This half term is two weeks old already and the students have settled back into academy life fantastically. Year 11 have begun their mock examinations as part of the final build up to this summer’s GCSE’s and they are so far handling the situation commendably. The purpose of these exams is to enable the teaching staff to be able to support the students by focusing on the aspects of the course they are struggling with in the coming weeks. Alongside revision activities in lessons, after school sessions and the independent work students are completing at home we will be having several Easter school sessions over the Easter holidays, parents and carers just need to look out for these dates when they are published.
Last week on World Book Day the academy staff got into the spirit by dressing up as characters from books they enjoy. It was a great way for staff to discuss the different books they enjoy with the students and the atmosphere around the academy was great. I know a few parents thought that students should have had an opportunity to dress up too, however, we decided against this after discussing with students and also looking at the other opportunities’ students have for non-uniform days.
As you know careers education is something that we take extremely seriously at the academy and is just one aspect of our work that is recognised across the trust and by external agencies as being amongst the best that a student can receive as recognised by our gold careers mark award. Last week was careers week across the school where every year group was involved in different sessions lead be external partners to expose students to a range of different career opportunities. Students also completed focussed activities in form time learning and school staff were encouraged to share and discuss their career pathways from school to Farnborough with the students. Whilst some schools only focus on careers in focus weeks like this our careers education is embedded into our curriculum and subject teachers are always discussing links to current learning and the world of work in lessons and students have lots of other opportunities to widen their careers-based knowledge through our bespoke and unique programmes like the accelerating confidence project.
Last week four students travelled to Belgium with Miss Carter on a government funded project around the centenary of World War 1. The students were selected from the group to lay a remembrance wreath at the Menin Gate in Ypres during the daily memorial service. They also visited other important WW1 and will be sharing their experiences with the other students. I hope that this will inspire enough students next year to enable us to put on a viable trip to the WW1 battlefields as this is an enriching and moving educational visit that every child should have the opportunity to experience.
Finally, rehearsals for High School Musical are now in full swing and the cast are getting very excited as the show week draws closer. The performance will be in the last week of this term and more information will follow shortly on our social media channels.
Mr M. Jobling