Dear Parent / Carer

We hope that you have all had a wonderful summer. I would like to welcome all of our families whose children have joined year 7 this September. It is a pleasure to welcome you all to Team Rushden. I am looking forward to getting to know your children, and to celebrate all the amazing things that they are going to achieve at Rushden Academy.

It was a pleasure to welcome back all students on Tuesday morning, and to hear the many stories about the exciting things that happened over the summer break. Students looked incredibly smart in their uniform and they have all settled back into the routines of school very quickly.

Following a review of feedback from staff and students, we made adjustments to how we arranged the first day of the school term. We focused on ensuring students had the correct amount of time to prepare themselves for the new school year, with support from their form tutors, before getting straight back into learning on Wednesday morning. Students explored our school values, set targets for the year, and it was lovely to see year 8 students writing letters to students in year 7 welcoming them to Rushden Academy and giving them advice for their first year with us. 

Feedback is very important as we continue on our journey, and I will be asking families and students for feedback over the course of the academic year on how well we are performing, and where we can continue to improve. Our vision, “To ensure that every student develops outstanding character and become successful, self-assured and responsible citizens” is what drives us to do our very best for every student and family we serve.

I welcomed back all students in their assemblies this week, reminding students of our expectations, but to also conduct an experiment on learned helplessness and how this can impact your ability to be successful. I am pleased to report that there were more successes than failures with my experiment, but students understood the concept and were able to share how they will develop small habits that lead to big changes over time, which in turn will enable them to become successful individuals. 

We have a number of key events coming up in our diary, and I wanted to share these with you as early as possible so that you can pencil in your diary any event that is relevant to you or your child. Year 11 will soon receive an invitation to our year 11 launch evening. This will be taking place on 19th September, starting at 6pm. Our annual rewards evening will be taking place on 3rd October, starting at 6pm, and we are looking forward to welcoming families and students on our open evening, which will take place on 10th October, starting at 5pm. Further details of these events will be shared via letter, on our website, and via our social media channels in due course. 

I wish you all a lovely weekend.

Yours sincerely,

Mr J Firth

Principal