Welcome
Dear Families
This week in the Academy we have responded to student survey requests to spend some time discussing the significance of vaping. Every year group attended extended assemblies hosted by either Mr McGeown or Mr Elhasbaoui where we discussed what vaping actually is, the legalities of vaping and the health related risks associated with vaping. Students responded really positively and interjected with a number of activities presented.
Also this week we have launched Phase 2 of the Ravens programme. Students have had the opportunity to apply by completing a Microsoft form application which states the reasons why they should be considered for the programme. Results will be revealed soon.
We were also very proud this week to show off our excellent Sixth Form. A record number of visitors arrived to see what our Sixth Form could offer for 2024/25 Post 16 students. Exciting times ahead.
Glare Greenhalgh, a member of the governance team at DRET who supports our school in a number of ways achieved a National award being named Governor of the Year. We are thrilled for her and thank her for her hard work.
Finally, we took our amazing Year 7 students to St Peter’s church in Kettering for the annual regional DRET carol concert. It was great to get out of school and engage in the Christmas spirit. Students demonstrated the values we expect and they seemed to really enjoy the experience.
Thank you for your continued support of our work in school.
Warm regards
The Senior Leadership Team
Careers - Lodge Park Academy Host the Royal Navy
Last week saw Lodge Park Academy hosting the Royal Navy again, working with Year 8 and Year 9, to share how Science and Engineering is used in day-to-day activities within the Navy. Students participated in workshops about helicopters and flares.
Year 8 learnt about emergency rescues at sea and the science behind flares. They students went on to build their own flares using paper templates and cellotape, before launching them on the tennis courts, with compressed air, to see who could launch them the highest.
In their hour-long sessions, Year 9 learnt about helicopter's and the engineering behind them. They made their own paper versions and solved the puzzle of how to make the rotations slow down by adapting rotor and body sizes.
Students across both year groups had many questions about the roles both visiting officers have, and the sessions were very informative.
We look forward to welcoming the Royal Navy back in the New Year to complete work with Year 8.
Why We Do What We Do
Every year now at Christmas we run a number of Christmas House events. We celebrate the end of the calendar year and aim to bring some festive cheer to LPA.
Some students attend a Christmas party, all students can enjoy Christmas lunch and on 19th December 2024 some students and staff will choose to wear Christmas jumpers and others participate in the sponsored Santa Run.
Great fun is had by all and we encourage a strong sense of belonging of each House and LPA community.
A strong sense of belonging helps to encourage positive mental health.
GCSE Geography Fieldwork
During November our GCSE Geographers travelled to Carding Mill Valley, Shropshire, to investigate river processes. This was a compulsory part of the course, and builds on their summer trip to Fineshade Woods.
As part of this visit the students were exceptional. They worked hard, collected their data, helped one another and engaged with locals and visitors.
At Carding Mill Valley students walked up to Light Spout waterfall and collected width, depth, velocity, stone size and slope angle data to assess whether the river matches the theory studied in class.
On our return journey we stoped in Shrewsbury to assess vulnerability to flooding and the success of river management strategies. On Tuesday, we saw the flood defences (temporary barriers and pumping station working as the River Severn was 10x the usual river width, but by Friday the flood waters had subsided and we were able to investigate the success of these measures and ask locals a questionnaire about flood risk and the degree to which its management is successful. With many gathering interesting stories of people being trapped at home as their roads and estates were flooded.
A massive thank you to Mr Wilson for giving up his time to come with us.
Chantal Mayo-Hollaway (she/her) - Trust Wide Subject Lead for Geography
LPA Choir “A Grand Georgian Christmas”
On Monday 2nd December 2024, 25 members of our incredible LPA choir travelled to Coventry Cathedral to perform “A Grand Georgian Christmas” with the highly acclaimed Gabrieli Roar and the Gabrieli consort of singers and musicians.
They were led under the esteemed directorship of Paul McCreesh and rehearsed all afternoon ready for a sell-out evening performance. Their performance was of the very highest standard, singing repertoire in 4 part harmony and sometimes even in Latin!
We are incredibly proud of each and every one of them, the way they represented LPA at one of the Midlands' most iconic venues, and the way that they sang with such maturity and musicality.
You can listen to some snippets of their performance on our Instagram channel - just search for lpamusic_dret
If you would like to hear our choir performing a little closer to home, please join us next Thursday 12th December 2024 at 7.00 p.m. at St Columba’s Church in Corby for a special Christmas Carol Service. We would love to see you there!
