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Dear Parent/Carer 

Year 10 Consultation Evening – Thursday 1st December 2022 – 4.00pm-6:30pm

On Thursday 1st December 2022 at 4pm you and your child are invited to our Year 10 Consultation Evening, firstly to collect their report and secondly to meet all their subject teachers. This is your first opportunity to discuss your child’s progress in key stage 4. It will also allow you to identify what needs to be done to maximise their potential for achieving success in the future. We would appreciate your support and attendance for the evening.  Please confirm your attendance using the attached link.

Please sign in on arrival  and then proceed directly to the classrooms of the subjects studied by your child, to meet with your child’s teachers.  There is no individual subject appointment system so you are able to arrive at a time to suit you between 4.00pm to 6.00pm.  Prefects will be outside classrooms to facilitate your time with the teacher. The evening will finish at 6.30pm.

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Yours sincerely 

S Walker 

Miss S Walker 

Achievement Team Leader

D Ellerby

Mr D Ellerby 

Deputy Headteacher for Learning and Progress

Time is something that’s been brought into focus this week.

We welcomed everyone to the Academy after the half term break and the clocks going back.

That switch brings with it darkness and cold – I am not a big fan – and is one of the reasons the second part of this half term is loaded with positive events.

We were very mindful the change in time created a potential issue for a significant proportion of our Muslim students who wished to pray due to Jumnah. They normally do so at 1.15pm in the Mosque.

We wanted to accommodate those committed to prayer and are able to do so as soon as the Academy day finishes on a Friday in the dance studio.

I am indebted to Mr Hassan for ensuring the end of British Summer Time does not mean students cannot fulfil their responsibilities to pray. It is really important to them and that makes it important to us.

They are welcome to bring their own prayer mat.

We are proud of these efforts and the time invested in diversity.

Data from the summer’s exams was published by the Department for Education last week and can be found here.

Of course, it is difficult to compare past years because of the pandemic but, while there is always room for improvement, our results stand up well to scrutiny and we are pleased with the progress.

Year 11 parents know interventions are already underway to help and support their children achieve the best outcomes possible, with additional time spent with them by staff during the week.

Their widely advertised, two-week exam period starts on Monday. Students are working really hard to prepare for them. Keep it up.

Monday saw time run out for parents to choose secondary destinations for their Year 6 children.

We appear to have had a really good response from those in the community wanting their child to come here next September. Thank you for that.

It will soon be time for our Combined Cadet Force (CCF) to launch. This will happen in January when we become the only school to be running the programme in the area.

There will be an opportunity for 90 young people to be its first recruits.

The CCF has nothing to do with a student thinking about a career in the Armed Forces.

What it will offer is for them to experience a real sense of belonging, to understand collective responsibility, to improve their resilience, give a chance of further qualifications, and provide a structure that can help them become even better people than they are now.

Fully funded by the Ministry of Defence, cadets will be able to take advantage of free trips and experiences. A display board in school highlights some of what is in store.

Staff are really excited about the opportunities the programme will offer and a number are in training in their own time to deliver it.

The process – it has taken a year to get to this stage – has been driven by Head of English Donna McDonald – who has had years of experience in a CCF at a previous school – and Laurence Fox, who’s in his second year of teaching having been in the Military Police.

We could not have two more skilled nor committed individuals leading the programme and I’m grateful to them and other members of the staff team undertaking the training.

There is so much coming up on the horizon, including national campaigns such as Anti Bullying Week, Inter Faith Week, Odd Socks Day and BBC Children in Need.

Various parents’ evenings will take place when reports will be issued, with children assessed on their progress in class.

Time might have altered, and the clocks gone backwards – but we are looking forwards with great anticipation.

1st November 2022

Dear Family

We hope this letter finds you well and full of enthusiasm for the final 6 months of your educational journey with us here at The St Lawrence Academy. The reason for this letter is to invite you to:

 “An Evening of Ingredients” 

on Tuesday 6th December 2022 – 4:00pm – 6:30pm

This evening has been hugely successful in the past, and is an opportunity for Year 11 students to receive their academy mock exam results, and for you as a family to speak to staff and receive all the information you will need in order to prepare for their final months at the academy. 

At 4:00pm all students will receive the exam results which they have achieved in their
Year 11 academy exams.

Following this, the East Wing, West Wing and Central Atrium will be open for you to walk around at your own pace, and speak to a whole host of people that includes; 

• Careers & Aspirations
• Effective Revision
• Exam Day Ready 
• Academic Apps (how to use them)
• Life Central
• WellBeing
• Attendance
• Managing Device Time
• Parental Feedback
• Further Education Colleges
• University Representatives
• Apprenticeship Providers
• Local Businesses
• Scunthorpe United Futsal
• All Subject staff
• The year group ATL

Throughout the evening our Hospitality & Catering students will be serving finger food and drinks. 

We would love you to join us in order to understand what we are doing to support our wonderful Year 11 students in the final few months of their TSLA learning Journey. 

