Luke Price

As you may already be aware, there was an incident after the Academy day on Tuesday 1st March where one of our students received serious but not life threatening injuries. We are working with West Midlands Police on this matter and Sandwell Council are providing support to students. Our thoughts and prayers are with the student, their family, and friends at this difficult time.

We appreciate that some parents/carers may want support in gaining confidence and skills to discuss healthy relationships and sex with their child at home, and in a way that complements the RSHE curriculum they follow in the Academy. Below are a series of Facebook Live sessions that parents/carers may find useful. The sessions are informal and will look at frequently asked questions, provide tips on how to discuss topics at home, and offer the opportunity for live questions to be asked.

We are approaching the time of year when Year 9 students begin to consider their subject choices for Key Stage 4 (Years 10 and 11). This year we have decided to delay the options process so students have more time in all their subjects before making a decision. This is especially important for the practical subjects which have lost so much time during the lockdowns.

Today is Safer Internet Day 2022 and to celebrate, students will be undertaking a range of activities this week at the Academy to reflect on how we can all use the internet in a safer way. We wanted to take this opportunity to signpost parents/carers to some excellent resources and support to help you to ensure that your children are being as safe as they can when using the internet at home and on a mobile device or games console. Click on the links below for more information:

Work Experience for Year 10 students will be approached differently this year due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation, and the fact that many businesses are still having to practise social distancing and/or employees are working from home. Therefore, as an Academy we are considering offering a blended approach to Work Experience, as follows:

We appreciate that some parents/carers may want support in gaining confidence and skills to discuss healthy relationships and sex with their child at home, and in a way that complements the RSHE curriculum they follow in the Academy. Below are a series of Facebook Live sessions that parents/carers may find useful. The sessions are informal and will look at frequently asked questions, provide tips on how to discuss topics at home, and offer the opportunity for live questions to be asked.

We can confirm that we will re-open on Thursday 27th January from 8:40am as normal. Thank you for your patience. We know closing the Academy creates real difficulties for many families and we apologise again for the disruption this has caused. We are in Week 2 of the fortnightly timetable, and we look forward to welcoming back students tomorrow.

Firstly, an apology. I know that many of you will have had to change your working arrangements to be with your children and we are genuinely sorry for the considerable inconvenience we know this disruption has caused.

The Academy will remain closed on Monday 24th and Tuesday 25th January. We will communicate re-opening plans once the engineers are further through their work. Students should continue to access their learning remotely through Google Classroom.

We regret to inform you that the Academy will be closed tomorrow due to a heating failure. Whilst we have allowed students to wear coats today, it is unfair to expect students to attend when we are unable to bring the temperature of the building to a reasonable level.  Learning will now move to Google Classroom, which all students can access here using their Academy Google account. Students should follow their usual timetable, and access the Google Classroom of the subjects they would usually study at that time.  We are working with engineers to repair the heating as soon as possible, and will confirm re-opening arrangements once we know more.