Dear Families,
I hope this email finds you in the best of health. We’ve had an action packed week at the academy which I will update you on below. Please be aware that there is likely to be some disruption next week due to industrial action on Wednesday and Thursday.
Industrial Action
There is further industrial action planned for next week on Wednesday 15th and Thursday 16th March. As with previous strike days there remains uncertainty around which staff we will have available on the day, and this limits our ability to staff the whole curriculum on those days. As such, we will not be able to fully open to all year groups. Years 11, 12 and 13 should attend school as normal and will take part in normal lessons where their teachers are available. They will independently study for the remaining sessions. Students in Year 7-10 will not be able to attend school on those days unless they have been identified as vulnerable or have signed up to our critical worker provision. There are a small number of students who are taking part in an external assessment on Wednesday or Thursday – those families have been contacted individually with arrangements for that assessment.
Year 11 Mock Examinations
As the second Year 11 mock window draws to a close we would like to thank our Year 11 students for all their hard work and commitment. Their focus and willingness to embrace the additional support that our staff offer will stand them in good stead for their final results in the summer. As is customary, we will be running revision classes throughout the Easter holidays alongside our intervention programme which runs after school. Students will receive a letter next week outlining which sessions we believe would be of benefit. Year 11 Parents Evening will be held on Wednesday 29th March and bookings can be made from Tuesday 14th March; students will receive their mock examination results on this evening. It would be lovely to see you there, helping to support your child through the final run into the summer.
Year 13 mock Examinations
The Year 13 Mock Examination series starts on Monday 13th March. Students have received their individual timetable and will be preparing for this gruelling period during their independent study time in school and their free time at home. Please ask your child about their exams and check in to see how their preparation is going.
Rewards Assemblies
The 3rd round of awards assemblies will take place on Tuesday 14th March. Students who have performed well in their Data Points will have their achievements recognised by myself, Mrs Bhundia and Miss Wiltshire. The Vice Principal’s Break and the Principal’s lunch are scheduled for the following week.
Reading Rampage
The reading rampage project continues throughout this half term. Students are reading 10 books as part of the programme, along with other schools, with the aim to identify the students favourite book across the 25 schools that are taking part. If your child has borrowed a book, please talk to them about the story. Encourage them to finish and then return the book, submitting their rating to Mr Scott.
Employability skills reporting pilot
As a school we continue to develop our students 4R’s or employability skills through the KS3 curriculum. Working alongside our local, national and international business partners we have been developing our curriculum to provide opportunities for students to develop these skills but also for our staff and industry partners to assess them. We would now like to begin reporting home on the 4R skills, sharing students’ progress with families. If you are interested in being part of our pilot to shape how this looks and you are willing to share your thoughts on our reporting proposal then please sign up to our Reporting Pilot group using this link.
Free lifetime membership to Fivedinners.com
We have recently been contacted by TV chef and author Theo Michaels from FiveDinners.com. They are giving away free lifetime memberships to try and help you save money on food shopping and reduce the mental load of deciding what to eat every night. We are told there is no catch or restrictions, simply full access to meal plans to make your dinnertimes a little easier and cheaper. You can sign up using this link and clicking the green button.
Household Cavalry Band Workshop
All Year 7 and 8 students, as well as older students interested in a military or music- based career, had the chance today to find out what a career in the Household Cavalry is like. They watched videos of training, ceremonial duties and day to day activities, heard firsthand accounts of experiences, as well as having a chance to try on the dress uniform and ask questions about the job. There was certainly a lot of interest sparked by the visit and excited chatter about the experience afterwards. Our thanks go out to Holly and Ben for giving them such a clear insight into this fascinating career.
Alder Hey Children’s Hospital Visit
A number of our students were privileged to attend a trip to the ground- breaking Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool on Thursday with Mrs Ezis. These students have been working on ideas to improve Patient Safety and Well Being as part of a Global Challenge set by Teen Tech. TT from Year 9, TB, NS, CC and SC from Year 12 have devised intriguing solutions for some of the many problems faced by Health Care Professionals and this was an invaluable opportunity to consult Mentors from the Innovation Hub at Alder Hey about the viability of their proposals and the direction they should take their ideas in.
The morning was spent examining and trying out the latest technology including Holo-Vision Goggles which allow surgeons to look inside the organs they will operate on, to prepare their strategy; 3D Printing which creates from a scan a 3D model of a malformed joint or tumour to be treated, enabling solutions to be practiced; remote monitoring of patients’ conditions in virtual wards at home; robotic completion of repetitive, mundane jobs and machine learning.
