Today we have released revised admissions policies for September 2025 entry to Gosforth Junior High, Great Park Academy, Gosforth Academy and Jesmond Park Academy. These are now available on the schools’ websites.

Changes have been made following a small number of parental complaints to the School’s Adjudicator earlier this year, regarding the admissions process for September 2024. In particular, parents raised concerns regarding the fairness and legality of the Group’s admissions process.

The Schools’ Adjudicator subsequently completed a review of the Group’s admissions processes in the four academies and submitted reports, which included any changes which needed to be made, at the end of September.

The Schools’ Adjudicator reports confirmed that our admissions procedures are lawful and fair but highlighted the need for us to revise our policies to ensure greater transparency and clarity, especially regarding how our oversubscription criteria are applied.

We take the Schools’ Adjudicator's ruling very seriously and accept all the recommendations. We have sought legal support to ensure that our revised admissions policies are now easy to understand and transparent, whilst continuing to comply with all regulations.

We recognise and understand the frustration and concern that the lack of clarity in the admissions policies has caused, and on behalf of the Gosforth Group, I would like to apologise to those affected and thank parents for their patience whilst these changes have been made. 

We remain committed to providing equal opportunities for all families who wish to apply for a place in our academies. We will ensure that a consultation with parents on any proposed changes to the admissions policies for September 2026 will begin after the closure of the September 2025 admissions window.

Parents of children who have already completed their application for September 2025 will be notified by Newcastle City Council of the change in policy and sent further information as to how to make changes to their application if required.

Dr Alexandra Thorp, CEO Gosforth Group.

Year 7 students had their photographs taken by Kittle Photographic at JPA and these can now be ordered using the barcode students received on the day.  The instructions are below.

How to Order – 

Please visit our website https://v6.kittleorders.com/kp/Home

If you are a new customer

Please click on ‘add a photo’ and enter the photo ID and password.

Add your email address when prompted.

Click on ‘order this photo’.

This will now bring up all the different items you can buy.

Click on ‘view’ against the product you wish to buy and then click ‘add to basket’.

If you wish to add another picture or item, please click on ‘select different photo’.

When you have added all the items you wish to buy click on the ‘basket’ in the top right-hand corner of the page.

Please check your basket carefully and select your preferred delivery option.

You will then be transferred to World Pay to enter your payment details.

If you are a returning customer

Please click on ‘login’ and enter your email address and password.

You can now enter your photo id and password for your new photo.

Click on ‘order this photo’.

This will now bring up all the different items you can buy.

Click on ‘view’ against the product you wish to buy and then click ‘add to basket’.

If you wish to add another picture or item, please click on ‘select different photo’.

When you have added all the items you wish to buy click on the ‘basket’ in the top right-hand corner of the page.

Please check your basket carefully and select your preferred delivery option.

You will then be transferred to World pay to enter your payment details.

Enrolment is now open for Year 12 students wishing to take part in the Duke of Edinburgh's Gold award through Jesmond Park Academy.  Information about the award can be found online at https://www.dofe.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/DofE-Gold-recruitment-presentation-short.pdf and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuZMfKbMW6M or speak to Mr Gregory in the PE department.

Enrolment letters are available from the Sixth Form Tutors office. Enrolment deadline is Friday 4^th October.

Dear Parent/Carer,

HOW TO SUPPORT YOUR CHILD IN YEAR 11

Thursday 26 September 2024:  5:30pm – 6.30pm

I am pleased to announce that this year we will be returning to our traditional ‘face-to-face’ Parents/Carer Information Evenings.  The last few years have been presented via TEAMs but we are thankfully in a position now to revert to our traditional format.

Our ‘How to Support Your Child in Year 11’ Information Evening is an opportunity for you to come into school, meet key staff such as your child’s Head of Year and Year Manager, and find out more information about your child’s academic studies this year, and also, how you, as parents and carers, can support them with this.

The evening will comprise of a welcome presentation, which consists of an overview of learning in Year 11 and key events throughout the year.

There will follow, the opportunity to attend curriculum workshops that will provide you with some useful information and advice about how you can support your child’s studies.  (We will place the information from the workshops that you are unable to attend on our VLE after the evening.)

Please arrive in school at 5:25pm for a 5:30pm start.  The welcome presentation will take place at 5:30pm and the workshops will begin at 6:00pm. 

The evening is intended to be a relaxed opportunity to meet key members of staff, but further appointments can be arranged to meet with your child’s Head of Year and Year Manager for a more formal or extended period of time should you wish to do so.

We strongly encourage you to attend this evening if you are able to.  We have organised this type of information evening for a number of years now and our feedback from this event last year was extremely positive.

In order to give us an indication of numbers of attendees, we would appreciate if you could complete our online form here: 

https://forms.office.com/e/0GBqfw28D9

We look forward to seeing you on Thursday 26 September 2024.

Yours faithfully,

Mr D Merrifield

Deputy Principal - Head of School

Mr C Mason

Head of KS4

Dear Parent/Carer,

HOW TO SUPPORT YOUR CHILD IN YEAR 9

Wednesday 25 September 2024:  5:30pm – 6:30pm

I am pleased to announce that this year we will be returning to our traditional ‘face-to-face’ Parents/Carer Information Evenings.  The last few years have been presented via TEAMs but we are thankfully in a position now to revert to our traditional format.

Our ‘How to Support Your Child in Year 9’ Information Evening is an opportunity for you to come into school, meet key staff such as your child’s Head of Year and Year Manager, and find out more information about your child’s academic studies this year, and also, how you, as parents and carers, can support them with this.

The evening will comprise of a welcome presentation, which consists of an overview of learning in Year 9 and key events throughout the year.

There will follow, the opportunity to attend curriculum workshops that will provide you with some useful information and advice about how you can support your child’s studies.  (We will place the information from the workshops that you are unable to attend on our VLE after the evening.)

Please arrive in school at 5:25pm for a 5:30pm start.  The welcome presentation will take place at 5:30pm and the workshops will begin at 6:00pm. 

The evening is intended to be a relaxed opportunity to meet key members of staff, but further appointments can be arranged to meet with your child’s Head of Year and Year Manager for a more formal or extended period of time should you wish to do so.

We strongly encourage you to attend this evening if you are able to.  We have organised this type of information evening for a number of years now and our feedback from this event last year was extremely positive.

We will be holding our Year 9 Options Evening on Tuesday 4 February 2025 and we will write to you with further details of this.  Your child will be invited to this evening.

In order to give us an indication of numbers of attendees, we would appreciate if you could complete our online form here: 

https://forms.office.com/e/0GBqfw28D9

We look forward to seeing you on Wednesday 25 September 2024

Yours faithfully,

Mr D Merrifield

Deputy Principal - Head of School

Mrs E Dowling

Head of KS3