Dear Families,
It has been another successful week at Rushden Academy, with students continuing to demonstrate our #TeamRushden STARR values. Assemblies this week were delivered by Mrs Brainwood and Ms Wiles on our STARR values, and the Rushden STARR programme that we run in school. This programme supports our students by developing them as individuals, preparing them for life beyond school through a series of small challenges that students complete. For each of our school values, Serve, Thrive, Aspire, Resilient, and Respect, we have three levels of award: Bronze, Silver, and Gold. Once students have completed the three challenges for each value, they are then rewarded with their value badge. When they complete all values for a level, they are then rewarded with a special tie that demonstrates their commitment and progress towards the Rushden STARR programme.
Through the work that Ms Wiles has been doing with our Eco committee, we also have an Eco-Twist version of our Rushden STARR programme. This enables students to complete the programme by swapping out challenges for Eco versions. Students are still rewarded for their work, but will receive an Eco version of their badge once completed.
Toilets
We know that there have been some challenges with toilets during lessons since returning to school, and we have made several changes to ensure we have more facilities open during lesson time. Our current arrangements are temporary whilst we explore longer-term solutions to support all students. We appreciate students' patience over the first few weeks, and students have already shared lots of positive feedback on the new arrangements now in place.
Prom
We are mindful that a number of Year 11 students are participating in a trip to Madeira this year which coincides with the Year 11 prom. We want to let parents and students know that we are actively trying to find a solution to this to ensure all students in Year 11 who want to go to the prom are able to. We will keep you posted once we have more information on this.
Duke of Edinburgh
Thank you to all families and students who attended our Duke of Edinburgh launch evening on Thursday this week. We hope you found this evening helpful, and Mrs Dunn and Mr Henson are looking forward to seeing all students who are interested in attending the after-school sessions taking place over the coming weeks.
Enrichment Activities
We have a strong offer of enrichment activities that take place over the school week, with opportunities for students to participate in clubs during break, lunch, and after school. We will share this information via our social media platforms very soon so you can discuss with your child what opportunities they may be interested in. If your child would like to know more information, they can talk to their form tutor to find out more.
Homework Expectations
Now students have had the opportunity to settle back into school, and to make sure they have all the details they need to access our online learning platforms, we would like to remind families of our home learning expectations. Students will be set homework for Maths (PiXL Maths), English (Tassomai or Bedrock for KS3), and Science (Tassomai) each week. Tasks are set via online learning platforms, and we will celebrate the top point scorers each week. We share these details on our social media platforms. Other subjects offer homework activities, and these can be found on our school website under our curriculum section.
We hope you all have a lovely weekend, and we look forward to seeing all students on Monday at 8:25am, ready for line up.
Yours sincerely,
Mr. J. Firth
Principal
