Dear Parents and Carers,

As we begin the 2026 academic year, I first wanted to say that I hope all of our families had restful and enjoyable breaks over the festive period. I am mindful that the start of the year has since been a challenge for many in our community. With the ongoing water shortages affecting the local area, I have heard so many stories of the various ways our families have been coping, and I truly hope that you are all doing okay and that these issues sort themselves out very soon.  We are grateful that these local infrastructure challenges have not resulted in any school closures at Leigh Academy Mascalls. I know many schools in the Tunbridge Wells area have unfortunately been closed for over a week, and we feel very fortunate to have been able to keep our doors open and maintain a sense of routine for our students.

The start of the Spring term has been a very positive one. I would like to extend my thanks to all parents for supporting us in upholding our high expectations of uniform. As a reminder, trainers are not permitted as part of our uniform policy. We will continue to communicate with you where any issues arise and seek to support our families wherever possible; if there are financial concerns, please communicate with your College team directly to access any support with this.

In addition to uniform, I would like to request that parents check that all students have a pencil case equipped with pens, pencils, a highlighter, a ruler, a protractor, and a scientific calculator. Without these items, it can really slow the pace of learning in the classroom when teachers have to stop to help equip students. If there are any financial concerns regarding equipment, please remember that our Ready to Learn gate is open each morning. We can equip a student with what they need there, but we cannot sustain doing this on a daily basis and we require students to look after the equipment we give them.

It has been a busy time for extra-curricular activities as well. We have had a number of students attend the LAT 5-a-side football competitions this week, so a huge congratulations to all who competed! Furthermore, we held a very popular Duke of Edinburgh evening last week with a record number of students engaging with the programme. It is wonderful to see so many of our young people taking on these challenges.

I also wanted to take the opportunity to share some of the work we have carried out regarding how we structure lessons at Leigh Academy Mascalls over the past few years. As parents, we want to understand the diet of learning that our children receive, and I hope that these explanations I will provide over the coming weeks will give you a deeper insight into the experience that students have across the curriculum here and support dialogue at home about their learning. 

 Our staff have been trained in the Steplab Simple Model of teaching.  To provide a slightly more in-depth explanation, the Steplab model is based on the science of how people actually learn. It focuses on a cycle of clear modelling, guided practice, and independent work. By breaking learning down into small, manageable action steps, teachers can ensure that every student masters one concept before moving on to the next. This prevents the cognitive overload that happens when students are given too much information at once.

A key part of this model is that all LA Mascalls lessons begin with a Do Now activity. While these activities have been a core part of our academic culture for some time, I wanted to explain the rationale behind them. These tasks focus on consolidating learning from previous content through a process called retrieval practice. By regularly pulling information out of their memory at the start of a lesson, students strengthen those mental pathways. This ensures that learning gets stuck in students' brains, making it much easier for them to recall that knowledge when it is required for future learning or final assessments.

A big thank you to all of our Year 11 parents who attended the parents evening last night, we had a brilliant attendance and some really productive conversations around where the final gains will be for our Year 11 students in this final countdown to their exams. 

Next week we have the start of the Ski lessons at Chatham start for those attending the Ski trip In February, and our Year 13 Health and Social Care students attend a local care home to put their learning into practice and context.  A reminder also that Rugby after school club is running after school on Monday so don't forget yourboots if you want to take part!

I hope you have restful weekends.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs Brooks