Key members of staff will be available for our Year 11 students on exam results day should they need any further information, advice or guidance regarding enrolment to Jesmond Park Academy Sixth Form or their other chosen destination. Jesmond Park Academy Sixth Form enrolment day is the following day, Friday the 22nd of August. Please be aware there is due to be a bus strike on Thursday which may affect your travel plans.

Steve Campbell, Executive Head Teacher, shared his thoughts:

“We are absolutely delighted with the results and accomplishments of our Sixth Form students. This is one of the most rewarding days of the year, especially as many of our students have been part of our school community for the past seven years. Each one of them has earned their success through unwavering dedication and determination, and we couldn’t be prouder. Today is not only a celebration of their hard work, but also a moment to support them as they take the next steps in their academic and professional journeys.”

Headline Results:

• 17% of A Level grades were awarded A* - A
• 40% of A Level grades were A* - B
• 65% of A Level grades were A* - C
• 26% of vocational results were at Distinction or Distinction*

We are incredibly proud of all our students. While it’s never easy to highlight individuals among so many successes, the following examples showcase the breadth of achievement and the diverse destinations our Sixth Form students are now heading towards.

• Jonathan Duncan achieved 4 A*s
• Mohammed Ali earned 4 A*s
• Ewan Palmer secured 2 A*s and 2 As

Students at Jesmond Park Academy are now preparing to embark on the next chapter of their academic journeys, with many securing places at leading universities, including Cambridge, Edinburgh, Durham, Leeds, University College London, and Imperial College London.

In keeping with recent years, the proportion of students progressing to Russell Group universities remains significantly above the national average. This year’s cohort will be pursuing a wide range of prestigious degree programmes, including Medicine, Veterinary Science, Law, Biomedicine, and Computing.

Steve Campbell continued:

“Today is a day of celebration, and we’re thrilled to share it with our incredible students. At the same time, we remain committed to offering guidance and support to those who may need it. Regardless of their results, we believe every student should have access to a wide range of opportunities, and we are dedicated to helping them navigate the next steps in their journey.”

These A Level and BTEC results represent a significant achievement for the entire Jesmond Park Academy community. We extend our warmest congratulations to all our students and wish them continued success, fulfilment, and happiness in the exciting journeys that lie ahead.

Celebrating success at Jesmond Park Academy – Class of 2025 proudly collecting their A Level results.

Year 13 students can collect results from 8am until 10.30am and Year 12 students can collect results from 9.30am until 10.30am on Thursday the 14^th of August.

Goodluck!

Members from the DWP came into school to conduct panel interviews with selected students to help prepare them for university and employer interview styles. Students were engaged and responsive to the interviews and the DWP again commented on how courteous and knowledgeable our students were.

Alex Brightman from Northern Gas ran a workshop for potential lawyers, project managers, engineers and those interested in the financial sector. The session looked at the different career pathways available through green energy which is one of the fastest growing sectors in our area. The students created mood boards during the workshop. Students commented on how useful the workshop was and were interested in the many different career opportunities available with Northern Gas.

Finally, Health and Social Care students attended a workshop by former student Zeta Bikova. Zeta is currently completing her PhD at the University of Sunderland where she also teaches. Zeta spoke to the students about the BSc Health, Wellbeing and Care in Society course that is offered at Sunderland and is underpinned by sociological and psychological theories. The workshop explored the different career avenues the degree can lead to, as well as being a great opportunity for our current students to meet with one of our previous students to be able to discuss her career journey.

The Careers partners who came into school were excellent and all of our students benefitted from these different interactions. We are very grateful to all the employers who came into school to work with our students. 

They worked with a cohort of 20 students, split into four teams of five. Each team was assigned the following core Agile delivery roles:

• Business Analyst (BA)
• Developer
• Quality Assurance (QA)
• User-Centred Design (UCD)
• Client

The session began with an introduction to the Business Analyst role, with a spotlight on how BAs collaborate with other team members and stakeholders to understand and translate business needs into actionable solutions.

Each group was then guided through four different scenarios, designed to simulate real-world delivery challenges. Using LEGO as a creative tool, students were tasked with fulfilling client requirements by:

• Collaborating in their defined roles
• Communicating clearly to gather and refine requirements
• Testing and iterating on their LEGO builds based on feedback
• Presenting their final solution back to the “client”

During the session we encouraged the students to use key transferrable skills such as using questioning as a method to ensure that they fully understood the clients needs. This encouraged good understanding of the requirements they were working with and showed they fully understood the ask.

The hands-on format allowed students to step into the shoes of each role and experience first-hand the importance of teamwork, iterative delivery, and user-centred thinking.

