LAR Virtual Newsletter

12/01/24

LEIGH Learners of the Fortnight

(Most reward points received in the last fortnight)

Angelou - Dylan P- 26 points

Kingsley - Jayden MS- 26 points

Turing - Sophie H- 22 points

Upcoming Themes of the Fortnight:

Holocaust Memorial-'The Fragility of Freedom'

Principal's Message

I am delighted to publish with you our new Newsletter Platform following feedback from parents and as we continue to enhance our practices to ensure they are digitally accessible for everyone in our audience. Using the Google Sites template means that going forwards all historical published copies of our newsletter can be accessed from the menu bar for quick reference for families at the click of a button, our newsletters can be more interactive and include greater media content to keep parents updated about the wonderful things taking place in our academy.

Module 3 has started incredibly well with the first of our College Competition Sporting events taking place (sincere thanks to Mr Smith for allocating me a place on the staff Handball team to play year 7), more clubs than ever to sign up for, we have confirmed our next show as being Mary Poppins and have kick started the term with a fantastic pastoral curriculum that's teaching students how to develop better habits. Mr Blinkhorn, who leads our personal development team will be working with students who have not yet mastered their organisational habits this module to reduce avoidable detentions for lack of homework, equipment and uncharged chromebooks. Your ongoing support with helping your children be fully prepared for learning is greatly appreciated and I ask that parents and carers ensure over the weekend students have everything listed on the academy equipment list for Monday morning.

Module 3 is a crucial and busy time of the year for us as a growing academy as we begin our recruitment process for September. We have advertised lots of new teaching roles for September 2024 over the Christmas break as we continue to expand our departments and further enhance our curriculum offer. In particular we will be looking for two exceptional leaders to complete our Senior Leadership team as Assistant Principals and are aiming to expand the inclusion team with the appointment of an Assistant SENDCo. All our current vacancies can be found on our website with interviews for all our teaching roles taking place throughout module 3; if you know any wonderful teachers who might be interested in coming to work for us please encourage them to apply! Support staff roles such as student services managers, teaching assistants and admin roles will be advertised later in the year. As always we will keep families updated about the new staff appointments we make over the coming months.

I look forward to the remaining College Competitions this module, hopefully I will not be convinced by Mr Smith to take part in Dodgeball, and seeing an increase in reward points as the module progresses.

Mrs Millward

Principal

College Attendance

Angelou - 95.5%

Kingsley - 94.5%

Turing - 93.6%

College Reward Points

(year to date)

Angelou - 11,281

Kingsley - 9931

Turing - 12,158

Academy Updates

Change of Term Dates - 9th February School Day

We want to give you as much advance notice as possible of a slight change to our term dates for this academic year. Friday 9th February 2024 will now be a normal school day instead of an INSET day. We hope this will be supportive for the majority of families with regards to childcare. Staff will undertake their training through twilights instead.

Year 9 Reports

Parents of year 9 students will be receiving their child's report on Friday 12th January - the MYP levels in this report are based on the November examinations. Please do read the report carefully as the standards to reach each MYP level are more challenging for students once they reach year 9. Further to parent feedback following December's options evening, we will not be asking your children to complete the initial options interest survey until week commencing 15th January to allow time for parents to discuss these reports fully with their child before they express an interest in studying any courses at GCSE.

Smart Phones

We wanted to remind parents that as per page 15 of our Behaviour and Attitudes policy smart phones are banned from site. This week we have confiscated a small handful of phones following random spot checks. Students are issued a 60 minute detention if found with one in the academy and the phone is kept until Friday (if found Mon-Thurs) or until the following Monday if found on a Friday and can only be returned to an adult. There is no wavering in the application in this policy regardless of whether a child states they need their phone over the weekend. Parents could use devices such as 'Airtags' if they wish to track their children from home or provide non-smart phones to contact their child if needed.

Searching and Screening - Metal Detectors

In response to government guidance and advice issued to schools we wanted to inform parents that we have invested in hand held metal detectors for screening students should staff believe they have brought a prohibited item on site. This is to ensure the safety of students and staff while in the academy as part of our safeguarding strategy and is referenced in the Trust and Academy Searching and Screening Policies. The academy reserves the right to conduct spot checks for items such as vapes, cigarettes and mobile phones and will continue to do so for safeguarding reasons.

Year 9 MYP Evening

On the 10th of January, year 9 parents attended the presentation on the upcoming year 9 Community Project. All slides have been put on the year 9 cohort page on Google classroom, so please look at these if you can as they should be able to clarify why the Community Project is important, hand how parents can support. If you were not able to attend, the Community Project is a mandatory year 9 project, running from February to April, whereby students have to select a community of their choosing which they believe they can help , take action in that community and then reflect on their contribution. Examples of a Community Project are;

Clean-ups of a local area
Raising money for Cancer Research
Volunteering at a charity shop
Reading to Primary school students on a Wednesday afternoon
Raising awareness of racism in sport
Running sports clubs for young students

If there are any further questions, please contact the school and we will be happy to get back to you.

College Competition - Year 7/8/9

On Monday 8th January, LAR hosted our first inter-college sports competition of 2024! This involved Year 7 students representing their tutor groups and college in the sport of handball! The PE team and members of staff were very impressed by the teamwork, encouragement, fair-play and positive reception from all students who participated!

