Closure of Jesmond Park Academy - 28th November 2023

Principal's Letter - 28th November

Dear Parent/Carer,

It was wonderful to see all the school community back together as a whole yesterday. Students returned with smiles on their faces and worked hard throughout the day.  As a staff, we are delighted to return to some sort of normality after this turbulent time.  Of course, there is still some disruption to certain areas of the school which is affecting PE lessons, although staff and students have been very flexible in making the best out of the situation.  We are hoping to have full access to the PE department by the end of this week.

 

Recovery Programme

Our Recovery programme started in earnest last night.  All of Year 11 stayed behind for Period 7, with a range of subject specific sessions, combined with independent revision in preparation for their forthcoming mock examinations.  There will be occasions in which we ask targeted students to come back on a Tuesday or a Friday for additional catch up work.  We will work this sensibly throughout the year, making sure students are well prepared without putting undue stress and pressure upon them.

The Year 13 Recovery programme will not involve bringing the whole year group in on mass and will instead focus on bringing specific groups back.  This started yesterday with a range of subject specific sessions being delivered.

Year 10 and 12 will have similar after school sessions later on in the year, so we can make sure that content is recovered and gaps are filled and the planning for this has started already.

For Key Stage 3, departments are in the process of assessing how students have worked over the school closure and working on amending their curriculum to ensure that gaps are closed and key content revisited.  We are looking at key ways in which we can increase time for key areas as well – this has already started with some lead lessons in Science and English.

We will continue to keep you informed with the plans to support our students throughout the academic year, particularly those in Year 11 & 13 sitting public examinations in summer 2024. As we have said above, please be reassured that whilst we focus on supporting all of our students to achieve their best academically this year, we remain equally mindful of the importance of balancing this with supporting their health and wellbeing.

 

Parent/Carer events remaining this term

We are really pleased with the high uptake of parent/carers to our parent/carers events so far this year. This week we have our Year 10 parent/carer subject teacher evening on Wednesday 29^th November and our live TEAMs Year 11 ‘How to support your child evening’ on Thursday 30^th November. Other events this term include our Year 11 Sixth Form Open Evening on Wednesday 6^th December and our Year 11 parent/carer subject teacher evening on Thursday 14^th December. We have already written directly to our Year 11 parent/carers with information regarding the latter two evenings.

 

Mock Examinations

We are looking at our whole mock examination structure this year for all year groups, condensing a process which can often stretch over 2 weeks.  For all year groups, the programme will be condensed into one week.  This adjustment will facilitate staff and students further time to recap or catch up quickly with any missed learning.   We think it is important that we can give back as much face to face teaching time to departments as we can. We can use the Period 7 programme for additional assessment and examination papers throughout the year. Year 11 Mocks will commence on Monday 22^nd January 2024 - this is a week later than originally calendared.   Year 13 Mock examinations will remain as calendared starting on Monday 29^th January 2024, but again will be kept to a period of just over one week to ensure that learning time is maximised.

Performances and Enrichment

I know that one concern that parents have had is that the school would just focus on academic needs in our recovery and turn our backs on our much improved enrichment programme and our commitment to performances.  I would like to put minds at rest.  Even though we have a reduced run-in time, we are still committed to having our school performances this term on the following dates:

• Monday 18^th December at 5.30pm: Nightmare Before Christmas (Drama Production)
• Wednesday 20^th December at 6.00pm: Musical Showcase

We will communicate further information on our website regarding these forthcoming performances and we look forward to seeing our parent/carers and their families there.

Enrichment activities from before half term have now restarted after school and we will be publishing an updated overview to students and parent/carers on our website shortly.

We also have the National Theatre coming in to deliver a performance of, ‘A Christmas Carol’ to our Year 11 students on Friday 1^st December.

As well as performances, our commitment to sports and activities remain.  Our chess team reached the regional finals, only narrowly losing to St Mary’s in the final. Our basketball team continued to compete during the enforced closure, winning all of their games in the Newcastle Schools’ League so far and also beating the Royal Grammar School in the first round of the National Schools’.

In terms of Personal Development, there is a ‘Theatre in Education - Careers in the NHS’ careers event for all of our Year 8 students on Friday 8^th December. 

Thank you again for your ongoing support over recent weeks. It is greatly appreciated by all of the staff as we return to ‘normality’.

 

Warm regards,

STEVE CAMPBELL

PRINCIPAL

 

Previous Principal's Letter - November 24th

Previous Principal's Letter - November 20th

Previous Principal's Letter - November 16th

Previous Principal's Letter - November 14th

Previous Principal's Letter - November 10th

Previous Principal's Letter - November 8th

Previous Principal's Letter - October 27th

 

Gosforth Group Update 10^th November

 We are now in a position to begin the process of a phased re-opening of Jesmond Park Academy.

The Trust will engage the services of a scaffolding company who will erect protective walkways to ensure safe entry and egress to and from the building. In addition, Heras fencing will be erected to enhance site security.

The intended programme for the phased re-opening is;

·        To have 36 classrooms available from Thursday 16  November. Mr Campbell will inform parents and carers which students should attend school and confirm when

·         To have an additional 28 classrooms available from Monday 20 November. Again, Mr Campbell will keep parents and carers informed regarding which students should attend and when

·         A further update will follow regarding the expected date for further re-opening of the school.

 

School Closure - Letter from the Chair of Trustees - 20^th November

Dear Parent/Carer,

Parents’ Meetings

First of all, on behalf of the Trustees, can I apologise to you all for the enforced closure of the school building and the subsequent interruptions to the education of your children. This was not an easy decision to take but the safety of students and staff has been our paramount concern. I am pleased to say that the safe reopening, albeit phased, is well underway and attendance is very good. The Board is fully supportive of the plans being implemented by Mr Campbell and his staff to help our students catch up and we will ensure that any necessary resources are available to help expedite this.

I know that a number of messages have mentioned the PFI scheme. For context and background I have attached a very simplified explanation of the government scheme under which the school was built, the Private Finance Initiative.

I hope that this is helpful and that the dates and times will work for the majority of parents who wish to speak to us.

 

Yours sincerely

George Snaith

Chair of Trustees

 

Enc

PFI information

 

   

Gosforth Academy, Knightsbridge, Great North Road, Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE3 2JH

admin@gosforthgroup.org.uk

 

Private Finance Initiative

For some context and background I feel I should explain a little more about our position in regard to the school building. The school was built under the first round of the Private Finance Initiative, PFI 1, a government scheme in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s to encourage the private sector to take on the construction of important public buildings; hospitals, fire and police stations and schools. For schools under PFI, a private company takes on construction and retains ownership of the building for a period of at least 25 years. During that time the PFI Company has responsibility for facilities management for which a fee, the Unitary Charge, is deducted annually from the school budget. Through a Project Agreement between the Local Authority and the PFI company, the building is available for school to use during normal school hours and an agreed but limited amount of other hours/days over the year. The PFI company also has full control over lettings to other party users, in the evenings, at weekends and during the school holidays. They are allowed to generate an income stream from these lettings. The Trust has no control over that at all.

In other areas where PFI built schools have joined Multi Academy Trusts, the contract or Project Agreement is usually reassigned from the Local Authority to the Trust, thereby establishing a legal relationship. With PFI 1 in Newcastle, six schools were built under the Project Agreement, therefore the Council retains the legal relationship. The school building will come to the Trust at the end of the Project Agreement in about 6 years’ time.

School Closure - Letter from the Chair of Trustees - 9th November