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Message From the Principal 17.05.24

Dear Parent / Carer

As the penultimate week of the half term comes to a close there is plenty to share from around the Academy this week.

Mrs Ogilvie led assemblies for all year groups which promoted the key theme of movement from Mental Health Awareness Week. She talked about the correlation between movement and the release of the feel good hormone, dopamine. Students were given lots of different ideas of how they can ensure that their lifestyles are as active as possible. Mrs Ogilvie also updated the students each day on the number of kilometres completed by Team Rushden staff toward the target of 1km for every student in school! The challenge includes this weekend but at the close of play on Friday that staff total was at 560km completed!

In keeping with the theme of mental health awareness, our Ethos team leader Mr Noblett, arranged for a number of workshops to take place which explored themes associated with mental health. This included a performance by Loud Mouth which the students enjoyed and engaged with very positively.

There was a huge amount of excitement around the rewards trip letters and students were queueing at the gates on Thursday morning eager to hand their letters in for the various different trips. If you have any queries around the trips or eligibility criteria, please do not hesitate to contact Mr Smart who coordinates the trips.

We welcomed parents and carers of Year 10 students into the academy on Thursday for parents’ evening. As always, it was great to see everyone who attended to get an up to date picture of how your child is progressing in each of their subjects. The relationship between school and parents is critical to ensuring that your child is as successful as possible and it was good to see lots of positive conversations taking place. Year 10 students will be completing mock examinations in just over 4 weeks time and so following parents’ evening they should know exactly what topics and skills they should be prioritising for revision.

Year 11s have completed a large number of examinations this week and have been working hard in the final revision masterclasses for each subject. There are still a large number of examinations for them to complete but they have made a great start and staff are doing everything they can to minimise stress and ensure that students feel prepared. There will be some additional revision sessions taking place in the May half term break and these will be communicated with students next week.

Thank you for your continued support and please have a restful weekend,

Yours sincerely,

Mr B Baines

Principal

Message From the Principal 10.05.24

Dear Parent / Carer

It’s been a sunny and warm end to a very busy week at Rushden Academy.

Year 11 students have been completing the first examinations of the Summer series with lots of last minute revision and preparation taking place. Before each examination, the subject teachers have been delivering final exam briefings with some last-minute, key revision points to ensure that they are fresh in the students’ minds before entering the exam hall. Friday was the first whole-year exam with all students sitting biology paper 1.

Ms Kinsman, our Head of Humanities, delivered assemblies to all year groups on the theme of ethical behaviour in a globalised world. She focused on shopping habits and talked about Fairtrade, the concept of slow fashion and the importance of thinking before buying a product. The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals were shared with all pupils and they were encouraged to reflect on how achievable they are before the 2030 deadline. As always, it was great to see students so keen to offer answers and engage actively with the assembly content; lots of great food for thought.

Next week is Mental Health Awareness Week and there are a series of events taking place in the Academy to support positive mental health. The theme for the week is ‘Movement’ and in support of this theme, all staff are undertaking a collective challenge to run, row or cycle a kilometre for every student in the school. There are huge links between exercise and positive mental health and so we will be doing all that we can to promote the value of exercise in this important week.

On Thursday, members of our Sixth Form organised a car wash to raise money for their India trip with the Salt of the Earth charity. The offer was extended to all staff and over the course of the day the students raised £250 towards their fundraising target.

With the weather turning warmer, we opened the field up to all students at lunchtimes and it was pleasing to see so many students making the most of the weather by playing football and other sports. The field will remain open at lunchtimes for the rest of the Summer term excluding days where it is raining heavily. On days where it is particularly hot, students will be permitted to remove their blazers but until such decisions are made, please ensure that your son or daughter is arriving in full, correct uniform.

Enjoy the warm weathers scheduled for this weekend,

Yours sincerely,

Mr B Baines

Principal

Message From the Principal 03.05.24

Dear Parent / Carer

It has been a positive, if a little chilly, week at Rushden Academy with lots of great work being undertaken by students across the school.

Mr Noblett, our Ethos leader, led assemblies for all year groups. He spent the first part of the assembly talking about how much can change in ten years, referencing various things that happened 10 years ago in 2014. The Ellen photograph for example 'breaking' twitter for being so popular and how Fortnite, TikTok and Covid did not exist and yet they have played a huge part in society as we know it today. He then challenged students to think 10 years into the future for their own lives and ask themselves the question, 'Where do I see myself in 10 years time?' Finally he encouraged them to not only go and live successful lives, but to live a life that impacts those around you positively.

As part of our personal development agenda, all of Year 8 took part in workshops on harmful sexualised behaviours which were organised by the Grace Foundation. This is an important topic which we have a statutory duty to educate students about and it was great to see all students engaging positively with the content.

Whilst some examinations have taken place already for Year 11, next week officially marks the start of the exam season. All Year 11 students have been working hard in lessons to complete final preparations and close both skill and knowledge gaps ahead of the final exams. Every second counts in this final run-up and so please ensure that you are doing all that you can to encourage your child to revise at home. To this end, please remind your children that making copious revision notes or reading revision guides is nowhere near as impactful as practising flash cards or completing practice exam questions.

On Friday, we welcomed the town Mayor into school who came to give an award to one of our talented students. Samuel in Year 7 was the recipient after his poster entry for the ‘Don’t Rubbish Rushden’ competition beat all the other entries across the town. The Mayor came into the Year 7 assembly to formally recognise Samuel’s achievement in front of the rest of his year group; well done, Samuel.

In keeping with the theme of success, Mrs Finney took the Year 8 girls’ netball team to play against Manor in the district final. After an incredible performance, the girls emerged victorious beating Manor by 7 goals to 4. This is the first time in over 13 years that a team from Rushden Academy has won the district league and the girls should be incredibly proud of this achievement. A massive well done to Mrs Finney and the team!

Have a pleasant weekend,

Yours sincerely,

Mr B Baines

Principal