REFLECTIONS FROM THE PRINCIPAL
Dear Parents, Carers and Students
As we come to the close of another busy and productive term, I want to take a moment to reflect on all the achievements and events that have made this period so special for our school community. It’s been a term full of hard work, dedication, and remarkable accomplishments that I am incredibly proud of.
First and foremost, I would like to commend our Year 11 students who have been working tirelessly as they approach their GCSE examinations. Their commitment and determination are truly inspiring and I am confident that their hard work will pay off as they prepare for their exams in the coming months. We are all cheering for them as they enter this crucial stage of their academic journey.
We are also thrilled to announce that our new Year 7 intake for the next academic year is oversubscribed. This is a testament to the excellent reputation our school has built within the community, and we are looking forward to welcoming a new
group of students in September. The future of our school is bright and we can’t wait to meet our newest cohort of learners.
In terms of extracurricular achievements, we’ve had some fantastic moments this term. A group of 28 talented students participated in the Essex Schools Prom, where they performed brilliantly and represented our school with pride. Their dedication and performance were a real highlight of the term and we couldn’t be prouder of their achievements.
Our Year 10 students also had the opportunity to engage in the prestigious Jack Petchey Award programme, which encourages young people to develop their leadership skills and make a positive impact in their communities. It’s always wonderful to see our students get involved in such worthwhile initiatives.
Meanwhile, students from Years 7 and 9 participated in the NEMO Maths Competition, demonstrating their impressive problem-solving skills and collaborative efforts. Their enthusiasm for mathematics continues to inspire us and I look forward to seeing even more of our students excel in the future.
Additionally, many of our students had the chance to go on enriching trips, including the exciting Poetry Live event, where they were exposed to inspiring poetry readings and discussions. These experiences allow our students to broaden their horizons and deepen their understanding of the subjects they are studying.
As we look ahead, I want to thank all of our students, staff, parents and carers for their continued support and dedication. This term
has been a true reflection of the hard work and commitment of our school community, and we have many more exciting opportunities to look forward to in the coming months.
Wishing you all a restful break and looking forward to another wonderful term ahead!
Kind regards,
Jenny Betts Principal
LEARNING AT COLCHESTER ACADEMY
At Colchester Academy, we are committed to helping our students become confident, independent learners. One of the most effective ways we achieve this is through the use of the ‘I Do, We Do, You Do’ approach in our lessons. This structured method provides a clear and supportive pathway for students to develop their understanding and skills, ensuring they feel equipped to tackle tasks independently.
What is ‘I Do, We Do, You Do’?
The approach consists of three stages, each designed to build student confidence and competence: I Do - The teacher takes the lead, clearly demonstrating how to approach a task or concept. During this stage, students observe, listen, and ask questions. This ensures they gain a solid understanding of the subject matter.
We Do - Next, the teacher and students work together. This collaborative practice allows students to apply their learning with the teacher’s guidance. It’s an opportunity to check understanding, ask further questions, and receive feedback.
You Do - Finally, students are given the chance to work independently. At this stage, they apply what they’ve learned on their own, developing their problem-solving skills and resilience.
Why Use This Approach?
The ‘I Do, We Do, You Do’ method is beneficial because it reduces the fear of failure and builds self-efficacy – a student’s belief in their own abilities. By progressing from guided practice to independence, students gain confidence in completing tasks on their own. It also ensures that they have a strong understanding of the material before working independently, reducing frustration and promoting success.
How
Can
Parents
Support
This at Home?
You can apply this approach at home when helping your child with their learning: Model First: Demonstrate how to complete a
problem or explain how you would approach a task. Collaborate Together: Work through examples together, encouraging your child to ask questions and discuss their thinking.
Encourage Independence: Give your child opportunities to try tasks on their own, offering praise and constructive feedback.
At Colchester Academy, we believe in nurturing independent learners who are ready to tackle challenges with confidence. Through the ‘I Do, We Do, You Do’ approach, we provide the support and structure they need to succeed both in the classroom and beyond. Thank you for your ongoing support in your child’s learning journey.
READING
Every week we give the Year 7 and Year 8 students a word from the Reading Room and invite them to use it in a sentence the following week.
