Dear Parent / Carer 

It has been a chilly week with temperatures dropping well below zero but it hasn’t stopped the students enjoying another week at Rushden Academy.

The assemblies were delivered by Mr Smith and Mr Smart and focused on the important theme of safe and healthy relationships. Students explored the characteristics of healthy relationships as well as how to recognise unhealthy behaviour. They were encouraged to reflect on their own relationships with friends and others and also looked at the theme of relationships through the lenses of equality and individual liberty.

Our Year 8 students have been enjoying a geography and business studies ‘mash-up’ working on a cross curricular project around the theme of globalisation and non-ethical companies. Miss Kinsman and Mr Smith have worked hard to bring about this exciting cross-curricular experience which the children have thoroughly enjoyed.

Year 12 students have been undertaking their assessment for their second progress check of the academic year, the results of which will be shared with parents and carers in due course. With more of the course undertaken, this should provide a more accurate measure of how your child is progressing. Year 13 students commence their mock examinations next week and so all normal lessons will be collapsed, excluding Btec lessons, to allow students to review and prepare for the assessments.

On Wednesday, it was the turn of Squad Frog and Squad Blue Wolf, to represent our Social Action Squad(SAS) in the community. As always, the feedback from The Beeches and The Serve Day Centre was brilliant and a particular highlight was Evie who did a fantastic job as the bingo caller. A big thank you to Rosie, our Ethos Team Youth Worker who is doing a fantastic job leading this work.  

On Thursday evening, we invited many of you into school for Year 11 parents’ evening. It was great to see so many of you meet with your children’s teachers and receive an update on their progress to date. Hopefully you left with a clear picture of where your child’s strengths and areas for development are and that you are clear on how you can support them in the run up to their mock examinations. If you were unable to attend the evening, we will be following up with you directly to ensure that you are updated fully on your child’s progress.  

Have a lovely weekend,

Yours sincerely,

Mr B Baines

Principal

Dear Parent / Carer 

It was a pleasure to welcome all the students back following the Christmas break and great to hear about what they spent their time doing during the festive period. 

I welcomed all students back during my assembly which focused on supporting students with making resolutions for the year ahead. We talked about setting aspirational yet achievable goals along with various challenges to promote personal growth and development. Most importantly I shared the notion that the average person lives 4000 weeks and that we must do everything within our power to ensure that none of those weeks are wasted. Finally I talked about using the New Year as an option to change a bad habit and in relation to this I talked about the hours wasted each week scrolling through endless social media for very limited satisfaction and perhaps using such time for something more purposeful.  

The Social Action Squad continues to go from strength to strength and is now over a hundred strong with many staff supporting the important work in the community. Multiple squads visited both The Beeches Care Home and the Serve Day Centre this week to provide much needed company to the residents; I know that these visits have been invaluable for the residents who enjoy getting to play games and interact with our amazing students. 

Year 11 examinations are approaching rapidly and it has been good to see so many students working hard in lessons. The progress board was updated at the end of last term and I have seen lots of students keen to see where they are on the board and what improvements they have made. Year 11 parents’ evening is next Thursday evening and the online appointment system is live now. It is so important that you attend this evening whether your child is performing well or not so that you can hear specifically what your child needs to do to improve their performance in each subject. For parents/carers who have not yet made appointments we will be contacting you directly to arrange these. If you cannot attend for any reason, we are also happy to come to see you at home to discuss your child’s progress.

I would also like to mention the incredible pantomime performance of Jack and the Beanstalk from the last week of term. It was wonderful to see so many of you join us in school to watch another amazing performance. It was jam-packed with humour, audience participation and all the other enjoyable conventions of the pantomime genre. A big well done to all of the students who performed and the Performing Arts team, ably led by Mrs Ede, who put the production together.  

In relation to the school car park, I am aware of some social media posts expressing dissatisfaction at the queues in the car park. I wrote to you all last term with some clear guidance for when you collect your children and unfortunately some people are not adhering to this guidance which is contributing to the issues. Most importantly, please do not stop anywhere on the driveway or around the roundabout, there are spaces at the far end of the car park which are still not being used so please use them to keep the driveway clear. Should the matters persist I may have to look at restricting access to the car park on grounds of safety so please support us by adhering to the rules.  

Finally, thank you for all your support in ensuring that your children have returned in the correct uniform with any issues identified being corrected. There are still a few isolated issues which we are working with you to rectify. One of these is in relation to false nails which are not permitted in school so please support us by ensuring that your child is not wearing false nails going forward.  

Yours sincerely,

Mr B Baines

Principal