Principal's Fortnightly Message 16th February 2024

16th February 2024

Dear Parents and Carers,

We arrive at the end of another fantastic term at Northampton Academy. The students have been amazing, and their consistent engagement in lessons has been brilliant, as always.

We have welcomed parents and carers from Years 9, 11, 12 and 13 into the Academy for parents’ evenings this term; thank you to all of you who came in, and I hope you enjoyed receiving the updates from teachers on how your children are performing in their subjects. There have been a large number of trips and events that students from all year groups have taken part in and enjoyed. Year 7 enjoyed a trip to Lapworth Museum, and students from multiple years took part in the amazing Anatomy Lab Live.

On the 8th February, we hosted a United Learning Excellence Day where staff from 30 schools came to learn about our constant drive towards character education as well as our amazing literacy and reading strategy. Other exciting news is that we are building an outdoor amphitheatre, which will hopefully be ready in time for the September opening of Spotlight, our brand-new performing arts stream. I will keep you all updated!

SEND & Wellbeing
A reminder that on Thursday, 21st March, we will be inviting parents and carers of students with SEND in Years 8, 9 and 10 for a coffee morning at 9 am. As a school, we work with the Mental Health Support Teams (MHST). The MHST offer support and advice to education settings to help improve the overall mental health and wellbeing within the school. In addition to supporting the overall mental health and wellbeing in the school, they also offer early intervention, low intensity, and mental health support within schools for children and young people with mild to moderate mental health difficulties. Representatives from MHST will be at the coffee morning and will deliver a presentation on their service and what they can offer to support students. It will also be an opportunity to meet the SEND team, including LSA key workers. To book a place at the coffee morning, please complete this form: Year 8, 9 and 10 SEN Coffee Morning (office.com)

Essential school equipment
We want to emphasise the importance of ensuring that your child comes to school equipped with the necessary supplies and tools to learn. Adequate preparation is not only crucial for your child's academic success but also contributes to a positive and efficient learning environment. Encouraging students to bring the correct equipment fosters good organisational habits: being organised allows students to manage their time effectively, keep track of home learning, and stay focused on their studies. As we move through another exciting school year, we kindly request your support in reinforcing the importance of bringing the correct equipment to school. Please regularly check in with your child to make sure they have all the necessary supplies. Essential school equipment checks happen twice a term in tutor time. By visiting the proud table on a Friday with outstanding work, students also have the opportunity to add to and replace stationery.

All students need:

• Pencil case
• Blue or black pen
• Pencil
• Pencil sharpener
• Rubber
• Ruler
• Scientific calculator

Careers
Last week, the Year 12 students had a talk from Sir Michael Ellis; they were fully engaged and asked some really thought-provoking questions to our local MP. We also welcomed DFA (law firm), who gave Year 12 a real practical insight into corporate and consumer law. Our ‘Breakfast with a Professional’ series will resume again in the summer term. All Year 11s should now have made at least one application, with most having received feedback of a confirmed place (results pending), but please encourage at least one backup option. Drop in sessions continue every Monday lunchtime, please encourage attendance as a matter of urgency if your child has not applied for any post-16 options.

The strict deadline for Year 12 work experience placements to be sorted is 29th Feb; please support your child with securing a placement and encourage them to apply to numerous companies. All applications must be completed on Unifrog for the placement to be secured. Finally, Year 7, Year 9, and Year 10 will have their careers sessions during character next half-term. Each year group will have an encounter with an outside educational provider regarding their future options, which is a statutory element of the careers framework.

Year 11
I wanted to say a massive well done to our Year 11 students since their return in January – what a phenomenal term they have had! On average, Year 11 attendance to P6 sessions has been at 94%. Their drive and passion to want to do well and engage in this offer is just outstanding.

This has been replicated this week with the launch of ‘Period Zero, ’ a unique offer of support given to students prior to their morning exams starting at 8am. We have had over 180 students in the building at 8 am to receive ‘top tips’ from the department, engaged and ready to go into their exams.

Year 11 – Mock Examinations
Mock Examinations continue after the February half term until the 4th March, where students who have unfortunately missed an assessment will complete theirs in a catch-up session after the 4th March.

Your child should be continuing to access all the support and guidance for these Mocks; a reminder of where this support can be found:

Support and guidance booklets – support with ways to revise and the topics and resources available for each individual subject.

