Luke Price

We strongly encourage all of our students to continue regular COVID-19 testing, especially before returning to the Academy from the half-term break. Please see Nadhim Zahawi’s tweet of encouragement here.

We look forward to welcoming students back to the Academy, and hope that they’ve had a well-deserved, restful break. As you’ll be aware, we follow a mixed-middle approach rather than using ability sets at KS3. This means that students are instead grouped with peers who have similar strengths and areas for development, allowing our staff to better tailor learning to each child’s needs.

Last month we shared details of the flu immunisation offered for free to all students. Students for whom a completed consent form has been returned will receive their immunisation on Tuesday 2nd November (a later catch-up date will be offered if the immunisation team are unable to process all students). If you have any questions about this process or the immunisation, please contact Vaccination UK directly here. We have yet to receive the date for in-Academy COVID-19 vaccinations, full details of this process and the eConsent form have been shared here.

The Tovni Lacer brand of Kickers shoes, with the trainer-style lace are not allowed to be worn as Business Dress in the Academy. The shoe has been designed to be ‘sneaker silhouette’ according to the Kickers branding, and we feel it is not an appropriate shoe for wearing in the Academy.

The Kaleidoscope+ Group are offering a free local service to bring people together who are the parents or carers of a young person who self-harms, to receive support and feel understood. Meetings are on the first Tuesday of each month, 5:30 – 7pm at Hope Place, 321 High Street, West Bromwich, B70 8LU.

Do you know what your children are doing online? Are you aware of the Prevent strategy? Sandwell MBC’s Prevent Team are offering a free online workshop to parents/carers on Tuesday 19th October and repeated again on Thursday 21st October at 5:30pm.  Click here to find out more and for the joining link.

This information applies to students in Years 8, 9, 10, 11, and 13 only, as an update to trips postponed in the last academic year. This information is not relevant to students in Years 7 and 12 who will have new opportunities in this academic year. Since our last update, we’ve liaised with our Student Voice representatives to ensure that we reschedule the Rewards Days in-line with student expectations, as they are after-all a celebration of their achievement in being consistently Ready, Respectful, and Responsible. We explained the challenge of the current national driver shortages and the impact this is having on obtaining coaches for the trips, and also the availability of some trip locations at certain times of the year. Our Student Voice representatives applied a mature and fair approach to plan a solution that works around these challenges which we’re really excited to be able to finally share.

We have received complaints from local residents and parents/carers regarding careless parking in the community, and dangerous driving when dropping off and picking up students. Please note that the front of the Academy is subject to traffic restrictions, and no stopping is permitted. Traffic safety officers regularly patrol the area and issue fines for contravention. We continue to encourage students to walk to and from the Academy, and where journey by car is absolutely necessary, please park considerately and a short distance from the Academy to reduce congestion.

You may be aware from the latest government announcements, that the COVID-19 vaccination will be offered to students aged 12 and over in the near future. Students aged 12-15 will be offered a vaccination in the Academy. We are currently awaiting details on the vaccination programme and will share this information when we receive it, we will also advise parents/carers when the consent form has been distributed for their attention, in the same way as with the flu immunisation. Students aged 16 or 17 will not be offered a vaccination in the Academy, as they can either book an appointment to get vaccinated here, or search for a walk-in vaccination site here to get vaccinated without needing an appointment.