LAR NEWSLETTER

15/11/24 , Module 2

Dream Believe Achieve

Upcoming Theme of the Fortnight: "Developing Inclusivity"

Principal's Message

It has been a jam packed week at the Academy with Armistice Day, the Year 9 Youth Safety Roadshow, Year 10 'An Inspector Calls' live streaming, Children in Need and our year 9 parents evening. We are pleased to have staff who have invested their own time in planning opportunities for students to take part in curricular activities that takes their experiences and learning beyond the expectations of the national curriculum. Students engaged well with the events in the academy this week and represented the academy well where we had external visitors.

Students have also had a week to enjoy the new outside dining space and changes to the lunchtime arrangements which now enable students to access the library, sporting activities and courtyard for the entireity of lunch. Student voice has shown gratitude for the changes to this aspect of the academy day and its pleasing to see students taking more time to use their lunches to socialise and engage in something 'extra'.

Last week we welcomed a team of 8 of the Trusts Curriculum Advisors into the academy to review the year 10 KS4 offer. They met with students, observed lessons and looked at the work that they are completing. Overall the feedback was overwhelmingly positive about the lessons being delivered and the students perceptions of their GCSE journey so far. As always we continue to look for feedback on how we can ensure we offer our students the best possible provision and following this year 10 review will continue to make minor tweaks and adjustments to the teaching, support and extra opportunities we provide our year 10 students.

Lastly I would like to wish all our year 9 students the best of luck in their exams next week. This is an excellent opportunity to help year 9 students prepare for the KS4 journey they will begin to navigate later this year when they start the options process.

Mrs Cramlington

Principal

College Updates

College Attendance

95.1%

College Attendance

94.9%

College Attendance

93.2%

College Reward Points

13265

College Reward Points

13413

College Reward Points

14588

LEIGH Learner of the Fortnight

Ewan D - 29 Points

LEIGH Learner of the Fortnight

Bow T - 34 Points

LEIGH Learner of the Fortnight

Callum F-T - 35 Points

Academy Updates

Year 9 Exams Week

Next week our year 9 Exams start, students should be revising for these at home using revision information and guidance provided by departments. Please support them by providing a silent and focused working space at home. On Monday there is a period 5 exam for PE so apologies in advance if some students leave the site a few minutes later than normal, should the exam not be able to start on time. Please see the below Year 9 Exams section for the time table and advice on how parents can support their child for the exams.

PE Kits next Week

Due to the exam hall being used for exams, our changing rooms will be out of use. Therefore students with PE next week are to come in their PE kits for the day.

Christmas Dinner

If your child is having a Christmas dinner on the 18th December, you will need to pre-order this via ParentPay. Once we have received this payment, we will add this to our spreadsheet. The deadline to pay for this is the 11th December. After this date, we will not be able to accept anymore payments as the kitchen staff need to order the food from their suppliers. The meal costs is £3.70 which includes both a main meal and dessert.

If your child is Free School Meals then you don't need to purchase this as they will be catered for.

Childhood Flu Immunisation Programme 2024

This is a reminder to parents to submit a consent or decline for the Flu Immunisation Programme via the Immunisation Service’s website https://family.kentcht.nhs.uk/imms and click on “Child vaccination form” button to complete. The vaccinations will be taking place in school on 05/12/2024.

Winter Wonderland

Tickets are now on sale for both general sale and 'A Night at The Arts'. This can be found on ParentPay if you wanted to purchase a ticket. There're a limited amount of tickets so please make sure you purchase before they all go. Entry to Winter Wonderland stalls is £1 per person, entry to the stalls and show is £5. We look forward to seeing you all!

Communications Home - My Child at School and Emails

Our parent governors provided feedback this week that communications have been coming home 3 different ways which has understandably caused confusion for some families. This is not our intention and we have spent time this week unpicking the reasons for this with the My Child At School Software that we use.

We would like to clarify:

General announcements should be coming to parents on the 'Announcements' section of the MCAS app, not as messages or emails. This should ensure everything is in one place and we will continue to use expiry dates on our announcements so that this platform does not become cluttered.
Personalised communications will be sent home as emails as we are unable to send announcements in this manner and we will use announcements on MCAS to signpost parents to when emails may have been sent home so parents know to check inboxes.
If you would like further support on how to use the MCAS app please do refer to this parent guide.

