher of Performing Arts, has shared details of 64 students now having free music lessons with the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.
I have not been happy with the conduct of Key Stage 3 students at social times. Our rule is that students ‘play sport or sit down’. It’s important that parents support this – we only have limited outdoor space and this is for sport, not chasing each other around. This rule is in place to prevent accidents and it’s important that all adhere to it. I have put in place a revised hot menu offer for Key Stage 3 until our expectations are met. On that note, I would also remind parents of our stance on conduct and point parents back to my earlier blog which outlined this stance very clearly. Our rules have been in place for 4 years and we are very open and transparent about them.
Students are picking up so many positives on Class Charts for going ‘over and beyond’ our expectations. To celebrate this and continue to build this positive momentum, we are doubling the value of positives to 2 points instead of one on ‘Black Friday’. We will also share a reminder of what the points can buy in our Reward Shop too with students.
Our first Opportunity Day happened last Friday which saw lots of activities both in and out of school. We welcome back our Police Liaison PC Steve Mason to work with Year 7 on Tuesday too about responsibilities and the rule of law.
Christmas is well and truly here in the Jewellery Quarter and the school is again part of the festive Window Trail: https://jewelleryquarter.net/jq-christmas/ We are looking forward to the usual Christmas Jumper fundraising and also the student Christmas dinner on the last week of term too. Our Student Parliament are meeting on Tuesday at The Jointworks to discuss opportunities ahead to continue to develop the school and student leaders will shortly be decorating our Christmas trees. Our Winter Show is scheduled for Tuesday 19th December at St Paul’s Church – all are welcome.
A reminder that we have some Parents’ Evenings coming up: all key events are on our website.
We have Coffee Morning this Wednesday with drinks and staff available from 9-11am.
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]