The first day for students will be Wednesday 6th September. Students will need to arrive at the academy before 08.25am. As you walk into the building, staff members will direct you to the Theatre where you will be allocated seating in Academic Mentor groups. Your new Academic Mentor will come down to collect your class and take you to your Academic Mentor room. You will be given your Academic Journal, Conduct Card and Timetable. Once you are ready and fully equipped, you will go to a Welcome Assembly with Mr Westoby. He will explain more about life at Kingswood Academy. At break time, we will give you a drink and a snack. Then you will go to the lessons on your timetable. There will be lots of staff around to help you find your way.

At Kingswood, we value punctuality. The music, that indicates it is time to move to lessons, starts at 08.25am, therefore you must be in the school building before this time. If you arrive on or after 08.25am, you will be marked down as late and will need to complete an hour detention after school on the same day. You may arrive before 08.25am. The dining areas will be open for students to sit in until the point at which they move to their P1 lesson.

At Kingswood Academy, we offer a wide variety of enrichment activities across all departments in the school. Enrichment is offered during lunchtimes and after school and is completely free and open to all students. Our aim is to provide all students with the opportunity to participate in a comprehensive programme of enrichment activities that enhance students physical, intellectual, emotional and social development through learning new skills, competition and fun. Clubs range from Yoga, Strategy, to board games, to outdoor sports and offer the opportunity for students to represent the academy in competitions across the country.  We also have Kingswood Farm where students can feed and help look after some of our animals such as, rabbits and guinea pigs during your lunch time and after school. The Enrichment timetable will be shared in your Academic Mentor time and displayed around the academy on the digital screens.

Cards can be topped up in three ways:

• Parentpay - this is an online application through which you can load your child‘s card with cash. You can load your child’s card online (minimum £5) you will be sent your login details during the summer holidays.

• You can also order a payment card which enables you to load money onto your child’s account at your local PayPoint store. You will need to request this by contacting the academy. If you have any queries with this, please contact reception.

• You can also bring cash into the academy and add it at reception or on one of our top up machines.

• Students who receive a free school meal will be able to use their ID cards to buy a meal each day.

All students will have the opportunity to put money on their card before lunch time on the first day. Students will be provided with a snack during break time.

The Uniform Policy can be found here

The Uniform Policy 2023 will be provided at our Transferring to Kingswood Evening on Tuesday 28th June. Please read this carefully and contact the Academy for advice before purchasing.

Your child will require their P.E. kit on the first day of school. Every child must bring every piece of P.E. kit to school with them on the day that they have P.E. – even if they are not participating. Each missing piece of kit will receive a negative on their conduct card. We would advise that your child checks their timetable and packs their bag the night before school.

Students will find out which house they are in during Transition Week (the week commencing 10th July). They will receive a House badge in September. The House badge should be pinned and displayed on the student’s blazer at all times. It should be pinned in the middle of the left lapel of the blazer. In the first few weeks you will have a House Assembly which will tell you more about the competitions and opportunities for you to participate in!

You will be expected to carry your equipment, your coat and your P.E. kit with you in a rucksack. It is compulsory that all students bring a rucksack to the academy every day. We advise that the rucksack is completely black in colour, plain with only a small logo, no bigger than the Students ID badge.

The rucksack must be able to hold an outdoor coat, A4 journal, P.E. kit, and stationary including black/blue pen, green pen, whiteboard pen, a pencil and a ruler. The rucksack must be carried using both straps. You are able to buy our recommended rucksack from Steady Schoolwear.

You will not be expected to carry around your subject specific exercise books with you, the class teacher will keep these in your classroom.

Kingswood Academy has Pre-Public Exams (PPEs) which occur three times in the year. In Year 7, you will also be required to take a baseline assessment at the start of the year. These are exam-style assessments that are taken by all students and are a great way to reflect on the progress you have made during the year.   For Year 7, you will take your English, Maths and Science PPEs in the exam hall, and your other PPEs will be taken in your classroom.

Classes at Kingswood Academy are usually between 25-32 students. Some classes are slightly smaller, depending on the subject and ability of the classes.

Our SEN team are fantastic and are always there to support and assist our students. Our SEN support assistants may spend time with students in their lessons, or running additional interventions to ensure students are able and confident to access the main curriculum. SEN students at Kingswood Academy make exceptional progress and achieved a Progress 8 score of +1.37 in 2019. Miss Towers runs a surgery on Thursdays from 5pm-7.30pm. You can make an appointment for this by ringing reception. If you have any specific questions or concerns, please contact our Senior SENCO Miss Towers at etowers@thekingswoodacademy.org