Year 9 students have now completed a full month at Samuel Whitbread Academy and I am pleased to report they are demonstrating the school’s values in every lesson, around school and how they interact with students and staff.

The praise points being accrued across the year are outstanding with a number of Year 9 students being top across the whole school! Fortnightly, we celebrate with the students who achieve the most praise points by awarding them with an extended break and hot chocolate. One Year 9 student was awarded a voucher as he has consistently topped the praise table since starting. We’re now also focusing on the tutor groups with the most praise points and at the end of each half-term the top tutor group will receive a present from myself.

Six Year 9 students delivered presentations to a large number of students and parents/carers at our Year 8 Open Evenings. All did an amazing job and should be very proud of their achievement. There were so many positive comments from the parents/carers about how confident they came across. Well done to those students and thank you to all the Year 9 students who supported teachers in the classrooms on both evenings.

Whilst we’ve seen improvements in the standard of uniform, we continue to expect the uniform to be smart and fall in line with our policy, so we ask for your support with this. Students are evidencing they have a better understanding of the behaviour policy. We will continue to set high expectations and expect positive behaviour in the school and within the community. We believe that both behaviour and uniform contribute to a positive school community, and we will continue to have high expectations throughout the year.

On Saturday, our boys’ rugby team travelled to Warwick School for their first match in Whitbread colours. Not only did they come together as a team to deliver an excellent performance, but they also became the first SWA team to ever record a victory against Warwick school in a 15-a-side game. This result put them in the conversation as one of the top U14 sides in the country. This was a fantastic achievement, definitely a team to watch.

Finally, this week we’ve welcomed Mrs Pryor as Pastoral Support for Year 9. Mrs Pryor brings a wealth of experience, we know that she will be a huge asset to the team in providing support to our students.

Please continue to congratulate your children on their successes and achievements so far, they are making excellent progress which should be recognised.

We’re now heading into the sixth week of term and it’s clear that routines have been established in lessons and registration. These routines help to create a consistent environment where all students have the opportunity to prepare for revision and the subsequent mock examinations. PSHE activities in registration have focused on how students can best prepare.

We hope the Year 11 Information Evening was insightful and helped to develop a greater understanding of how the year team can support your child throughout the year. We’ve created an ‘Information at your Fingertips’ newsletter to complement many of the activities students are discussing in registration. The newsletter includes excellent revision ideas that you can use to support your child.

As a year team, we’ll continue to be consistent with our uniform and behaviour expectations. The high standards of the academy enable students to learn in a positive environment and we’re constantly analysing data to develop strategies to support our students, with fortnightly data drops and regular year team meetings.

Mock examinations are just around the corner and we’re aware many students will find it hard to balance the pressure of revision, exam stress and other commitments. As a year team we’ll continue to support individuals, students are also able to speak to their form tutors during registration and the year team during break and lunch, (unless we have a scheduled meeting). Whilst we are there for the students, we always reiterate the importance of being in lessons and taking in key information.

On Thursday 16^th November, you’ll have the opportunity to meet your child’s form tutor and ask any questions that you might have. On the same evening, we have our Sixth Form Open Evening and Careers Fair, an excellent opportunity for students to explore options post Year 11. More details on this will follow in our next newsletter.

It has been great to see some trips, visits and competitions take place over the last couple of weeks including trips to St George’s Park and Cambridge University for our physics students, a house debate competition, a fundraising event for a village called Aroumd in the Atlas Mountains and an aspiration event delivered by Cambridge undergraduates. I know that all of these opportunities have helped to benefit our students and complement their understanding of career options or help to develop valuable life skills.

Please do let us know of any achievements outside of school, we are always keen to hear and share their success.

October has come around so quickly, and the early deadline for sending UCAS is fast approaching. We've been impressed with the quality of the applications sent so far. Form tutors are working hard in morning registrations to support students with both university and apprenticeship applications. This is a reminder that students who need further assistance with future choices can have a careers appointment with our independent adviser – please email lfreeman@bestacademies.org.uk

The Year 13 IPE (Internal Progression Exams) schedule has been published and runs from the 21st November to the 7th December.  Students should be revising and reviewing their subjects in preparation for this.  Finally, we are looking forward to subject PRE on Thursday 12th October; virtual appointments are still available for parents/carers to talk to teachers about progress using the Schoolcloud system.