Mrs H Della Torre - Head of Music
Year 9 Visit to Nagarjuna Kadampa Meditation Centre in Thornby
A group of students visited a Buddhist Meditation Hall on Monday. They met an ordained Buddhist who talked them through their life and beliefs adding to what Year 9 have already learned this term around Buddhism.
Students could ask questions to an expert about anything they were curious about including what they think about when they meditate and what the statues represent.
They were shown how a Buddhist makes a Mandala (a tower of rice that is encased in gold and used for focusing the mind) and made suggestions about what they could hope for to make a better world such as no hunger or everyone has a home. All students were guided in a brief meditation focusing on the good they want in the world.
Students behaved well and returned to the school with an enthusiasm for exploring other faiths. They set a very good standard for all future Religious Studies and PSHCE trips.
Miss R Williams - Teacher of RE
LPA I’m a Teacher Get Me Out of Here
It was an extremely exciting week at LPA last week as staff and students took part in the LPA I’m a Teacher Get Me Out of Here. Staff and students faced on a series of bush tucker style challenges head on in return for House points. Participants had to display all of the LPA Values to overcome the eating and drinking trials before some having to face their fears through the animal encounters challenge.
House teams went head to head in the ‘LPA Jungle Diner’ involving five course menu of snails, meal worms and crickets followed by a choc’lick’ milkshake and ‘sneeze’ burger before a desert of trifle. Brand new to this years event was the introduction of live animals where students and staff had the opportunity to face their fears head on. House points were awarded for successfully handling a Chilean Rose Tarantula, Lizard and Skunk.
House points were accumulated across all the events by simply completing trials or coming first in the head to head races. Following all of the trials it was Red Kite who accumulated a total of 240 house points to finish in 1st place. Osprey (220 points), Kestrel (165 points) and Goshawk (165 points) finished in second, third and forth respectively.
A huge well done to everyone who took part. More photos of the event will be available through the House social media platforms soon…
LPA House Christmas Party – Tutor Group Christmas Tree Competition
The deadline to secure your place at the House Christmas Party has now passed, however, you can still play your part by contributing to your tutor group Christmas tree. New to this year, each tutor group has received a miniature Christmas Tree with the task of creating a theme before decorating the tree together.
House points will be awarded to the top four best themed trees. Themes could include LPA values, community, current world affairs or linked to specific subject areas. Tutor groups are encouraged to be as creative as possible focusing on whole class participation. Students can contribute by making personalised decorations to bring their trees to life.
There will be other House points on offer throughout the day, including the best Christmas jumpers – more information to follow!
House Dodgeball – Tuesday 10th December to Friday 13th December 2024
Next up at LPA is House Dodgeball. Starting on Tuesday 10th December 2024 through to Friday 13th December 2024 House teams will go head to head in Years 7 to 10.
If you are interested in taking part in this competition make sure you are registering your interest with your Tutor and/or Head of House. This is a 250 house point competition.
Each House requires a minimum of 6 players, combing both boys and girls.
LPA House Championship Totaliser
It has been a profitable week for Red Kite and Osprey who secured much needed house points through Im a Teacher Get Me Out of Here, to close the gap between them and Kestrel and Goshawk. Both Kestrel and Goshawk looked to be running away with the lead but they have been pegged back slightly.
With Dodgeball taking place next week and the House Christmas Party fast approaching it is far to early to call who will be top at Christmas.
Uniform – Winter Coats and Hooded Tops
As per last week's newsletter and our assemblies and notices to learners, we have explained extensively now our reasons for not having coats indoors, and for hoodies being banned on site. On the grounds of safety and equality, all learners must be without coats in the school building and hoodies are banned from site.
Going forward, we do not expect any learner to be wearing a coat inside the school building. Learners will receive an immediate lunchtime detention if a coat is on, and hoddies will be confiscated until the day's end.
If there are any concerns in this regard, please contact Mr Kirby (jkirby@lodgeparkacademy.co.uk)
The Senior Leadership Team.
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
SWI UNIFORM SUPPLIER
Christmas Carol Service- Thursday 12th December 2024 at 6.00 p.m. at St Columba’s Church in Corby
Academy closes to students on Friday 20th December 2024
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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.
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