Dear Parent / Carer

This week has been another very busy week for Team Rushden and there have been so many occasions where every student has done the school and the community proud!

On Monday, we held our remembrance service, joined by local veterans and members of the Royal British Legion, to remember those who have lost their lives in conflict. I was joined by Rex who helped plan and deliver the service as part of his Rushden STARR Gold Award, and our head students who delivered poignant poems. We were incredibly proud of the respect shown by all during the service. 

We are also incredibly proud of our year 11 students who have conducted themselves brilliantly this week as they completed their mock examinations. Students have been respectful and they have worked hard throughout all of their exams. It is a demanding week for students as they complete a large suite of exams in a short space of time. Exams will continue into next week and we look forward to sharing their results at the end of the half term.

As you are all aware, we launched our push on uniform this week and we are grateful for all the support we have received from parents ensuring students are wearing the correct uniform for school. Students are all looking incredibly smart, and I have received lots of feedback from staff and students who have noticed the significant improvement in standards this week. We will continue to support families moving forwards with any uniform they may need. If you need any support with uniform, please do get in touch with the school office and we will be more than happy to help.

Sixth form students from 12JK have started to support our younger students with their reading as part of our Reading Buddies programme. This support is designed to help students develop their love of reading and to build their confidence when reading to others. This strategy is one of many different strands that we are implementing into our curriculum to support reading across the school. Over the course of the year, all sixth formers will have the opportunity to support the Reading Buddies programme. 

Assemblies this week have focused on Anti-Bullying in support of Anti-Bullying week. The theme for this year’s campaign is ‘Choose Respect’. Directors of Key Stage led the assemblies, sharing a clear definition of bullying and clear examples of what bullying looks like. Information was also shared with students on how to report concerns to members of staff so that we can tackle any issues immediately. For more information on Anti-Bullying week, please visit the Anti-Bullying alliance website using the link here.

Finally, each year we strive to improve our mental health provision. Our Mental Health lead at Rushden Academy, Mrs Ogilvie, has kindly asked for you to complete the following survey linked below. This will support our strategy to support mental health.

https://forms.office.com/e/f7f8qfmFvN

Thank you all for your continued support and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Your sincerely

Mr J Firth

Principal