Your experiences could help to motivate and inspire our current students to feel more confident in making decisions about their future. We’d love you to join our alumni network and reconnect with our school.

You can choose how and when you help – perhaps you can act as a career and education role model, provide work experience, become a mentor in person or online or just reconnect with our school and be willing to receive information regarding how our alumni could help in the future.

It doesn’t matter when you left us either as a student or a member of staff, whether you’re in further education or employment, whether you still live nearby or have moved further away, there are still ways you can help.

We would greatly appreciate a few minutes of your time to complete the following form to enrol or register as part of our alumni. This does not commit you to anything apart from providing us with your details and becoming part of our wider alumni.

Form link

Confidence Award to Sara. Confidence is a tough thing, Sara has demonstrated confidence throughout NUF lessons by always volunteering for activities, giving everything a go, and being a huge supporter of her classmates.

Commitment Award to Shea. Shea has tried to verbalise a continuing commitment to the Praise code and is always striving for on-going improvement.

Outstanding Student Awarded to Jacob. Jacob has been brilliant throughout all NUF lessons, even when he was injured, he was able to finish all booklet work with his weaker hand. He was always a positive influence on the group and always offered insight into what he thought the soft skills in use were.

Through our engagement in NU Foundation Partner School programme, supported by @HarrisonCentre, we were able to give students an opportunity to play in the tournament and receive their own 2025/26 NUFC kit.

What an afternoon!

https://www.nufoundation.org.uk/news/silverware-surprise-for-newcastle-united-foundation-community-at-annual-1892-cup

Together with thousands of other schools, we smashed the Guinness World Records™ title for the largest cookery lesson in multiple venues — and we are officially record breakers!
Drumroll, please. The final numbers are in…
Contributing to this record there were 10,515 cooks, across 6 continents and 42 countries helped smash the record!

This was done with students demonstrating their passion, energy, and love for food. Together they were chopping, stirring, and tasting a homemade pasta with basil and tomato sauce and we have helped make history!

Why we did this:
At the heart of this record attempt is a simple belief: every child, everywhere, should leave school able to cook confidently and take care of themselves — no matter what life throws at them. That’s why Jamie Oliver has developed ‘Jamie’s 10 Skills Programme’ , to give young people the essential skills in nutrition, knife safety, budgeting, and so much more.  

Keep cooking, keep inspiring! 

It is that time of year when many families will be starting to think about replenishing their school uniform in preparation for the new academic year. Our official uniform supplier remains the same as previous years, Michael Sehgal & Sons Ltd.

You can visit their store located at: Unit 17 Airport, Industrial Estate, Kingston Park, Newcastle, NE3 2EF (near Tesco).  Alternatively you can order online at www.michaelsehgal.co.uk/jesmond-park-academy/. You can also contact them on 0191 2302320 or email at sales@michaelsehgal.co.uk.

I am writing to you about this year’s arrangements for those that prefer to use pre-owned uniform for environmental or economic reasons. We have also found that some children, particularly those with sensory issues find the pre-owned uniform beneficial.

Donations

You can donate any uniform that you no longer require at any time, simply bag up the items and drop them into student reception in person or via your child. Thank you in advance to all of those that are able to support this.

Requests for pre-owned uniform

You are able to request pre-owned uniform via an online request form on our school website.

https://vle.jpa.newcastle.sch.uk/pou  Depending on availability, you can then collect these items from student reception or it can be given to your child directly to bring home. There is no cost for this service.

Pre-owned uniform event

On Wednesday 16^th July we will be holding a pre-owned uniform event in school from 3pm – 5pm. Parents and children can attend together to collect any pieces that are available they may need. There is no cost for this service.

Last year we had a lovely evening meeting parents and students, more importantly we managed to reuse huge amounts of uniform that otherwise would have sat in cupboards or even ended up being thrown out.

I hope this new initiative is successful and useful to you.

Yours faithfully,

DAVE MERRIFIELD

HEAD OF SCHOOL

A big thank you to our girls coach who is a sixth form student at JPA.  As a rugby player herself she has been on a mission to recruit more female rugby players to her club.  She has made a huge impact on driving girls rugby in school and is looking forward to continuing this in September. 

Girls Results 

JPA 1-1 v pont 1

JPA 0-4 v kings 1 

JPA 2-0 v pont 2 

JPA 3-1 v kings 2

Boys Results

JPA 4 - 0 V Dyke

JPA 0 - 1 V Kings 1

JPA 3 - 0  V St Bede's

JPA 0 - 0 V Kings 2

All Year 7 students competed in round 1 during form time. The finalists were selected based on their high performance and were tasked with learning the spellings from an extensive list of Biology words.

