LAR Virtual Newsletter

15/03/24

LEIGH Learners of the Fortnight

(Most reward points received in the last fortnight)

Angelou - Oliver R 96 Points

Kingsley - Luca M 90 Points

Turing - Mia W-R 115 Points

Upcoming Theme of the Fortnight:

‘Developing Resilience’: How can I overcome challenges I experience?'

Principal's Message

Violence Reduction Unit Commitment Pledge

This week all year groups had an assembly from the Police and Violence Reduction Unit highlighting the impact of gangs and knife crime in the community. This was an hour long assembly which helped to dispel myths and clarify truths regarding knife crime, the risks of carrying knives and how grooming into gangs can take place. Students learnt that 7 out of 10 people who are stabbed are wounded with their own knife. As part of the assemblies I was invited up to sign the Commitment Pledge which will be displayed in the Academy. The purpose of the pledge is to help keep our community safe. We were proud of how well our students behaved in the assemblies and how well they interacted in the sessions.

Governance

I am very pleased to welcome Glen Rickersey to the Academy Board as a new parent governor. Glen works with the Kent Police, and delivered the assemblies to students this week. We are always looking for new academy board members who are keen to contribute their thoughts and ideas to the Academy vision. If you know of any members of our local community who may be interested in joining our board, please get in touch via info@.

Parent Feedback

'I sense that the children buy into the values that the school stands for and for us our child works very hard to meet or exceed staff expectations. There is clear and consistent message from the school which reinforces the right behaviour.'

'The high standards of each child, both academically and on a emotional development are commendable. My child knows the rules and understands why he must follow them. This has led him to become more self- disciplined and mature as each school year has progressed.'

'Most things! We are proud as parents that our children are fortunate to attend this school, and can see that they are striving to do their best for the students. We also applaud the community project in year 9.'

'My daughter feels safe, knows what is expected of her and feels that she is rewarded for her effort and hard work. The staff are brilliant, always helpful and we feel that they really lead by example.'

'Sending my boys to Leigh has been the making of them to date they are well behaved, self motivated respectful and mature. Mr Smith has always been an encouraging, positive role model for both boys. Expectations for the children are clear and disruptive, bad behaviour isn’t tolerated. Both my children understand what’s expected as the boundaries are very clear. There are always a variety of clubs available for the children to attend.'

Miss Millward

Principal

College Attendance

Angelou - 94.9%

Kingsley - 94.4%

Turing - 93.3%

College Reward Points

(year to date)

Angelou - 18,967

Kingsley - 17,411

Turing - 20,864

Academy Updates

Social Media - Snapchat and Device Checks

Following the assemblies with the Child Centred Policing Team and Violence Reduction Unit this week, the use of social media was discussed. It was a concern from the hands up surveys conducted by the team that a large number of students in year 7 and 8 use platforms to share images like Snapchat. Snapchat's age requirements are 13+. More worryingly only a handful of hands went up to confirm that parents are checking devices. In the interests of working in partnership we encourage parents to please check any smart devices for social media apps that have age restrictions on them and also check their child's activity on a regular basis.

World Book Day 2024

The students had a fantastic time celebrating World Book Day during the week of the 4th March. Students spent the week hunting high and low for Wally's hidden around the school, matching the characters and books hidden in staff members’ lanyards, and completing a cryptic treasure hunt in their library lessons. Many students also entered the Book Cover Design competition. Congratulations to our winners, Michael F (Y7), Jayden M-S (Y8) and Lydia H (Y9). Mia W-R won the Highly Commended prize. There were many fantastic entries and it was lovely to see so many students getting creative whilst showing their love of reading. During form time, students had the opportunity to continue getting creative, as they designed book characters and created graphic novel summaries of their favourite books. Congratulations to 9A/JFO for coming up with the most words made out of ‘World Book Day’. Across the week, each college created a short story, where in every form group had the chance to write a section of the story. The students thoroughly enjoyed working with their college to create three absolute masterpieces. It was a difficult choice, but in the end, Kingsley reigned as the winning college for their fantastic narrative poem about Gerald the lizard who was gruesomely eaten by the end of the story.

