Please see below Newcastle City Council's leaflet about their Kinship Networking Event on 24th October 2024.

Dear Parent/Carer,

HOW TO SUPPORT YOUR CHILD IN YEAR 8

Wednesday 25 September 2024: 5pm – 6pm

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 Year8’ 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 8 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 4:55pm for a 5:00pm start.  The welcome presentation will take place at 5:00pm and the workshops will begin at 5:30pm. 

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 Wednesday 25 September 2024

Yours faithfully,

Mr D Merrifield

Deputy Principal - Head of School

Mrs E Dowling

Head of KS3

Dear Parent/Carer,

HOW TO SUPPORT YOUR CHILD IN YEAR 10

Thursday 26 September 2024:  5pm-6pm

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 10’ 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 10 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 4:55pm for a 5:00pm start.  The welcome presentation will take place at 5pm and the workshops will begin at 5:30pm. 

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,

I hope you have all had a wonderful summer and enjoyed the lovely weather that we have had.  As we near the end of a very successful first fortnight back at school, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you all for your support. The new Year 7 cohort have been a delight and staff have commented about how hard working and attentive they have been.  For those families who are new to our school, I would like to warmly welcome you to our school community. Our new Year 12 cohort looks superb as well and we would like to warmly welcome the families of the 50 external students who have joined our school community. The Sixth Form now stands at around 430 students and this is as big as it has been for many years which is great news.  Attendance in all year groups has been outstanding and there has been a real buzz about the place - it’s great that students are all so positive about being back in school.

Summer Examination Results

Jesmond Park Academy and the school community have been celebrating this summer!  At GCSE, we have had our strongest ever results with an impressive 370 grades at Grade 8 or 9.  This is despite the national media trying to paint a picture of falling standards across the country.

At GCSE, an impressive 83% of students obtained a pass in English and 80% received a pass in Maths.  These are both ‘best ever’ results for the school.  73% of students obtained a pass in two sciences and this again is a record for the school. Value added data will be released in the coming months but early indicators suggest that this will be a significantly positive set of results.

In terms of A Level performance, we have achieved a pass rate of 98% which is a really strong figure.

23.3% of grades awarded at A-A* and 73% at C or above, again superb figures for our school.   Our vocational results were also outstanding with a 100% pass rate and 38.4 % of grades awarded at Distinction*/Distinction, which is our highest ever figure.

Both results days were fantastic with both staff and students celebrating together.  The success this year is testament to the hard work and dedication of the students and staff last year, especially considering all of the disruption to their education in recent years.  Well done, we are immensely proud of you all!

Year 6 Open Evening – Wednesday 2nd October

Our Open Evening for Year 6 students interested in joining us in Year 7 in September 2024 is coming up on Wednesday 2nd October.  Our annual Open Evening is always one of our most important and well-attended events of the school year. The staff and current students are really looking forward to showcasing our school for Year 6 students and their parents, giving them a real insight into all of the fantastic experiences we have to offer.  We will be asking a number of our current students to stay back and assist us on this evening. 

Parent/Carer Information Evenings and Parent/Carer and Subject Teacher Evenings 

Most of you will be aware that as part of our parent/carer communication throughout the year, we hold information evenings and subject teacher evenings. Our parent/carer information evenings are specific to different year groups and tend to be more generic. However, I am pleased to announce that this year we will be returning to our original format of an in school ‘face to face’ event. This will consist of a short presentation by key staff followed by voluntary workshops in curriculum areas. The times below are approximate.  We will confirm all details via an emailed letter. 

Our parent/carer subject teacher evenings are where parent/carers have the opportunity to speak directly with their child’s subject teachers regarding their academic progress. We will write to you throughout the year with specific details of the events coming up. Wherever possible, we aim to balance the convenience for many parent/carers of being able to receive key information or speak to teachers online with the desire to welcome parent/carers back into our school to meet face to face.  This hybrid system, allowing parents a choice, has proved to be extremely popular in the past.

Key dates for parent/carers coming up this half term are as follows. 

