Dear Parent/Carer,
As I stood with students during break time and talked to them about their plans for the weekend, I felt very proud of the way in which the students are continuing to apply themselves this year. The last GCSE and A Level exams concluded this week and I have been extremely impressed with how Year 11 and Year 13 students have conducted themselves. Some schools have reported issues in the formal exam sessions as students have not had the preparation and previous experience, but we have been delighted by their behaviour and conduct. I would also like to say a huge thank you to the staff at JPA who have worked hard to support the students and, of course, to parents who have helped support their children through these difficult times. For Year 11, I hope they enjoy their Prom which is taking place this evening.
Sixth Form Bridging Week – Tuesday 28th June to Friday 1st July
Many of our Year 11 students will be shortly returning to JPA for their Bridging Week into Sixth Form. This is an important transition event, and really helps students engage with Sixth Form and develop an early understanding of the course, so they can ‘hit the ground running’ in September. If you do not think your child is enrolled on the Bridging Week and is keen to return to JPA Sixth Form, then please contact the Sixth Form team to discuss.
OFSTED Visit
OFSTED visited Jesmond Park Academy on the 8th and 9th June and we are pleased with how the inspection panned out. As you may be aware, schools are not allowed to discuss any provisional findings until the final report is published so please bear with us. We believe that we will have the report by the end of the school year and we will write to all parents, with a link to the report. I would just like to thank the student body who were absolutely superb and conducted themselves so well during the two days.
Highlight of the Month
Some of you may have seen one of our lovely Year 10 students, Lauren Mallaburn, who was on the One Show this week. Alex Jones and Huw Edwards presented Lauren with a Young Reporter of the Year award as part of the BBC ‘Share your Story’ series. If you want to watch the clip, you can find it here: https://www.jesmondparkacademy.org.uk/article/2022/6/22/bbc-young-reporter-competition-2022.
Lauren put exemplary effort into the report she produced, beating over 2000 applications from across the country and if you watch the report, you can see how impressed the judging panel were. A big thank you also to the Media Department who launched the competition with their students at the start of the year and helped make this happen.
Year 6 Transition Evening
Just to let everyone know that we had a superb Transition Evening last night, which was well attended by supportive parents. Parents had the opportunity to listen to a presentation about the forthcoming transition days, the start of the new term in September and order uniform. There were some excellent speeches about settling into school from our current Year 7 students and the musical contributions throughout the evening were outstanding. Transition is so important for a successful start to the new school year and we have been working hard with Primary Schools to make sure we have an in depth understanding of our new intake. We have increased the amount of Transition days in the penultimate week to 3, so Year 6 students can spend some quality time in the school so that they do not feel any anxiety over the summer break.
The Heaton Festival and Peace Walk - Saturday 25th June 2002
The Heaton Festival, organised by Heaton Churches Together, is happening again this year, after a break caused by the Pandemic. It will be on Saturday 25th June from Noon until 7pm in Heaton Park. There will be a Peace Walk as part of this, for those who want to show solidarity with the people of Ukraine or just simply want to promote peace. The walk itself will start from St Theresa’s Church on Heaton Road at 11.45 and we would encourage those who want to join.
Best wishes for the remainder of the term. I’ll write again in the forthcoming weeks with a final newsletter and, of course, we will pass on the Ofsted Report when it comes in.
Yours faithfully
STEVE CAMPBELL
PRINCIPAL