I cannot quite believe we are approaching the Christmas holiday after completing our first two modules of the academic year.

Airy staff and students alike should feel proud of the wonderful start they have made to 2021/22. Praise should be given to all for their resilience in achieving such high levels of attendance despite ongoing concerns over COVID. Airy college attendance ends Module 2 with a year to date attendance figure of 93%, which is significantly above the national averages (of 87%).

Showcases:

In October, I wrote to you to celebrate the BHM Proud to be Showcase. As part of the ‘Proud to Be’ campaign, students have been exploring aspects of their identity and highlighting what they are Proud to Be. This included studying poems and music written about identity. This was the first ever LAB ‘Showcase’. Many of our Airy students took part by performing musical pieces, drama performances and creating their own spoken word pieces about identity.

This month we celebrated our second ‘Showcase’ at LAB. Again we were blown away by the commitment and talent of all our LAB students. Many Airy representatives took part in the performances and we look forward to seeing all students progress as we move into M3. A huge thank you to Miss Coupe (10C's tutor) for arranging such thought provoking and inspiring events. We continue to be extremely proud and surprised by our students every day.

Airy Student Celebrations:

Students across year 7 continue to impress us with their commitment and dedication to learning. Year 7 Airy students top our leaderboard for attendance with an impressive 95% since September. Year 7 also top the leaderboard with the most merits, with an impressive total of 1774 merits across 7C and 7F in just two modules! A huge personal well done to Kitty in 7C for gaining the most amount of merits in Module 1 and 2 across year 7.

Top 20 students with the most merits across Airy college:

Airy Stars and Student of the Fortnight:

Each module in Airy, we celebrate and recognize students in the college that have gone above and beyond each week. Students who have consistently demonstrated the LAB values of Ambition, Integrity, Resilience, Scholarship and Respect are celebrated and recognised by our college community. Each week, the tutors have been nominating a member of their tutor group and identifying the reason for their nomination. The wider Airy college team then votes for the winning student every week.

All students nominated receive appreciations in virtual assemblies with the reasons they have been nominated also shared.

Below is the list of students in module 1 and 2 that have been selected for student of the fortnight:

Haleema S 7C -

Toby B 9F

Riley M 8C

Oliver W 8C

Ellie K 10C

Celebration Breakfasts

At the end of each module we also have the opportunity to invite students to attend our Airy Celebration Breakfast. Students will be invited for consistently displaying the LAB values and for collecting the highest amount of merits. The event falls on the last week of the module.

At the start of the year, due to the growth of the Academy, we welcomed a number of new staff to Airy college. During our August professional development days, Airy college staff arranged an afternoon tea bake-off competition. Not only did this test out the new food room and equipment before the start of term, it also provided a good team building opportunity for our Airy staff community. Well done to Mr Smith, Miss Philips and Mrs Keohane for their winning scones.

You may remember from the letter sent earlier this module regarding our senior leadership staffing changes that Miss Philips, previously Director of Learning for Language Acquisition and already an Airy team member, has been appointed Acting Assistant Principal and will continue to support myself and the Airy college community in Mr Ritchie's place.

I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome Miss Earle, our additional Student Services Manager for Airy, who will work alongside Mrs Banton: providing pastoral support to Airy students.

All Airy college and LAB staff would like to congratulate Ms Collins Jones, Airy staff member and Director of Learning for English, on the birth of her baby girl.

Finally, we would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our community both in school and at home for your continued support. We are looking forward to welcoming you back in the new year to start module 3. A reminder of the return dates and times for our students:

Tuesday 4th January 2022

Year 10 - normal start time (no change)

Year 7 - arrive at LAB from 11.00am, lessons/ testing starts at 11.30am.

Wednesday 5th January 2022

Year 9 - normal start time (no change)

Year 8 - arrive at LAB from 11.00am, lessons/ testing starts at 11.30am.

Myself and all Airy College staff would like to wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas.

Ms Lindars