News from Go thic Mede A cademy

Go thic Mede are ver y excited to be taking par t in the Junior Duke Awards Junior Duke is allo wing the pupils to learn and practise basic life skills Our sessions are being run as afterschool clubs In our f irst groups we have seen cooker y, washing cars, sewing, drama and music to name a few

We look for ward to more children working through these awards Last week some o f our pupils were the f irst at Go thic Mede to complete their awards They received a cer tif icate, badge and even had tea and cake with our Principal Mr Clarke

Last week we had a day full o f numbers here at Go thic Mede! This was for Numbers Day which raises money for NSPCC The children dressed up in numbered clo thing and there was lo ts o f maths and number activities going on around the school Mr Clarke led a TT Rockstars assembly with our Key Stage 2 pupils He even pu t his skills into practice and sho wed the pupils ho w it is done and went on to score a ver y impressive 41 correct answers in one minu te. He has challenged all o f the children to beat this!

Our children have also been joining in with the BBC Teach Live 'Big Schools' Birdwatch' We listened to Chris Packham and the o ther mar vellous presenters who helped us learn abou t birds, the food chain, interpreting data and answered our general questions We emailed questions to the BBC and heard the responses online

We look for ward to updating you on more o f our news next month

The year is flying by! At PBA I can already see that this year is going to be no different f rom the previous in that we are once again managing a signif icant gro wth in pupils and staff. During the last few months we have successfully recruited new staff to extend our upper school pro vision. As a school that was always designed to be a secondar y school, albeit with an extension to include year 5 and 6 we have been for tunate to be able to plan for the key stage four curriculum we want to deliver

Consequently, we have recruited teachers to lead Drama, Music, ICT, in addition to teachers o f Maths, English, Science, DT, Humanities, MFL and additional primar y teachers for our gro wing primar y phase It is exciting to see this gro wth and see our plans for the curriculum begin to consolidate Next year will be equally exciting as we look to appoint specialist teachers o f the broader curriculum such as Media, Business studies, Dance and a range o f o ther areas that will be somewhat determined by pupil demand As par t o f our continued gro wth we are looking to increase our local go verning board If this is something you are interested in please do contact the school on Pixbrook@bestacademies org uk Previous experience is no t required

While this long - term work continues we are also determined to develop our pupil experience. Over the last few weeks we have had immersion days in maths, science and histor y and an R AF STEM day. Young voices have per formed at the 02 and we have launched our PGL trip for this year and the ski trip for next year. Of course, our pupils continue to per form magnif icently in terms o f their engagement with clubs and our spor ts teams have competed across the county and beyond with great success. Seeing the school develop so quickly has been exciting and a little challenging at times bu t the commitment o f staff and suppor t f rom pupils and parents has been ou tstanding

Beyond these events lessons continue to be delivered in a consistent and thoughtful way Our model o f collegiate planning means that all pupils, regardless o f their teacher is pro vided with a consistent diet o f lesson experiences that is no t dependent on the person delivering the lesson We look to develop our curriculum in a way that can take its inspiration f rom the best available We are no t constrained by school histor y or resources and instead can work with colleagues excited by the prospect o f developing their subject area to enthuse our pupils to achieve

School is abou t extending and impro ving life chances and by having a large body o f staff who have joined the school to take advantage o f the oppor tunity to make a difference we are in an excellent place to do just that.

As always, we look to the next half term with optimism, there is much to look for ward to and much more to be done, bu t this is always the case in schools!