On the 7th March, Year 7 and 8 celebrated World Book Day by coming off timetable to watch performances by slam poet, Kat Francois. Kat’s performance was wonderfully interactive and gave the students the opportunity to think about the different forms of storytelling and join in on creating some rhymes. During the afternoon, Kat held workshops for Year 7s, where the students had the opportunity to write their own short stories and perform them to the rest of the class. The students had a brilliant time writing about complex and exciting protagonists. Year 9 were entertained throughout the day, as their teachers read The Curious Case of Benjamin Button to them. Mrs Millward was even seen putting on silly voices for the characters! Students were amused to see their teachers fully embracing the day, dressed in crazy costumes. Highlights included seeing Mr Gearey/Professor Snape donning a wig and cape, and Mrs Plant and Ms Williams haunting the LAR corridors as the terrifying twins from The Shining. Students will have the opportunity to spend their World Book Day tokens at our upcoming Scholastic Book Fair, between the 22nd March – 19th April. We are so pleased that there is such a buzz around reading and books here at LAR, and that was definitely seen through the enthusiastic and creative efforts of the pupils during the week!

College Competition Cup Announcements

Please see below the outcome and results from the inter-college competitions that have taken place in Module 4.

1st Place [GOLD]: TURING College [525 Points]

2nd Place [SILVER]: ANGELOU College [400 Points]

3rd Place [BRONZE]: KINGSLEY College [385 Points]

Staff Shout outs

At the end of each Term, Leigh Academy Rainham form tutors distribute postcards to students who would like to thank or praise a member of staff that has helped them or made a difference to their time in LAR. From the week beginning, 25th March, students can post their staff shout out postcards in the post box in the dining room all week and these are then distributed to the relevant staff on the last day of term. Please do encourage your child to reflect on who they feel has helped them the most in school and perhaps share their gratitude with that member of staff in a Staff Shout Out postcard!

Sporting Fixtures

Another busy couple of weeks with fixtures and events but sadly the weather has hampered us a little.

The week started with our year 9 netball girls getting put through their paces with a good Gads Hill side. Having not played since term 2, the girls really started well and put themselves in a strong position to win the game. Unfortunately, Gads came back strong and went away with a 19-16 victory in an end to end game.

The highlight of the fortnight came in the rowing where we were by far one of the strongest schools there and would have walked away as overall winners had we been a full school. A stunning set of results meant we have numerous medals to award at the end of module college assembly. The results were as follows:

Year 7 boys- 1st

Year 7 girls - 4th

Year 8 boys -1st

Year 8 girls - 1st

Year 9 boys- 2nd

Year 9 girls - 3rd

A stunning result and one we are very proud of.

This week started with a tough fixture for our talented year 9 boys football team. A 0-0 draw at full time meant dreaded penalties against a strong Greenacre side and unfortunately we came out second best. The team march on knowing a win against Hoo on Monday should secure them the league title.

Yesterday, the year 8 football side got their season back up and running with a comprehensive 5-1 win over Victory Academy. 3 goals from Nolan, one from Curtis and one from Evident meant we left Chatham with three vital points.

Next week brings plenty of girls football games so please do look out for our results on social media pages.

Office Updates

Upcoming Events

Year 9 - Queens College Cambridge University Talk

Queen's college, Cambridge - Year 9 student talk, Friday 22nd March at 3pm. Venue to be confirmed. Please find a link to a parent letter outlining a talk taking place in the school on student life at Cambridge University.

Mid Kent College Virtual Assembly Year 8

Tuesday 26th March

Leigh Academy Rainham will be holding a virtual assembly from Mid-Kent College about their sixth form and further education programmes for our Year 8 students. This talk will last around 30 minutes with students having opportunities to ask any questions they might have about further education post-GCSE.

Kingsley/Angelou/Turing College Rewards Assembly

Our upcoming end of term College Awards Assemblies will be taking place on the 25th March for Kingsley, 26th March for Turing and 27th March for Turing colleges. We endeavour to send out invites to any parents/guardians of award winners a week in advance and the assemblies will take place in the afternoons. More details to parents/guardians to follow once all the nominations are in!

Mary Poppins Show

Thursday 27th and Friday 28th June 2024 starting at 6:00pm.

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.