Lodge Park Academy's Newsletter – Spring Term, Week 2
Welcome to a new term and a new year in Lodge Park Academy’s journey. The American author and psychologist Melody Beattie welcomed the transition between the months of December and January as an opportunity to set yourself new goals. She argued ....
"The new year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written".
We are working across our community to ensure that the academy’s learners have the skills necessary to fill these pages with stories of success. To take a leaf from Beattie’s argument, we empower our students to take charge of creating their own narratives by introducing them to a range of existing ones. Reading remains a fundamental aspect of our culture, with regular opportunities for students to have effective reading modelled to them by their tutors in LPA Reads or engage in independent reading of their own texts in DEAR sessions (Drop Everything And Read). Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson formally launched the Go All In campaign this week (13th January 2026) in tandem with establishing 2026 as the National Year of Reading. Research overwhelmingly finds links between reading for pleasure and successful academic outcomes.
Our ambition, with your help, is to foster a culture of literate and literature-loving learners
Our students endeavoured to surpass Luke Littler’s record-breaking achievements at Alexandra Palace (Ally Pally) in the PDC World Darts Championship, throwing themselves – sometimes literally – into the House Darts Competition. The scope of competitions and experiences available this term to our learners is impressive, from New Age Curling, spelling bees, Winter games and Flags of the World quizzes, to name but a few. We encourage all of our students to take every opportunity available to them this year, filling the pages of their books with as much colour and variety as they desire. This week offers challenges and opportunities in equal measure, with KPI2 assessments for KS3 students and a Year 11 trip to the Globe Theatre in London. The focus in our assemblies this week has been ‘Gratitude’, acknowledging all the different people that make a positive contribution to our lives. The challenge we set our students is to show real appreciation for this support and seek to mirror such benevolence and care in their own conduct. We consistently refer to the ‘Lodge Park family’ in our conversations with students and this underpins all of our efforts to build a community based on mutual respect and shared ambition. Thank you for your continued support in helping us to develop a richer experience for our learners.
Lodge Park Academy Leadership Team
Table Talk
This is the last in our series about Self-harm. This is an issue that is prevalent in a growing number of teenagers across the country. It is important we remain vigilant for any signs of self-harm and discuss this subject as appropriate.
Week 4 How to manage self-harm in the long term Learn your triggers. You could keep a mood diary or journal to make notes about what happens before, during and after you feel the urge to self-harm. Make a safety plan This will give you a quick way to remember:
- What to do if you need help
- Warning signs that you might self-harm
- Things you can try to help you feel calmer
Talk to someone Asking for help can feel scary, but this is often the first step to getting support. If you would prefer to speak to someone you don’t know, you can contact a 24/7 helpline. Details of this are at the end of this article. Seek treatment and support Getting professional support for self-harm might include:
- Support from school, college or work. Teachers, nurses, support teams and managers are there to look after you. They might be able to offer support like counselling or help you talk to a trusted adult or doctor.
- Support from your doctor. You can see a doctor alone or ask a trusted adult to help you make an appointment. Doctors might offer therapy, which means exploring how you feel and what you have been through. It is also about understanding your emotions or learning to cope with certain situations.
- Visiting hospital. If we need urgent help, we might go to accident and emergency (A&E) in hospital. A health professional should ask questions about your mental health and tell you what support they can offer. Some of us need to stay in hospital for treatment.
