Principal's Blog

Another year has flown by and we have reached the end of term. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support in helping our students to find their remarkable.

Thank you to everyone who came along to our Awards ceremony. It was a lovely evening and it is one of the highlights in the Academy calendar. Congratulations to all the award winners and in particular to the winner of the Principal’s Award for Services to the School, Ben Taylor. Thank you to Mrs Moye and Ryde Lions who donated a new award this year: The Dave Moye Memorial Award. Mr Moye was a DT teacher at Ryde High for 18 years and was passionate about education and in particular about encouraging girls into design technology. It was apt then that the first winner was Louise Perkis in Year 11. A big thank you to Reverend Canon Howard Barker and Margaret at All Saints for letting us use their beautiful church for the ceremony. It was lovely to see Toby, our reading dog, and his owner Trisha and the students loved receiving their awards from them. Thank you to Gioia Minghella-Giddens for presenting the awards. I was so proud of our performers, Lily Stockman and Anna Parkinson who sang beautifully.

Over the holidays you will receive a letter about the start of term. Year 7 students will receive a copy in the post which will also include a transition booklet and information about ParentPay. Years 8-11 will receive a copy via their ParentPay account and it will also be uploaded to the website.

Reception will be unstaffed over the holidays and will close at 5pm on Friday 19th July and reopen on Monday 2nd September at 8am. If you have any queries over the holidays please email contactus@rydeacademy.org

Congratulations to Rachel Sutherland, one of our English teachers, who was acknowledged for her work in creating a sustained contribution to teaching on the island, at the Isle of Wight Education awards this week.

We look forward to seeing students on results days which are as follows;

A Levels: Thursday 15th August, 9am via the Playstreet Lane entrance.

GCSEs: Thursday 22nd August 10am-12pm via the Pellhurst Road entrance.

This week’s Most Remarkable staff member was Tansy Petty, Administration Assistant. Tansy is always willing to help other staff and this week in particular has been supporting with work on the timetable.

Thank you to everyone who was involved in the prom, it was a lovely evening and the students were able to round off their school career in style, looking fabulous. Although we are hoping many of them back in our 6th Form.

It was good to see all the Year 6 pupils enjoying their taster days at the Academy. Thank you as always to our student helpers who spent the day with them and helped make sure they felt welcome.

Next we have our Awards evening at All Saints Church on Wednesday 17th July at 6pm. If you have received an invite please make sure you let us know if you are able to attend by returning the reply slip to reception.

We are looking forward to the Prefect interviews on Wednesday. Successful applicants will become Prefects for the next academic year. We have had a high standard of applications so it will be a tough decision.

Just a reminder that our last day of term is Friday 19th July and students will be leaving at 12.20pm. Friday is a mufti day (£1 donation) so students can wear their own clothes, but please make sure they are suitable for a school environment. The school bus will depart at 12.30pm. A letter has been emailed home with more information about the last day of term.

We will be sending letters home to all parents during the holidays with information about the start of term.

I had a fantastic time at the Mardi Gras on Saturday. Our students, as well as many other schools, looked amazing and did the community and the Island proud.

I was at the AET National Conference on Wednesday and was joined by a group of our students and alumni for the ‘Celebrating Remarkable Lives’ event on the Thursday. We also had successes in the various competitions our students entered, winning the poetry and time capsule competitions. Students really enjoyed the trip as a whole and said how proud they were to see the Academy win awards at a national event as well as celebrating the achievements of their peers.

We ended the week with our Year 11 leavers Assembly on Friday. It is always an emotional event, saying goodbye to students you have known for several years, but at the same time happy to see them heading off on new adventures.

The Year 11 prom ends what has been a very busy week.

Thank you to Tesco for their kind donation of cereal for our breakfast club.

Next week on Thursday 11th and Friday 12th July we have our transition days for Year 6. You should have received a letter via the primary school and you can find a copy on our website under the Parent tab.

Just a reminder that our last day of term is Friday 19th July and students will be leaving at 12.20pm. The school bus will depart at 12.30pm. A letter has been emailed home with more information about the last day of term and you can find a copy on our website.

You may have read in the local and national media about the death of 19 year old Harley Mason. Although the police are treating the death as unexplained they have issued reminders about the dangers of illegal drugs and in particular those known as 'punishers'. These are a form of ecstasy but around three times stronger. We will continue to talk about topics such as drugs and the potential dangers of alcohol with students, particularly in the run up to specific events such as festivals and the summer holidays.

Congratulations to this week’s Most Remarkable student Yvie Partridge (Year 7). Yvie has had a remarkable start at the Academy. As well as being an active member of the Student Council she also helps with a range of activities including transition. She is always willing to support the Academy and her peers and she is unfailingly polite and cheerful.

The Most Remarkable member of staff this week is James Webster (Science Teacher). He was nominated for his commitment to his students, the support he shows his colleagues and for the additional work he took on as Green House Captain.

I am looking forward to the Mardi Gras which sets off from Ryde School on Saturday at 3pm and will follow a route leading to the High Street, Union Street and end at the sea front. Please come along and support the students if you can. Thank you to all the staff and students who have worked so hard on the costumes, props and choreography.

Next week we have a year 8 Careers Day on Monday 1st July.

