Mascalls Academy Update 

Dear Parents and Carers,


Well, it certainly feels as though I have blinked and it is suddenly the Easter break!  The longer days and hopefully some sunshine will prove to be a welcome relief from the weather we have been experiencing recently!  


As always, our wonderful students and devoted staff have been exceptionally busy over the past six weeks. Our students have been a credit to you as parents and carers, and to us as an Academy.  The proportion of positive logs continue to outshine any negative logs along with the usual excited and proud displays of well deserved Golden Tickets being paraded at lunchtime and after school.  Reports will be available via the MyChildAtSchool app later on today where you will be able to see the progress your child has been making.  Our library has had a particularly busy module with World Book Day and many other planned activities, please click this link to see our Library update.


We have also recently updated out Curriculum section on our website to offer you a more detailed look at the curriculum offer here at Mascalls Academy and so you can be fully aware of what is covered in each year of your child's journey with us.  Please use this link to access the page.


I visited a number of local shops, Putlands Leisure Centre and Paddock Wood train station this week, and all have said how well our students represent the Academy, and you as parents and carers.  In a time where there is discussion in the media around an increase in antisocial behaviour from young people within our society, Mascalls Academy students buck that trend, and we are hugely proud of them for it.  


A vast amount of extra curricular activities have taken place too, these offer our students opportunities outside of the classroom where they can be brave, be bold and have the opportunity to develop skills in a variety of different environments.  This update will demonstrate to you the significant number of opportunities that are there for our students to compliment the educational provision that is delivered in the classroom; dance or drama studios; laboratories; sports field; gym or our library.  I would ask that you speak with your children to ask what aspects of our extra curricular delivery they would be interested in accessing.   If we don't currently have something they are interested in then advise them to raise it with our School Council reps or their Advisor who can make suggestions and as an academy we will see if we have the facilities and/or the resources to provide it.  


For these enriching activities to be accessed, students need to be here with us for us to support and help them develop.  School attendance has been in the media over the past few weeks, with a particular focus on the increase in students who are classified as being 'persistently absent'.  Students who have below 90% attendance for their current academic year fall into this bracket.  We have seen an increase in our overall attendance over the past 6 weeks, with a significant increase in Year 11.  In order to provide an education which will provide a wealth of opportunities for our young people, now, and in their future, we need the support of parents and carers to get our young people into school so their options are not limited.  The impact of not being in school upon a young persons progress is huge.  The use of Google Classroom and a Chromebook is simply not a substitute for a subject expert in the classroom and the learning environment and support via Place2be (our counselling provision) offered within the Academy.  


I wish you all a Happy Easter, and thank you for your continued support as always.


Many thanks 


Mrs Brooks 

Graffiti Wall - Tunbridge Wells 

16 year 9 students got to work with professional graffiti artists Humor & EKS on a legal graffiti wall in Grosvenor park in Tunbridge Wells. 


Students also had the opportunity to undertake a graffiti trail around the park, taking photos and discussing with representatives from the Amelia Scott gallery their views on graffiti and its sometimes controversial place in the visual arts. As a former philosophy and ethics teacher, Karina, the Amelia education officer was particularly impressed with the quality of our students' ethical and political understanding of graffiti as an artform and commended them on their eloquence, reasoning and thoughtfulness. 


Karina said she had been really inspired by them, as were Miss Baston & I (in addition to being amazed that not a single student complained about the rain and wind!!)  - Miss Charlton

Year 12 and 13 Sociology

Year 12 and 13 Sociologists attended an A Level Sociology conference at University College London in Bloomsbury on Tuesday 28th March.

Catching the train up to Charing Cross then walking to University College London via Covent Garden and the British Museum, the students attended 5 talks chaired by Professor Louise Archer. Our students represented our community immensely throughout by showing that they had the cultural capital to be at home at UCL, a world leading seat of academia and the streets of Covent Garden. 