• Year 8 How to Support Your Child Evening Wednesday 25th September 5.00pm-6.00pm
• Year 9 How to Support Your Child Evening Wednesday 25th September 5.30pm-6.30pm
• Year 10 How to Support your Child Evening Thursday 26th September 5.00pm-6.00pm
• Year 11 How to Support Your Child Evening Thursday 26th September 5.30pm-6.30pm
• Year 12 Parental Information Evening Thursday 19th September 5.30pm-6.30pm    
• Year 13 Parents’ Evening Thursday 10^th October 3.00pm-7.00 pm via SchoolCloud or Face to Face 

Parents/Carers of Year 13 students will receive further information regarding this evening.  Parents will have the opportunity to attend online or face to face.  In either instance the SchoolCloud software organises the appointments.

• Year 7 ‘Meet the Form Tutor’ Evening Tuesday 15^th October 5.00pm-6.30pm 

Parents/Carers of Year 7 students will receive further information regarding this evening. Please note that this evening is face to face in school, not online. 

Mental Health Support 

We have strong pastoral provision at the school.  We have Heads of Key Stage leaders, Mr Mason (KS4), Mrs Dowling (KS3); Heads of Years (Ms Clark and Mr Cleland Y7, Mrs Hooker Y8, Mrs Sayers Y9, Mr McLaughlin Y10, Mr Smith Y11).  Each Head of Year has a dedicated non-teaching member of staff, a Year Manager, to help support their year group.  All pastoral members have been trained to a high level with regards mental health support and safeguarding. 

To support the pastoral leaders, the Wellbeing Department has two full time School Counsellors and a mental health and wellbeing mentor who offers 1:1 intervention.  In addition, the SEND Department also offer small group or 1:1 intervention to support students’ wellbeing.  Furthermore, as a mental health protective measure, our Wellbeing Department are delivering whole school proactive mental health strategies in form time called ‘Wellbeing Wednesday.’

To supplement the Jesmond Park Academy interventions, we have a number of external providers working with the school this year that will enhance the pastoral provision already on offer.  

• The school established a Streetwise Hub on site in 2022 and the Streetwise charity will continue to provide small group intervention, counselling and 1:1 drop-in sessions this year.
• For the fourth year, we have a full week’s provision provided by the NUFC Foundation that focus on small group pro-social intervention.
• For the third year running, the Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) will be delivering sessions to Key Stage 3 students in Citizenship lessons around topics such as knife crime, drugs & alcohol, and malicious communications. 
• The School Nurse drop in on a Wednesday afternoon has always been popular.  This is where students can access further medical advice.

If you feel that you would like to discuss this support further, then please contact the relevant Year Team at the school.

Support with Uniform Costs 

In the vast majority of cases, the students have had perfect school uniform and have looked extremely smart coming to school.  Where there are teething problems, parents and carers are being contacted by Year Teams and we are working through this. Thank you for your support with this.  

You will remember that in the summer, we launched our uniform recycling scheme in which we were giving out free items of ‘pre-loved’ uniform to anyone who wanted them.  This was hugely successful and we gave away over 1000 items of uniform.  We will continue to do this throughout the year, but will do it on a year group basis, coinciding with Parents’ Evenings.  For example, we will have a uniform stall out on the Year 7 ‘Meet the Tutor’ Evening on Tuesday 15^th October.

We are aware that some families may still, at times, face difficulties getting uniform as children grow throughout the year.  If at any point you are facing any difficulty in providing uniform for your child, please contact your child’s Year Manager or Head of Year. There are many ways in which we can help.  For example, we can loan items until it is possible for them to be replaced or we can often supply a pre-owned item for your child. It is also possible for you to apply for financial assistance in the purchase of uniform.  Please contact LJennings@jesmondparkacademy.org.uk for information.  We look at any applications for financial help carefully based on personal circumstances, but can usually offer some support. 

If any families find themselves with excess uniform or PE kits now that they have “restocked” over the summer break, the school would welcome any donations to help to support the initiatives outlined above.  Donations can be made at Main Reception or Student Reception. Donations of shoes, trousers, skirts, coats and fleeces are particularly helpful.  We are very grateful to those families that were able to donate prior to the summer break.  Your actions have already helped many families and students.  All uniform being donated should be in a good reusable condition. 