In addition to this we would like you to tell us where we can do better and where you think we could improve. This can be done during the evening with questionnaires and discussions with the Senior Leadership Team. We value this tremendously.

Dates for your diary moving forwards are,

• Tuesday 6th December 2023 – “An Evening of Ingredients”
• Thursday 2nd March 2023 – “Year 11 Final Push Evening”

We hope that everyone can attend this evening and all those attending will be entered into a prize draw.  In order for us to understand the numbers joining us that night so we can plan ahead with regards to food and hospitality. Please confirm your attendance on the attached google form.

We are going to spend time reminding the students about the importance of attending this event .  We are passionate about success and above all providing help, so please help us by sending your confirmation that you will be attending as soon as possible.

Mr Dan Ellerby [email protected]                       Mr Andrew Murray  [email protected]

Deputy Headteacher for Learning & Progress         Year 11 Achievement Team Leader

One of my big frustrations is school attendance.

Most children attend and attend regularly. But we have too many who find the slightest excuse to miss out.

The importance of school attendance and the impact it has on a child’s progress, outcomes and future cannot be overstated.

I do understand barriers to accessing education can be wide and complex for an individual student and some families.

The law entitles every child to full time education suitable to their age, level of ability and any Special Educational Needs they may have.

It is the responsibility of every parent to ensure their child receives that education by being at school.

Figures from the Department for Education show students with higher attainment at the end of Key Stages 2 and 4 have higher rates of attendance over the key stages compared to those with lower attainment.

At Key Stage 4, students not achieving grades 9 to 4 in English and Maths have an overall absent rate of 8.8% compared to 5.2% for those who achieve grade 4.

The overall absent rate of students not achieving a grade 9 to 4 is more than twice as high as those achieving those grades.

Hopefully, the message is hitting home. Being in school every day it is open is crucially important to a child’s development, well-being and wider personal development.

Absence will be marked as unauthorised unless there are exceptional circumstances.

The Government has made attendance high profile. It is a priority that students are in full time education by attending school as close to 100% of the time as possible.

I do appreciate people fall genuinely ill.

But there are other times when we need to battle through. None of us feel 100% all the time.

The best place for a child to be is within a learning environment.

Sometimes, we need to show a little bit more resilience, determination and will not to give up.

There was a lot of that on show last Thursday at our sell-out Sports Presentation Night. Our thanks again to the businesses in attendance and sponsoring the event.

What a night. High quality and success among our young people were constant themes.

It was another great reflection of what we do, celebrating and rewarding our students’ achievements.

There are some talented individuals here with strong attributes and the event is an important showcase for PE, an area that has always been successful and important to us as an Academy.

We have another key event tomorrow (Thursday) when we host the first Community Café of the academic year between 3.30pm and 5pm.

It is a great opportunity for people associated with the Academy to come in, meet us and engage with the wider community.

We break up for half term on Friday. We have had seven busy and long weeks and a significant number of students can be pleased with their efforts and progress made.

Enjoy your break. It would be a treat to see a full attendance when we return on Monday, 31^st October – Halloween.

Time passes by and half term is at the end of next week.

It will be a welcome break after a busy seven weeks and offer a chance for reflection.

Before we break up, a significant event makes a welcome return to the Academy calendar.

Our Sports Presentation takes place this Thursday, marking its 15^th year.

I was at the inaugural event and, subsequently, hundreds and hundreds of students have been part of it ever since, creating many fond memories.

Those there will never forget, for instance, the 2012 event at the Baths Hall when more than 1,000 people attended as the Academy was being constructed.

It has stood the test of time and I am delighted to see its return.

It will be my first as Headteacher handing out the prizes rather than being present as a member of the PE team.

I look forward to celebrating the students’ wonderful achievements over the past 12 months with them, their parents/carers and the staff team.

It is being sponsored as an event by Pepperells Solicitors for which we are very grateful for their generous contributions in recognising the achievements of our young people in PE & Sport.

In addition to Pepperells, Wren Kitchens, Ongo, Lindsey Lodge Hospice, Paul Fox Estate Agents, Diddi Kicks, North Lindsey College and John Leggott College are also sponsoring awards on the night for which we are truly humbled and delighted.

My thanks to our Personal Development Lead Ryan Oates for his work in gathering local businesses and educational partners to support us and our Lead for Physical Education Lindsey Shutes for her team’s organisation to produce this incredible event.

Having it back on the calendar gives a chance to reflect on the things we have done well and reasons why we have been successful over time.

Speaking of success, I was so impressed to walk around after school on Monday and see up to 80 Year 11s staying behind for extra classes, preparing for their GCSEs next year.

We are only in week six so numbers attending when we get into the final run-up to exams in March, April and May look set to be extra-ordinary.

It is a great year group. They are hard-working with a terrific attitude, a desire to be successful and, most importantly, a willingness to work with teachers to get better.

