14 December 2011

Dear Parents/Carers

It is hard to believe that this is the fifth Christmas since we opened, time has moved so quickly. It means however we enter a significant period for the Academy: we have been told that our Early Years provision is ‘Outstanding’, we have shown that we can improve on our already impressive Primary results; we have shown that we can get outstanding results in the Sixth Form; it is now time to test our ability at GCSE. Our Year 11 pupils are entering a vital time of preparation for their mock exams and then a fairly constant march towards their final exams in May and June.

The Academy has had its hands full building itself towards this significant GCSE milestone but has also been preparing itself for the future. The fifth year was always a period when the Governors were expected to review our admissions criteria: this has taken place and they are proposing to introduce a criteria whereby 10% of the intake will be selected through a Modern Language Aptitude Test. This is to support the Academy’s Specialism and the curriculum which expects every pupil to study at least one modern language throughout their time at the Academy.

As our Year 11’s prepare to move into our Sixth Form we have to prepare to educate 250 students across our two year programmes for the International Baccalaureate Diploma and the International Baccalaureate Careers Certificate. In order to provide the best space and facilities for this development we are delighted to be joined with St David’s Church in Westbourne Road in their development of a new community and worship centre which will include an entire floor of purpose designed classrooms to help accommodate our Sixth Form.

In order to provide for every child who joins the Academy we are making huge strides in providing individualised programmes for those who cannot manage the demands of our highly academic offer. To achieve this we are working with Freightliners Farm, the Martin Luther King Centre and St Mary Magdalene’s Church. Together with the Local Authority we are investigating the possibility of extending this still further by establishing our own Languages Resource Base.

It is a good time to reflect that a significant element of our vision when opening the Academy was to become not only part of the community but a servant of it and I think our plans for the future will enable us to be even more successful in this.

A key contributor to the Academy project has been the Revd. Martine Oborne who lobbied for the Academy, was on the Steering Group prior to opening and has been a Governor since we opened.  Martine leaves us this term to move to a new parish in Chiswick. I would like to thank her for her contribution to the Academy and wish her and her family all the best as they move to West London.

With all this excitement I hope that we are all able to take a breath, relax and think of the meaning of Christmas, the Christ child becoming the light of the world and for each of us in our small way to contribute to that light now; in the Academy, in our homes and in our community.

Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Yours faithfully

Paul Hollingum
Principal