We received a mega compilation of just about all the words we have had recently from Julia in Year 7.
“The advent of the fullblood moon meant that it was imperative that the vampires’ attack was sabotagedany procrastination could lead to destruction. So I followed my instinct which led to the salvation of the whole neighbourhood” Great work from Julia who demonstrated excellent creativity and word understanding.
Please remember to encourage the young person in your care to read for at least 20 minutes every day during the Easter break. Practice is the key to success.
Mr Meitiner-Harvey
SUPER-CURRICULUM OPPORTUNITIES
SCIENCE WEEK 2025
SCHOLARS
Year 7 and 8 groups have participated in Science Week this week. British Science Week is a ten-day celebration of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths which takes place each March. The theme for 2025 is ‘Change and adapt’. Changing and adapting plays a big part in Science and you can find examples in every area of STEM. Cities, towns and other areas where people live change and adapt as the world’s population grows, plants and animals change and adapt to their surroundings to survive.
Technology has changed exponentially and adapted to our new, busier lives. Our behaviours change too as we need to change how we consume the world’s resources to offset the worst effects of the climate crisis, and adapt our lifestyles to reduce our impact through recycling or reducing waste.
When exploring this theme, we can also consider how attitudes to STEM and the people who do it have changed and adapted. Perceptions of scientists are changing and we need to keep adapting our thinking until we can no longer picture a ‘stereotypical scientist’ as anyone can be a scientist.
The students have thoroughly enjoyed the activities planned. There were some outstanding posters which involved inventing a new species plus raft making brought out the competitive nature in some students.
We’re thrilled to announce that twelve Year 10 students were selected as scholars! This prestigious program lasted for twelve exhilarating weeks, and offered students an incredible glimpse into university life. This year’s theme revolved around enterprise. While not every scholar plans to pursue this subject in the future, they embraced the opportunity to expand their knowledge and explore new ideas.
Guided by a dynamic university lecturer who visited each week to deliver engaging seminars, our Year 10 scholars balanced their assignments alongside their regular school studies and homework, showcasing their commitment to excellence. We’re proud to say that all our scholars succeeded and passed, with an impressive two students achieving a First Class for their essay and six achieving a 2:1!
The celebration didn’t stop there! Our scholars were treated to a fantastic graduation event at The University of Cambridge, where they received Scholar badges to proudly display at school, recognizing the incredible achievement that each of them has accomplished. Congratulations to all our scholars! We can’t wait to see what the next cohort will bring!
A big welcome to the New Year 10 Prefects for 2025/26
Our new Year 10 prefects are now in place. We have an awesome team of young people who are an asset to the Academy and I know they will perform their responsibilities brilliantly and will uphold the school values of resilience, excellence and respect. They are all looking incredibly smart and ready to make an impact in their role.
Letters of congratulations have gone home to them all. It is a credit to the team that they were asked to start in their role so early in the year. Please congratulate them all and if they ask you for assistance at any point then please do support them where possible.
The Prefects:
Joses Adeyemi-Ademola, Sragvi Garudasu, Abed Al Jamous , Lexi-Mai Hardingham, Ebube Balamathina, Tia Harris, Billy Baldock, Theo Jeffers-Goodey, Maddie Barrett, River Leyland Scarlett Bryden, James Mukoro
Mufaro Bvunde, Alex Neagu, Francesca Carveley Libby Nottingham, Milly Dale, Matthew Stammers Amanda Dike, Elisha Thew Benneth Emeronye, Kristofer Till, Lila Gardner
We also had the privilege of listening to the Head Student presentations and myself, Mrs Betts, Miss Bull and Mr Halliwell had the pleasure of interviewing candidates for these roles and I am pleased to announce that the new Head Student team is as follows:
Head Students: Jada Obwoya and Zeba Sanaie Deputy Head Students: Lexi-Rose Master and Cameron Ulloa
We are so very proud of all of these students, I know the whole of Year 10 and Colchester Academy wish them all well.