In the final, the competition was incredibly close (with 3 students drawing in third place!). The top spellers performed amazingly, and both Mrs Sutton and Miss Morris were impressed by the hard work and dedication shown. 

Please see the information below regarding Exam results day on the 21st August 2025.

Year 11 students collect their Exam results (Main reception at the front of the school).

If your child is unable to collect their results in person and wants someone else to do it on their behalf, they must put this request in writing before the end of term. (Kdews@jesmondparkacademy.org.uk or zurwin@jesmondparkacademy.org.uk). The designated person will need to show some photo ID when they collect the results. 

If your child's Exam results are not collected, they will be posted home. We do not email Exam results home.

If you or your child have further queries after the 21st August, please email (Kdews@jesmondparkacademy.org.uk or zurwin@jesmondparkacademy.org.uk).

Key members of staff will be available to our Year 11 students on Exam results day should they need any further information, advice or guidance regarding enrolment to Jesmond Park Academy Sixth Form or their other chosen destination. The Sixth Form enrollment day is the following day, 22nd August. The students will receive a letter with an appointment stating when they need to attend.

We look forward to seeing all of our Year 11 students again on this day and celebrating with them, their excellent Exam results.

They kicked things off with a real test of character—think sideways rain, howling wind, and mud in places mud shouldn't be. But with impressive determination (and probably soggy socks), they powered through the elements and made it to camp with time to spare.

Their reward? Glorious blue skies and a bit of sunshine just in time to pitch tents and cook up a hot evening meal—DofE timing at its finest! 🌞🍝⛺

Day two saw more stellar effort, as all students made it to Wark, completing their 25km adventure ahead of schedule. Blisters aside, it was a brilliant effort all round!

We’re incredibly proud of their teamwork, resilience, and positive attitudes. Well done, everyone! 👏👏

We are writing to all parents with regards to changes that we are making to our mobile phone policy.  As you will be aware, there has been a nationwide debate with regards to the potential damage that phones can cause our children.

Mobile phones now include many additional functions such as an integrated camera, video recording capability, instant messaging, mobile office applications and mobile access to the internet. These allow immediate access to email, searching for information on the internet and other functions such as access to social networking sites e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and WhatsApp. These functions can pose a risk to the maintenance of good discipline, the focus on learning and, crucially, the effective safeguarding of students in schools. This includes the risk of sophisticated bullying via social media platforms. In some cases, mobile phone use within secondary school environments has created serious child protection concerns. Bullying, intimidation and harassment are not new in society; however, bullying using a mobile phone represents a significant challenge for schools to manage.

The DfE has issued guidance for schools prohibiting the use of mobile phones throughout the school day. From 1^st September 2025, mobile phones and electronic devices are banned from use on the school site. At Jesmond Park Academy the ‘boundary line’ is as soon as children pass through their entrance door (Y7, 8, 9) or school gate (Y10, 11).

Years 7 -11

Any phone that is brought on site must be switched off and in a school bag when students are on the school grounds. Phones must not be visible at any point. Students should not need to use a mobile phone whilst on school premises. In exceptional circumstances if a student should need to make a phone call within the school grounds, they can either:

• ask a member of staff if they can use the school phone network

• report to their year office and ask if they can switch their mobile phone on to make the call.

DFE Guidance is clear that schools should have a ‘never used, seen or heard’ approach to mobile phones and that the consequence for breaking this expectation is at the discretion of the school but that it should be “sufficient to act as an effective deterrent”.

At Jesmond Park Academy, any student seen with a phone not in their bag but not using it, for example in a pocket will be given a P (phone) planner comment and instructed to turn it off and put it in their bag. This is in the initial implementation period only up until half term.

Any phone seen on site will be confiscated. These are then placed in the school safe in student reception. If parents wish to reclaim confiscated phones before the end of the week, they may do so between 2:40pm and 3:45pm, Monday to Thursday, or 2:40pm and 3:15pm on Fridays. Phones can be collected from student reception. Only parents listed on SIMS as contacts will be able to reclaim phones and ID must be presented. Students may reclaim their own phones from student reception at 2:40pm on the Friday of each week, without the need for parents to come in. If a phone is confiscated on a Friday, it will be kept until the following Monday at 2:40pm.

(Please note sanctions for the use of mobile phones on the school site, might be subject to change).

Sixth Form

Sixth Form pupils are allowed access to their mobile phones during the school day, to reflect their increased independence and responsibility, but must not compromise our policy on the use of mobile phones for other pupils. Therefore, they are only permitted to use their mobile phones out of sight of younger pupils in the sixth form common room area. Misuse of mobile phones by pupils in the sixth form will lead to sanctions according to our behaviour policy.

