Mascalls Academy Update 

Dear Parents and Carers,

The summer break is here!  It really has been such a fantastic year with so many individual and collective achievements. We have seen such an increase in positivity around the academy in the form of 4821 Golden Tickets, over 135,000 positive progress logs, more trips abroad and in the UK and more clubs being offered and attended than ever before.  When people visit Mascalls Academy, they often refer to the atmosphere here as a 'something special'.  The reasons for this are the relationships and humility that is shared between staff and students.  This week has seen that in so many different forms through the various end of term events that have taken place and the environment across the academy.

The huge numbers of rewards that students have recieved from their teachers have all built up and contributed to the College competition which has culminated in our 'OnMas' festival which took place this week.  The build up to 'OnMas' has also included subject area College competitions which have taken place throughout the past few weeks and students have had weekly updates in how many points they have collected for their College.  The competition has been very close throughout the year, and Sports Day this year saw students constantly asking for the scores throughout the day as they are so invested in supporting their College team.  

Ending the academic year after 6 months as Principal offers me an opportunity to reflect and to ensure that where developments can be made, they are planned for effectively to ensure an even better educational provision for our students next year.  I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for feedback offered over the past 6 months and for the opportunity to meet so many of you.  From September I would like to open up the dialogue with parents and carers even more.  I will be arranging mornings / afternoons / evenings  where you are able to book in to come in and meet with myself to either offer feedback, or to have a cup of coffee and discuss our vision for Mascalls Academy for the coming months / years ahead.  More details regarding this will be sent when we return in September.

At the start of the academic year 23/24 our new Year 7 students and our Year 12 students will start on Friday 1st September and will recieve their timetables on the day, the rest of the academy will return on Monday 4th September.  We will be starting on a Week 1 of the timetable and students will recieve their timetable for the new academic year on that morning.  They should be wearing full uniform and have all equipment, including pencil case, charged chromebook ready for the new academic year.  The Ready to Learn gate (by the side of reception) will be open as always for any missing equipment in pencil cases and to ensure all students are prepared to access the full curriculum on their first day.  

In preparation for the new academic year, it is important to remind you that as always, there is no guarantee that your child will remain in the same teaching groups.  Amendments are made at the end of each academic year according to staffing and more importantly to ensure appropriate groupings of students in classrooms.  We minimise the number of changes where possible but changes are necessary at times and important in order to prepare our students for the inevitable changes in groups that take place at Key Stage 4 when subject options have been made.  Students will receive their timetables in advisory at the start of the first day and they will be available on MCAS from Friday 1st September. 

There are some changes to our behaviour policy for the new academic year to ensure that we are achieving 'disruption free' learning for our students within the classroom.  You will recieve a letter from Mr Courtney, Vice Principal and Behaviour and Attitudes, to explain these changes to you today.  

I hope you will enjoy reading about the many wonderful events and activities that all students have had a chance to take part in throughout the past week.  We have been overwhelmed by the messages of thanks from parents and students and just seeing them have fun and celebrate all we have achieved together has been a wonderful end to the year. 

We wish you all a happy summer, and thank you for your continued support as always.

Many thanks 

Mrs Brooks 

OnMas Festival 2023

What a day Wednesday was!  When the initial plans were made last academic year for the 'OnMas' festival, we had high hopes for many students current and returning, to come and be on the stage on the top field and to have students dancing, singing and celebrating the co-curricular offering that students had accessed throughout the year.  The co-curricular committee (pictured above) worked throughout the year and secured some fantastic support from a global festival stage producer to set up a full festival quality stage with sound and lights for our students to perform on.  The build up to 'OnMas' has been throughout the academic year with students accessing the 40+ extra curricular activities that have been available, along with the accumulation of subject based College competitions where students have collected reward points and Golden tickets for their College.  

The day began at 6am for the co-curricular committee setting up the festival site ready for the first students to arrive from 9am.  All year groups were allocated a time slot and were given their festival bands during advisory.  Year 7s were the first to enjoy the festival and they got it off to a brilliant start with performances from Jeremy doing a true 80s set with crowd of students (and staff) dancing and singing along with him.  Dancers, singers, rappers, bands, DJ's and individual musicians all performed throughout the day with some even receiving chants from their peers to perform again!  