Their teacher-predicted grades will be included in reports on 21^st October, ahead of exams after half term.

I cannot thank the students enough for their outstanding start to the school year and how they have applied themselves. They are great role models for our younger children.

Another key date in the school calendar is 6^th October, when the census is taken on the numbers on roll. This equates to the money the Government gives us for the year after.

I am delighted we are full at 795 children. When we opened in 2008, the number was 612.

For the past five years, we have been over-subscribed going into Year 7. This increase in our popularity has been down to the hard work of a significant number of people.

But we are very much about looking forward and those following us on social media will have seen how we are trying different things to improve further.

Last Friday, 15 students attended our first Business Breakfast hosted by Pepperells Solicitors, based on Doncaster Road.

It began promptly at 8am and our children learned about careers in the legal profession and were able to ask questions of practitioners.

It was a brilliant first event and our thanks to Pepperells again.

The event formed part of our personal development programme and I’d ask any businesses that would like to host a similar breakfast to please get in touch.

We continue to expand horizons to young people by opening their eyes to what is available.

Something new also took place in the science department last night. The first mini contact night was held for some Year 11 and their parents, offering a chance to chat with staff.

We want the triangular conversations to help our young people to get better GCSE results and I hope everybody attending found it worthwhile.

I would like to thank our Curriculum Progress Leader for Science Mrs Purbrick and her team for being creative and hosting the night. Another innovative and creative evening where students were at the heart of our core purpose.

It was more time well spent.

Student journeys at our academy have a beginning, middle and end.

The starting point is a Year 6 Open Evening, which we held last Thursday.

It was an incredible night. The reason why was a massive team effort.

Staff worked tirelessly and showed great creativity to put on an event which gave an honest and true reflection of our curriculum and life at the Academy.

I would also like to thank the students who helped host the 200-plus families who attended.

We stressed to our visitors the importance of asking questions and finding out the answers.

We never take for granted that parents will place their trust in us. We hope they had a good evening that helps them make an informed choice about the next steps in education for their child.

I thank them for coming and making the night what it was.

At the other end of our spectrum, we have finally had clarification from exam regulator Ofqual around standards for next year’s GCSEs.

Allowances, in place for the last three years because of Covid, will be scrapped and grade profiles   will return to those of 2019, though with an additional safety net that overall grades will be no lower.

Formula sheets in GCSE Maths, Physics and Combined Science are due to be kept but advanced information about what is covered in the exams will no longer continue.

Students will be expected to learn and revise all topics, and any could come up in the exam.

It is important information for Year 11. They are basically being told it is “back-to-normal,” pre-Covid times yet they have still experienced two years of disrupted education.

The draft of next year’s GCSE timetable has been produced and we will be talking to students in the coming weeks as to what that looks like.

In the meantime, we have published the timetable for Year 11 exams that will start after half term. It can be found here.

We stress to our young people all the time their experience is inclusive of so many things:

• Taught curriculum
• Reflections / collective worship
• Character education
• Futures
• Extra-curricular programme
• House participation
• Raising Aspiration Days (RADs)

The first RAD of the school year is today and I wanted to give parents a flavour of what the staff team have put together for Years 7 to 11.

Years 7, 8 and 9 have a day focused on PiXL Edge, a framework that rebrands our leadership programme.

They will be learning the importance of LORIC – leadership, organisation, resilience, initiative and communication – skills.

Year 9 will do so at Glanford Park, with the sessions delivered at Scunthorpe United. Thank you to them for giving our students the run of the ground.

Year 10 are focusing on Futures, including a work experience launch event. They will be learning what it is, where they might go and hear from fantastic guest speakers, who will talk about options and opportunities.

Finally, Year 11 are having a post-16 preparation day. It will feature sessions around high performance, including materials produced by BT Sport presenter Jake Humphrey.

The day also looks at study skills and the application process for colleges and apprenticeships.

The day’s just as important as our curriculum and it’s the first example this year of our unique selling point that sets this Academy apart from others:

“Nourishing our young people with the skills needed to grow, flourish, and be well prepared for life.”

From the start with Year 6, through to supporting our Year 11s with the next steps in their lives at the end of their time here, and plenty of terrific midpoints in between.

What a journey.

26th September 2022

Year 7 Settling in Evening 

Wednesday 5th October 2022 – 5.00pm to 6.00pm

Dear Parent /Carer

Our Year 7 students have made a wonderful start to life in the academy and we are delighted to see that they have settled in really well. 

On Wednesday 5th October 2022 we would like to invite you to the Year 7 Settling in Evening from 5.00pm to 6.00pm, where we will celebrate the great start to secondary school that has been made. You will have the opportunity to meet with your child’s tutors and year team to discuss how your child has settled into the academy.  

We hope that you will take this opportunity to come and meet with us, where you will be able to discuss any issues you may have.  We look forward to seeing you and continuing to work with you closely in the future. 

Yours sincerely,

Mr Matt Cretney

Year 7 Achievement Team Leader