Principals Fortnightly Message, 8th March 2024

Friday 8th March 2024 

Dear Parents and Carers, 

Firstly, thank you to parents and carers who attended the Year 8 parents’ evening yesterday. It was a really good event, and it was lovely to hear all of the positive conversations happening around the room. The next parents’ evening is for Year 10 on 21st March. 

Our annual My Culture Day is set for Thursday, March 28th. This is honestly one of my favourite days of the year, and having seen the plans, I believe this year will be no different. Mr Anderson is writing home to all families with more details so please do look out for this. 

Further on in this letter is a section on the upcoming Wizard of Oz performances, which will be brilliant. Please do come and see it as I know you will not regret it. Information on tickets can be found at the link below. 

Our superb Student Leadership Team will launch our whole school student council next week. They will share details on how to become involved, so please watch this space. 

Finally, there is a litter pick on Monday, March 14th, at 3.30 pm. We will concentrate on areas around the school site. All are welcome to attend. 

Arbor (Parent portal) – have you downloaded it yet? 

Back in January, we launched the Arbor parent portal – this is an app which allows you to view your student's timetable, receive notifications of praise points that have been awarded to your student, access and change your personal details and is the platform that our bi-weekly Principal’s newsletter is shared from. We firmly believe this is a great tool which allows you to get receive communications and support your student through their time at Northampton Academy. 

As a thank you for downloading the app, we will be giving away a £25.00 Just Eat voucher to seven student families! 

All you have to do is download and be actively using the app by 26th March 2024 to be in with a chance to win. 

The winners will be selected and notified on 27th March 2024, and the prizes will be ready for collection on 28th March 2024. 

Proud table every Friday lunchtime 

Teachers add a purple sticker to a student’s work when it shows real success or progress. Students are then encouraged to visit the proud table every Friday lunchtime and take their work with them to receive a certificate and equipment rewards. The proud table is a real celebration of their work that week in school, and it is open to all year groups. 

We believe in fostering a positive and encouraging learning environment for your children. Praise and recognition from teachers and staff play a pivotal role in shaping a student's academic and personal development. When teachers acknowledge and celebrate our students' efforts, achievements, and progress, it not only boosts their confidence but also motivates them to strive for excellence the week after and through the year. Everyone at Northampton Academy wants our young people to make progress and thrive - daily positive reinforcement creates a sense of accomplishment and reinforces a growth mindset, instilling the belief that hard work leads to success. Please encourage students to come along to the table with their work. 

Wizard of Oz 

Northampton Academy is proud to present 'Wizard of Oz' in April 2024. This year’s cast consists of students from Year 7 through Year 13, and many scenes and dances were choreographed and directed by our own students! We can't wait for you to join us in the Land of Oz and celebrate our students' success! 

• Dates: Tuesday 16th April, Wednesday 17th April, and Thursday 18th April 
• Doors open: 18:00 
• Start time: 18:30 
• Approx. end: 20:00 

Tickets and dates can be found using the link below:
https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/northampton-academy

Sixth Form 

Students in Year 13 have now completed their final mock exams and reports will be coming out to parents in the next few weeks. This is the final push before the real A-level exams, which are just 10 weeks away. This is the time for students to be thinking hard about quitting any part-time jobs to focus on their studies. 

Uplearn—All students in Year 12 and 13 who study maths, biology, chemistry, physics, or psychology have access to Uplearn. This platform has improved students by 1 grade for every 3 hours they do per week. We have invested a lot in this platform, and the students who have been averaging 3 hours+ per week did very well in their mock results. Please encourage your child to use this for independent study if they study one of the subjects offered. 

SEND & Wellbeing 

A reminder that on Thursday, 21st March, we will be inviting parents/carers of students with SEND in Years 8, 9 and 10 for a coffee morning at 9.00 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, 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 keyworkers. To book a place at the coffee morning, please complete this form: Year 8, 9 and 10 SEN Coffee Morning (office.com) 

Careers 

Year 11 destination data is sent off at the end of this month, it is critical that your child has now applied for a post-16 place, and preferably a back-up. Please support with this or send them to the Careers Office as a matter of urgency. The submission of year 12 work experience is now overdue. If your child hasn't secured an external placement, this needs to be completed immediately via Unifrog. 

