Lockdown Process

As part of our critical incident planning, we are going to rehearse our lockdown process on December 17th.

This is not a lockdown linked to COVID but is in the event of having an intruder on site for example.

This will take place during the day on December 17th. Whilst students will be informed of the date, they will not be told the time so we can plan in an element of surprise. Students will be informed about the warning signal which will indicate the lock down is to be implemented and staff will guide students through the procedures in assembly and then as part of the rehearsal.

We are not expecting a critical incident, but just want to ensure we are prepared if such an event occurred.

If you have any questions please contact the academy via the enquiries@charlesreadacademy.co.uk.

Mrs Jones - Principal

Teacher Training Opportunities

At Charles Read Academy, we are pleased to be the lead school of the East Midlands Hub of National Mathematics and Physics SCITT and the East Midlands and South Yorkshire Hub for National Modern Languages SCITT. (School-centre Initial Teacher Training)

We want to share this with our school community, so that you and your wider networks can be aware of the opportunities to train to teach as Mathematics, Physics or Modern Languages Teachers with our hub.

Please click on the link below for further details on how to register your interest.

Year 7 Parents Evening

We hope that you found the Year 7 parents evening informative and easy to navigate. Due to the current COVID situation and positive feedback we have received from running virtual events last academic year we will continue to run these events virtually for the time being. Please could you take a few minutes to complete this form to provide us with feedback so that we can improve the process moving forwards.

If you were unable to attend any of your scheduled meetings for any reason, please contact those members of staff and they will be able to provide you with feedback.

Mr Lovatt - Assistant Principal

Homework

As an academy we have made a great start to our new homework policy introduced this Autumn Term. Each student who has completed all pieces of Prep homework will have accumulated approximately 30hours of self- regulated learning this term. The homework policy not only supports students to develop self-regulation which is a fundamental skill needed in the work place and our personal lives but also a student’s long term memory of core knowledge. We ask you to discuss homework with your children over the Christmas holidays and the importance and benefits of its completion.

Those students who do not complete their Prep Homework (KS3-4) and/ or Additional homework (KS4) or who do not meet the expectations of the homework will receive a Prep Detention and will be informed during Roll Call by their Tutor. Two Prep Detentions in one week will result in an MCAS home and a phone call from the students Tutor. Three Prep Detentions in one week will result in an MCAS home and a day in IE. Please find the Homework Policy here as a reminder of the responsibilities from all parties. Please find here the instructional video which demonstrates how to complete the Prep Homework and the expectations.

All students will not be required to complete any homework over the Christmas holidays and will therefore receive their new Spring Term packs on Wednesday 5th January. Tutors will expect to see the first Prep Homework on Thursday 6th January during Roll Call from all students in KS3 and Yr10 students. Yr11 students will be revising for their Touchstone assessments and their first prep homework is expected on Monday 17th January during Roll Call. The online homework table will be available from Tuesday 4th January. Responding to some feedback from parents/carers and students we will also be issuing all students with a printed version of the homework table alongside their packs.

Thank you for your continued support with the homework policy.

A short video on homework expectations can be found on the CRA website or by clicking below:

Please talk to your child about this new approach to homework and the consequences if they don’t complete it or don’t complete it to a satisfactory standard.

Mrs Cooper - Whole School Teaching & Learning Lead

CRA Values

On 2nd December we had our first enrichment drop down day this academic year and Year 7 visited the University of Nottingham for an ASPIRATIONAL visit to a further education establishment.

The students had met with university staff the week before at CRA, taking part in an acclimatisation session. During the day at the university the students got to experience university life, touring the campus and student areas, seeing the accommodation and lecture halls, and working on a project to design their own university.

Before the trip 88% of our Year 7 cohort had never visited a university and after the trip 86% expressed that they would like to go to university in the future.

Miss King - Assistant Principal

Parent Governor Vacancies

Charles Read Academy are now looking for two parent governors.

The role of parent governor is an important one. School governors play an important role in supporting the school. They can influence the strategic vision and direction and hold the senior leadership team to account.

Why become a school governor?

Benefits include:

• Developing your professional skills and experience such as strategic planning, and team working, both of which are valued by employers and can assist your own career development
• Building relationships and networks in your locality
• Supporting children and young people in your community.

There is one meeting every half term. The meetings usually last approximately an hour and a half and can be accessed via Teams if coming into school is too difficult due to transport or child care issues.

We would love to hear from you if you are interested in this role by completing your declaration of interest in the Governor election procedure below:

Thinking Ahead – My Future, My Choice

STEM Careers

This week a number of students have had real-world careers input from guest speakers over TEAMs.

Jennifer Veitch spoke to a group of Year 7 students about her role as a chemical engineer working with crude oil, on a platform 100 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, to create sustainable plastics. The students were able to ask lots of questions about how she uses science in her job (including the periodic table), the environmental impact of manufacturing and recycling plastics and what she does day to day.

Alix Wilcox spoke to a group of aspirational Year 10 students about how her degree in theoretical physics led to a leading role in cybersecurity and software engineering. She taught us about coding and how she designs software, as well as letting us know, that just like many jobs, there are plenty of meetings and admin! Both speakers have varied and unusual routes into their current jobs and it was good for students to see different career pathways.

