Monday 11th January 2016
Dear Parents and Carers
I do hope that you all had a good holiday and on behalf of all the staff at the Academy I would like to wish you a very Happy New Year. It was great to see all the students back on Tuesday for the start of the new term. They looked rested and ready to embrace the challenges that lie ahead, especially for our year 11 and 13 students.
New Members of Staff We are delighted to confirm the appointment of Georgina Sergeant as Head of Maths, and Lesley Hogg, a director of the Trust who has been seconded to the Academy to add capacity to our support for Year 11 in the last few weeks before the exams. Lesley also teaches Maths. Kathryn Lupson has also joined us in the English department to replace Daniella Schwarzmaier who returned to Germany at Christmas. We also welcome Lynsey Tungate to the Administration Team in the role of Data/Exams Manager.
Attendance Currently our attendance is at 96.2%, which is above national average. We are really pleased with the efforts that all the students are making to get into school and hope that this will continue through the coming months. It is worth sharing with you the link between attendance and achievement. Based on our improved results last year we can report that:
80% of our students with attendance above 95% achieved 5A*-C including grades including English and Maths 20% of our students with attendance between 85% and 90% achieved 5A*-C grades including English and Maths 0% of our students with attendance below 85% achieved 5A*-C grades including English and Maths Our big drive this term is on punctuality as even a few minutes late adds up quickly to whole days lost. We know how much you are supporting our attendance drive and hope you will continue to do so given the powerful statistics above. If you need any advice or guidance on how to help your child improve their attendance or punctuality please contact the House Teams.
Continued ………………….
Head of School: Mr.N Froy (BA Hons) NPQH
Newmarket Academy, Exning Road, Newmarket Suffolk. CB8 0EB Tel: 01638 664412 Email: admin@newmarketacademy.co.uk website: www.newmarketacademy.co.uk
Letter from Nick Froy continued ………………….
Priorities for the Term Ahead
1. Teaching and Learning. We had a training day on Monday at the Apex Centre with the other schools in the Trust and after an inspirational presentation by a Headteacher in the Trust we will be focusing on introducing new and innovative approaches to learning in the classroom. We will continue to work as we have this year on providing challenging tasks to different groups of students in the class and making sure that each student receives clear feedback on how to improve. We expect students to respond to teacher feedback using the “green pen” system. 2. Supporting Year 11 and 13. There are 70 days left until the public exams start and we want to make use of all the successful strategies we used last year to support the class of 2015 and ensure that 2016 is an even better year. We have begun special assemblies for students in year 11, catch up sessions and Wednesday and Saturday school. We will be publishing our programme of support next week to all year 11 parents/carers. There is a parent consultation evening on 21st January and it is vital that all parents/carers attend to find out exactly what each year 11 needs to do to achieve their target grades. There will be a short seminar on the night to give parents more information on the Academy’s support in the coming months. More details of this will follow. 3. Engagement in Learning. We want to ensure that all students arrive ready to learn. We expect every student to carry with them basic equipment which must include; a pen, pencil, ruler, rubber, calculator, reading book, planner and appropriate books for the lesson. Please help us by checking that the equipment you so kindly bought at the beginning of the year is still available. Future Dates for your diaries: 21st January
– Year 11 Parents’ Evening
2nd February – Challenge Day for Years 10 and 11 (normal school day and school uniform). 4th February
– Year 8 Parents’ evening
3rd March
– GCSE Options evening for Year 8
We are constantly working on improving all aspects of the Academy and as always we really do welcome your feedback. We shall be holding a Parents’ Forum on 10th March to which you are warmly invited for a frank and open discussion on any and all aspects of the school. However please do not feel that you have to wait until then to raise a query or give us feedback. Please do get in touch if you would like to speak to someone about any aspect of your child’s welfare. Thank you for your continued support and commitment to the Academy. With best wishes
Nick Froy – Head of School
Newmarket Academy, Exning Road, Newmarket Suffolk. CB8 0EB Tel: 01638 664412 Email: admin@newmarketacademy.co.uk website: www.newmarketacademy.co.uk