Dear Parents, Students and Colleagues
 
I look forward immensely to our Open Evening because it is a very special event in the Academy calendar. It is one of the rare occasions where we invite members of the public to see our work and to get a sense of how the Academy is changing and moving forward. It is, of course,  our opportunity to invite parents and families of Year 6 pupils looking for a secondary school but I hope that many of our existing families will come and join us for the evening and see what we have been doing over the last year and during the summer holidays.
 
There will be lots of our students supporting the event so thank you in advance to them for helping out. Many of them are Ambassadors and are linked to subject departments, taking on responsible roles around the Academy, supporting staff in a range of valuable ways.
 
Two of our Year 11 students represented the students on the Academy Council, which met earlier this week. It is very rare for there to be student representation on what is, in effect, the governing body of the school, so this is clearly a very responsible role. The Council meeting is an important forum with contributions from parents, students, staff and the Learning Schools Trust Board. I also present a formal report to the Council and use the forum to gauge opinion and as a source of ideas. It was a very lively and productive meeting this week, covering a wide range of issues and I was proud and impressed with the way our two student representatives made a contribution to all aspects of the meeting. There presence helps to ensure that we never forget that everything we do should be student focused. As well as sitting on the Academy Council Richard Shelly and Jessie Au also run the student council.
 
One of the topics we discussed this week related to the importance of careers education and guidance. There is real concern around the country that funding cuts are leading to a reduction in the availability of this important service. I´m really pleased to say that, working with a company called U-Explore, we have a dedicated careers service for the Academy. Our educational concept is about students setting themselves clear goals in life and one of these should be related to the career they will follow. I will tell you more about our careers service later in the year but, for now, I am really pleased that our students will have top quality support and guidance so that they are aware of the very many jobs and careers open to them.
 
Thank you again for your support at the start of term. I hope that you will be able to join us for the Open Evening.
 
Nick Jones, Principal