Our 13 students heard 6 lectures on contemporary issues relevant to the AQA A Level Sociology course about: Nike identity girls in education, educational inequality after Covid lockdowns, the experiences of black male teachers in white educational spaces, social mobility, toys shaping gender identity and lessons learned about the effect of lockdowns on autistic students. 

Mascalls Sport

This module has seen each Mascalls PE Year group football team perform in the Semi Final of the League cup. This is the first time this has happened at the academy and it is a brilliant achievement for everyone involved. Thank you to all the staff who have supported each year group. Unfortunately each team lost their semi final however special mentions go to year 10 boys who played out a brilliant 5-3 game at St Gregs in front of their entire school as the game was played during their lunchtime. A brilliant atmosphere which delivered a thrilling game. This module has also been very busy with rugby fixtures. After completing our first fixture for 5 years at the start of the module we got our first win, a huge well done to the year 7/8 team for delivering this. Thank you again to all the parents that supported us throughout these games. Mascalls PE will be starting summer sports after Easter, that's Cricket and Athletics, please make sure students are signed up via SOCs for the clubs which start straight after the holidays.

Politics Trip

Last week, the 6th Form Politics students travelled to London where we were able to go to Parliament and watch the Business questions which were led by Penny Mordaunt MP, who is the Leader of the House of Commons. This was key to seeing how parliamentary debates work.

After this, we all headed to the Supreme Court where we were able to look at 2 courtrooms.  We were also able to walk around the exhibition showing the Court’s history and its purpose, solidifying our knowledge on the UK Judiciary.

We were also lucky enough to enter the House of Commons chamber which is a lot smaller in real life than you realise from TV! This is because we were able to have a Q+A with Greg Clark  MP. His answers to our questions were critical in expanding our knowledge on the role of an MP and seeing certain political topics such as First Past The Post and select committees from an MP’s perspective. 


Thank you to Miss Honey and Mr Burton for organising and taking us!

British Science Week 

British Science Week returned to Mascalls for the first time since 2019, with the Science Department leading a celebration of the importance of science in our daily lives. Aspiring medical students and psychologists were enthralled by an eye-opening talk from Mr Nolan about Mad Cow Disease and other degenerative brain diseases, before Mr Auty and his students quite literally played with fire. Students also had the opportunity to practise their dissection skills in a session (possibly a poor choice of activity for a lunchtime club!) and solve the Forensic Science Escape Room Challenge, whilst Mrs Codnor and Miss Brown made … in their Thursday afternoon Science Club (which will continue in Module 5).


An enormous number of students also took part in the Mascalls British Science Week poster competition, in which students were asked to create a poster about the connection between science and a hobby or area of interest from their daily lives. The Science Department have been hugely impressed with the effort, artistic skills and high level of knowledge shown in the posters, with students exploring topics as varied as how a football curls when kicked in a certain way, the science of bubble tea, the importance of science in the development (and playing) of video games, the science of tennis and F1, evolution, and so many more. We are pleased to announce that the winners of the competition were: Year 7 - Edward; Year 8 - Avery; Year 9 - Freyja. The winners' posters as well as a sample of other highly commended work are below.


The winning entries will now be entered into the official BSW poster competition, run by the British Science Association. 

Creative Writing Competition

This semester, the English department launched their first creative writing competition for KS3 and were overwhelmed by the fantastic responses we had from all years in KS3. The theme was centered around numbers, with students having a choice of sentence starters to use for their short fictional stories. We had a great array of short stories ranging from dystopian futuristic worlds to stories with great twists, turns and cliffhangers. 

After much deliberation, the winners were as follows:

Yr7: Rosie 

Yr8: Theo 

Yr9: Carmel

Special Mentions going out to:

Yr7: Olly, Valentino

Yr8: Delphine, Mae 

Yr9: Rafferty 

A huge congratulations for these students. The level of creativity was truly outstanding and we look forward to setting more creative challenges in the future!