Dear Parent / Carer 

Another week has passed and it's another week to remind me just what a privilege it is to lead a school full of such incredible children.  

Our Head students, James, Jay, Cody and Joanna, led assemblies for all year groups in which they shared both heartbreaking stories and incredible experiences from their recent trip to India. They shared photos of incredible places that they were lucky enough to visit alongside pictures of some of the poorer areas that they visited alongside Salt of The Earth charity workers. They showed pictures of the well that they raised money for and saw it installed with TENC engraved on the plaque; the well will bring clean drinking water to many families in desperate need of it. The photos and stories were eye-opening for all students to see the levels of poverty and squalor that many children are living in. The trip, which has altruism at its heart, will hopefully run again next year to allow current Year 12s to undertake the fantastic experience. 

Year 11 students are back to normal lessons following their mock examinations. As they enter the final run up to their GCSE examinations, it is so important that they are listening to all feedback from teachers and prioritising revision around the topics and skills which need the most work. All teachers should be going through exam papers and providing specific feedback to students so that they know precisely where and why they lost marks in order to close gaps ahead of the final examinations. I visit lots of Year 11 lessons to ensure that students are fully applying themselves and a particular highlight this week was looking at some of the incredible work in photography and art. Lots of students opted for a space theme from the options provided by the exam board and the preparatory work for their final examinations is looking stunning!  

The Social Action Squad returned to Denfield Primary School to continue their work in listening to and helping the primary school students with their reading. Again, the feedback from the primary school teachers was so positive regarding how our students conducted themselves and was another demonstration of just how great the students of Rushden Academy are.

Next week is an important week for Year 9 students as next Thursday is their options’ evening where I will be sharing information about what subjects students can choose and how to complete the online form. Parents and carers will also have the opportunity to meet with the various subject teachers to discuss the different option subjects to help your son or daughter with their decisions. The evening commences at 5pm but there will be two different presentations and you will receive correspondence informing you which presentation you need to attend.  

As mentioned last week, we are focusing on specific aspects of uniform each week in order to maintain our high standards and ensure that our students look as smart as possible. This week we focused on leggings so if your child has received detentions for this, please can you follow this up with them and ensure that they have appropriate school trousers going forward. Next week we will be focusing on students having their shirts tucked in as a significant number of students seem to be flouting this part of the uniform policy which needs addressing. Thank you in advance for your support with this.

Have a pleasant weekend,

Yours sincerely,

Mr B Baines

Principal