Frequently Asked Questions

The Petchey Academy is committed to inspiring and supporting every child to be the very best that they can be. Our focus is on each child as an individual, through strong pastoral support systems complemented by a broad and holistic curriculum and high quality teaching that stretches and challenges students to think for themselves.

We believe in the importance of fostering a love of learning and stimulating curiosity through exposure to a wide range of activities and opportunities beyond the classroom.

The Latin motto on the academy crest is "Excelsior", meaning "Ever Higher". It encapsulates the aspirations we have for our students to believe in their own ability to achieve more. Jack Petchey’s motto was the inspiration for our ethos “If I think I can, I can.”

The Petchey Academy is committed to inclusion of all students and we are very proud of our provision for deaf and hearing impaired children.

• We are proud to be inclusive, we take an equal number of students from each CATS band every year. CATS tests are taken by every Year 6 child in Hackney each autumn. We also have facilities for deaf and hearing impaired students.

• Teaching focuses on differentiation to ensure the most able students are stretched and stimulated whilst the less able are supported so that every child can achieve their potential.

• For September 2020 we introduced a new organisational structure, new curriculum and timetable with a much stronger focus on raising teaching standards and student wellbeing and development. The changes have been 12 months in the planning and taken in to account feedback from students, parents and staff.

• Students start the day with Tutor time at 8.30am each day to set the tone for the day, focus on student wellbeing and personal development with a member of staff who knows each student well.

• Our new Behaviour Policy reduces the emphasis on heavy sanctions in favour of restorative conversations and understanding root causes of behaviour issues.

• A wide range of free extra-curricular activities are available to all students to expose them new opportunities and interests, creating well rounded and engaged individuals, broadening interests and aspirations.

• Unique and exciting STEM specialism. Even if they don’t want to follow this area as a career path, STEM related projects and events are threaded through the curriculum in each year, from Lego robotics to the Escape Room sponsored by the IET, supporting students to important skills and exposing them to a wide range of career possibilities.

• We serve every student with a hot, healthy meal every day, freshly prepared by our kitchen team on site. No packed lunches are allowed but students may bring a healthy snack to eat at break time.

The transition from primary to secondary school is an exciting and sometimes daunting time for both students and parents and we aim to make it as smooth and stress free as possible. Our New Families’ Handbook tells you everything you and your child need to know before you start, and we usually host a series of transition at the academy events to help new students to get to know their peers, the academy and the staff, including a whole year group trip at the start of the new academic year.

This year we had to do things slightly differently as school was closed and face to face meetings were not possible, instead we did the following:

A dedicated transition website for new year 7 students which included welcome videos from key staff, a virtual tour and advice from current students

https://sites.google.com/petcheyacademy.org.uk/year7transition2020/home

Welcome meeting with Clare and key staff via Zoom – families could ask questions via the chat

Regular year 7 transition newsletter to families with updates and information

At the start of the new academic year, year 7 students have an induction day with the academy all to themselves to allow them time to adjust to their new school and find their way around before the rest of the students come back.

We admit 180 students into Year 7, places are allocated across four equally weighted bands determined by a CATS test that all students take in Year 6. Applications are based on a lottery system 50% from within a 1 mile radius of the academy and 50% from a 2 mile radius.

Read more about our admissions criteria at https://www.petcheyacademy.org.uk/599/admissions

How did the academy support students during lockdown?

Fortunately, at the time of lockdown, the academy was in the process of transitioning to Google Classroom therefore we were already geared up to move to online teaching. We continued to provide plenty of work and activities for students to compete via Show My Homework and our pastoral team were in regular contact with their tutor groups to check in with students and monitor their wellbeing.

Students in our sixth form received live, timetabled lessons via Google Classroom.

We also had lots of exciting things happening on our Instagram feed including weekly interhouse challenges, art challenges and PE challenges for students.