Year 11 TEAMS area – where key assemblies, printable resources, past papers and ‘Walking Talking Mock Videos’ are to support with exam skills and knowledge for each individual subject. This is accessed via your child's email account and Microsoft 365 login.

Half-term intervention sessions/ days for certain subjects and students – invitation only. Online provisions such as Sparx and Seneca platforms

Half-term intervention opportunities

Over the February half term, Easter break, and May break, students will be invited into school during the break, as it is felt that these students would benefit further from bespoke intervention to support them in achieving their best possible outcome in the summer.

Can I please ask for parental support and encouragement to attend these intervention sessions during these times? Where possible, all students invited should be attending these.

This will be face-to-face in the building with 2x time slots each day.

• Session 1 – 9.00am-10.30am
• Session 2 – 11.00am-12.30pm

Your child might be invited to one or both sessions for different subjects dependent on their need and support.

If your child has been invited then you will have received a letter last week, detailing the sessions they have been invited to.

Year 10 BTEC Subjects
Year 10 students have been working hard to learn content in order to support their first write-up in their BTEC Subjects. They have a specific ‘Pearson Set Assignments – PSA Windows’ in which they can complete their write-up for these assignments. These are starting after half term, and therefore, it is vital that all students are present for their BTEC lessons to have the best possible chance of success. BTEC subjects will be offering P6 after school, post-February half term, to those students who have missed this time or are not on track to succeed. You will be notified in due course if this is your child.

Sixth Form
A group of Year 12 students recently participated in the County Debate Competition held at Northampton Guildhall. Ashiki, Sarah, Michelle, and Olivia, who are members of the school's Debating Club, were selected to participate in the competition, having demonstrated excellent oracy skills during the weekly club. Prior to the event, the students were trained by 'Debate Mate' on various techniques such as arguing, rebutting, and giving points of information. The students performed extremely well in the competition against students from across the county. Special congratulations to Ashiki, who won the floor debate. Her questioning of the opposition was deemed to be the best and most challenging of all the other questions.

Year 13 will have mock exams straight after the half-term (26th February), and there will be intervention over the half-term holidays for a wide range of subjects. Students should be attending to get the most out of these revision sessions, particularly as the real A-level exams start in just over 12 weeks’ time. In addition, students should be regularly using Uplearn (biology, chemistry, maths, psychology, physics), as this has been proven to improve students' grades by one if they average more than three hours per week in that subject.

Following a successful Year 12 parents' evening last night, students should be listening to the feedback and working towards their transition exams, which begin on 20th May. A reminder that the deadline has passed for Year 12 to obtain the work experience placements. Please speak to Mr Burton or Miss Wood in the careers office for any assistance with this. Work experience will be the first week back after the Easter Holidays (W/C: 15th April).

Assessments
As we approach the middle of the academic year, I thought this was a good point to remind you of the assessments remaining for each year group in all subjects for the remainder of the academic year. Individual year group calendars can be found on our website: 
Curriculum Northampton Academy (northampton-academy.org). If you have any questions, don't hesitate to get in touch with Miss L Phillips for KS3 or Mrs Patterson for KS4, or Mrs Tustin-Reeves for Sixth Form.

STEM
We have been finalists for the MK STEM Awards, which will take place on Thursday 29th February 2024. We are looking forward to this event. The awards are to promote and celebrate everyone who has an active role in STEM education.

Our last lecture was from Professor Arosha Bhandara, from Open University, who focussed his talk on novel engineering approaches for adaptive software systems that allow digital technologies to be integrated into the ‘smart systems’ that support many aspects of our daily living from social interaction to health and sustainable living.

As part of the STEM challenge, students have been working with Vinwick, who are experts in construction and civil engineering projects. Students have thoroughly enjoyed the sessions where the challenge was set to ensure that buildings help to enthuse and inspire those who use them. We continue bringing these excellent opportunities to our students.

Our Sixth Form students are running a Medic Society next half term to support students who are thinking of health-related careers. These will run on a Thursday from 3.15 - 4.00 pm. Ashiki, our Nucleus VI aspiring medical student, will be running these sessions with support from STEM staff and other fellow students.

Praise
As the term is coming to an end, praise has been very strong around the Academy. Students continue to show our values in abundance in and around lessons. Below are the totals of praise points to showcase this wonderful achievement. Now that parents can view the narratives for the praise awarded to Arbor, I envisage this going from strength to strength.