“Recognising you need help is a massive step”
How to cope with relapse When we have gone for some time without self-harming, but then started again, we might hear this called ‘relapse’. This is nothing to be ashamed of. We might think of relapse as a chance to learn which ways of coping work for us, and which ones don’t. It might feel like we have to start over, but we can all find ways to cope again. Think back to when you stopped self-harming before. Try to remember what helped and didn’t help last time. Is there anything you can do again now? Or anything you can do differently? Tell someone You might want to tell someone you have talked to before, or someone new. Your doctor might be able to refer you for a different type of support. Try out different tips. We might find coping tips that we used before do not help as much now. Or we might have stopped practising things that helped, and need a reminder. Remember why you want to stop. This can keep you motivated to keep working on stopping self-harm. Your reasons might have changed, and that’s OK too. Self-harm injuries If you are worried about an injury or scar, talk to your doctor or ask a trusted adult to help you get medical support. If you cannot see a doctor or nurse right away, call NHS 111 or call 999 if it is an emergency. It is important to look after self-harm injuries so we do not get unwell from them. Where can I find more support? ChildLine 0800 1111 Offers a 24/7 helpline, plus counselling in English and Welsh. You can also post on message boards to talk to other young people. Childline.org.uk Hopeline247 0800 0684141 Helplines open 24/7 for people suicidal thoughts, as well as for people who are worried about someone else. samaritans.org Shout. Text SHOUT to 85258 A confidential and anonymous 24/7 text support service for anyone struggling to cope. giveusashout.org
Why We Do What We Do
House Assemblies bring a sense of belonging for our students, and our four Houses bring together one community at Lodge Park Academy. This week during our House assemblies we embedded the following so that all students are on the same page of understanding of Why We Do What We do: Why is it important we come to school every day? Attending school every day is crucial for academic success, building essential social skills and developing lifelong habits like reliability, as constant presence prevents knowledge gaps, fosters peer relationships, and prepares students for future careers and adult responsibilities, leading to better life outcomes. How does your teacher help you prepare for assessments? A revision booklet is shared with you via your student email address in the build up to each KPI point. In these, it shares key topics to revise across all of your subjects to guide your revision. It also breaks down some effective revision strategies to employ from home to support this preparation. For GCSE students, revision guides are also available to loan out from our school library. Why do we have "pace and purpose"? We have pace and purpose to ensure we move from one lesson to the next, from one side of the academy to the next without delay. This means we maximise teaching and learning. Improving students' outcomes and life chances.
LPA Sporting Success
Year 9 Basketball Huge congratulations to our Year 9 boys who battled hard and came away with their first win of the season. In a tight, high-energy match against Corby Technical School (CTS), the boys showed great teamwork, determination, and composure to secure a 21-18 victory 🏀🏀
Young Leaders Well Done to our Young Leaders who stepped up and helped run a Primary School Archery Event this week. Our Young Leaders helped support the activities, guided participants, and took responsibility for the scoring. This was great practice for when they help run the Archery competition at the School Games later in the year. 🏹🏹
County Cup Semi- Finalists!⚽🏆 Huge congratulations to our Year 9 girls who are through to the County Cup Semi Finals after an impressive 8-4 win over Abbeyfield in the quarter finals! Fantastic goals from Amelie and Trish, and a great team performance from start to finish. Determination, teamwork and effort from everyone — You should all be so proud!
Seneca - Spring Term Week 1
Thank you for the super efficient way that you have got back into the swing of things regarding Seneca. It has been another great week with us reclaiming top spot locally and comfortably holding second place in the trust. What is really pleasing is that within our locality only Southfields Girls School are close to giving us a run for our money. Top work!
The academy would like to thank parents and carers for continuing to support our work to empower independent learning, not only with Seneca but with the impressive engagement our students have with Sparx, our Maths platform for independent learning. With your continued encouragement, students will continue to achieve their best and build strong foundations for success. Let’s make this Spring Term another outstanding term for learning and achievement!
Mr McGeown - Vice Principal, Quality of Education
If you missed this weeks MCAS message, please see below a letter from ExpertEd to join in with free webinar sessions over the next few weeks.
Dear Parent/Guardian, Your child has been invited to take part in a free series of webinars offered by ExpertEdLive, an online programme offering the opportunity to connect with expertise from across the UK and beyond. ‘Family Science’ aims to offer some stretch and challenge to capable pupils in Years 5-8. Parents are strongly encouraged to attend together with their child to allow for conversations about science between children and their parents. The series will consist of hosted live events. Each week has a different scientist introducing a topic from their area of expertise. Our previous series have included geologists, chemists, physicists, and marine biologists. There are fun, interactive elements allowing the viewers to engage in the topic being explored. Participants will also be able to submit their own questions to be answered by our expert guests and attempt takeaway questions between events. Feedback from previous series has included: I just wanted to say thank you for providing the Zoom sessions. They have been absolutely brilliant - really engaging and enlightening. My son has really enjoyed them, as have I. What a great way to inspire and educate. (Family Science parent) Sessions will be delivered as Zoom webinars on the following dates: Family Science – 4 Wednesday evenings beginning 14th January 7.00-7.30pm
We would be delighted to have your child along with a parent to join us for these sessions. A brief trailer video and registration links are available on our website https://expertedlive.org/family/ (places are limited) or click here. On behalf of ExpertEdLive, Gordon Montgomery Founder For more information about ExpertEdLive! events email admin@expertedlive.org or visit our website www.expertedlive.org. Follow us on X and Instagram: @ExpertEdLive for regular updates. ExpertEdLive is a cross-sector partnership between leading universities, independent schools and MATs aiming to provide educational enrichment and opportunity which is accessible to all children.
