Dear Parent/Carer,
A Happy (belated) New Year to the Jesmond Park Academy community and I hope you all have a fantastic year ahead! We’ve had a really good start to the year this last month and lessons have been going extremely well.
Year 9 Parents/Carers Evening and forthcoming Options Evening
We had an excellent turnout from parents/carers in our recent evening and staff have told me that it was, as we would all expect, a very positive event. Parent evaluation feedback was particularly impressive with 92% saying they would recommend the school to others. Among the evaluation comments were:
“A super school that has the wellbeing and academic success of my child at the heart of what they do.”
“The SEND department are amazing and have really helped and supported my child.”
“We are really happy with how our child is doing in school. She seems supported by teachers and is happy and confident in classes. Thank you so much for your hard work.”
As always, a huge thank you to our parental community for their continued support and for attending these important events.
Our Year 9 Options Evening is taking place on Tuesday 11th February from 5pm until 7:30pm. Doors will open at 4:45 pm for a 5pm welcome presentation followed by the opportunity to attend subject presentations and visit subject information stalls. Students will receive their option booklets with further details of the evening.
Year 11 Mock Exams
Year 11 have all completed their Mock Exams and we have been delighted with how they have approached them. They were working extremely hard in school in the build-up and invigilators reported how seriously they approached them in the exam hall. As a reminder, we will withhold our mock results and hold a mock examination results session in early February, after all of the results have been collated. Your child will receive a mock exam results grade card. They will not be given results before this to make the results day as realistic an experience as possible and part of the ongoing support they will receive throughout the rest of the year.
Year 7 Parents/Carers Evening
This evening is fast approaching us now. Monday 17th February sees our first formal parents evening for Year 7, although most parents have already been into school for the tutors evening earlier in the year.
As usual, it is a hybrid event with virtual appointments offered at the start of the event if parents find this more convenient. You will have already received a letter explaining how you make appointments for this event, although we are aware that there have been some issues with SchoolCloud, although these have now been resolved. The cut off for appointments is Thursday 13th February, so please make sure you make your appointments.
In the news
In the busy run up to Christmas, our amazing students across the school came together to support two local charities: Streetworx and Vinnie's.
Streetworx provide food, drink and clothing to homeless people in Newcastle. Students wrote cards, collected toiletries, pot noodles, sweets, clothing and hand warmers; all of which were gratefully received by the charity. Staff were also heavily involved in donating items and on Christmas Eve, about 25 of our students, alongside Ms Delaney and Mrs Broadwell and her family, went out onto the streets with Streetworx to deliver gifts and essentials to the homeless, all of whom were incredibly appreciative.
For Vinnie's, students collected food, clothing and toys. Vinnie's is a local charity based in Newcastle which provides a food bank, a clothing bank, hot meals, activities and community engagement projects for those who are isolated or in need. This service is a lifeline for many in our local community and students were able to provide items that could be used in hampers and given as presents to the many families and individuals who use this service. In addition, over 20 Sixth Form students have recently volunteered to work in Vinnie's, sorting clothes and donations, organising the food bank, and working in the kitchen. The need is great and students volunteer on a weekly basis or during the holidays to help support the centre and its users.
Both Vinnie's and Streetworx are immensely grateful for the help that they have received from our students and would like to convey their thanks, not only to the students themselves, but also to their families.
Native Scientists
Students in Year 7 were visited by the Native Scientists organisation this week.
Native Scientists was founded by two researchers in 2013, with the goal of connecting scientists and children across Europe to reduce inequalities, promote quality education and celebrate diversity.
Our Arabic-speaking Key Stage 3 students worked with Arabic-speaking scientists, taking part in a series of engaging workshops in their home or heritage language. The aim of the project is promoting scientific culture and literacy, whilst also celebrating cultural and linguistic diversity.
Hadron Collider Trip
On 9th January, the Year 12 and 13 A-level Physics students enjoyed a chilly trip to Geneva. As part of the trip, they visited the Swiss Plasma Laboratories, where students were given a tour of the Tokamak Fusion Reactor and were introduced to the basic principles of plasma and fusion by on-site scientists working with the reactor. They also visited the CERN Science Gateway, where they travelled a short distance into France to see the Command and Control Centre for the Large Hadron Collider, the largest particle accelerator in the world.
The students were an absolute credit to the school and the hotel staff were very impressed with their excellent behaviour. Their interactions with the scientists, their thoughtful questions, their patience, their humour, their conversations and their genuine happiness in just spending time together made this trip a fantastic experience for staff and students alike.
Wolfson Foundation
We are delighted to announce that JPA has been awarded a grant of £125,000 from the Wolfson Foundation. This funding will support the construction of two state-of-the-art laboratory ‘cubes’, enhancing the delivery of practical science education for all of our science students.
The Wolfson Foundation is an independent grant-making charity that provides funding to organisations across the UK. Their mission focuses primarily on supporting education and research.
Jesmond Park Academy’s application stood out due to its innovative approach to creating dedicated laboratory space. The award highlights the project's ambitious nature and the Foundation's recognition of its potential impact on students' science education. The new laboratory facilities will address the need for additional specialised environments that promote high-quality teaching and learning. The new facilities will not only enhance the learning experience for current students, but also attract external students eager to pursue A Level science at the academy.
Newcastle Careers Team and Newcastle City Council’s city-wide Careers event at St. James’ Park on Wednesday 12th February 2025
Parents/carers of Year 10 students will already be aware that once more we are looking forward to taking all of our Year 10 students to St James' park for a city-wide Careers event next Wednesday morning. This is an excellent opportunity for our students to meet with a variety of employers and education providers, understand the opportunities available within our region and nationally and get a greater understanding of the wider skills and experiences needed for employment. We are also taking a smaller cohort of our Year 12 students and we are proud to have our own Jesmond Park Academy Sixth Form represented within the Education providers section of the event. There is a 'drop in' slot for parent/carers to visit between 3:30pm and 5pm. You can visit the Newcastle Careers Team webpage for further information and to book your slot. https://www.newcastlecareers.org.uk/my-future-my-choice
In addition to this, we host our own annual Careers Fair for our Year 9, Year 11 and Sixth Form students on Friday 21st March. We anticipate that over 40 stallholders will be coming to our event to talk to our students during the day. These Careers events are extremely valuable in providing our students the opportunities to speak to adults from a vast and diverse range of business, employment and education sectors.
Information requests
The admin office receives many requests from parents asking for a letter to confirm that their child studies at Jesmond Park Academy. These requests are increasing and whilst the team try their very best to turn these requests around in a short timeframe, we must now ask parents to allow three school days for such a request to be processed as it cannot be guaranteed that a letter will be available on the same day it is asked for.
I hope that you all have a lovely weekend.
Warm regards,
STEVE CAMPBELL
PRINCIPAL