Friday 19th January 2024
Dear Parents and Carers,
It has been a brilliant start to the new term with lots going on already.
May I draw your attention to the Arbor Parent App that is now live and available to download at the link below. There are five good reasons to download the Arbor Parent App.
- Receive important information from the school
- See your child’s praise points and reasons for praise points
- View your child’s attendance
- Check your child’s timetable
- Access your child’s report (when available)
I appreciate that this can feel like yet another thing that you need, but we are looking to streamline everything onto this ‘Arbor Parent app eventually’. I promise that you will not be bombarded with notifications, and only important things will be shared. So please download it today to avoid missing out on vital information regarding your child.
The link to download the ‘Arbor Parent App’ is here: https://login.arbor.sc/
This term, we have the following Parents’ Evenings –
- Year 13 – Thursday 25th January
- Year 9 – Wednesday 7th February
- Year 12 – Thursday 15th February
- Year 8 – Thursday 7th March
- Year 10 – Thursday 21st March
- (Year 7 – Term 4 – Wednesday 24th April)
At all of the Parents’ Evenings, there will be free food served for families to enjoy from 4.00pm – 6.30pm in our canteen, and our Uniform Swap or Shop will also be available.
Careers
This week, we had Travis Perkins come in to interview some of our aspirational Year 13 students who wish to pursue apprenticeships. We also continue our Breakfast with a Professional offering, with Sir Michael Ellis attending in Feb for our Year 12s - an excellent opportunity for students aspiring to study law/politics. Year 11 drop in sessions continue to happen Monday lunchtime, please encourage attendance for support with college/sixth form advice, including completing applications. 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. National Apprenticeship Week runs from 5th February - so watch this space! And finally, some labour market information to finish. The focus this fortnight is digital skills shortages in the South East Midlands. Please click the link to access the formal report https://www.semlep.com/modules/downloads/download.php?file_name=1829
Carbon Neutral
This term sees the launch of Habit 2, wherein students will be using reusable plastic bowls to reduce our carbon footprint and cut down on waste. Students who use this facility will get a carbon-neutral ticket and a chance to win a tree to plant in our carbon-neutral area, which will be designed by the students nearing the end of this term and when it is not as cold!
KS4 Support and guidance
Year 11 – Round 2 of Mocks starts 12th Feb. Please see the below for supporting your child with in-school support.
Support and guidance are available to all Year 11 in many ways, and as communicated previously, Year 11 has an abundance of resources to support. These include, but are not limited to:
- 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 available to support with exam skills and knowledge for each individual subject. This is accessed via your child’s email account and 365 login
- Mock exam timetables and revision timetables to support with planning topics and resources needed
- Period 6 interventions for all subjects
- Half-term intervention sessions/days for certain subjects and students – invitation only
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 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 2 time slots each day.
- Session 1 – 9:00 – 10:30
- Session 2 – 11:00 – 12:30
Your child might be invited to one or both sessions for different subjects, depending on their need and support.
Sixth Form
All of Year 13 have sent off their UCAS and are in the final stages of receiving their offers. These include Oxford University and other top institutions. Many students who have applied for Medicine have also received interviews and are waiting on the outcome of those.
Year 12 and 13 students also had a talk from a psychologist last Friday, who spoke to them about their mindset for 6th form, A-levels, and when facing challenges in life. Lots of students stayed behind to speak to him and found it very useful.
Applications for our shadow student leadership team have been launched. This gives Year 12 students an opportunity to see what it is like being on the Student Leadership Team, and the responsibilities that come with it.
It was also very exciting that two students in Year 13 and one in Year 12 were the winners of the Golden Tickets at the end of last term. Between them, they won £150 worth of vouchers, an IPAD, and a day in lieu.
A reminder of the Parents' Evenings coming up for Sixth form:
- Year 13 - Thursday 25 January
- Year 12 - Thursday 15th February
Character
Character Education in our school is “everything, not just another thing”. We teach our students “to do the right thing at the right time for the right reasons”, which is practical wisdom or phronesis. This means that the education your child receives at Northampton Academy, not only prepares them for the working world but also develops and encourages civic engagement in the school and beyond.
Developing civic engagement in our students ensures that they become responsible citizens who are effective contributors to society. We support our students in becoming responsible citizens by creating events during the school year where they can seek to develop specific virtues (character sought). These virtues are essential for them to become effective contributors to society. We call these events ‘social actions’.
Last term, on December 18th we had our first social action for the year, the annual Winter Fayre. The Winter Fayre was a huge success, and we raised over £2000 for three charities we support- Cynthia Spencer, Hope Centre, and Street Child. Raising awareness and fundraising for the charities were successful because students understood their roles in our community as effective contributors coming together to tackle the issue of homelessness in the case of Hope Centre, or supporting others and improving their local and global community, as in the case of Cynthia Spencer and Street Child. We are very proud of our students for giving their resources and time to support the Winter Fayre. We also would like to extend our gratitude to you, for supporting your child with their donations and by extension helping them become responsible citizens and successful contributors to society.
STEM
Our six-week modules in STEM called ‘STEM challenge’ this term incorporates growth mindset course and a course on civil engineering from Winvick. We have also developed links with Northampton University to deliver some of these challenges next term.
International links are still going strong. Year 7 STEM students met with their Malawi partner on the 15th January. Students exchanged experiences on what it is like to be a student in Malawi and England. This provoked questions amongst students which feed into our character development work which we are so proud of.
With IRIS project this year, we are working on earth observation led by Mr Humble with Year 10 students. The project will be completed by both STEM and non-STEM students.
The following trips are being planned now. Year 7 Chessington, Year 9 Space Centre, Year 10 Alton Towers/Thorpe Park. Turing trip for year 10 students who applied to go on this trip to is taking place in April.
Operation Theatre Live for Year 12/13 students and Year 9 STEM students is happening on the 23rd of January. This will be a great opportunity for our students to get hands-on experience with real anatomy. All our Year 13 medics have at least one interview offer for medicine.
In closing
I will finish by saying thank you for your continued support; it is very much appreciated.
Kind regards,
Owen Jones
Associate Principal