Welcome
Dear Families,
We are pleased to see that many of our routines and policies are becoming really embedded and this is enabling us to maximise lesson time making sure that we squeeze every minute out of each lesson.
We are putting great emphasis on engaging with our families and with this in mind we continue to welcome current and potential parents into school to see us at work. This week we hosted two Open Mornings which enabled potential and some current families to have a look and see what Lodge Park truly offers. We also welcomed current Year 10 parents into school on Thursday to guide them through the KS4 journey that their children will face as they embark on their GCSE studies. This builds on the work we havedone at both our Y6 and Yr12 Open Evening and the Year 11 Parents’ Information Evening. Next week, on Monday, we build on this further as we look forward to welcoming our current Year 7 parents into school for our ‘Meet the Tutor’ evening.
This week’s Character Assemblies delivered by each Head of House has focused on ‘Respect’. Assemblies have been centered around the importance of respect how this can be given, earnt and shown within a community. Our afternoon assemblies focused on the importance of developing an independence in learning through the concept of ‘Metacognition’. Students were challenged to think about how they learn, what makes successful learners and what might be the skills that good, independent learners need. We also welcomed the Army in on Wednesday to work with Year 10 students on a range of activities.
Our exciting new ‘Raven’s’ programme began in earnest this week with a large number of our first cohort engaging in Football, Basketball and Netball supported by our fully qualified and expert coaches. The energy and enthusiasm for this programme has really generated a buzz around school.
Thank you to all families for the support you have given the school over the first month of the academic year.
Warm Regards
Senior Leadership Team
Y7 Open Mornings
On Tuesday and Friday morning this week we opened our academy and welcomed a number of parents and potential Y7’s for September 2025 into school to see how we go about our business.
Parents were greeted by the Executive Principal, Mrs Jones who outlined the ethos, values and mission of the school before parents were guided around our academy visiting lessons and seeing our super colleagues and students go about their work.
Mr McGeown – Vice Principal
Year 10 Parent Information Evening
Thank you to all Year 10 Parents who supported us by attending our all-new Year 10 Parents Information Evening on Thursday.
The purpose of this was to provide a clear and detailed outline for students of how the next two, key academic years will look and to enable you to support us, and your child to make the progress they need to support their next steps to LPA 6th form or beyond.
Mr Cronin ( Assistant Principal Outcomes and Year 11 SLT Link) and Mr McGeown (Vice Principal) were on hand to give expert, first hand experience of the many challenges that this year may bring.
Meet the Maths Department
This year is my 7th at LPA and I have been leading the Maths department for two years. I love all of maths but my favourite topics to teach are, trigonometry, functions and identities. Outside of school, my favourite thing to do is to get out in the countryside with my 2 dogs, Pippa and Daisy.
I have been teaching at Lodge Park since 2022 and I am very excited to be able to shape our amazing Maths department. I love all things Maths (absolutely all of it, but if I had to choose, I would not be able to live without my daily dose of Algebra!). In my free time, I always study something, usually languages or science, or you can find me in garden centres. I have two furry bundles of joy, which I adore: my cat Willow and a dwarf hamster Marble.
This is my 5th year at Lodge Park and my first full year as Head of House. I am passionate about teaching maths with Algebra being my favourite topic. I became a teacher because I wanted to make a difference to the life of students by giving them a more positive experience of school than I had. In my free time I love reading, walking, travelling and spending time in the garden.
This is my 1st Year at LPA and its been an awesome moment with the students, members of staff and leaders. I definitely know I really enjoy working in the Education sector, standing in class to impart knowledge to students. I love teaching algebra and geometry. Outside of school my favourite thing to do is to preach the gospel of Christ, because I am a religious person.
This is my first year of teaching Mathematics in Lodge Park Academy. I love mathematics, and my favourite topics are fractions, substitution and change of subject. I also enjoy cooking and chatting with family outside of school.
My passion for mathematics led me to pursue a career in mechanical engineering, and my love for teaching has brought me to Lodge Park Academy. Outside of school, I enjoy exploring new places as a hobby, embracing the opportunity to learn and discover beyond the classroom.
