I am delighted to welcome you to the new school year at Erdington Academy and be writing to you at the end of a fantastic first month, it has been a pleasure to see the return of our students and staff, after a challenging 18 months, they have looked very professional in their dress; thank you all for your continued support in this.
It is with a great deal of pride I write to you as Head of Academy, I have now been at Erdington Academy for eight years and am incredibly proud of the journey and changes we have made over this time. It is a very different school than it was when I started and that is down to the commitment and effort of parents and staff to provide the very best education to our students.
GCSE Results
In a year of further significant national changes to the examination system, students from Erdington Academy celebrated their successful GCSE results in August. Erdington students have worked hard and risen to the challenge and have gone onto post 16 destinations to further fulfil their aspirations and we wish them well.
Improvement plan 2021/22
Over the two training days I have been spending a lot of time working with the staff in ensuring our improvement focus is understood and in place. In summary this year we as a school will be working on developing:
Knowledge Based Curriculum
Student punctuality
Literacy and Oracy
Over the next term we have a range of parent events where I will give more information about what these will look like and why they are important, I look forward to seeing you there.
Parental Partnership Award
After the turmoil of the previous 18 months one of my priorities is to strengthen our parental links and working. Miss Thom will be leading this important aspect of the Academy and will be in contact soon regarding a working party group and other ways you can get involved.
Academy Associate Position
One way parents may wish to be involved with the Academy is to become a member of our Academy Associates, the Associates meet 6 times a year and work with leaders in reviewing the academy’s improvement planning and progress. If you would like more information on how to become an associate, please contact me at the academy directly.
General standards
The Trust’s values are important to everything we do in school and underpin everything else we do and are demonstrated through attendance, uniform and behaviour. In these areas we ask for your support.
The uniform standards really do reflect the academy’s ambition and tradition. We are proud of our academy uniform and expect students to represent our high standards at all times both to and from the academy. A full list of uniform expectations is on the academy website; however, I have summarised some key points below:
Ties – Each student should have a school tie with their house colours on. There are two different ties. One for Key Stage 3 (Year 7, 8 and 9) and one for KS4 (Years 10 & 11.)
School Bag – Must be able to carry an A4 work book and made of a robust or weather resistant fabric. Pouches are not permitted in school.
Foot wear – black shoes. Shoes should be of a polishable material; should have black laces only and no air cushion. Girls shoes should have low heels. Training shoes, boots, canvas shoes, Nike Air Max, Vans, Converse or other similar sports/ leisure footwear are not allowed.
PE Kit- Erdington Academy branded PE top, bottoms and shorts are required for all PE lessons.
We believe that to be part of the school community students need to look like they belong to the school community and as such a uniform isolation room will be operational for any student who does not meet the academy standards. Please contact your child’s Head of Year if you have any questions. Uniform is available from Clive Mark in Boldmere and Trutex in Erdington
Punctuality
We do expect students to be punctual to school, as we prepare them for the world of work. Any student who arrives late to the academy will sit a detention. Students need to be on site by 8:40 am, after this time the gates will be locked. Students who are persistently late will have a loss of privileges and in some cases the school will take court action. Please also be aware that Monday 18th October is a staff training day and therefore the academy will be closed to students.
Detentions
At times some students behave in a way that is not acceptable to our values, when this happens a sanction will be put in place. The focus of the time after school is to address the error and to help support, if a situation occurs again the correct choices are made:
Detentions are 20 minutes, but are to be served consecutively on the same evening.
In the correction a restorative conversation will take place.
If you require any more information please contact Mr Bartlett, Assistant Head leading on behaviour.
Drinks in School:
As we want to encourage healthy lifestyles, no isotonic or fizzy drinks can be brought into the academy; this includes Red Bull and Lucozade. Students can bring in a bottle of water if they wish, they can purchase water and juice on the premises and there are water fountains available.
Excellent outcomes start with ensuring all the small things are done well and we believe this starts and ends with maintaining high standards of uniform, punctuality and behaviours.
The Student Planner:
Developing Students’ Resilience as Learners
The student planner is an important resource for students, a place for them to record homework and an important tool for communication between the academy and parents. We expect students to have their planner with them in all lessons.
Missing Planner
If a student forgets their planner, they will be issued with a break detention that day and a replacement day sheet. If a parent/carer can bring in the planner before break time the detention will not take place. Repeated cases will result in after school detentions. If the planner is lost, we will request £2 for a replacement.
Parent Pay
Parent Pay is an online payment system for schools. It allows parents to pay quickly and securely for school meals, trips and activities, uniforms, music lessons and equipment. A list of all items available on Parent Pay will appear on your Parent Pay page.
To use Parent Pay simply top-up your Parent Pay account online by debit or credit card, or in cash through Pay Point stores. Your Parent Pay balance can be used immediately to pay for any of your children’s items. It is simple, safe, and convenient and your child no longer needs to carry cash into school.
If you do not have Parent Pay please follow the link at the bottom of this letter.
End of the school day
The safety of our students is our highest priority and one of the high-risk times of the day is when students are leaving school. We encourage students to take care on the roads and remind them of this periodically through the year. Can I remind anybody picking up students not to park outside the school on the yellow marked area and as an additional precaution the traffic gate will now be locked between 2:50 pm and 3:10 pm so no vehicles are entering or leaving the site during this busy time.
Students leaving school of appointments
As a school we appreciate there are times when appointments in school time cannot be avoided. Please be aware though that if appointments are made in the day students will need to be collected from school, we will not give permission for students to leave unattended.
Home contact
To help support you keeping in touch and attending school events we have provided links to the relevant communication tools. To further support you in finding out what is happening at the Academy you can access all key information via twitter, Facebook, Show My Homework and the school “My-Ed” app. We look forward to seeing you at our upcoming events.
Twitter: @ErdingtonACAD
Website: https://erdingtonfmat.wpengine.com/
Facebook: facebook.com/erdingtonacad
My Ed : https://www.myedschoolapp.com/
Show My Homework: https://www.satchelone.com/login?subdomain=bsb&userType=student
Parent pay: https://www.parentpay.com
If you would like to leave feedback on Parent View please follow the attached link:
https://parentview.ofsted.gov.uk/
I look forward to meeting many parents/carers over the next few weeks.
Regards
Mr Mallett
Head of Academy