The wellbeing of our students is at the core of everything we do at the academy and we understand that students will be experiencing a wide range of different emotions as a result of the pandemic and the lockdown. The prospect of returning to school after such a long time at home may also cause feelings of heightened anxiety. The strong pastoral support systems that we have a reputation for at the academy will ensure that we can support every student upon their return to school through identifying where extra support with mental health, wellbeing or managing emotions is needed.

With regards to the curriculum, whilst there may changes to some subjects - such as PE and music - to ensure they can be delivered as safely as possible, The Petchey Academy ethos is built around fostering a love of learning and stimulating curiosity therefore we will to continue to deliver a broad and varied curriculum for our students and no subjects will be excluded.

In the event of a lockdown all students will be issued with Google Classroom log in details to be able to access a series of both regular live lessons as well as on demand lessons which they can access at any time. We are also aware that spending prolonged periods of time infront of a screen is not great for young people so we will also be providing printed resources and text books for independent study. We are currently assessing levels of access to technology at home across each year group in order to be able to direct resources to those in most need within 24 hours.

Whilst it is not possible to ensure a totally risk-free environment, the academy is taking all reasonable precautions to ensure that staff and students can feel safe whilst in school.

We have completed a comprehensive risk assessment to inform our Covid response strategy and followed all government advice as laid out here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/preparing-for-the-wider-opening-of-schools-from-1-june/planning-guide-for-secondary-schools

Essential measures include, but are not limited to:

• Staggered break and lunch times and staggered entrances, exits and start and finish times.

• Removing family service to ensure students are not serving each other

• Separate academy entry and exit points for year groups

• Ensuring good respiratory hygiene by The Petchey Academy promoting the ‘catch it, bin it, kill it’ approach

• Enhanced cleaning arrangements, including cleaning frequently touched surfaces with sanitiser

• Minimising contact between individuals and maintain social distancing wherever possible

• Robust hand hygiene protocols

• Sanitising stations throughout

• Active engagement with NHS Test and Trace

• One way systems in place to reduce the potential for contact

We have put together a comprehensive document to explain to parents and carers the measures we have put in to place:

https://petcheyacademy.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/document/Petchey-Academy-Guidance-on-returning-to-school-in-September.pdf?t=1599056065?ts=1599056065

We admit 180 students in to year 7 and these are evenly split across all ability bands as determined by the CATs test that all Hackney children take in year 6. The year group is split in to 8 tutor groups, they meet with Tutors daily in Tutor Time at the start of the day and their Form Tutor will become main point of contact for both students and parents/carers.

In these times of unprecedented change, the health, wellbeing and safety of our students is paramount, and we are proud of the caring and supportive environment that the academy provides. We create a healthy balance between high academic success and a caring and supportive environment.

Our pastoral care system is specifically designed to address every individual child’s wellbeing through dedicated Progress & Achievement Leaders (PALS) and Assistant PALS (APALS) who are responsible for supporting the welfare of their year group, as well as managing students’ attendance and overall behaviour. Students are also assigned to a Form Tutor who they meet with in Tutor Time at the start of every day. Tutors use daily Tutor Time to reflect on individual attainment, attendance and behaviour, as well as discussions on PSHCE (Personal, Social, Health and Citizenship Education), careers and topical issues. We also have a dedicated Student Wellbeing Manager, Home Academy Liaison Officer and Behaviour Intervention Manager who are part of our Safeguarding Team, as well as on site counsellors and Child & Adolescent Mental Health Service Professionals each week for tailored support for young people who need it.

Our ethos is built around the importance of fostering trust between students and staff and a culture of openness so that students feel that they always have someone they can talk to whatever the subject. We work closely with the Safer Schools team, and we tackle topical issues that affect students both inside and outside of school through Tutor Time, assemblies, visiting speakers and workshops such as "Prison, me? No Way!" and County Lines theatre.

We are also committed to empowering parents and carers to support their child through the sharing of information and resources, as well as regular parent workshops on topical issues.