House News
Kestrel House Limbo Champions
The LPA House Championship officially got underway last week with House Limbo. Students from Year 7 to Year 11 represented their house teams on the stage in front of a full audience in the main hall.
The atmosphere was fantastic throughout, as students cheered on their house teams, as they successfully completed each attempt. Following a number of exciting rounds 20 participants soon became 4 as the Limbo bar lowered and the competition became more challenging.
The final four included one representative from each house and after an intense final round it was Dimitrie from Kestrel 7 who managed to successfully complete the lowest bar, to a rapturous celebration from his house team in the audience.
Well done to everyone who played their part. Final results:
1. Kestrel – 100 Points
2. Goshawk & Red Kite – 75 points each
3. Osprey – 25 points
The next theatre competition is Deal or No Deal where heads of house will take to the stage to play for house points.
LPA Does the Masked Speaker European Languages Day
It was European Languages Day on Thursday 26th September and we held our very own Masked Speaker house competitions.
Five members of staff were speaking a different language as they hid their identity behind a mask. Students and staff across the Academy watched the videos in their tutor groups before trying to guess the language being spoken and the member of staff behind the mask.
Good luck!
House Football – Monday 30th September to Thursday 10th October
House Football takes place next week, running from Monday to Friday during lunchtimes. Year 11 competition will take place afterschool on Friday due to interventions. There will also be a girls football competition the following week (Thursday 10th October).
Students who have been selected to represent their house in this event must bring in their trainers.
Please note the following dates each year group are competing:
- Monday 30th September – Year 10 (1.30pm - 2.10pm)
- Tuesday 1st October – Year 11 (3.30 – 4.15pm)
- Wednesday 2nd October – Year 7 (1.30pm – 2.10pm)
- Thursday 3rd October – Year 9 (1.30pm – 2.10pm)
- Friday 4th October – Year 8 (1.30pm – 2.10pm)
- Thursday 10th October – Year 7 to 10 Girls (1.30pm – 2.10pm)
House Totaliser
Kestrel House top the House Championship totaliser. The updated totaliser now includes points from the Year 7 Rounders Cup and Limbo. Additional house points are also been achieved throughout the week by tutor groups working their way around their Houseopoly boards and successfully completed their ‘chance’ and ‘community chest’ challenges.
Army Visit to Year 10: A Day of Learning and Teamwork
On Wednesday 25th September 2024 our Year 10 students had the exciting opportunity to engage with representatives from the Army. Soldiers from the Air Corps, Infantry Corps, Armoured Corps, and the School Liaison Team visited Lodge Park Academy to share their experiences and insights into various roles within the Army.
The day was filled with interactive activities designed to foster teamwork and problem-solving skills. Students participated in team-building exercises, puzzles, as well as demonstrations of military equipment and command tasks.
Feedback from the students has been positive, with many expressing how much they enjoyed the experience. This event not only provided a unique insight into military life but also helped to develop essential skills.
The LPA Raven’s Project
This week has been incredibly exciting as we officially launched our multi-sports development programme - Lodge Park Ravens.
We were absolutely delighted to be inundated with applications, and we want to congratulate the students who secured a place on the programme. These students will be given the opportunity to experience a morning or afternoon of training with professional coaches, allowing them to grow, not just as an athlete, but as a student and as an individual. The students were selected based on the quality of their application, and their ability to become leaders, excellent team players and well-rounded young people.
To those who didn’t get in this term, don’t be discouraged- there’s always into the next term. We can’t wait to get started and see what this amazing group of students will achieve!
Let’s go, Ravens!
Mrs Morgan - Head of PE
Attendance
As many of you will be aware from publicity in the press, and letters we have sent out previously, the government have significantly toughened the law in relation to school attendance and have now published revised guidance which has become mandatory from September 2024.
From September 2024, schools have to consider a penalty notice if a pupil misses 10 sessions of unauthorised absence in a rolling period of 10 school weeks. Half of a day (am or pm) is considered as a ‘session’. The threshold of 10 sessions can be met with any combination of unauthorised absence, for example, eight sessions of unauthorised holidays in term time and two sessions for other unauthorised reasons would trigger a penalty notice.
