Dear Parents, Students and Colleagues
 
It´s been another busy week at the Academy. Our new Year 7 students came for their taster day on Monday and were introduced to our Steps and Themes curriculum. We gave out lots of certificates for their brilliant first day.
 
Tuesday saw an excellent musical event with Year 7 as the audience. Some of the vocal and instrumental performances were absolutely stunning. The choir was  great as well. The creative arts performances continued on Wednesday night with Year 10 taking to the stage, as part of their drama GCSE.
 
I´ll never lose the sheer joy of seeing our young people performing on stage. Art, music, dance and drama provide so many students with the opportunity to develop their talents and express themselves in a positive way. The applause from an audience of fellow students expresses the admiration they have for the performers and binds together our school community.
 
As I finish writing this blog Cultural Awareness day is in full swing, with a massive range of activities under way. I´m particularly looking forward to lunch today as every dish will have been prepared by the students — a great way to end this week!
 
On the academic front, if you are a parent of a student in Year 7, 8 or 9 you can log onto the EDS system and see this filling up with end of year assessment data. Year 10 will be getting a paper report similar to the one we produced before parents consultation evening. This information will give you a picture of progress at the end of term and will form the basis of the Goal Setting evening we will have close to the start of next term.
 
Nick Jones, Principal