Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope this update finds you and your family well.  

Despite the past couple of weeks being disrupted by strikes and bank holidays, our fantastic students have come back to the academy this week with a semblance of calm and purposefulness in lessons and across the academy site.  Over 2000 positive logs have been awarded and over 120 Golden tickets.  We are looking forward to having two full weeks of uninterrupted routine for students leading up to the half term break, especially for our Year 11 and 13 students whose exam timetables really take hold from next week.  We are all rooting for them and wish them and you, their parents and carers, all the very best for their upcoming exams.

This week, Mr Ilsley (Deputy Head of Shackleton College) has delivered some thought provoking assemblies across each of the Year groups.  The assembly has been on the topic of 'Ask twice'.  It is Mental Health awareness month and the assembly was an open account of Mr Ilsley and his group of friends and how they always ask each other how they are twice.  The idea being that the tokenistic nature of asking somebody if they are OK and simply replying 'yes, thanks' is not always a true reflection of how we are feeling.   We want to normalise the fact that it is OK to sometimes not feel fully OK, and, if that is the case, where we can go to access support if we feel ourselves, or a friend may need some additional support.  

The Student Voice group is continuing to develop, regular meetings are taking place alongside myself, Mr Toal and Miss Sutcliffe.  Students had been tasked with researching and bringing back to the most recent meeting ideas for rewards trips and some really suggestions were made that we are now following up on.  Further discussions and suggestions were made regarding the trips that students would like to go on and at what stage in their school career.  Thank you to all involved, it is testament to the character of our students that they want to continually work with us to improve their educational experiences and I am so proud to be continuing to build upon our culture here at Mascalls Academy where staff and students work alongside one another to support our continual reflection and improvement. 

I also wanted to take the opportunity to thank Year 8 parents for the positive feedback that we recieved on Parents evening and afterwards via email.  Face to face communication between parents and carers, staff and students creates an invaluable opportunity for dialogue and reflection as to how a young person is progressing.  Most importantly, it is a space for each of our students to feel valued and offered time by the adults that support them each day in school and at home so they can be praised and challenged with what next steps they can take to progress.

Thank you as always for your continued support.  I hope you have an enjoyable weekend.

Many thanks 

Mrs Brooks 

Duke of Edinburgh 

Congratulations to our 1st cohort of 45 Year 9 students who completed their Duke of Edinburgh Bronze expedition last week in the countryside surrounding Tunbridge wells and Southborough.  It is such a fantastic achievement, and despite the cold night temperatures and damp weather on Friday, they enjoyed it as the pictures below show!  To be able to offer students the opportunity to work as a team, develop independence, build on new skills and to foster new friendships is something I hope will become part of the diet that all students at Mascalls Academy will be able to experience in the future.  Special thanks to Miss Gough, Mr Collis and Miss Murphy for leading the group alongside a team of Duke of Edinburgh experts in what is an exciting new accomplishment for the academy and our students.

Academic term dates 2023/24

Please make a note of the slight change to the start of term dates for Module 1 - Academic Year 2034/2024.  Click here to access the website page.