Students then had the opportunity to discuss their projects with the experts and will continue to liaise with their mentors to see their projects through to completion.
Nuclear Energy Agency International Mentoring Workshop
Five Year 12 students were fortunate to be selected to attend the first ever workshop run by the international Nuclear Energy Agency in conjunction with the UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. The workshops are designed to support female participation in the nuclear industry and the workshops have been run successfully in other countries around the world such as Japan, South Korea and Canada.
The students spent two days in Birmingham learning about the roles available, not only in the nuclear industry, but also more generally in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) roles. As part of the workshop, a team of inspirational international mentors had been chosen to share their experiences of being a woman in STEM and to give insight into the huge variety of roles available to them, many of which the students had never heard of or hadn’t considered them to be part of the nuclear industry.
The mentors worked with the students over the two days to help them gain in confidence and to prepare a presentation. These presentations ranged in topics from “Why I Want to Work in STEM” to “What I Would Do as Prime Minister to Improve the Representation of Women in STEM”. All of the Derby Moor students performed excellently and gave very confident and considered presentations.
DG Magwood, the Director of the Nuclear Energy Agency, commented in the closing address that it was gratifying to have been able to listen to the viewpoints of the young women who had taken part and to hear their insights and thoughts about why women in STEM are so under-represented. He thanked all of the students for being so willing to share their opinions and said that he had useful information to be able to take back to the UK government when he meets with representatives next week. You can see som images from the day and other content from the NEA on their twitter feed.
Duke of Edinburgh
The DofE meeting on Thursday 16th March has unfortunately had to be cancelled. The next DofE meeting will be on Thursday 23rd March, where a paperwork and pre-expedition check will take place. Parents are politely reminded that they have received an email with a link to the consent forms for the Activity Provider. Please note that this form needs to be completed for your child to be eligible to attend the weekend activity.
Vacancies
We have a number of support and teaching vacancies advertised at present including Teacher of Maths, Teacher of Geography and Behaviour Mentor amongst others. If you are interested in joining our team, please follow the link to our TES page.
Sports Update
On Tuesday the U15 Girls team played their first home friendly of the year against a very competitive JCB Academy team. An early goal in the first half from SK gave Derby Moor the lead, which they then had to combatively defend for the remainder of the game. SK and EG both came close to adding to the score line in the second half, but ultimately in was the defending of MM, IW and LW that meant that the game finished 1-0 in favor of Derby Moor. Player of the Match: LW
Wednesday was extremely busy day for football, with Derby Moor playing host to #LetGirlsPlay sessions during lunch time This saw a large number of Y7 and Y9 girls taking part in variety of footballing challenges with the guidance of some of Derby County’s Community Trust team. Following that, the U13’ Girls team made their home debut in the ESFA Girls Cup, against Toot Hill from Nottingham. A back and forth first half finished 2-2 with goals from AB and IM keeping Derby Moor in the game. In the second half, Derby Moor were able to start asserting some dominance and took the tie to 4-2 with another two goals from IM to complete her hat-trick. Toothill were able to reduce the deficit to one, before EA scored with the game ending 5-2 to Derby Moor. This takes them into next round of the cup. Player of the Match: IM
Careers Update
This week’s job of the week is a ‘Restaurant Manager’.
Farrer & Co : A number of students in Year 10 and 9 took part in a fascinating virtual workshop this week with the London law firm Farrer & Co. The session focussed on routes into the law and the range of careers within the legal sector. Students were surprised at the range of opportunities and asked some great questions around qualifications, work-life balance and how to develop the appropriate skills to gain entry into the legal sector. You can find out more about Farrer & Co on their website.
Virtual Careers Expo: Some of our Year 12 students took part in a varied and engaging virtual careers experience this week, giving them the opportunity to learn about different industries and the career opportunities available to them. Amazon; Bettys & Taylors; PWC; AXA & Zurich supported us on the day and talked to students about their companies and roles within the business.
Advice for parents: Sixth Form students have been looking into student finances this week to gain an insight into funding routes for university study. There is a really useful webpage from Portsmouth University to help families understand more about student finance and to help choose potential course.
That’s everything for this week. Wishing you a relaxing weekend,
Scott Doyle
Principal
