20^th May 2024

Dear Parents / Carers

After an incredibly rigorous application and interview process, we are pleased to inform you that Mr J Firth has been appointed as the new Principal at Rushden Academy. Mr Firth is well known across the school and trust, and he was certainly instrumental in moving the school to solidly good across all areas in 2022.

We are now concentrating on ensuring that there is a seamless transition between Mr Baines leaving and Mr Firth taking charge. In my role working for Tove Learning Trust, we will continue to work together to ensure this happens and build upon the hard work of Mr Baines.

A few words from the new Principal, Mr Firth….

‘I am delighted to have been appointed the new Principal of Rushden Academy, and I am very much looking forward to continuing my work with the staff, students, and the wider community in my new role.

Having worked at Rushden Academy since 2018, it has been a privilege to be involved in the school’s rapid improvement, and as the new Principal, I am looking forward to building on the outstanding work Team Rushden has already achieved.

As parents and carers, you make an important contribution to your child’s achievements, and I am excited to build on the relationship between you and the academy.’

Kind regards

Mrs J Burton

Area Director (East Northants) & Director of Safeguarding

Dear Parent / Carer

As the penultimate week of the half term comes to a close there is plenty to share from around the Academy this week.

Mrs Ogilvie led assemblies for all year groups which promoted the key theme of movement from Mental Health Awareness Week. She talked about the correlation between movement and the release of the feel good hormone, dopamine. Students were given lots of different ideas of how they can ensure that their lifestyles are as active as possible. Mrs Ogilvie also updated the students each day on the number of kilometres completed by Team Rushden staff toward the target of 1km for every student in school! The challenge includes this weekend but at the close of play on Friday that staff total was at 560km completed!

In keeping with the theme of mental health awareness, our Ethos team leader Mr Noblett, arranged for a number of workshops to take place which explored themes associated with mental health. This included a performance by Loud Mouth which the students enjoyed and engaged with very positively.  

There was a huge amount of excitement around the rewards trip letters and students were queueing at the gates on Thursday morning eager to hand their letters in for the various different trips. If you have any queries around the trips or eligibility criteria, please do not hesitate to contact Mr Smart who coordinates the trips.  

We welcomed parents and carers of Year 10 students into the academy on Thursday for parents’ evening. As always, it was great to see everyone who attended to get an up to date picture of how your child is progressing in each of their subjects. The relationship between school and parents is critical to ensuring that your child is as successful as possible and it was good to see lots of positive conversations taking place. Year 10 students will be completing mock examinations in just over 4 weeks time and so following parents’ evening they should know exactly what topics and skills they should be prioritising for revision.  

Year 11s have completed a large number of examinations this week and have been working hard in the final revision masterclasses for each subject. There are still a large number of examinations for them to complete but they have made a great start and staff are doing everything they can to minimise stress and ensure that students feel prepared. There will be some additional revision sessions taking place in the May half term break and these will be communicated with students next week.  

Thank you for your continued support and please have a restful weekend,

Yours sincerely,

Mr B Baines

Principal