Dear Parent / Carer

I hope that you all had a wonderful half term break. Students have returned back to the academy looking very smart, and I am confident that any remaining concerns will be addressed swiftly on Monday, meaning all students will be in school and attending all lessons with their teachers. For those students that need some additional support with any items of uniform, we have already purchased a supply of items ready for students to borrow. Should you have any further questions about uniform, or our expectations moving forwards, please do not hesitate to get in touch with the school office.

Assemblies this week were delivered by veterans from the Royal British Legion. Our guests talked through the significance of remembrance, and our guest speaker, Paul shared his experiences and impact of those involved in conflict to protect our country and values. All students will participate in our remembrance service on Monday next week. Students who are part of organisations with a uniform who are involved in remembrance services are allowed to wear their uniform to school on Monday. 

Before the half term Mr Smart conducted a quick survey to parents of students in year 11 to see how we can improve the arrangements for parents evenings this year. We received some excellent feedback from parents that will impact all future parents’ evenings. We will continue to liaise with our community on how we can continue to improve the academy moving forwards. One instant fix that we are going to make is the time which appointments are released to parents. We appreciate that many parents are not able to book appointments during the day when times are typically released. We will make sure the appointment times are released later in the day so that all parents have equal opportunity at booking times. More details will follow on this.

Year 11 students are busy preparing for their mock exams which start fully next week. I was privileged to see some amazing work in the Art mock exam on Thursday. It is amazing to see how much talent we have at Rushden Academy, and I look forward to being able to share examples of their work later in the academic year. It is important to remind students that mock exams are all conducted under strict rules set by the government. This means that in the unlikely event that s student is unable to complete their exams in the summer, we are able to supply the exam boards with their mock exam papers and results for consideration. All students in year 11 were briefed by myself in a special assembly that I hosted on Tuesday this week.

Finally, we have been asked by the local authority to share the following information with you from the UKHSA who have put together a helpful summary on reducing the spread of winter illness/stomach bugs following the half term break. The information can be found at: 

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ukhsa-issues-health-advice-following-the-half-term-break?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications-topic&utm_source=333bf642-f3ba-45c4-a348-0a6f8fdab321&utm_content=daily 

I wish you all a lovely weekend and I look forward to sharing further updates with you next week.

Yours faithfully,

Mr J Firth

Principal

Dear Parents/Carers,

This week has been full of rewards and celebrations focusing on our #TeamRushden values: Hardworking, Resilient, Smart, Team-Players and Respectful. The assemblies this week were our end of half term rewards assemblies and were led by our Directors of Key Stage, Mr A Smith and Mrs Broughton. It was brilliant to see so many students being rewarded and to hear the amazing comments that form tutors had prepared for their individual awards. Students were so proud of their achievements and it was amazing to see everybody celebrating and showing respect for each other. Students were also treated to a performance by our Dance Group. We have so many talented individuals at Rushden Academy, and it is fantastic that we are able to showcase their amazing talents to all year groups during events like these.

A summary of our TRPs for this half term can be found below. Well done to year 7 who have smashed it this half term with their TRPs! We will share our weekly top students, and our half termly champions on social media soon!

Year 7 - 48096

Year 8 - 38905

Year 9 - 39899

Year 10 - 38776

Year 11 - 2774

On Wednesday, I led our end of half term attendance prize draw to celebrate those students with excellent attendance. This is delivered by a whole school Google Meet so that all students can be a part of the celebrations and share the success of their peers. We ensure that this draw is fair by including all medical and religious events in our attendance calculations. This event has really grown in popularity over the past few terms, and it was amazing to see that we had 522 students eligible to be a part of the prize draw with attendance over 95%. Prizes included a gaming chair, earpods, GHD hair straighteners, footballs, basketballs and an echo dot. Some students have already got their eyes on the prizes for possible Christmas gifts if they win next half term!

The top three forms for KS3 and KS4 attendance for attendance this half term are:

KS3: KS4

1. 7LH - 97.24% 1. 10SDA - 95.98%
2. 7COG - 96.92% 2. 10SWE - 94.36%
3. 7HJ - 96.76% 3. 11EW - 94.29%

On Thursday, we were visited by the Bishop of Peterborough who visited the school to find out more about our close working relationship with the Grace Foundation and our outstanding Ethos Team. She met with students from our Social Action Squad to find out more about the community work that they have been doing, and the positive impact this has had on them. Our students were excellent ambassadors for Team Rushden, and we are proud of the amazing work they continue to do.

Please remember that school is closed on Monday 4th November due to an additional training day that we have scheduled for our team. Students will return to school on Tuesday 5th November. Year 10 will have their assembly as normal focusing on Remembrance in preparation for our whole school service on Monday 11th November.

I hope you all have a lovely half term. Please remember that you can contact a member of the safeguarding team by phone on 07428 441286, or you can email . Alternatively, you can report a concern anonymously using the reporting button on the main page of the school website. 

Yours sincerely

Jonathan Firth