The ten school week period may span different terms or school years, for example: 2 sessions of unauthorised absence in the summer term and a further 8 in the autumn term.
National Framework for Attendance Penalty Notices (fines)
The new penalty notice regulations are:
- Each parent will be issued a separate penalty notice, for each child who is absent. For example, 2 parents and 3 children, each parent will receive 3 penalty notices for £160 each, with a family total of £960 in fines.
- The fine amount will be £160 per parent, per child paid within 28 days, reduced to £80 per parent, per child if paid within 21 days.
- The first penalty notice will be considered your first offence.
- The next time an offence occurs, within 3 years of the date the first penalty notice is issued, the fine amount will be £160 per parent, per child paid within 28 days, with no reduction.
- The third time an offence occurs this will be presented to Magistrate’s court for prosecution.
Where a child is absent, and it is believed they are absent without valid reason, we will carry out a home visit and see the child on or before the third school day of absence. If the absence meets the thresholds explained above, you will be issued fixed penalty notices as detailed above.
Please review any holiday plans you have for term time this year to ensure you are not issued with a penalty fine or prosecuted in the Magistrates’ court.
The above rules also apply to punctuality as registers must close at the end of our tutor period. Arriving to school after this time will result in an unauthorised absence. To enable our morning registration (AM) to begin promptly, we require all students to be on site for 8.30 a.m. This is the time your child must be in school, ready to be marked into registers. Therefore, we ask that you ensure your child arrives at 8.30 a.m. and they are with their tutor by 8.40 a.m. at the latest.
Your child must register with their tutor and attend P1 to ensure their ‘present’ marks are captured within the AM registration period. Your child must attend afternoon registration and P5 to ensure their ‘present’ marks are captured within the PM registration period. Even if your child is on site they will not be registered unless they are in their tutor room and classrooms and an unauthorised mark will be given. Ten unauthorised sessions in a ten school week period will result in a fixed penalty notice.
Pupils who attend school regularly will achieve higher grades than those pupils who don’t. In the summer of 2024 pupils at Lodge Park who had above 90% attendance achieved half a grade higher than those who below this.
If you require any support or advice please get in touch via email us on attendance@lodgeparkacademy.co.uk
Students' Leave of Absence
A Principal can only authorise a leave of absence in exceptional circumstances. We will take into account the Government guidance when considering what the exceptional circumstances are- all applications are considered on a case-by-case basis. You may be able to take your child out of school in exceptional circumstances, providing an application is made in advance by the parent/carer, this request complies with Government guidance and the leave is deemed to be ‘exceptional’ by the Principal.
If you take a leave of absence without our permission, or if your child fails to return by the agreed date if permission was granted, then this will be recorded as an unauthorised absence and noted in your child’s record. You might also be issued with a fixed penalty notice for this absence. If your child has not returned within 10 days of the expected date of return then, after consultation with the Local Authority, we may take your child off our school roll.
As examples, the following reasons are not considered to be exceptional circumstances:
• availability of cheap holidays
• periods overlapping with beginning or end of term
• visits to family
• renewing passports
Requests for leave of absence will only be considered if made in writing. Please ensure you use the leave of absence request form to do this. Please follow this link.
Music at Lodge Park Academy
Scan the QR code below or click the link to follow the LPA Music Department Instagram page where you will be able to keep up to date on all the exciting music making that goes on at Lodge Park Academy.
https://www.instagram.com/lpamusic_dret?igsh=MXhtYWZhbnJydjIycg%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
DRET choral festival June 2024, Royal & Derngate Theatre Northampton
https://youtu.be/JI78TqGuT-0?si=3R6_dSd8bJU8x-Bq
Helen Della Torre - Director of Music
Book Fair
Lodge Park Academy will be hosting a book fair in the library from 2nd October until 9th October 2024.
Get ready for an exciting event where books come to life!