On Tuesday 2nd and Wednesday 3rd July, Year 11 students are coming in for pre-registration for 6th Form from 10am—1pm at the 6th Form campus on Playstreet Lane. If students haven’t applied yet, and are considering Level 3 courses, they are welcome to come along too.

I will be at the AET National Conference on Wednesday 3rd July in Northampton and will be joined by alumni and current students on the Thursday where we will be celebrating AET’s Remarkable Lives event and hopefully celebrating our wins in the various competitions. We will share lots of pictures when we return.

On Wednesday 3rd July we have our Family Learning Dream Catchers workshop which is fully booked.

Friday 5th July is a busy day when the Year 11s return for their leavers assembly at 9am and then we have the Prom in Bembridge later in the evening.

On Thursday 11th and Friday 12th July we have our transition days where Year 6 pupils join us for both days and experience life at the Academy. You should by now have received a letter via your primary school.

Our Island MP, Bob Seely and AET’s CEO visited the Academy today to see some of the amazing work our students and staff do. As well as a tour of the Academy, they handed out some awards to 6th Formers, watched a dance performance and had lunch with the Student Council and Senior Prefect Team.

We have emailed a copy of the end of term letter home to all parents via ParentPay. A copy of the letter can also be found on our website under the Parent tab and hard copies are available from reception. We will be following the same times of the day as in previous years. The school will be open as normal with breakfast club starting at 7.15am. Students will get an earlier break so they can have a meal before they leave at 12.20pm. The school bus will depart from the normal place at 12.30pm.

The letter also includes the term dates for next year and the times of the school day.

We will be sending a letter out in the summer holidays with details about the start of the new term. New year 7 students will also get additional information with everything they need to know about starting at Ryde Academy.

The 6th Formers are having their leaving party next Thursday and I look forward to seeing them there.

Congratulations to this week’s Most Remarkable student India Dale (Year 9). India is an active member of the Academy and community. As well as being on the Student Council, staff interview panels and working in the stationery shop, she is also Deputy Chairman of the Youth Council. India is a keen dancer and is part of the Academy's elite dance team.

The Most Remarkable staff member this week was Will Stokes, My Community teacher. His colleagues nominated him for his progress this year and the work he does to achieve the best for the students.

We have reached the end of term and ended with a mufti day to raise money for our charity, Aspire Ryde. We will let you know how much we raised as soon as possible.

We have lots of revision and coursework sessions taking place over Easter for Year 11 and 6th Form and you can find the timetable on our website. 6th Form timetables have been given to students.

Parents can now check for themselves if their child is eligible for free school meals (FSM). The government gives schools additional funding for those students who are entitled to free school meals. We can then use this to obtain additional staff and resources that help improve the quality of education. If you want to check your eligibility you can do so on https://pps.lgfl.org.uk/ There is also a link on the front of our website that will take you to the eligibility checker.

We have two more family learning exam preparation events coming up; on Tuesday 23rd April for Computer Science and on Thursday 2nd May for Maths. These take place between 4.45pm-6.15pm. Please book via ParentPay or contact Tanya Baxter tbaxter@rydeacademy.org or 01983 567 331.

In our first week back we will be holding our termly Parent and Community Action Group meeting. You can read a summary of our last meeting in this Newsletter.

Our next INSET day is on Friday 14th June. This means that students, unless they are sitting an exam, will not be in school.

Congratulations to this weeks Most Remarkable Student, Molly MacKinnon (6th Form). Molly recently helped staff when another student became ill. Molly is an extremely caring person and a good friend to her peers. This act of kindness is nothing less than we would expect of her.

I felt very privileged to be at the High Sheriff Awards on Monday evening to see five of our students receive an award, two of whom had been nominated by Aspire Ryde. I am so proud of them as well as all the other young people who won. It was an honour to be amongst them. You can read more about it on the front of this Newsletter.

On the last day of term, Friday 5th April, we will be holding a mufti day for our charity, Aspire Ryde. Students can wear their own clothes in exchange for £1 for the charity. Please make sure that clothes are suitable for the school environment.

On Wednesday, Year 10 students attended the Heads On road safety event at the Academy. The Isle of Wight Road Safety Team along with all the emergency services were involved in this event which had three main parts: a demonstration of how the emergency services attend a road traffic accident, a local case study in which the emotional impact of a crash is explored and a workshop in which students considered what steps they can take as non-drivers to ensure their safety and that of others.

Next week we are holding the annual Year 7 Rocket Car Race day. In preparation students design and make their rocket cars and these are then raced with help from the Navy using explosives. The fastest cars then go on to the regional finals. Last year a group of our students made it to the regionals and spent the day with Navy personnel building and modifying their cars before the final race.

We also have the second of our family learning sessions on Wednesday 3rd April. Families who created clay pots last week will be decorating them ready for Easter.

On Thursday 4th April we are holding a Year 11 GCSE success evening. We have changed the format of the exams success evening slightly to a student wellbeing and preparation evening. The event will run in the Theatre from 6-7pm on the 4th April and focus on revision timetables, healthy lifestyles, coping with stress techniques and revision methods. All GCSE subjects will provide information sheets about their subject with important exam information and specific revision materials