Dear Parents/Carers,
The sun has finally been shining this week and this bright outlook is reflected in how well the students are working. This is the busiest time of year for schools as we help navigate Year 11 and Year 13 students through their final examinations. I wanted to take time to write to the school community to wish all students the best of luck in this period. Year 11 had their first ‘core’ examination today, and it was lovely to see them afterwards and see how positive they were discussing the paper. They had been well prepared and were delighted that they had got off to a good start. It is good that they can take this momentum into future revision. Year 13 examinations start next week and we remain optimistic for both year groups in their forthcoming examinations and are proud of their efforts!
Year 11 Notices
Year 11 exams have now began in earnest, with the examination and lesson warm up timetable being used to support our Year 11 through this period. A reminder that a copy of this was shared via the school website and is central to ensuring students receive the best possible support over the coming weeks. It is our belief that all students, regardless of their work ethic or ability, benefit from regular contact with teachers who are experts in their subjects and the examination process. As a result, all students will remain in lessons, examinations, and support sessions until 11th June. At that point they will start study leave and only attend lessons they have yet to sit an exam in, exam warms ups and the examinations. The movement towards study leave is a phased one and one that works very well.
Where the schedule indicates, “normal lessons” these are the lessons that still have examinations up and coming, where teachers are working to prepare them for the examinations. This is essential in making sure that all students are fully prepared. We believe that for later exams, such as Physics on 14th June, that students should continue to receive Physics tuition and preparation for this exam through contact with their class teachers and that unlike some schools, we will not allow a disconnection between students and teachers to happen.
To give students a balance of independent study time in school, as soon as a subject’s examinations have been completed, these lessons in school become independent guided study lessons allowing the students to study any material of their choosing.
There is light at the end of the tunnel for our Year 11 students with their final Leavers’ Assembly on Thursday 20th June and their Leavers’ Prom on Friday 28th June. Full uniform is required for the Leaving Assembly, so please do not discard or donate this until after this event. Further information in relation to both of these events will be disseminated in due course.
Year 10 Notices
For any Year 10 parent/carers who tried to attend the ‘How to Support your Child in the Year 10 Summer Mocks’ meeting via Teams last night, Mr Faraday wanted to pass on his apologies for sending out the incorrect link to the event which resulted in you being directed into the wrong meeting.
Despite this, Mr Mason and Mr Smith delivered the presentation as planned and recorded the presentation - the link to the recording is here on the school website. (https://www.jesmondparkacademy.org.uk/article/2024/5/10/year-10--how-to-support-your-child-during-their-mock-exams-2024) Hopefully you will be able to find time to watch this. Apologies again for any inconvenience caused and as always please just get in contact if there is anything we can be of assistance with or if you have any questions emanating from the presentation.
The Year 10 Mocks are scheduled to take place between Thursday 13th June and Friday 28th June. Students have received their personalised timetables, revision guides and period 7 timetable this week.
In relation to the latter, all Year 10 students will have compulsory guided revision sessions on the following dates:
- Monday 3rd June
- Wednesday 5th June
- Tuesday 11th June
- Wednesday 12th June
- Thursday 13th June
Attendance to these sessions is compulsory, with non-attendance sanctioned with three planner comments unless a valid reason is provided. Revision strategies and techniques were shared with them via their assembly this morning to help them during Period 7 and throughout their revision for their exams. Please help them to get the right balance of productive work time and time for their friends, families and hobbies.
Year 13 Notices
There is no study leave for Year 13 students and students are still expected to attend their lessons during their exam season. We constantly remind them that teachers are their most valuable resource and we expect students to do everything they can to prepare for their exams. Thank you to all parents for your support in this.
Year 13 students are looking forward to their Leavers’ Assembly on Monday 27th June, where they will have a final get together in school with their friends and school staff. It is always a lovely event. Then their final hurrah to Jesmond Park Academy will be their Leavers’ Ball which will be a wonderful celebration of friendship and their time in Sixth Form.
Performing Arts
I wanted to take time to promote a fantastic range of shows from the Performing Arts Department that we have coming up. Last week we had a performance of ‘Arabian Nights’, with around 50 students performing in front of a delighted audience. It was good to see some new faces from the student body there. In the summer term, we will have our Shakespeare Festival at The People’s Theatre on Tuesday 20th June; a new dance festival at Gosforth Civic Theatre on Thursday 27th June and our usual Summer Showcase right at the end of term. We have gone from having only one performance a few years ago to now having five, which is providing great opportunities for our students.
Online Safety
We work through many aspects of online safety in our Citizenship/PD programme and computing lessons but as a school, we rely on the parents/carers of all our students to support us when addressing this important topic.
In school, we have filters and monitoring software to ensure that students are protected from harmful websites. However, most of our students have access to the internet via their mobile phones and this means that online safety for students is an area that is difficult to address and monitor.
The breadth of issues classified within online safety is considerable and ever evolving but can be categorised into four areas of risk:
Content: being exposed to illegal, inappropriate, or harmful content, for example: pornography, fake news, racism, misogyny, self-harm, suicide, anti-Semitism, radicalisation, and extremism.
Contact: being subjected to harmful online interaction with other users; for example: peer to peer pressure, commercial advertising and adults posing as children or young adults with the intention to groom or exploit them for sexual, criminal, financial or other purposes.
Conduct: online behaviour that increases the likelihood of, or causes, harm; for example, making, sending and receiving explicit images e.g. consensual and non-consensual sharing of nudes and semi-nudes and/or pornography, sharing other explicit images and online bullying.
Commerce: risks such as online gambling, inappropriate advertising, phishing and or financial scams.
Top Ten Tips: What parents can do
- Regularly discuss the kind of websites that your child uses, how to set safety features and how to report concerns.
- Advise your child to set social network profile settings to private then ask them to show you that they have done it.
- Ask your child about their online friends and warn them that some people create fake online identities.
- Remind your child that someone you have not met in the offline world is not a friend.
- Set appropriate Parental Controls on your child’s computer, mobile and games console.
- Agree with your child that they will tell you something if they are worried about something online.
- Make sure you know where to get help if you are concerned about your child or another child.
- Remember that most Social Media sites are for those over 13.
- Remember we need to help young people to use technology for good and to guide them to do so wisely and responsibly.
- Never allow your child to buy games/apps or services online using your credit card details without your supervision.
We have lots of resources to support parents with online safety. Please visit our Online Safety section on our website: Online Safety (jesmondparkacademy.org.uk) (https://www.jesmondparkacademy.org.uk/about-the-academy/school-information/parents-information/online-safety)
In terms of online safety, we know that mobile phones play a large role in this. As you may be aware, some schools are moving towards banning mobile phones completely from their sites. We are not planning to do so at this stage, as our phone controls are strict and we are happy with how it is applied. Students are not allowed to use their phones inside the school building, meaning that lunch time is the only real time they can access them. However, this is something that we review at regular intervals. I would like to point out that many of the social media sites have age restrictions that make them unsuitable for younger age groups. As a parent myself, I understand the difficulty in ensuring your child uses new technology sensibly but ultimately as parents, we have full control over our child’s use of their phones. The school will support you with any decisions you make as a parent around this.
Finally, I hope you enjoy the sunny weekend.
Yours faithfully,
STEVE CAMPBELL
PRINCIPAL