LPA is hosting a Book Fair filled with adventures, new worlds, and endless possibilities. Whether you're looking for your next favorite story, educational resources, or something to spark your imagination, we have it all!
At Lodge Park Academy, we believe that reading is a powerful means to support progress for every child in every lesson. Every pupil in Key Stage Three will have the opportunity to visit the Book Fair at a point during the school day with one of their teachers. All pupils in Key Stage Four and Key Stage Five will be able to visit the Book Fair during breaktime and lunchtime
Why Attend?
• Books for All Ages: The book fair will have something for every reader to enjoy.
• Special Discounts: Exclusive deals only available at the fair
• Support Your School: Every purchase helps fund more books for our in-school library
On Monday 7th October, the library will be open to students and families until 4.00 p.m. We look forward to celebrating the power of reading with you all.
Book Review Competition
We are really proud of the following students for submitting their book reviews and winning one of our bookfair vouchers:
Chris 7LO
Ryan 9LR
Marwa 8PO
Mason 7LO
Lauren 9LG
LPA Uniform
We are really pleased with how smart so many of our pupils look each day at Lodge Park, demonstrating our value of respect for themselves and the Academy. We would like to take this opportunity to remind you of some of the uniform expectations as unfortunately a minority of pupils are not meeting these at present:
- Skirts should not be made of a stretchy or lycra type material. They should be knee length and standard school type material.
- Shoes should be plain black (including the sole) and polishable, with only black laces – No suede, trainers, leisure style or sports branded footwear – for example Nike, Adidas, Lacoste, Converse even if all black, are NOT acceptable or heels higher than 2cm. If boots are worn they must be ankle length and worn under trousers.
- Pupils should wear their school blazer when moving around the Academy.
- No coats are to be worn in the building.
- No hoodies should be worn on site.
- Only one pair of ear studs should be worn. NO other jewellery or piercings are allowed, including nose piercings.
- Make up should be natural/discreet.
- No nail polish or fake nails should be worn.
SWI Uniform Supplier
Please find link to Hub https://www.swischoolwear.co.uk/parent-guide?utm_medium=Email&utm_source=CAM&utm_campaign=BTS_Email2_Parenthub
Thank you in advance for your support with this.
St Columba's, Corby - 15th October 2024 7.30pm
Riding Lights Theatre Company is pleased to announce
"Cups on a String" by Bridget Foreman, a new play touring in partnership with Transforming Lives for Good, a Christian charity that helps churches to bring hope and a future to struggling children. A powerful and moving evening of theatre.
Alongside the performance of Cups on a String, the evening will provide an opportunity to hear about the work of Transforming Lives for Good, and how each of us can play a part in supporting the lives of struggling children.
"You think I’m some kind of broken kid and you just want to fix me. With games."
Joe’s eleven and home is hard. School is even harder. He breaks stuff: pencils, chairs, rules.
One thing he won’t break is his silence.
Heather’s fifty-seven. She’s got a comfortable life and a comfortable home. But her comfortable world is about to be turned upside down as she and Joe spend an hour a week together. Every week. For a year.
Where will this journey of hours and weeks take them?
Cups on a String is a warm-hearted and moving new play, developed from remarkable true stories. It’s about playfulness, listening and laughter, and how risk-taking and trust can lead to growth and transformation.
Challenging, surprising and beautifully hopeful, Cups on a String blends theatre, live music and digital technology to take you into the heart of the friendship between Heather and Joe, and the profound impact it has on them both.
AGE GUIDANCE: 14+
Tickets cost £15 for adults and £10 for under 18's, students, unemployed and senior citizens, can be purchased from Riding Lights by going to the following link:
Contact Us
Telephone: 01536 203817
Email: lpa-enquiries@lodgeparkacademy.co.uk
Please be aware this mailbox is monitored by a number of individuals, please do not disclose any confidential information.
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/lodgeparkpe?igsh=aDJxcDJzc3ozd3No
X / Twitter:
https://x.com/lodgeparkacad?s=20
Facebook:
https://m.facebook.com/lodgeparkacademy
Visit our website at www.lodgeparkacademy.co.uk
.