Mrs Silver Student Support Manager Year 10
PROBLEM SOLVING CULTURE
THE IMPORTANCE OF MATHS
Numeracy is an essential part of our daily lives, influencing various aspects from our finances to our social interactions and even our health. Our comfort and skill with numbers can significantly impact how we navigate these areas.
Here are some common ways we engage with maths every day:
- Calculating the minutes until our train arrives
- Adjusting a recipe to accommodate additional guests
- Ensuring we receive the correct change after a purchase
- Determining the appropriate tip at a restaurant
- Establishing and adhering to a budget
- Assisting children with their homework
- Monitoring our diet and nutritional intake
- Measuring dosages for medication
- Interpreting statistics and graphs in the news
Poor numeracy skills can lead to decreased confidence and self-esteem among individuals.
The Maths team are working to highlight how important good numeracy skills are to life during school and when young people leave and join the world of work.
NEMO COMPETITION
Eight Year 9 students, split into two teams, represent ed us in NEMO (North Essex Mathematical Olympi
JACK PETCHEY
On Tuesday 4th February, the Year 10 cohort participated in the Jack Petchey Speak Out Challenge workshop for the whole day. Throughout the day, they completed many activities which taught them all about constructing a speech, body language and articulation. Some started out quite shy but by the end of the workshop, we had many confident speakers who courageously and enthusiastically presented their topic of choice to their groups.
ad) competition on Thursday, 30th of January 2025. There were 3 rounds:
1st round: Number Sums
2nd round: Construction of 6 triangles and arranging it to build a Square (TANGRAMS)
3rd Round: 12 Problem solving Questions
It was lovely to see how they worked well together under pressure. Jasmine, the only girl on the team, was amazing and kept the boys on her team focused. The competition was very close, and at the end of the evening one of our teams took the bronze prize. They are all so excited and are already talking of representing the school in Year 10. They are also considering the possibility of having a break time NEMO club to keep refining their problem solving skills. At this rate we are going to bring home the GOLD! We are all so proud of them!
The skills they have acquired will be put to great use when they complete their GCSE Spoken Language exams.
Through their performances, we were able to identify the winners of the heats from each workshop. Those students are:
Scarlett Bryden
Archie Lovell
Lillie-Mae Cirocka
Jada Obwoya
Nicolas Dabek
Mirabirth Ohumende
Sragvi Garudasu
Zeba Sanaie
Lucy Grainger
Be sure to congratulate them as they prepare to compete for the spot to represent Colchester Academy at the regional final at St Benedict’s in April!
EVENTS
Mercury Theatre Trip
On Saturday 2nd February, Miss Selfe, Miss Constantine, Mrs Richards and Mrs Moore accompanied 36 Colchester Academy students to The Mercury Theatre to watch Colchester Operatic Society’s performance of ‘The Little Mermaid’, starring our very own Year 8, Ellie-Marie as ‘Flounder’. Ellie-Marie’s acting, singing, dancing AND roller-skating were sensational!
POETRY LIVE TRIP
The English Department took 50 eager Colchester Academy pupils along to Poetry Live! in Ipswich on Wednesday 22nd January.
For their GCSE Literature Paper 2 exam, pupils are expected to learn 15 poems from the Power and Conflict anthology. This event was an amazing opportunity to hear the poems read by the poets themselves and to hear their thoughts on their work.
We arrived at Ipswich Theatre just in time and found our seats where we would remain for the rest of the day. A Chief Examiner from AQA offered insight into how to write effectively for the exam and talked pupils through the Unseen Poetry element of the exam. Our pupils wrote extensive notes and despite some problems with the sound at the beginning they remained engaged and enthusi-
astic. Pupils then heard the various poets read their work and were given the opportunity to ask questions such as “What is the actual meaning behind the poem ‘Tissue’?” (If you know, you know!)
We heard wonderful poetry from Carol Ann Duffy, Simon Armitage, Imtiaz Dharker and Daljit Nagra, but the man who really stole the show was Mr Jon Agard. As the 73 year old approached the stage the auditorium erupted into cheering and applause. His poetry is particularly engaging as it’s playful as well as meaningful. A real treat for everyone who was there.