What came through from both speakers is their passion for their careers and how much they enjoy their jobs – many students picked up on this and commented on how everyone they had spoken to about careers lately seemed to like what they did. This is one of the big messages coming through – you might not know what you want to do as a career today, but consider what your interests, likes and dislikes are and start to investigate the many opportunities available.

Miss Burrell - Science Teacher

Table Talk

During the 4th PSHCE 50-minute session this academic year, we spend the time talking to our students about self-regulation and the importance for this for their learning and for their future.

We would like you to discuss the quote by Clint Eastwood and why self-respect and self-discipline result in real power over your own life.

Vapes

We have unfortunately had a succession of students who have been found to have vapes on their person, having been using them at the bus stop and on the school transport.

Clearly it is illegal to purchase vapes or smoking paraphernalia under the age of 18, but aside from this, is it against our school rules. Anything connected to smoking is a banned item and students found with any paraphernalia will receive a fixed term exclusion.

We do this for the safety of all concerned. I hope you can support us in talking to your child about this matter.

Year 11 Focus

This week we will continue to explore the concept of dual coding by sharing 5 ways in which students can use dual coding as part of their revisions process.

Drawings

This does what it says on the tin: we’re talking about simply drawing pictures. Research suggests that creating a drawing from a piece of information requires you to elaborate on its meaning. You have to really consider the information to decipher how best to represent it, create the necessary motor movements with a pencil, and use pictorial processing to inspect your drawing once it’s finished. This deeper processing helps to cement the information into long-term memory.

Many students will be quick to dismiss this strategy because they “can’t draw”. The fact is, there’s no need to be an artist - the most important thing is that your drawings have meaning. As long as they represent the information you need to remember, even if this is only meaningful to you, drawings are a great way to boost student learning.

Graphic organisers

A graphic organiser is a way to organise information (both words and pictures) according to the relationships between different concepts.

There are loads of different types of graphic organisers, all corresponding to different ways of thinking: mind maps and tree diagrams organise information by “chunking” it into related groups; Venn diagrams organise information through comparing its similarities and differences; flowcharts organise information as it occurs within a sequence; other graphic organisers show information with cause-and-effect relationships.

If you need some inspiration.

Diagrams

Diagrams are perfect for learning and revising complex concepts or processes that need breaking down to understand. They can represent a lot of information within a relatively small space, compared to writing it all out in one long passage, making difficult concepts easier to read and get to grips with. Here are several ways you can make your diagram dual coding more effective:

• Make use of signaling. This means drawing attention to the most important aspects of the diagram, such as key words. You could do so by highlighting, underlining, putting writing in bold, using arrows, circling… To maximise the impact of these techniques, use them sparingly.
• Place text within diagrams rather than around the outside. For example, if your diagram is simply an annotated picture, have the labels within the picture rather than around it or in a key. It’s much easier to process the words and pictures when they’re right next to each other, than if you have to keep switching your attention back and forth. This is called the spatial contiguity principle.
• One creative option is to leave diagram labels blank. You can then re-visit your diagram at a later date to test yourself on filling in the labels. This combines dual coding with two other extremely effective revision strategies that you should know about, retrieval practice and spacing.

Posters

Posters are great for combining writing, pictures, and diagrams all within one page of information. They can be used to present all the most important information you know on a specific topic, for example. To ensure you can easily learn and revise from your poster, here are some key tips:

• Use hierarchy - Be sure to include titles and subtitles, and to emphasise these with larger writing or writing in bold. This not only make the poster easier to read, but also gives the information an element of order to help you understand it better.
• Be consistent - Consistency of organisation, colour coding, fonts, and other styling aspects will all help to make your poster more readable.
• Use contrast - Writing large chunks of text in one colour or highlighting everything on your poster doesn’t make anything stand out. Instead, use one or two key colours to create contrast and allow key information to stand out. The more sparsely you use colour, the more effective it will be in helping you to remember the key bits of information. It’s all about that 4th principle: restraint.

Timelines

For any information that happens in a particular order or sequence, timelines should be a go-to. The same rules apply: collect the information you need to know, cut irrelevant information, chunk information into different sections of time, and put these into an organised sequence, all the time using restraint with colours and text and in general not trying to be too “arty”. As always, less is more.

Mr Lovatt - Assistant Principal

Times Tables

At the end of all lessons students stand behind their chairs in silence to prepare for themselves for the next lesson. From September, on a weekly rota, Years 7 and 8 will be reciting their timetables to help embed them in their long term memory.

Week commencing 13th December - 12 times table

Accelerated Reader

Week commencing 13th December during period 4

Updated Transport Policy

Transport provision for the academic year ahead is finalised in July.

Should a student move house that impacts on the transportation requirements (either to a DRET service from another DRET or LCC service) after the arrangements have been agreed between DRET and the transport providers; then places on a revised service will be subject to availability.

Should places not be available on the preferred service then either parents would make their own arrangements, or an alternative will be offered in the same town where possible, even though this may not offer the most convenient stops for the student.

At present we have a waiting list on one of the AC Williams Grantham services and are having to place students on the other Blands Grantham service

We appreciate this may cause some additional logistical issues for parents, but we cannot accommodate services that are not required at the time of the procurement of transport for the year ahead.

Mr Linforth - Academy Operations Manager

Dates for your diary

Please click on the parent calendar to see the full list of upcoming events and activities at CRA