CRA Newsletter 24.01.25 Half Term 3 - January 2025

SLT Update

On Monday, Mr Trow talked to all the students in whole school assembly about the importance of homework. All our students from Year 7-11 are expected to do prep homework every night of the week. Support is offered in school for students who struggle to complete homework for various reasons and support is offered online for families and students. Students can access their knowledge organisers and also a video of how to complete it. It is important that you as our CRA families are also on board with the message that homework is important. Our homework plan is a 5 year revision strategy to embed core knowledge and support progress. We want our students to do well and compete against other students nationally and this is just one tool we implement to support this. Thank you for your support.

Miss King, Head of School

Important dates to remember

  • 5th February 2025 - Year 8 Parents evening
  • 14th February 2025 - End of Term 3

CRA Character

This week we awarded our first Silver Certificates for positive points awarded in the academy. Six students have now earned over 500 positive points this year and were congratulated by the rest of the academy in assembly on Monday.

Table Talk

Teenagers need to be made aware of and understand personal finances. There are aspects of this that are delivered through our broad curriculum at CRA. However, reinforcing the theme over a conversation across the dinner table would be invaluable to your child. One aspect of this is understanding pay slips: Teenagers will need to learn how to interpret their payslip and what different money terminology means.

Discuss payslips with them, asking: what is a payroll number? what is an hourly rate and does this change with overtime? what is the difference between gross pay and net pay? what are the National Insurance and tax deductions? Maybe even share a payslip with them to help them understand it

Teen Support

PARENT INFORMATION:

Malicious Communication Act / Online Bullying

Over the last few years, we have seen a rise in children and young people receiving a criminal record for Malicious Communications due to their online interactions with others. Children may not understand the impact of the things they are saying online or that they could face legal repercussions. Malicious communication is the act of sending messages, pictures and, or videos with the intention of causing distress or anxiety to another person. Some examples of malicious communication include:

  • threats - verbal or written threats of violence or harm to someone or their property
  • harassment - repeatedly sending messages that are insulting, offensive or upsetting
  • offensive messages - sending messages that are sexually suggestive, extremely rude or discriminatory
  • inappropriate images - sharing embarrassing photos or videos of another individual without their consent
  • false information - knowingly spreading false information about someone with the intent to cause them harm or distress. Pretending to be someone else to trick someone

We have attached a factsheet with more information for parents. More information can also be found here Malicious communication - Stay Safe Partnership – Lincolnshire County Council and a link to a video to inform about what it is and how to respond can be found here: Stay Safe Talks - Malicious Communications

SEN Department

Times Tables

At the end of all lessons students stand behind their chairs in silence to prepare for themselves for the next lesson. From September, on a weekly rota, Years 7 and 8 will be reciting their timetables to help embed them in their long term memory.

Week beginning - 27 January 2025 - Times table is 12

Accelerated Reading

Week beginning - 27 January 2025 - Period 3

Thinking Ahead – My Future, My Choice

Each week we will show you examples of the various careers linked to the subject you are studying. This week’s career idea is ‘Jobs related to Modern languages'

Mr Rees - Careers' Support

Attendance.

Attendance – Term 3, Week 4.

Year 8 have ended the week in first place for overall attendance, well done year 8. Year 9 finish in 5th place.

The boys have had another great week beating the girls to 1st place beating the girls by a respectable 6.6 %. Come on girls, lets see if we can pull it back next week!

Caeli have finished first with the highest overall attendance this week, beating Terra by 4%, well-done Caeli! Special mention for Caeli 7 who have achieved 98.6%, excellent effort.

Monday has seen our highest percentage of absence again this week, please let me know if you begin to see a pattern in your child’s attendance. Missing just one day can have an impact on students learning experiences and outcomes.

Please may we remind you that absences for increment weather will not be authorised, unless the school is closed.

If your child is absent from school, please ensure you contact school daily either by email/MCAS or by telephoning the attendance line 01476 550333 ext 502. It is vital we are notified everyday of any absence for safeguarding reasons, unless previously authorised. A reason for illness will always be requested, this is to observe attendance patterns and outbreaks of illness amongst students.