Enrichment & extra-curricular activities

We are continuing to build upon the success of our enrichment activity programme last academic year and once more we have a wide variety of enrichment activities that we are able to offer our students. For the benefit of all parent/carers and particularly our parents/carers of our new Year 7 students, the information regarding the activities offered will be published on our website next week once all activities have been finalised. We will also be giving all of our Year 7 students a planner sized booklet of the activities on offer this half term. Some activities such as our sporting clubs and teams started this week. Our enrichment activities range from sports clubs and teams, drama, music, food, science, chess and many more. Most activities take place either at lunchtime or after school during what we call 'Period 7'. 'Period 7' enrichment tends to finish between 3:30pm and 3:45pm depending upon the nature of the activity. Our staff promote many of the activities through lessons and in form time and Mr Holmes, who oversees our enrichment activities, will be speaking to all of our students in assemblies next week. Please encourage your child to make the most of the activities that we have on offer. If your child was involved in enrichment activities last year at JPA please encourage them to continue with them. If your child is in Year 7 and was involved in enrichment activities in primary school, please encourage them to seek out and continue those activities here with us at JPA. We are particularly keen to ensure that our students continue with music and drama activities from their primary school here with us at Jesmond Park Academy. If you have any queries regarding our enrichment activities or indeed you think that you may be able to offer something to contribute to our enrichment programme, please email admin@jesmondparkacademy.org.uk and we will ensure that it is forwarded to the most appropriate member of staff. 

Road Safety on Newton Road/Enforcement Cameras

In my last letter of the summer I talked about the Council installing a fixed ANPR enforcement camera to enforce the “School keep clear” restrictions (yellow Zig Zags) on the highway outside of the school.  This is a joint initiative between the school and the city council which aims to tackle persistent inconsiderate parking on the “School keep clear” restrictions. Vehicles are not permitted to stop on the restrictions for any reason, and doing so impacts on road safety and endangers the safety of children, parents and guardians coming to and from the school.  We are aware that this is now in action and that penalty fines have been issued, so please ensure that the yellow lines are kept clear.

ScoPay

We are aware there have been an isolated number of technical issues with ScoPay accounts.  This has been due to a problem with the IT systems not sharing some information between Newcastle City Council Catering and the Trust.  Work has been ongoing to resolve this and we now understand that the problem has been rectified. 

Contacts 

From time to time you may need to contact school regarding your child, the first option is to contact your child’s form tutor and secondly you can contact your child’s year team:

• Mrs Clark/Mr Cleland—Head of Year 7

nclark@jesmondparkacademy.org.uk  acleland@jesmondparkacacdemy.org.uk

Year 11 Managers Mrs Winship awinship@jesmondparkacademy.org.uk

           Mr Bolam mbolam@jesmondparkacademy.org.uk

 

• Mrs Hooker—Head of Year 8 hhooker@jesmondparkacademy.org.uk

Year 7 Managers Ms Henderson lhenderson@jesmondparkacademy.org.uk

Mr Bolam mbolam@jesmondparkacademy.org.uk

• Miss Sayers—Head of Year 9 lsayers@jesmondparkacademy.org.uk

Year 8 Managers, Ms Cochrane bcochrane@jesmondparkacademy.org.uk

Mr Bolam mbolam@jesmondparkacademy.org.uk

• Mr McLaughlin—Head of Year 10 smclaughlin@jesmondparkacademy.org.uk

Year 9 Managers, Mr Brown bbrown@jesmondparkacademy.org.uk

Mr Henderson ghenderson@jesmondparkacademy.org.uk

• Mr Smith—Head of Year 11 jsmith2@jesmondparkacademy.org.uk

Year 10 Managers, Mrs Booth mbooth@jesmondparkacademy.org.uk

Mr Henderson ghenderson@jesmondparkacademy.org.uk

Finally, I would like to wish you all a fantastic weekend.

Warm regards.

Yours faithfully,

STEVE CAMPBELL

PRINCIPAL

Please be aware that Newcastle City Council has installed a fixed ANPR enforcement camera to enforce the school keep clear restrictions (yellow Zig Zags) on the highway outside of the school. This is a joint initiative between the school and the city council which aims to tackle persistent inconsiderate parking on the school keep clear restrictions. Vehicles are not permitted to stop on the restrictions for any reason, and doing so impacts on road safety and endangers the safety of children, parents and guardians coming to and from the school. Vehicles that stop/park on the school keep clear restrictions in the future may be liable to receive a Penalty Charge Notice, which will be issued to the registered keeper through the post from 3 September 2024 onwards.