With the performances as a backdrop, students also had access to an inflatable assault course, giant jenga competitions, a traditional coconut shy, face painting (which Mr Mathews took full advantage of!), a penalty shoot out, Netball shoot out, inflatable sumo suits, bouncy castle, pugil sticks, outdoor darts, free pizzas made by the DT dept and Food and Nutrition students and Ice Cream van.  It was a perfect atmosphere and all students had something to take part in. 

All students got to access the festival at lunchtime and heard Sam K in Year 7 deliver a DJ set which was a fitting end to a brilliant day.   The days performances were a perfect build up to the announcement of Shackleton College winning the overall Competition for 2023!  Congratulations to everybody who took part in the day and we hope it is now a Mascalls Academy tradition to end the academic year! 

Special thanks to Miss Butler for all of her hard work in coordinating such a brilliant event.

Sports Day 2023

Sports Day took place on Tuesday 18th July. This academic year has seen a huge increase in extracurricular activities and the highest numbers of participation in those activities for years, not only within the PE department, but across the school. Due to this, the PE department wanted to continue these high levels of participation and promote inclusivity across the events that we ran on Sports Day. These activities included the traditional throwing, jumping and running events, however the addition of team events such as Volleyball, Dodgeball, Touch Rugby and Rounders were introduced and students were immediately excited to participate. 

The day commenced at 8.30am with year 7 and year 8 starting the day with their morning events. Some notable performances were: Liam winning the 800m for Earhart, Ronald winning the Shotput and Javelin for Shackleton, Kacie winning the Long Jump for Shackleton, Indiana winning both Shotput and Javelin for Earhart and a fantastic 800m win for Shackleton by Lyndon.  

Year 9 and 10 joined at 10am to compete in their morning events and they certainly did not disappoint. Some notable performances were the year 9 Luther King Touch Rugby team, Tatenda winning Long jump for Earhart, Katarina winning Long Jump for Luther King and Madyson winning both Javelin and Shotput for Shackleton. 

The afternoon events brought the entire school out to the field to cheer on or participate in the 100m, 200m and 300m sprints, the 4 x 4 100m relay and the highly anticipated staff and 6th form relay!  The afternoon also brought the addition of the Ice cream vans, which is always a highlight of the day for many! Some outstanding performances in the afternoon include Nancy G, Aaron B, Hannah L and Oliver T who all won sprinting events for their colleges. 

Throughout the morning and afternoon we had year 10 Sports Leaders and Year 12 Sport Science, BTEC Sport and Media students who were all exceptional in their support of the PE department. The Sport students supported events superbly, notable leaders were Emmy, Martha  and Lucas who went above and beyond to support staff and the running of the day.

The staff relay brought its usual excitement and closed the afternoon, with Mr Allen winning the final leg for Shackleton college. After an extremely successful day, Mrs Brooks presented the Sports Day trophy to Shackleton who won with 1031 points! A close 2nd place was awarded to Earhart with 1011 points and 3rd place to Luther King with 825 points. 

The trophy was presented to Mr Burton and Mr Beck. This Sports Day was Mr Beck’s 32nd Sports Day and unfortunately his last. Mr Beck’s dedication to Mascalls Academy and the PE department has been second to none and I would like to personally thank him for his commitment to the students and the opportunities that he has provided to so many students over the years. He will be missed and the PE department wish him the very best in his future endeavours. 

Can I take this opportunity to say thank you to: my fabulous PE department for delivering such a well run event and inspiring so many students to participate.  To Miss Shaw-Kew for compering the afternoon events, to Miss Entacott and her Media students for taking video footage and photographs of the day, to all staff for their support in the afternoon and most importantly to the students, who went beyond our expectations, behaved impeccably and participated in more activities than ever before. Bring on Sports Day 2024!

Mrs West

Head of PE and HSC 

Frozen - End of Year Performance 

Since January over 50 students have been working together in rehearsals tirelessly rehearsing and designing the technical elements for our annual musical of Disney's smash hit, 'Frozen'. In celebration of 100 years of Disney it seemed right for us to choose a musical that encapsulates everything that Disney stands for: an enchanted kingdom, magical characters and annoyingly catchy songs. All of the students' hard work paid off on Thursday and Friday as they performed to over 500+ audience members consisting of two Primary School matinees and two evening performances to friends, family and staff. A big thank you again to our sponsors who help us create the magic on stage. We are so incredibly proud of all involved that made this performance a great success! As we 'Let It Go' for this year...what will next year bring? 

Mrs Alldridge 

Head of Drama