We can announce that the winning college of the tournament was: TURING COLLEGE! In addition the winning tutor group was: 7T/DSH [Mr Sharpe]. As a result of winning the competition, Mr Sharpe's form played the staff team and narrowly lost 1-0 to the teachers! We look forward to hosting future inter-college sporting competitions in Module 5!

We would also like to remind parents of both Year 8 and Year 9 that the following competitions will be happening in the next fortnight between 3:30pm-5:00pm:

Monday 15th January 2024: Year 9-Volleyball

Monday 22nd January 2024: Year 8-Dodgeball

Mr Smith

Electric Medway - Arts

Electric Medway XR Schools is a groundbreaking research project led by Electric Medway exploring the impact of immersive technology on the learning of year 7 students at two Medway schools.

During 2024, we will undertake a series of mini-projects with students and teachers at Leigh Academy Rainham and Hundred of Hoo Academy, using digital techniques to create work within the art and history curriculum.

Led by professional artists, students will use a range of creative technologies including painting in VR, clay modelling on iPads and a 3D scanning using photogrammetry. Working with our research partner, iCCi at University of Kent, we will be seeking to understand how these digital-physical interactions can foster enhanced learning outcomes.

Tutor Programme-Holocaust Memorial: 15/01/24-26/01/24

To all parents and carers, we would like to inform you that between Monday 15th January-Friday 26th January 2024 students across Year 7, 8 and 9 will be examining the Holocaust and other modern genocides. In the UK it is a compulsory and statutory requirement that all students across KS3 learn about the Holocaust and therefore students will be learning information that is of a sensitive nature. We would like to inform parents that resources have been created by the History department who have taught this unit of study for many years as well as the fact that they have been quality assured by the History curriculum advisor. In addition staff have also had CPD in which to help students develop their understanding of this particular event.

If anyone does have questions regarding the delivery or resourcing of this particular topic, please do not hesitate to contact the school on our email: info@leighacademyrainham.org.uk

PSHE Teaching and Learning Curriculum in Module 3 and 4

We wanted to inform parents and carers about the upcoming modules of study within PSHE (personal, social, health and economic education). Across Year 7, 8 and 9 students will be exploring topics which are of a sensitive nature. For example, Year 7 will be studying: healthy and unhealthy relationships between people as well as wellbeing such as: dieting and disorders. Year 8 will be studying the dangers and consequences of drugs and alcohol whilst Year 9 will be investigating how they can reduce, report and manage risky behaviour such as: gang culture, extremism, gambling and addiction.

The topics selected are a part of the statutory requirements for PSHE, outlined by the government and if you require further detail or insight into how these topics will be taught please do refer to our personal development page on the school website here.

We do encourage parents and carers to speak to their child about what they are learning about in their PSHE lessons as well as raise any information that would help support your child through their learning and to communicate this through our school email address info@leighacademyrainham.org.uk

Office Updates

Lost property in Student Services

We currently have a high volume of lost property in student services, if your student has lost anything please kindly ask them to visit student services to take a look.

Parentpay top ups during the school day

Please note that we will no longer be phoning home during the school day regarding top ups of parent pay, please ensure your child has sufficient funds on their parentpay accounts if they require food from Cucina.

Attendance Updates

Attendance Matters:

Missing 10 minutes of school a day is the same as missing two weeks a year.
90% attendance over the course of a school year is the equivalent to a day off every fortnight.
Attending school every day is very important. Maintaining attendance helps your child fulfil their potential.

The link between attendance and attainment is clear:

36% of PA children in KS4 got 9 to 4 in their English and maths GCSEs, also compared with 84% of regular attenders.

And it’s never too late to benefit from good attendance:

More than half (54%) of pupils who were PA in Year 10 and then rarely absent in Year 11, passed at least 5 GCSEs, compared to 36% of pupils who were persistently absent in both years.

But attendance is important for more than just attainment:

Regular school attendance can facilitate positive peer relationships, which is a protective factor for mental health and wellbeing.

What can Parents do to support their child going to school?

Communicate - Listen to what your child has to say, talk to your child about any concerns.
Be positive - Emphasise the positive aspects of school. Building friendships and learning.
Routine - Introduce regular bedtime and getting up times.

To report an absence for your child please inform the school each day before 9am. This can be recorded by leaving a voicemail/ text via MCAS or emailing attendance@leighacademyrainham.org.uk

Upcoming Events

HPV & MMR vaccines

Reminder HPV Dose 1 for girls & boys in year 8, and HPV catch ups for year group 9 will take place on 30th January, please ensure consent forms are completed by 24th January.

Year 8 Parents Evening

Thursday 8th February

PTA Quiz Night

Friday 2nd February 6:30pm-8pm

Co-Curricular Clubs

Please note that students now have an opportunity to sign up to after school clubs via the SOCs website and view what clubs are available each week. We expect all students to try and attend at least one club. Please do encourage your child to get involved in any of the multitude of clubs available after school Monday to Friday (bar Wednesday).

Please discuss with your child which clubs they would like to attend and support them to do so. Their login details have been sent to their school emails and passwords can be reset via this email too.

The full complement of our clubs offer can be found on our website here.