Welcome to this week's newsletter
This week has very much been focused on supporting students with their preparations for the upcoming examination season, with our first full cohort examination for Year 11 in English Literature taking place on Monday next week. Both Year 11 and Year 13 students are well prepared and are now concentrating on refining their exam technique and ensuring that they are fully ready to perform at their best. Working with small groups of Year 11 students over recent weeks has been a real positive for me personally. Their focus, maturity and willingness to push themselves have been impressive, and I know that they will continue to show that determination as the examinations come thick and fast over the next few weeks. Well done also to our Year 9 students who have now completed the subject preferences process. We can now begin building the groups for Year 10 based on their choices. Thank you to Mr Cooper for ensuring that the process ran smoothly and for taking the time to support individual students with some difficult decisions along the way. It was also great to have feedback from staff about how well Year 9 are currently working in lessons. I am also pleased to see that our Sparx completion rate continues to rise, with more students recognising the importance of complementing their classroom learning with additional consolidation work at home and through in-school support sessions. It was also a valuable experience this week to take part in the SEND roundtable discussion in Corby, organised by our local MP, Lee Barron, to discuss the proposals outlined in the recent White Paper. The event brought together teachers and school leaders, wider education professionals and parents to hear a range of different perspectives and experiences. Following recent meetings with our own parents and carers, I was proud to be able to represent both their views and the views of Manor School as part of such an important discussion. Finally, it has been wonderful to see the positive impact that giving students a small amount of responsibility can have. Last week, a group of Year 7 students travelled to the Hill Dickinson Stadium in Liverpool as part of a Premier League project. The students pitched an idea to develop a space at Manor where students can reflect and enjoy some peace and quiet during the school day. The feedback they received was both constructive and encouraging, and they are meeting with Mr Hatton from our estates team next week to discuss how their ideas can begin to become a reality. The students have been working closely with Rhys from Northampton Town FC throughout the project and it has been brilliant to see both their confidence and creativity flourish. Thank you also to Mr Smith for driving the students to Liverpool and supporting them during what was a fantastic day representing the school. Have a lovely weekend.
Adam Crawte, Principal
Year 11 exam timetable
We will be sharing a copy of the following week's Year 11 timetable in each edition of the newsletter during the course of the exam period. Students are expected to attend their normal scheduled lessons unless they have an exam (orange) or booster session (blue) in their subjects. Students can check their individual timetable on Arbor.
Science fair
Year 8 students took part in a variety of climate-themed investigations in their science lessons in February, and were tasked with producing informative posters about what they did and what they found out. Threes groups were then selected by the science department to attend the Meridian Trust science fair held at Sawtry Village Academy on Friday 1 May. Whilst unfortunately none of the groups were chosen as the overall winner by the judging panel, we are proud of what our students achieved and the way that they represented the school. Well done!
Extra-curricular timetable
Careers and further education
Apprenticeship vacancies
Job of the week
Get into dentistry webinar
Get into medicine webinar
Tennis careers
This year's Wimbledon Championships will be taking place in just over a month's time, and the event is a great opportunity for students to learn about the range of job roles within the sport. BBC Bitesize has a number of resources including videos and articles about real-life career journeys from the world of tennis as well as other sports.