If a pupil is in breach of this policy, the following steps will be taken:

If a sixth form student is seen using their phone outside of the sixth form area these will be confiscated. Confiscated phones will be placed in the school safe in student reception. If parents (or students over 18) wish to reclaim confiscated phones before the end of the week, they may do so between 2:40pm and 3:45pm, Monday to Thursday, or 2:40pm and 3:15pm on Fridays. Phones can be collected from student reception. Only parents listed on SIMS as contacts or students over 18 years will be able to reclaim phones and ID must be presented. All students may reclaim their own phones from student reception at 2:40pm on the Friday of each week, without the need for parents to come in.  If a phone is confiscated on a Friday, it will be kept until the following Monday at 2:40pm.

We recognise that the presence of a phone can provide reassurance for a parent / carer on the journey to or from school. For this reason, students will receive regular reminders about the importance of compliance with this policy within school and we would ask you to remind your child of this at home. If a child is concerned about getting home on the day the phone is confiscated, they will be able to use school phone lines, via Student Reception or a pastoral office, to contact home.

The change will take place from 1^st September 2025.

Many thanks for your continued support.

Yours faithfully,

DAVE MERRIFIELD

HEAD OF SCHOOL

Due to a major administration error by Flamingo Land (Not JPA's fault) we are no longer able to go to Flamingo Land on Thursday 17 July 2025.

We only found this out last Friday morning - and even then, it was not confirmed by Flamingo Land until Monday after school, that they were definitely not able to accommodate our booking. You will recall we made this booking with them back in January 2025 after we discovered that the Kingswood Activity Centre had gone into administration!

However, thanks to our Finance Officer, Lyndsey Jennings, being absolutely brilliant, we have been able to secure enough buses - even at this late stage - to take us on Tuesday 15 July 2025 instead.

This means that all school-based activities and 'non-booking required’ activities will now take place on Tuesday 15 July 2025.

Due to this beyond our control uncertainty, we have not issued final letters to students regarding this trip. We will now issue letters to students going on this trip on Tuesday or Wednesday next week. Obviously, there will be some paperwork to return. In terms of advance planning for parents/carers for Flamingo Land, it will be a normal start time, and it is anticipated that students will return to school approximately 6:00pm - 6:30pm - exact details will follow in the letter.

Note:

• If your child is due to go to the Chocolate trip to York, this will still take place on Thursday 17 July 2025.

• The Sill & Gibside trips will still take place on the Thursday 17 July 2025 too. (Numbers permitting; at the time of writing, there have been insufficient numbers showing interest for this to possibly go ahead.) We do not anticipate this changing the enjoyment of the day for our students, whether they are on a trip or they are enjoying in school activities.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Yours faithfully,

Mr Nigel Holmes

Deputy Principal

Curriculum

The cast gave a fantastic performance and were an absolute credit to the school throughout the workshop and rehearsal day.  I was so impressed by their energy, dedication, and talent. Special mention to year 10 who were learning lines and revising for their mocks.

We’ve received wonderful feedback from the audience and organisers, and I couldn’t be prouder of the entire cast. Congratulations to all involved!

Mrs McGrath

There was Persian guitar from Aslan Mehraban, live painting by Hesam Moshfegh and textiles with Somayeh Oji. The close of the event saw a Tai-Haku Tree of Sanctuary being planted outside the Civic Centre, whilst JPA’s very own Kaijani read a poem titled A Refugee written by Roua Horanieh.

Mr Lovatt, EAL Practitioner, said, “This is our first Refugee Week as a School of Sanctuary. As a school we are a key part of the community, and from the outset we’ve made it clear at JPA that everyone is welcome here. We love being able to share our values at events like this.”

More information about Refugee Week can be found online at www.refugeeweek.org.uk

We have had an unprecedented number of students applying to go on the school ski trip.  I have delayed sending out confirmation letters while I try to secure extra places on the trip with the ski company.  This information has been shared with students in school via the street screens and has been placed on the school website.

On the original letter it stated that if your child receives a place on the ski trip they will be informed in writing.  It is only after this time that you will be able to see an option on Scopay to pay the deposit.  I intend to give confirmation letters out on Friday during registration and to push the deadline back for deposits until Monday 23rd June. Thank you for your patience.

Kind regards,

Mr Underhay.

It was a fantastic opportunity for the students to perform their exam work in a professional theatre space with a live audience. The feedback has been incredible and as always, I am so proud of all the dancers who took part. Mrs McGrath

This season was the first time some of our girls participated in competitive tennis, and it was wonderful to see their growth and ability to compete. The boys narrowly lost in a tense playoff tie-break, with both teams winning three matches each. Next up for both boys' teams is St. Cuthbert's.

Good luck, lads, and well done, girls! Here’s to next season!