Years 7,9, and 10 are currently involved in careers lessons during character development lessons, with every year having an encounter with an external agency regarding their future options. Year 7 from the University of Northampton on 13th March, Year 9 on 6th March from Starting Off Apprenticeships and University of Northampton, and Year 10 on 20th March from Northampton College on their offerings including T Levels. 

The finale for this half-term will be our Careers Fair, which will feature over 40 representatives from businesses, universities, and local colleges. All year groups will be invited to attend - March 27th is the date for your diaries. 

Finally, some labour market information - with the focus being the health and care sector in the East Midlands. Please see the link for a detailed report download.php (semlep.com) or search via Google - 'Semlep labour market information. 

Science Week 

We are celebrating science week commencing 11th March. All our KS3 students are attending live science workshops to watch and understand some fun and engaging science experiments. Our Year 9 students will be visiting the Space Centre in Leicester. They will attend a workshop around Martian Rover Explorer and have a guided tour around the centre. Our Year 7 girls will be attending on the 13th March. As part of the science week, they will be looking at the manufacture of imaging products. This is to improve girls access to STEM related careers and opportunities. 

We have been finalists for the MK STEM Awards, which took place on Thursday 29th February. Although we did not win, it proved to be an excellent networking event where we could meet with others working in the field of STEM. 

As part of the STEM challenge, students have been working with Vinwick, who are experts in construction and civil engineering projects. Students are thoroughly enjoying these sessions where challenge was set in ensuring that buildings help to enthuse and inspire those that use them. 

We continue bringing such excellent opportunities for our students. The Turing trip to South Africa is planned and the parent information evening is taking place on the 17th March. Our Nucleus 6 medics all have had interviews for medical school. We are eagerly waiting to hear offers. One student has had an offer from Queen Mary. We are in the process of applying for the second pot of funding for the Turing project for 2024-25. 

Year 11 

Year 11 continue to amaze with their resilience and stamina throughout the mock period. They have been incredible over the 2 weeks whilst mocks have been happening. This is one of the hardest sets of assessments they will sit due to time factors. Going on to the real thing, they will be fully prepared as they have been through the Mock weeks twice. As always we learn from the mock series, and from this one, as a team we have identified some students who were not as proactive with the papers as we would like, these students have been spoken to, and actions put in place to support. We have also identified potential later students, with this in mind we will be in contact with parents/carers soon to discuss alternative arrangements. 

We will continue to offer Period 6 intervention for those students who have been identified for the support from the Mock 2 data. This intervention may change after the half term, and these changes will be in affect from the 16th April. Period 6 continues on the same timetable up until the 28th March. 

We are grateful to the teachers who have given their time during the break to offer a bespoke programme to students who we feel will benefit from this. These dates will run from the 2nd April to the 12th April. Please make sure that students are available for these sessions as they are proven to be very beneficial. 

Some dates for your diaries: 

• Tuesday 12th March - Yr 11 Opt B DT - Day off timetable to make prototypes 
• Monday 18th March, Tuesday 19th March, Wednesday 20th March - Yr 11 Opt B Food - Morning off timetable to complete practical exam 
• Monday 18th / Tuesday 19th Year 11 Drama Exam Performances 
• Monday 25th -27th March Year 11 Art Exam 10 hours 
• Year 11 Textiles Component two - 10 hour Exam - 29th & 30th April 
• Wednesday 8th May – First official written exam to start – Business 
• Wednesday 19th June – Last written exam to finish – Further Maths GCSE 

For the GCSE Examinations starting on the 8th May, we will be offering ‘Period Zero’ to all Year 11 students who have an examination in the morning. They will be provided with breakfast and intervention to gear their brains up before going into the exam. These Period Zero’s will start from 7.45am for those students wishing to attend. 

Year 10 

Year 10 are moving towards the summer term, and some subject choices are now in the full swing of ‘write ups’ to support their outcomes in Year 11. We call these PSA windows; this is a very important time for students in Business and Sport in Year 10 and absence will affect their outcome. As we know sometimes absence cannot be helped, but where possible please try to send your child into school to support with. As a school support mechanism, we will be offering Year 10 intervention slots (Period 6) after school to support with the PSA write ups and also half term intervention. If your child has been invited to these you will receive a letter over the next couple of weeks, detailing the dates and times needed. Please encourage your child to attend as these go towards supporting your child’s Year 11 outcomes. 

In closing 

Happy Ramadan Kareem, to all families in our community celebrating Ramadan. 

Kind regards, 

Owen Jones 

Associate Principal