We cannot express enough how proud we are of the students who attended this trip. There were several issues at the venue but our pupils were resilient, engaged and focused – to the point where teachers from other schools even commented on how well behaved they were.
HISTORY TRIP
Mrs Siddall had the pleasure on Valentine’s Day of taking 45 Year 9 and 10 students to Essex University to watch a performance of “The Doctors Show” and “Hitler on Trial”. Once again student behaviour was exemplary, really shining a light on the enthusiasm and effort of our young people.
Our students were respectful to the performers and found the exam answer workshops very useful. All students fully engaged in the participation section. Colchester Academy was by far the most engaged and well-behaved group of students. We are once again so proud of our Academy pupils and how they represent themselves on our history trips.
In Maths, we have been awarded as a Problem Solving School, which is very exciting for the school and the students!
One of the challenges is to develop the students’ thinking skills, so that they have the confidence to
try unfamiliar questions. This will help them with maths, but also in lots of other subjects , as well as in real life
One way in which we’ve been doing this is through the use of Nrich Weekly Problems in lessons. Nrich is a project led by Cambridge University to help develop students’ mathematical thinking skills, and nurture their mathematical mindsets (that is, how they think about maths).
A recent problem attempted was Shifting Times Tables and here is a solution written by one of our year 8 students Matteo Huncanu.
We would like to set you a family challenge for the Easter holidays - bring in your answers after the holidays and the best will win a small prize!
You can work out your answers using a diagram, or a 3D demonstration, we’d love to see some pictures!
CLUBS
SPANISH CULTURE CLUB
Another week of learning about different Hispanic countries in the Spanish Culture Club. This week the pupils learnt about Costa Rica. Please see the incredible pupil work below completed in the target language too!
SPIRIT CLUB
February was LGBTQ+ History Month, and our SPIRIT (Supporting Pride, Inclusion, Respect, Individuality and Tolerance) Club created informative posters about key LGBTQ+ figures throughout history which were displayed around the school. The club also hosted a bake sale to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community and raise money for The Outhouse, a local LGBTQ+ charity and support service. The sale was very popular and the school community showed overwhelming support, which led to the sale raising a fantastic £75.10!
CREATIVE ARTS
On Thursday 28th March, a group of our talented singers took part in the annual Schools Prom at Charter Hall, Colchester. This exciting event brings together schools from across the area to celebrate music and community through a shared concert experience.
Our students performed a short programme of songs with confidence and enthusiasm, showcasing the hard work they’ve put into their singing. They also joined voices with pupils from other schools in a massed choir, creating a truly uplifting and memorable performance.
Special mention must go to Leila and Ellie in Year 8, and Niya in Year 9, who each gave stunning solo performances during the concert. Their poise, expression, and vocal ability drew warm applause from the audience and added a real touch of magic to the event.
The final item of the evening was a powerful rendition of Defying Gravity from Wicked, performed by the combined schools’ choir alongside a full orchestra. It was a spectacular and emotional end to a brilliant evening of music-making.
Throughout the day, our students were a credit to the school. Their outstanding behaviour, teamwork, and resilience made them excellent ambassadors, and they represented us with pride and professionalism.
SCHOOL PRODUCTION
Colchester Academy’s Performing Arts Department continues to grow. Not only do we have a higher than average number of students continuing music and drama studies beyond Year 9, we are passionate about promoting the inclusivity and outcomes for the students and nurture their engagement and enjoyment of performing arts. Our drama club currently has over fifty members, with students ranging from Year 7 to Year 11, who work together to produce powerful, meaningful performances.
July 2025 marks a milestone with our inaugural school production, ‘Matilda Jr’, based on the book by Roald Dahl. Rehearsals are well under way, involving more areas of performing arts than ever before! Special thanks to Leila in Year 8, who has taken a leading role in teaching some of the demanding choreography.
ATTENDANCE MATTERS
As the Year 11s approach their GCSE exams, attendance is more important than ever. In the last few lessons teachers will be completing their carefully planned curriculums, bringing together all of the learning from the last two years of GCSE study. Many students will end up achieving their grades by just one or two marks - this may be a result of them becoming secure in their understanding of just one small topic or skill at the very last moment.