Each week our students at LPA complete Maths questions for their homework on Sparx. Some students answers additional questions, further increasing their mathematical knowledge. The Maths team would like to celebrate these students and recognise their dedicated work.
This week, we have also included a parent/carer link to 'A Parent's guide to Sparx Maths', which may answer some questions that you might have about how to help your child if they need it. Help is just a click away - https://sparxmaths.com/parents/
Mrs S Irons - Director of Maths
LPA House Championship 2025/2026
'Flags of the World' - House Quiz
This week in the ZONE students and staff tested their flag knowledge by taking part in the House ‘Flags of the World’ quiz. The quiz was extremely popular with well over 100 entries on the opening day. This year’s quiz featured 50 flags from across the world, 15 more than what was on the quiz last year, including a challenging mix of mostly national flags. Entries are currently being marked, and the winner will be announced next week!
The race at the top of the LPA Totaliser is extremely close with Goshawk out in front. Kestrel are in second place followed by an Osprey in third and Red Kite in Fourth. Red Kite have started the term the strongest following their domination in the House Darts last week but who will be adding the most points this week? Flags of the World quiz came to an end today and the points are yet to be added - these will be added for next weeks House assemblies!
LPA Fantasy Premier League
Last year’s winner, Tawanda (Kestrel), is in pole position at the halfway point of the Fantasy Premier League season and looking to retain his crown as LPA FPL Champion. There is currently a 60 point gap at the separating first and second place, with the chasing pack closing in on top spot. As we are now in the second half of the season, all four game chips have been renewed meaning managers have the opportunity to make progress in their bid to be this years winner - only if chips are used correctly! The image shows the current ‘Top 10’ players in the league - The Gamesmaker has recently slipped into 11th place and narrowly misses out on a top 10 position. Who will be able to keep their nerve and push on to this years title?
LPA Sports Timetable - Term 3
Enrichment Timetable - Term 3
The academy would like to increase the attendance at the non-Sports Enrichment clubs and listen to Student voice on the clubs they wish to attend. Therefore, we will shortly be including some additional clubs and also introducing a Non sports Enrichment attendance card. When students attend 5 sessions of any non-Sports club and get their card signed by the Enrichment teacher they will hand this into Student Reception and they will go into a prize draw taking place at the end of term. We will also count up cards at the end of term and House points will be rewards (House in 1st place 25 points, 2nd place 15 points, 3rd place 10 points, 4th place 5 points)
WANTED - Language Books
We are reaching out to all families that may have books in a language other than English, to help our English as an Additional Language (EAL) students at the academy. If you have any books that you are happy to donate, and you feel they are suitable for our students aged 11 to 16 years, then please drop them off at our Main Reception. Thank you for your Kindness.
LPA – Helpful contacts
MASH
Safeguarding concerns 0300 303 1965 Report a concern or request support | Northampton Children's Trust
Childline
Telephone Number: 0800 1111 Childline | Childline
Police (non emergency)
Telephone number: 101
Police (emergency)
Telephone Number: 999
NHS
Telephone number: 111
Young Minds
Mental Health Crisis Support Text: YM to 8528
Online Mental Wellbeing Community
Website: www.kooth.com
Youthworks Mental Health Support
www.youthworksnorthamptonshire.org.uk
Online Health Advice
NGAGE
A free and confidential service providing advice, information, education and structured support to young people in relation to drug and alcohol use https://aquarius.org.uk/our-services/young-peoples-services/northampton-yp/
NDAS
NDAS offer refuge, outreach and groupwork programmes to men and women impacted by domestic abuse. We also support children to recover from the trauma of witnessing the abuse. NDAS offer a 24 hour helpline as well as several drop in services throughout the county. https://www.ndas.co/
Housing Support
Free information and advice to anyone who is homeless or worried about becoming homeless https://www.northnorthants.gov.uk/housing-options/housing-advice
SWI UNIFORM SUPPLIER
https://www.lodgeparkacademy.co.uk/docs/term_dates/2025_2026_Academic_Calendar_v1.pdf
Lodge Park Academy Closes - Friday 13th February 2026
Lodge Park Academy Re-Opens -Monday 23rd February 2026
Lodge Park Academy Closes - Thursday 2nd April 2026
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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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