Year 9 exams

In working in partnership, things you can do to support your child for their exams are outlined below:

Provide a silent and purposeful working space for revision
Print their exam timetable and display this at home
Guide your child to complete active revision the night before each exam, with regular rest breaks e.g. 2 x 30 minute revision blocks per subject exam
Encourage your child to use the revision information guides provided by subjects as checklists
Buy them blank flashcards that can be used for revision
Test them on their knowledge (they could write you a quiz with answers) to check they are actively retaining what they are revising.
Ensure they have all the necessary equipment they will need eg. pens, pencils, calculators, rulers
Reassure and emotionally support your child - while it's imperative they learn study revision skills and begin to understand the pressures that can come with revision for exams, positive encouragement and rest breaks are crucial to ensuring a positive mindset towards assessments.

Performing Arts

A huge well done and thank you to our GCSE Dance student Scarlett, who led the Greased Lightning rehearsal in preparation for A Night At The Arts 2024.

Scarlett spent her own time learning the choreography with Mrs Rowe before leading this afternoon’s rehearsal with such confidence and professionalism.

Also a massive shoutout to our Greased Lighting performers who treated Scarlett with such respect, just as if she was a member of staff.

This is also a reminder to purchase tickets for ANATA 2024. It’s not to be missed!

Sporting Fixtures

Another fantastic LAT tournament for our Year 9 and 10 girls. This time they bought home silver medals from the handball tournament. Girls are smashing it this year!

This week at LAR we had our first ever Cheerleading Club held by Mr Judge, the girls that attended learnt new jumps and stunts! If you’re interested boys and girls of all year groups welcome! Fantastic teamwork girls!

Remembrance Day

Mr Blinkhorn led a thoughtful and reflective service for all our students on Armistice Day. All students also in the academy took part in the 2 minutes silence to show their respect to our fallen service men and women.

Thank you to all the students who wore their service uniform with pride and took part in the ceremony.

Year 9 Interactive Safety Roadshow

On Wednesday all year 9 were off timetable for the day to access a 'Safety Workshop' delivered by the Violence Reduction Unit in collaboration with kent police. This was a 4 hour long programme delivered to students with over 10 guest speakers from different agencies that work with adolescents to keep them safe.

As part of this workshop they discussed and learnt more facts about topics linked to the statutory PSHE curriculum including how to keep themselves safe in relation to:

Drugs and Alcohol,
Sexual Health and Consent,
Youth Services for Mental Health Support
Bus Safety, Rail Safety, Road safety
Extremism and radicalisation
Gangs and Knife Crime

Students were able to hear from guests who had first hand experiences linked to these contextual safeguarding issues and were able to take part with question and answer sessions.

We were privileged to have access to this funded event and students also enjoyed the appearance of the singer Robbie White, who performed to students throughout the workshop and signed autographs at the end of the session.

Sparx Maths and Reader

We are the highest performing in the Trust on Sparx Maths for Year 8 and 10 engagement as well as the highest performing in the Trust on Sparx Reader for Year 10 engagement well done to all our students. We are so proud of you all. Keep up the good work!

Children in Need

Today the academy took part in 'Children in Need' where children brought in sweet treats from home whether they were homemade or shop brought. All the children got involved and took part by wearing non-school uniform and donating any money that they had towards either the bake sale or wearing their own clothes. We can confirm that the academy has raised a lovely amount of £1602. We would like to thank everyone that took part and donated; we couldn't have done it without you guys so thank you.

Proud Friday

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Online Safety

Online Safety for Kids: Using Built-in Parental Tools

As children spend more time online, it's important to keep internet safety in mind.

Keeping children safe online doesn’t have to be complicated. Built-in tools on iPhones and Android devices make it easier for parents to monitor screen time, set app limits, and filter content. Here’s how to get started:

For iPhone Users: Apple’s Screen Time lets you manage app limits, monitor daily activity, and set content restrictions. You can set this up directly on your device to track and limit your child’s usage.
For Android Users: Google Family Link helps you manage apps, set time limits, and see your child’s location. It’s ideal for younger kids and easy to control from any Android device.

These tools provide a practical and straightforward way to stay involved in your child’s online life.

Christmas Card Competition