Success in exams is strongly correlated to attendance throughout a student’s time at school. We have looked at the national research and completed our own and the link is clear. At CA we found that those with at least 95% attendance achieved, on average, nearly a grade higher than students who had attendance below 90%. For many students, this meant the difference between getting on to the college course they wanted or having a much more limited choice of future pathways.
So, to achieve their potential, but also to develop their relationships and resilience, all students should be aiming for at least 95% attend-
ance across the school year. 95% attendance means having up to ten days off a year. That is a lot of school days, and a lot of learning missed, so, unless there are significant medical reasons, this should be achievable for all students.
Punctuality is also really important. School starts at 8.40am and it is important that students are here at that time. If a student arrives during registration, they will receive an L mark (Late). Any students arriving after 9.10am will receive a U mark - this means they are counted as absent on the official school register for the morning session, so this will reduce their overall attendance percentage (as well as meaning they are missing learning time).
We understand that students are unwell from time to time, but a minor cold is not a reason to be off school. Students will often wake up not feeling 100% but will gradually feel better as they get going during the day. This resilience is shown by many of our students each week, and helps them not just with their learning, but also in how they grow as young people.
If you decide that your child is not
well enough to attend you must let us know before 8.40am each day, either by phone on 01206 861217 or email attendance@colchesteracademy.org.uk.
If attendance becomes a concern we will notify you and ask if there is anything we can do to help. If attendance continues to be an issue we will arrange a meeting to see how we can support. Our aim is always to work with students and families to break down any barriers and make it easier for you and them to make the decision to come into school each day. In the meantime, if there are any reasons why your child is struggling to attend, please don’t hesitate to contact either the Attendance Team or your child’s Year Leader.
Thank you for everything you do to help your children get going promptly in the morning, and a particular well done to all those students whose attendance is over 95%. Keep it up!
Mr Chaplin
Vice Principal
FOOTBALL SUPERSTAR
Evie has been given the opportunity to train with Colchester United Women’s team, which has lead to her being selected to play in the league cup quarter finals.
“I am pleased to confirm that Evie has been invited to train with the Colchester United Women’s Team on Wednesday 26th February!” Evie has an opportunity to play in cup games or just train with CU. In the summer, she is also starting AFC Sudbury football college. She is 1 of 25 people who have been selected.
Evie’s view:
“I have been given the opportunity to sign for Colchester United Women because it’s so late in the season, there is no guarantee on game time but if the opportunity comes up, I will take it.
I have the chance to play and represent them as a club and with being a part of their emerging talent centre for two and a half years, I have worked really hard for this opportunity. This gives me the chance to experience training and playing in a women’s team which gives me a step up to reaching my goal of going professional. However, it means when I go to Sudbury for college, I will not be able to continue playing for them.
I’m feeling really nervous and overwhelmed, however, I have the confidence to push myself forward!”
Since our last interview with Evie she has been selected to plasy for Colchester United Woman’s team. We are incredibly proud of Evie as she is balancing academic progress and success with football training and competition.
Artwork by Year 9 student
DATES FOR THE DIARY
Tuesday 22 April - First Day of Term and Year 11 Class Photo
Monday 28 April to Friday 2 May - Year 10 End of Year Exams
Thursday 1 May - Year 8 Parents Evening
Monday 5 May - Bank Holiday
Thursday 8 May - District Sports Event
Thursday 1 May - GCSE written examinations begin
Monday 26 to Friday 31 May - Half Term Holiday
Monday 23 to Friday 27 June - Key Stage 3 Core Exams
Monday 23 June - Year 11 Leavers Assembly
Thursday 26 June - Year 6 Induction Day and Evening
Tuesday 1 July - Year 11 Prom
Wednesday 2 July - Year 10 Mock Interview Day
Thursday 3 July - Sports Day
Monday 7 July - Year 8 HPV Vaccinations
Tuesday 8 July - Penrose Learning Trust Student Awards Night
Thursday 10 July - Year 7 Parents Evening
Friday 11 July - Culture Day
Thursday 17 July - Summer Showcase: Matilda
Friday 18 July - Last Day of Term, close at 1:30pm