Students with SEND or who experience barriers to learning are supported through tailored intervention from the Renaissance Team to ensure that they take full advantage of all the learning opportunities and experiences available and participate fully in the life of the academy.

• There is an Excelsior (“Ever Higher”) programme to broaden the minds of and stretch our most able students and we differentiate learning in classrooms to ensure that every child is challenged.

• Our more able provision has 4 key elements:

Extend – this is through stretch and challenge in lessons; making sure are most able students are being ‘pushed’ in their subjects

Experience – we provide bespoke experiences, including trips and speakers, designed to support and inspire more able students

Aspire – TPA provides opportunities to expose students to aspirational universities and careers to encourage them to make their dreams a reality

Achieve – we carefully track and monitor our students each half term to make sure no student is left behind

• Students are expected to do 20-30 mins per subject per night from Y7 (about 2-3 subjects per night) and this increases to 2 hours+ in Y11

• A Home Learning timetable is provided and teachers use SMHW to allow parents to see what is set and support their child. Home Learning is designed to reinforce learning done in lessons, it’s not set for the sake of it.

Family Service is not feasible in the context of social distancing, however students will be served a freshly prepared, healthy meal which they will collect and eat at socially distanced tables. Packed lunches are not allowed and no food or drink other than still water and fruit are to be brought into the academy. Students stay on site during lunch time in order to ensure they remain in a safe environment during the day. We are strongly committed to adopting healthier catering practices and to encourage healthy and balanced eating. Our Family Service lunch means that students dine together in small groups encouraging them to cooperate and socialise together. By only offering one choice for lunch we also reduce the amount of food wasted and ensure that every student has a healthy meal. Out food is Halal certified but not HMC Halal, vegetarians and dietary requirements for medical or allergen reasons are catered for.

2020 was on track to be one of our best years yet in terms of GCSE and A Level success, but Covid changed the impact of students’ hard work in so many ways.

We are extremely pleased to say that we welcomed back the largest % ever of our internal students to the academy in our Sixth Form, and we also saw a huge number of our Sixth Form students go on to their first choice of university – including 3 medics, a placement to study political science at the University of Atlanta, several engineers and an Astrophysicist. We also have several students taking up apprenticeship placements. You can see all of our students’ destinations in 2020 here https://www.petcheyacademy.org.uk/609/latest-news/post/50/a-level-btec-results-day

2019 highlights

• 2019 saw the largest number of students ever to get 10 or more GCSEs at top grades

• A record breaking 30 students achieved between 10 and 12 GCSEs at grades 5-9 (17.5% of the year group) with over 2/3 of them achieving grades 6 or above in all

• 30% of all passes were at grades 6-9, our top 3 students achieved 11 GCSEs all at grades 7-9

• 64% of all GCSE passes were at grades 4 and above

• The Sciences were amongst the top performing subjects once again this year with 100% of Biology results at grade 5 or above and 92% of results in both Chemistry and Physics. Economics and Mandarin Chinese had their best years ever with 92% and 85% of results at grades 5 or above respectively.

• 100% of our Year 13 students this year achieved at least 3 A Levels or equivalent qualifications.

• 39% of our students achieved 3A*- B grades or equivalent

• 10 BTEC students achieved at Distinction level, equivalent to 3 A*- A grades

• 46% of students going on to higher education are now studying at a Russell Group university including Manchester, Liverpool and Warwick Universities.

We put students in to sets for English, Maths and Science only to allow the most able students to be stretched further, and support those that need more. These sets are determined after the first semester in year 7 and based loosely on the CATs test scores that we receive from Hackney Education, however we also make our own judgement based on how students have done in their first semester. The sets are not fixed and we will regularly review where students are at to ensure that they are in the most appropriate group to enable them to achieve their best.

We changed our mobile phone policy this academic year in response to feedback from parents and carers. Phones are not banned, however they must be kept in bags and switched off until they leave the academy. We understand that parents/carers may want students to have phones on their way to or from school but they must ensure that students understand our Mobile Phone Acceptable Use Policy.