Please do not hesitate to contact myself kcoleman@charlesreadacademy.co.uk on 01476 550333 ext 515 or tsandison@charlesreadacademy.co.uk ext 502 to discuss ways to support your child's attendance.

CRA - Lets work together to make every day count!

Leave of absence request

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.

To request a leave of absence, please use this form.

Mrs Coleman - Attendance Manager

Holiday Warning Letter

House News.

House Darts Results

House Darts took place at CRA this week as students and staff attempted both the ‘closest to the bull’ and ‘highest 3 dart throw’ competitions during break and lunchtimes. Logan in Terra 11 and Mrs Wathall also in Terra both hit the bullseye with their attempts to win the ‘closest to the bull’ competition. William in Aqua 9 was the champion of the highest 3 dart throw with a score of 77. House points were split across both competitions with Terra accumulating the most overall.

House Basketball

Next week at CRA students across all year groups will have the opportunity to represent their house in Basketball. The competition is open to both male and females and will take place in the gym during lunchtime. Students who wish to take part in the event must bring in their full CRA PE kit. This is a 250 house point competition.

CRA House New Year Cup – ‘Race Down Under’ update

Terra are currently leading this years House New Year Cup with Caeli and Aqua in second and third place respectively. Participants have been submitting screenshots of their completed exercises to contribute to the house overall totals. So far we have covered just under 900km of our 5,000km target with almost 200 individual entries.

Our virtual journey started in Brisbane and we have since reached Sydney (835km). Please see the virtual tour video of the city - https://tinyurl.com/z42d63a3

The next destination on our virtual tour is Melbourne (1618km), via Canberra the capital city of Australia.

We are currently behind on our projected target as an academy to complete the ‘Race Down Under’ (Brisbane to Perth) before Friday 14th February. However this distance can still be made up and It is not to late to get involved. Even if it is a small walk to the local shop and back for example, every little bit helps towards our goal and your house totals.

The competition is open to all students, staff and wider families who can contribute to house totals by submitting a distance (km) from either a walk, jog/run, cycle or row to housechampionship@charlesreadacademy.co.uk. Each participant can enter a maximum of one entry per day - Entries must include your name and house, supported with a screenshot or photo of your exercise (clearly showing completed distance in KM). We will accept screenshots from appropriate fitness apps such as STRAVA and photos of screens from gym equipment such as treadmills, indoor bikes, rowing machines etc.

Table Tennis

The U16 boys team started their defence of the English Schools title they won last year, on Friday 17th January at Bradford Grammar School. The team of Harrison, Ryan, Tudor and Adam, supported by Diego won all their matches and are safely through to the semi final round which will be held on 28th February at the Grantham Meres Leisure Centre.

The Sporting Post.

Term 1 Sports Newsletter 2024

PE kit reminder - 2024/2025

The standard PE kit is as follows:

  • CRA House PE top (compulsory)
  • CRA PE shorts or skorts (compulsory)
  • CRA PE Hoodie (compulsory)
  • Black socks. These can be purchased from any provider.
  • PE track pants / leggings / skins - optional - must be plain navy or black. These can be worn under the CRA PE top, shorts or skorts. These items should have no logos/writing/labels. These can be purchased from any provider.

Sports trainers- These can be purchased from any provider. No fashion trainers.

Girls will take part in hockey and boys will take part in rugby during PE lessons. Gumshields and shinpads are recommended for their safety.

Shinpads will also be needed for girls' and boys' football.

Moulded football boots are also recommended as students can wear these on the 3G artificial surface and grass field.

Please can all students be collected from the BACK of the school when being picked up from after school clubs and fixtures.

Term Dates

Please see the latest term dates for 2024-25

Academic Term Dates 2024-25

A list of diary events can also be found on the CRA Website by clicking here

Created By
Gemma Fulcher

Credits:

Created with images by STOATPHOTO - "human rights Concept. Chart with keywords and icons. The meeting at the white office table" • ibreakstock - "Cyber bullying word cloud" • PX Media - "Help, support, advice, guidance signpost." • fotofabrika - "Table tennis, ping pong" • Naypong Studio - "Sports Equipment on white background" • tatomm - "close up of calendar on the yellow table background, planning for business meeting or travel planning concept"