Dear Parent / Carer

We have had a number of trips out this week, enriching and supporting both the wider curriculum and personal development programme that we offer students at Rushden Academy. Earlier in the week, Mr Ross accompanied a group of students to Auschwitz as part of a trip arranged by the Holocaust Educational Trust. Students took part in seminars before visiting a number of different sites and a museum. 

On Thursday, students from years 11, 12 and 13 visited De Montfort University as part of our careers and futures programme. Students had the opportunity to look around the campus, meet current students studying for their degrees, and to get a feel for what it would be like to study at university. We are looking forward to offering students further opportunities later in the year to visit different universities, along with visiting various apprenticeship and careers fairs.

Yesterday evening, Huxlow Academy hosted the Huxlow and Rushden Sixth Form open evening. The evening was well attended and we hope that all students looking to see what was on offer, found a range of suitable courses. Students will have their first round of 1 to 1 discussions next week to get them thinking about what courses they would like to study, and what qualifications they will need to achieve in order to access each course. Students will then receive a follow up discussion later in the year.

Our assemblies this week were delivered by Mrs Ogungbadero focusing on Black History Month, its history, and the many ways that we celebrate this. The theme this year is Reclaiming Narratives and Mrs Ogungbadero shared a number of stories with students about key individuals and their achievements. 

Thursday was Harry Potter Day across the country, and the library team went all out with an amazing event for staff and students. The theme this year was 'Care of Magical Creatures' and so the team thought it would be an ideal time to invite someone in to show and talk about some of the amazing animals we have in our world. Dave Sharpe from RaptorXotics brought a selection of wonderful creatures with him, including a toad, a tarantula, a blue tongued skink, an owl, and a golden eagle!

The students who attended thoroughly enjoyed themselves and many were very brave in stroking or holding the animals. They behaved very respectfully and listened so well to everything Dave was telling them. After being sorted into their Hogwarts houses, students had activities such as a coin hunt, a Harry potter quiz and Quidditch Pong. It was a great night and a well-deserved Hufflepuff; Team 2 won the overall prize, with the highest point score!

Keep a lookout in next week's newsletter for some more information about the night and lots of photos too!

Looking forward to next week, students will be taking part in their end of half term rewards assemblies, along with our attendance prize draw that will be taking place on Wednesday morning.

Please remember that school closes to students next Thursday, and will reopen on Tuesday 5th November.

Finally, we have received several reports from concerned parents about the amount of traffic in the school car park after school each day. We appreciate that there are concerns over the way individuals park and block others that causes issues. Our main concern is the safety of our students. With this in mind I intend to start liaising with the local authority to conduct an impact assessment on local traffic and safety should we decide in the future to install barriers that would prevent access to the school site during the day. Please be mindful when collecting your child from school, and do look out for others to ensure all students get home safely. If you are able to consider dropping your child off at an alternative location, that would be greatly appreciated.

I wish you all a lovely weekend.

Yours sincerely,

Mr J Firth

Principal