Dear Parent / Carer

We’ve had another eventful week at Rushden Academy, full of exciting developments and achievements. Here’s a roundup of this week’s highlights:

On Monday we welcomed 8 teacher trainees into school to support them on their journey to becoming qualified teachers. This involved the trainees visiting a number of lessons, speaking to staff and students, and collecting evidence from the day to support their assignments as part of their learning journey. We are very privileged that we are able to support trainees on their journey, and we will continue to work closely with the local training providers to continue to support this work.

On Wednesday, I had the pleasure of meeting our newly relaunched student council. The students presented a well-crafted proposal advocating for the return of mufti days, emphasizing inclusivity, self-expression, and fundraising for charity. They also committed to targets, including improving attendance and reducing negative behaviours.

We are incredibly proud of their presentation and debating skills. As a result, we’ve set an attendance goal of 95%, after which we’ll celebrate with a mufti day. Let’s all support this initiative and encourage students to reach this target!

Wednesday afternoon saw an insightful professional development session led by Mrs. Brainwood. The focus was on refining lesson resources and scaffolding questions to enhance student engagement and learning. We’ll monitor the impact of this training as part of our ongoing quality assurance in teaching and learning.

Congratulations to our students and the Maths team for their exceptional engagement with the PiXL Maths App! This tool is crucial for homework and bespoke revision tasks for Year 11 students. We’re thrilled to announce that Rushden Academy has been recognised as the top school in the country for app engagement. A huge well done to everyone involved!

Finally, I wanted to let you know that we’re transitioning from Go4Schools to a new system called Bromcom for managing pupil data. Key staff are currently undergoing training, with more training sessions planned for all teachers soon. Next week, I’ll provide detailed information about this change and what parents need to do to prepare.

Thank you for your continued support. Have a wonderful weekend!

Yours sincerely,

Mr J Firth

Principal